Apartment Tour: Kitchen and Entryway

We have lived in this apartment for just over a year now, and I am finally getting around to doing an apartment tour series.

We moved from a two-story house to a one-bedroom apartment when we left Michigan, so space was an adjustment for us. The only furniture we brought with us to San Francisco was our mattress, so we have purchased items to fit this space.

I have also learned to capitalize on storage spaces. More on that when we get to the living room and bedroom portion of the tour.

I decided to start with the room you see first when you walk in the door, and the one that is the hardest to keep clean. Anyone else feel like all they do is load and unload the dishwasher and wipe down the counter top?

Before we get to the kitchen, this is the entryway. It is small, and more functional than decorated. This shoe cabinet is from Ikea, and it works perfectly for this space. It is less than one foot deep, so it doesn’t take up a lot of hallway space, and it holds around 18 pairs of shoes.

Aaron has an obsession with playing cards. I think they are his form of a fidget spinner. He always has a deck in his hand, flipping them around. He brought (I’m not kidding) cases of cards with him, so we stored some in the shoe cabinet. I don’t really know what else we would have put their besides maybe mail, it’s an odd-sized space.

The only other items you will find here is my beloved Rumba, and a simple coat rack from Target.

Standing at the door to our apartment, you can tell that our kitchen is small. When we started looking at apartments, I thought I wanted an open kitchen with an island to sit at. While it would have made the kitchen feel larger, I quickly realized I lost a lot of cupboard space. As a mid-West girl, I needed a pantry.

The other side of the room consists of our fridge and freezer, microwave, and the cupboards above and the drawers below the microwave are considered the pantry.

The one question I kept asking in every apartment we looked at was “Where do people keep their food?” The answer I got every time was “They order in”. I like to cook, so I needed space for food. The fridge, freezer, and pantry are about to overflow right now since I’m cooking every meal, and I’m so happy I have that space.

Just on the other side of the microwave I have this weird cubby situation. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to use this for. I had candles and extra decor in it for a long time, now it holds extra beverages.

We got that Soda Stream for Christmas a couple of years ago. I wish I used it more often to be honest. I like the drinks we make in it, we just don’t think to use it very often (even though it sits in front of our face).

I purchased those adorable Hands and Dishes bottles for soap from Etsy, but they are sold out. I will keep an eye on them and share the link for anyone that is interested when they are back in stock.

I should probably address the baby locks on the cupboards. We have two Savannah Cats, Bishop and Jade. They are beautiful, funny, cuddly cats. They also love to open cupboards and knock anything in them to the ground in the middle of the night. Baby locks are much cheaper than replacing all my coffee cups, glasses, and food, so here we are.

On this side of the kitchen, we keep the Keurig, knives, oil, paper towel, etc. Next to the utensils I have a cookbook with recipes my mom gave me, or I have found and made multiple times, and a book of my favorite Home Chef recipes. We have made a few of them over and over again, so I keep my favorites within easy reach.

The other two “elephants in the room” that I need to discuss are this blue trash can and the stool. I was going to put them away before I shot these photos, but that isn’t real life. They are always in this exact spot, so why pretend they aren’t.

Aaron and I bought this trash can thinking it would fit under the sink. It doesn’t. The garbage disposal is in the center of that cupboard and the can is too wide. I instantly wanted to return it and buy a touch-less one, but we just never did. Once you put trash in a trash can it’s yours forever, right?

That stool is there for two reasons. One, I’m 5’3″ and I can’t reach the top of any cupboard. Two, because Bishop likes to open the cupboard next to the oven that holds my pots and pans and sleep in it. The stool is wedged in the corner of the two cupboards so he can’t get it open.

My kitchen is by far the least decorated room in our apartment, and that is OK. I much prefer functionality in my kitchen over decor that gets in the way. Plus it already feels cluttered when I’m baking and cooking, so I can’t imagine if I had other things on the counters.

Stay tuned for the rest of the apartment tour…