Usable Decoration

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I've really been trying to make my house {kitchen mainly} have decorations that are functional. Like things I use on a regular basis. I don't have a huge kitchen, although my 7 foot table does fit nicely in the middle. I describe it to a large bed in a single wide trailer, it fits...but you're walking around it if you need to get to the other side of the room.Or like the baby you can take the adventure and just climb over...why not.

That's all of my kitchen cabinets right there....seriously not enough.

I love ikea for that reason. They make products for people who live in small places, they make decoration be functional, they make it work. I don't have many, really any kitchen cabinets. So I have to make something work without walking into the laundry room every time I need something. Although most of my food is stored above the washer/dryer in the laundry room.

Hanging at the top is 2 of the metal trivets, and below is a basket with my soap.

I've wanted a metal knife rack for a while now. I searched and searched, but there wasn't anything out there like I wanted, and could do myself. I knew ikea had the plain metal strip....but comeon...my kitchen doesn't fit that decor.
So, this is what the hubs and I came up with. It's the metal knife rack from ikea, then we took an old wood fence piece and cut a hole in it. We {he} added washers behind the screws to make the metal part be the same height as the wood, and just screwed the knife rack to the wall. The wood is basically wedged/floating around the knife rack. I can't decided if I want to paint it white or teal...or just leave it alone. Your thoughts would be lovely!

The spice rack is cd crates from Joanns and an old crate I found at salvation army. They're all painted white to match.
The counters basically have to stay bare, because there isn't much counter space really. The dish strainer is almost always out, because we don't have a dish washer, and that is necessary. But the space that I'm saving by having 2 knife blocks gone from the counter is AWESOME! Just awesome I'm telling you! 

Yes someday I might find more big empty frames to finish out that wall in the living room...until then the 2 I have will just work.

I'd love to not have my mixer on the counter always, but it doesn't fit anywhere else. It does fit into the decor though. The crock-pot in the background isn't always there, I'm actually using it right now. 
The baskets on the top shelf of the buffet are old letter baskets I picked up at Salvation army for about $1 each. The ones on the bottom I found at Marshalls on clearance. I was storing chips and snacks in the empty one but the baby decided that he could feed himself whenever he wanted and there were always chips on the ground. So I put a stop to that.