gorfram's Profile

Four years late, but...

Tiny (35 sf) galley kitchen with a mere 4 linear feet of counter space. The 3 feet of open wall must be kept clear for fridge & cabinet door swings. Renter, so the range-hood-microwave combo is out. I'm tall, and desperate, so I put the microwave on top of fridge.

With the fridge *just* the right distance from the wall, and the microwave in *just* the right place on top of the fridge, it only blocks one side of the above-the-fridge cabinet.

There is exactly one cabinet wide enough for the microwave, but it's two inches too shallow...

I want a better solution.

(Imagine that room without a door, or with a door that only the people in charge of your punishment can open. Then imagine the worst roommate you've ever had, only fifty times worse.)

The *point* is not to deck prisons out with all the latest Ikea fashions (seriously, how long would any of that particle-board furniture last in a prison environment?). The point is that prisoners know a thing or two about living in small spaces and close quarters, and we the unincarcerated might gain a tip or two:

- Having a toilet enclosure separate from bathing area could save any number of marriages.
- Combining bathing area, kitchen scullery and mudroom looks a great space (and plumbing expense) saver.
- Love the keyhole door to the balcony. Maximizes both floor and window space and adds a nice architectural fillip.
- Set-back "mini-cupboard" over the table is nice for providing handy storage without blocking things in two much.
- I like the airy open area above the over-the-bed cupboards. Residents could choose to use them for more storage or for display of personal objects, or it might be a great place for a row of transom windows.

FWIW, I've seen Japanese-style dorm rooms very similar to this. I've seen (albeit not inhabited) a few prison cells, and this is not them.

"I love that a great debate has emerged from this. I wonder why Maxwell hasn't responded?"

(Speaking as someone whose above comment shows that I certainly haven't)
He's probably got more sense.
;)

Boy, I sure wish I had one of them fancy art school eddycations - then maybe I'd understand what is supposed to be so compelling about #1 and the linked-to thrift store G. Washington update.
(Have I just spent too much time in Ladies Rooms, or does she look like she's peeking over a stall partition painted that gawdawful institutional-ghastly green?)

IMH un-fancy-art-schooled O, #s 2-5 do not really produce *art* as such (unless by accident and/or exceptional technique), but might produce some pretty good *decor*. A thing doesn't necessarily have to be art to be better than a piece of blank wall.

Whether they do seems to be a matter of taste and technique:
#2 - nicely done here, but could be an absolute flop if executed poorly.
#3 - this version doesn't light my fire, but it could be hilarious with something like "Dogs Playing Poker."
#4 - this painting has always bored me silly, and I find it unimproved by the chaos of chalkboard writing in the little confined tree-bark spaces. OTOH, this concept could be both hilarious and practical on some thing like a cheap print of a Mondrian.
#5 - a painfully pedestrian landscape with a 7-year-old's crayon scribble of a monster? (And it's not even *my* 7-yo???) But again, with a decent landscape and a better 7-yo (maybe one who'd benefitted from some fancy art school training?), this concept could work. Maybe that old college dorm print of "Starry Starry Night" with a flying saucer and some space aliens...

Best place ever to grow mint, IMHE:
Under the trees along the banks of a tiny stream at the bottom of a cow pasture, as seen/experienced on an old childhood friend's farm. Also the best place ever to go wading in cool water and dappled shade at the end of a hot summer afternoon..

Best place to grow mint not involving a cow or rural land ownership:
Under a leaky faucet in a raised foundation-planting bed in a semi-arid climate. I grew up in California's Sacramento Valley, and my mom planted mint in the one spot around our house where it could survive. We always had fresh mint, the chore of hooking up the hose to water the lawn carried a fragrant reward, and - maybe best of all - no one ever had to bother about actually fixing that leaky faucet.

Best place to grow mint in my dinky little studio apartment:
On the balcony, in partial shade, in a plastic pot at least 6" deep. I drilled plenty of drainage holes and added lots of broken pottery pieces and lava rock (generally sold for BBQs) at the bottom. In honor of Molly, the cow who kindly shared the above-mentioned pasture, I added lots of compost to my potting soil. On hot summer days, I water in the evening and nostalgically enjoy the aroma of my old muddy childhood wading spot. :)

I think the crookedness adds to the informal charm. I might do a little aesthetic tweaking to make all the tilts point in towards the middle, but that's just me. I'd even love to see the shades on little sconces brightened up with some fingerpainting in a color to match/reflect the color on the curtains.

No counter space - because there's no counter or vanity. Sink is a stand-alone, and the only storage is the medicine cabinet.

No towel bars, either. (I have one I've been meaning to put up.)

Fan noisy as all-get-out. (Cleaning it doesn't cure it, but it would help some.)

Ugly dead-grass-greenish-tan tile around the bathtub.

45-yo vinyl tile that was ugly the day the put it in; and is now cracking, splitting & loose in places.

...maybe I should stop now...

Learned the hard way:

If, as houseguest with a very slim budget, you decide to make washing a huge kitchenful of dishes your primary gift to your hosts; and if there is more than one person who normally lives in that house; DO NOT ASSUME that (just because, say, they left you alone in a houseful of dirty dishes and returned to a houseful of clean dishes -including scrubbed kitchen sink, clean counters and mopped floors) they will think that you did the cleaning.

Twice now, I have long afterwards learned that my hosts each assumed that it was a spouse or roommate who did the cleaning - regardless of whether said spouse or roommate had ever been known to do such cleaning before or since - and that my hosts had felt somewhat miffed at the time by my apparent ingratitude.

I like the the communality of registries - it's nice to know that, although I could never afford to give the couple an entire set of, for instance, their desired flatware, the single place-setting I can afford will combine with other place-settings from other guests to help the couple get to the full set.

It's kind of like a Christmas list: people are going to want to give you stuff, and this is your chance to help them get you the stuff you really want. A well-written list can really help everyone. As for poorly written or selfishly greedy registry lists - well, toasters are available in almost any price range.

(My apologies for sounding so annoyed below. It's just that the many serious problems with this post really annoyed me.)

Just looking at Pick #3 (because I'm also a renter with a miniscule kitchen) -

Okay, the Limhanm shelving unit, at not quite 14 inches square, will probably fit in the old "stove space." But you're going to have to get pretty darned "creative" to fit that 41-3/4 inch wide Varde unit into a space that is 20 inches across at the very most.

A work table next to the stove is not a bad idea - but did you miss the part where she still needs to find a place for a kitchen table? If she got the Muddus drop-leaf table, she'd have a roughly 24-by-18-inch work surface that could expand into an (about) 24-by-36-inch table when she's ready to sit down.

While free-standing shelves might be good in the microwave cubby, the "LIMHAMN wall shelf" link provided takes us not to free-standing shelves, but to (oddly enough) the Limhamn wall shelf. You couldn't even get a microwave onto a shelf not quite 8 inches wide, much less expect a wall-mounted shelf to support it even if you could.

Parts of this post remind me of the work of an unprepared and unmotivated schoolchild: did maybe the dog eat your design file?