Kitchen Before & After + Tips To Decorate

Which room do you spend the most of your time at home? My answer is the kitchen.

When living abroad, kitchens tend to be the most challenging space to get adjusted to. In Jakarta, our kitchen was dark and had no AC, so it wasn’t the most comfortable room to stay in. In Mumbai, we had a nice kitchen, but the counter space and storage space were limited. In Manila, we had a nice pantry, but there was no practical cupboard, so I used two book cases and a chest of drawers instead. You can see the before after here.

Since I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, I would like the space to be pleasant, pretty and comfortable. For rental homes, I can’t be bothered to do DIY’s. Why? When living abroad, I would have to put the space back in the original condition before moving out and I simply don’t have that kind of energy. Thus, instead of investing in wall papers, removable tiles for walls and floors, I invest in appliances.

KITCHEN APPLIANCES

Prior to the most recent pack-out in Manila, I got rid of all the kitchen appliances. Thus, all the kitchen appliances you see in my current kitchen in Tokyo are brand new. Here are my reasonings: 1. Kitchen appliances don’t last after many moves from one electric current to another. 2. Kitchen appliances can create the mood of the kitchen, so they are worthwhile to invest in.

For this time, I decided to buy all white appliances. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good white oven toaster, so we settled with a stainless one. I spent a lot of time selecting the appliances. You can find out what appliances I have below.

As you can see, there are many white walls in the kitchen. Besides some appliances, I used wooden boards, some jars, basket and artificial plants to fill the blank spaces.

It’s simple and not exciting, but I do love the look of our kitchen.

BEFORE

AFTER

BALANCE OF DECORATION & APPLIANCES

This is the biggest and nicest kitchen I have ever had in my life. It may not be the trendy or most beautiful design kitchen, but it has plenty of counter space and ample storage space. I tried to have a nice balance between appliances, decorations and open space. Can you see?

HOW TO HIDE THE PLUG OUTLETS

I would rather hide plug outlets since they can make the space look cluttered.

Here are the tricks to hide them: 1. an artificial plant and 2. a wooden board.

BEFORE

AFTER

APPLIANCES: THE FEWER THE BETTER

Below is a list of the electric appliances we own in our kitchen.

Toaster oven
Rice cooker
Coffee maker
Electric kettle
Small food processor
Handheld mixer

That’s all.

The first 4 items are displayed on our kitchen counter.

BEORE

AFTER

I keep the small food processor and handheld mixer in a cabinet. I love how compact they are.

STORAGE & DECORATION

If the space allows, I’d like to have decorations in our kitchen. These two jars, for example, are for storage and decoration. One of them usually has candies for my kids. The other one is usually either empty or used to store some prescription medicine.

Other items are a stainless bowl and a white dutch oven. The stainless bowl is to store vegetables such as onions, potatoes and garlic. The dutch oven is displayed since it’s nice to have it as a decoration to admire it.

I keep the white silicon kitchen utensils outside. Not only it’s convenient when I’m cooking, they look nice.

BEFORE

AFTER

If I have a choice, I would hide my trash can. However, if it has to be shown, I would like to have a beautiful trash can that is aesthetically pleasing. I can’t think of a better trash can than this one for our home. Its narrow design is perfect for this space! If it wasn’t obvious, white is my favorite color.