A Means to Help Countertop Chaos

This project may not be needed by everyone, but it is certainly needed by us, and I'm hoping it is a means to helping out our countertop chaos.  This is another Pinterest project that I decided to try.  The woman with the idea had a family with 3 children who needed to designate a location for each of their cups so they would know which one was theirs that they could use throughout the day.  Greg and I need it because our countertop is simply a mess with all the dishes by the sink.  I can't imagine what it will look like when we have children.

This is our kitchen on a good day, and yes I did clean up a bit just to take the picture.

We have a routine during the work week, where we typically eat the same breakfast all week - Greg typically has peanut butter on toast, and I switch it up between cereal, oatmeal, poached eggs or my latest favorite, rice cakes with peanut butter and apple slices on top.  Mackie introduced this to me on our trip to New York.  With the same breakfast throughout the week, we are using the same dishes.  We never brought new dishes when we got married, so we have mixed sets of 6 dinner plates, 7 salad plates, and 8 bowls to use for a week before we have to do dishes.  So if you do the math, we don't have a lot of dishes divided among all the meals before we have to do dishes, and we really don't like running the dishwasher more than once a week. 

So, if you have figured it out by now, we do a lot of rinsing and reusing...  Most people are not okay with this, but it works for us and we haven't gotten sick from it yet.  However, for some reason Greg doesn't like to drink out of my cup or he gets a new cup out when he doesn't know for sure if it is his cup.  That is why this coaster tray will work for us.

The picture below is what the woman on pinterest made, and I also combined the idea with another pinterest project that used small picture frames and wine corks for coasters.

 

I started with purchasing a 1"x6" board, (3) 3"x3" frames and (2) handles, and round wooden knobs from a craft store for the feet.  Greg helped me cut down the board to 5" wide by 24" long.  Then, I beat up the board with a hammer to give it a distressed look before I stained it.  I should have drilled the holes for the knob legs first before I stained it, but it just took an extra coat of stain to cover up the wood filler.  I used the same polyurethane finish that I purchased for the nightstands that I refinished for a protective top coat.

I could have purchased longer screws to fit through to the knobs, but I didn't want them to show from the top,
so I drilled down the hole and covered it with stainable wood filler.

Then, it was the fun part with the wine corks.  I removed the back of the picture frames in order to make the frame sit flush with the board.  I used a flooring sample from work to build up the inside so the corks would sit at the face of the frame.  I cut the corks in half as well hoping that I can use the other half in another project.  My poor collection of corks were almost all used up.  I cut these with a razor blade and it was easier than I thought.

The flooring sample I used to build up the frames looked pretty similar to a cork.

Then, I used a hot glue gun to glue on the corks, and then I used the glue gun and a multi-purpose glue that works on steel, wood and glass to glue the frames to the board.  Then, I used the drill again to fasten the handles.  The handles really aren't necessary, but they add to the look.  I think the ones I chose look like wine bottle openers. 

So, there it is!  Another Pinterest project success.  It has helped up keep organized so far.  Let me know if any of you have other kitchen organization projects that don't just involve loading dishes into the dishwasher.  Please don't judge us!