Dry Kitchen?

Recently we detailed the transformation of our dining room. We have really been at a loss of what to call the new room. It’s more than a pantry, but canning kitchen seems to ignore the fact that the room is so versatile. A fellow blogger made a “dry kitchen” in her basement as an entertainment space for small group gatherings. I think that is going to be the best moniker we will be able to use for this room. It has all the amenities of a kitchen without the plumbing and appliances—that is until we buy an upright freezer and get it installed!

Here are some small decorating changes we have made. We have found that we are actually more limited on wall space that we originally anticipated and we keep finding really neat stuff for that room.

I found this adorable butcher print cow cutout at JoAnn’s craft store one day and snatched it up. I really wish they had more than just cows. Justin and I think we are going to do prints or vinyl butcher prints of all the animals we eat and frame them up somehow.

 

Amanda and Michael have been renovating their kitchen and they gave us this wood shelf. It’s perfect for all of the canned items we accumulate. These are the 50 cans of potatoes Justin has canned over the past month and the strawberry jam we made!

 

I saw this on Pinterest one day, texted it to Justin, and he bought all of the parts and had it made within hours. I love that about him!

Justin smoked the first of his three hams and we got it hanging up in its muslin sack. I was actually afraid it would smell smoky in there but it doesn’t!

 

Daddy and Justin salvaged this amazing cart from a building that was being torn down in Ashburn. It is AMAZING! We worked off Amanda and Michael’s kitchen renovation again and got the scrap of butcher block that came from cutting out their sink. I love the character and the fact that I’ve not seen anything else like it. We actually have the ham hung under the countertop on it now.

 

This is my latest find for the dry kitchen. These are old sign inserts from a grocery store. They can be moved around if stores change their layouts. I snagged them up for $4 each at Pickin’ Peanuts in Ashburn. We haven’t hung them yet. We are still waiting to finalize the layout of the room when we install the upright freezer. I like the idea of hanging them vertically on the wall, but Justin also thought about hanging them from the ceiling. I like it because I was able to sort through all of the sign inserts and get out the signs for stuff we actually keep in the dry kitchen!