Photos by Marc LaBossiere / Winnipeg Free Press
After a power outage fried the old wine cooler circuitry, a new wine cooler was installed and fitted with a bamboo countertop cut from remnants of a previous project.
The bamboo countertop purchased as a slab, had originally been used with these fridges. Luckily, the remnants were retained.
The glass holders were secured to the upper cabinet above the sink.
Arecent power outage that caused the power to fluctuate off and on repeatedly over the course of a minute before finally shutting off completely, unfortunately was found to have fried the electronics of the older wine cooler in the kitchen.
As such, a newer wine cooler was purchased, and plugged into a surge protector to avoid a similar scenario in future. However, the door hinge of the new wine cooler caused such a protrusion, that it was inconvenient to place the same objects atop, as had been on the old cooler. With so little space in the kitchen as it is, this required a solution.
Having created a countertop to tandem fridges in the step-down dining room, shortly after the south-side addition had been completed, the remnants of the bamboo countertop slab used had been stored in the garage, in the event they could be used for future projects. After digging them out from under a few other items, I was hoping at least one of the bamboo pieces had the dimensions required for an idea I had, to create a smaller countertop for the new wine cooler in the kitchen.
The bamboo top would need to be large enough to provide at least an inch overlap on all sides of the top footprint of the new wine cooler, and preferably more along the backside as to recess adjacent the wall without having to back the cooler too far back, and against the coils. As luck would have it, one of the bamboo remnant pieces was indeed wide enough for the intended overlap, and deep enough to satisfy the one-inch protrusion along the front face, and three inches along the backside.
The remnant was cut to the appropriate dimensions using a table saw with a fine-tooth blade (to prevent any chipping along the cut line). The newly cut countertop was then sanded on all sides, until the 90-degree edges had become ever-so-slightly rounded to the touch. The top and sides of the bamboo were then coated in cooking oil, and wiped down until the oil had soaked into the wood surface and was relatively dry to the touch. Before mounting the new countertop onto the wine cooler, felt spacers were placed along the top of the door hinge. Other felt spacers were arranged along the backside of the cooler top to ensure the new bamboo would rest level side-to-side, and front to back.
With the cooler top prepped, the new bamboo countertop was simply placed onto the felt pads – et voila, a new topside surface was created for the items that had been on the old wine cooler. Moreover, the new bamboo countertop looked a heck of a lot better than the old wine cooler top, and provides nearly twice the space! So much so, that the Soda Stream we received from our eldest daughter for Christmas sits nicely along the back of the cooler countertop, ready for when a beverage needs some extra fizzle. A small change that makes a huge impact on our daily kitchen use.
Another minor adjustment to the kitchen came in the form of seven individual “wall-mount under-cabinet glass holders” ordered from Amazon — a product observed while searching for solutions to store our wine glasses. One of our upper cupboards had been dedicated to our plethora of wine glasses, all of different sizes and styles. It had become very inconvenient to store them in the cupboard. And because the cupboard was at capacity, any additional wine glasses would have nowhere to go. With these wall-mount holders however, our wine glass situation quickly changed for the better.
The wine glass holders are of simple design — two metal arms that span from the back mount, allowing the stem of a wine glass (upside-down) to easily slide into place. Once the mount locations were established along the area upon which they were to be affixed, each of the two holes per bracket were pre-dilled, and the brackets were subsequently secured to the upper cabinet using the small screws provided. The upper cupboard full of wine glasses was emptied, and the glasses were then placed onto the newly mounted holders. Because the area of the upper cabinets chosen for the wall-mount holders (directly above the kitchen sink) had technically been “wasted space” for so many years, it was so nice to see functionality in this area for the first time. And most importantly, we regained the use of an upper cupboard.
Although big changes to a space most often provide a sought-after result, the little modifications can sometimes offer just as much impact. Weighing the goal of an impending change can sometimes reveal how drastic this change should be. In my situation, with limited storage space in our smaller kitchen, a larger wine cooler would not easily fit — a larger area atop however, made all the difference. And as for the wine-glass rack created along the front of the upper cupboards above the sink, this solution might not be for everyone, as the glasses are always in view. For us however, these two simple adaptations have made all the difference in our daily kitchen use. And for those of you wondering, yes — we celebrated these minor triumphs with a few glasses of wine.
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