I know that this coffee thing has got out of control. It has taken over our house. Our kitchen has become something of a laboratory. This 5 square meter space is crammed with cutlery, cooking equipment, kitchen appliances, dishwasher, washing machine, fridge, deep freeze, a vegetable stall and all of my coffee things: a giant roaster, a huge grinder, a big espresso machine and lots and lots of other coffee related stuff.
I have tried to convince my girlfriend that our kitchen situation was quite normal. This was everybody’s kitchen situation, I could hear myself say. However my words weren’t compelling and after some time I had to admit that she was right. Entering our kitchen gave me bad vibes. It was absolutely no relaxing feng shui environment. It was certainly the worst room in our house. Also, the space was not very practical. All the kitchen counters were filled with stuff. There was no more room left for cooking. That’s why I could regularly find my girlfriend on the kitchen floor, the only ‘open space’ left in the room. While cutting vegetables on the cold floor I ofter heard her mumbling ‘I hate this kitchen’.
A solution had to be found. The first thing that popped into our minds was to buy a new house: alas, Amsterdam property prices have recently gone through the roof. The second option was to knock down some walls in our house to increase the kitchen floor space. Good idea on paper but not really a short term solution for house peace. I realised that I had to act soon, otherwise my girlfriend’s kitchen stress would reach a tipping point! She had already stopped cooking…
The winning solution was to design and make a coffee station myself which we could fit in the small space left in front of our balcony doors. It had to look good and should be able to store all of my daily coffee stuff.
We started drawing and designing. That did not take very long and a few weeks later I started working on it. This took quite some time, during which we were not able to walk or move in our living room but the coffee station is now finished and our life is better than it was. We really like it, it gave our kitchen a radical different feel: organized and welcoming. Probably more important though: my girlfriends’ kitchen stress is gone and I haven’t caught her cutting zucchini on the floor since.
