This post is only tangentially related to books, but I’ve got pressing storage issues (and now a solution!) here at Chez Book, Line, and Sinker.

Our house, a center-hall Colonial, was built in the late 1960s.  Since I wasn’t alive back then and only have the proportions of the rooms in my house as a guide, it would seem that those folks didn’t do much cooking and spent way too much time in the living room.

From the dearth of closets–linen and coat–it also stands to reason that people living in the 1960s had no use for jackets, towels, or sheets.  Either that, or the architect who built my neighborhood was a complete doofus.

My living room, a room that we use approximately once a year, is roughly the size of an airport terminal.  My kitchen, the room we live in, brings to mind a London phone booth.  Needless to say, storage is a problem in our mini-kitchen*.

We are so pressed for space that our microwave does double duty as a pantry. I have cousins** who have entire rooms or double-doored closets in their kitchens devoted to pantry space.  At my house, if you’d like to nuke something you must first remove the bread, English muffins, chocolate covered raisins, and popcorn from the microwave.

My cookbooks used to live inside our oven, but a fire scare cured me of that storage idea.  They are now shelved in the den, a world away from the kitchen.

For months years, I’ve been trying to come up with a storage solution.  I bought a hutch top a few months back at the Crate and Barrel outlet and was going to hang it on the wall, but that would only solve the china and crystal storage dilemma.

I really needed a narrow and slim cabinet that I could tuck into the corner of the kitchen.  Depth was a problem because our kitchen has only a half-wall into the dining room, and I didn’t want to obstruct the view.

I’ve been scouring outlets, flea markets, tag sales, and antique shops for something a bit quirky and fun that would go with our cottage/whismy decor.  While in Vermont over the weekend, I espied a PERFECT storage cabinet at Twice Upon a Time in Brattleboro.

Behold, the answer to my storage prayers:

A compartmentalized school locker!!!  Crazy and fun, especially when you consider that I work in a high school!  It’s currently a hideous shade of vomit/putty, but a few coats of glossy white spray paint will remedy that.   I’m going to store my cookbooks in one compartment and non-perishables in the others.

Of course, a school locker might not be a storage solution for everyone, but it really works for us.  I am waiting for the weather to cool off a bit before I do any spray painting, though!  I’ll post pictures when my DIY project is complete.  Have a great weekend.

*I recognize that there are larger issues in the world and kitchen storage isn’t so pressing when compared to famine, foreclosure, illnesses, and the like.  I’m just having some fun here.

**Jennifer and Kristine, I’m speaking directly to you guys.