My Quirky Queens Kitchen

When I started the process of looking for an apartment in New York over a year ago, I had it all planned out. I'd shoulder the expense of having a broker do the work for me since, at the time, I lived in Connecticut and wouldn't really be available to hoof around the city on my own. (I was also operating on a very short timetable.) I'd look at at least three apartments to get a better sense of the type of space I could get on my budget. And I wouldn't take the first apartment I saw without seeing another apartment for the sake of comparison.

Well, after seeing the first apartment my broker showed me, my plan fell apart. The apartment felt like home immediately. It was within walking distance of my office, within my budget, and had a kitchen that intrigued the heck out of me. After only standing in the apartment for ten minutes, I shook my broker's hand and said I wanted to put down a deposit.

But, back to the kitchen. As you can see in the above photo, it has a fireplace in it! The kitchen was an afterthought. My broker told me they had just finished installing the cabinets and counters, had just brought in the appliances, and had just finished laying down the tile. At first glance, the kitchen does look a bit awkward with a blocked-up-and-clearly-not-working fireplace. And it seems a little strange to be using the underside of the mantel as a hood to "catch" the bit of smoke and steam that billows upwards as I'm cooking. But the mantel makes a perfect shelf.

There's enough space to house my small collection of cookbooks (remember, I'm in a New York apartment... I don't have enough room to keep all of my cookbooks here with me!), my dried herbs and spices, my trusty salt and pepper mills, and my cooking utensils, including my tongs. Everything is within easy reach, and I love it! The fireplace makes my kitchen unique.

What makes your kitchen quirky?

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