The daffodils have popped, the cherry blossoms are starting to unfurl, the redbud branches are breaking out in a rash of pink petals, and the weather alternates between 30 degrees and 70 on the same day, which can only mean that spring has arrived in DC. To celebrate my favorite equinox and the return of Persephone, i will tell you a tale of rebirth on the home front called Stairwell to Heaven.
Once upon a time, during The Hadean Age, and even for some time after the initial kitchen remodel, there was a stairwell from the kitchen that descended into the hellacious basement like a carpeted version of the River Styx. One passed from the relatively pleasant world of the now-remodeled kitchen -
- into a terrifying underworld:
Eventually the basement was also remodeled, but that's another story for another time. Flash forward several years and a new, beautiful stairwell in the back of the new addition rendered this one obsolete. This provided a tremendous opportunity to nearly triple my kitchen storage space, which had been the bane of my culinary existence. I had 7.5 kitchen cabinets total, 5 of which were dedicated for all the dishes, bakeware, pots, pans, glassware, storage containers, linens, and electrical devices. As a result, every item was stored like Russian nesting dolls. Getting any single item a multi-step process, and there was always the risk that in the process of obtaining it, the rest would cave in or come tumbling out.
So moving the stairs opened up a world of storage opportunity that i seized upon the moment the contractor finished screwing down the subflooring, whereupon i immediately started shopping for shelving and flooring options. After several trips to Ikea and The Container Store and every other place specializing in storage, i realized that the most economical and best construction option was to build the shelves myself from wire closet shelving hardware and oak boards (all the better to support a 40lb ice cream maker with, my dear).
So here is a step-by-step guide for converting your former stairwell into a heavenly kitchen pantry:
