Recycled Kitchen Cupboards Part 1 - The Linen Room

Whilst building our new farmhouse we needed a cost effective solution for our laundry and linen room cupboards.

I found a bargain solid wood kitchen for sale online - only $400 for the whole thing - only down side, it was located 3 hours away and we had to dismantle some of it ourselves.

But it was sooooo worth it! I love the finished remodel and especially love saving literally thousands of dollars by DIY'ing.

Introducing the linen room....yes, I said linen room - one of my favourite things in the whole house!

Here are the photos of the kitchen still in the sellers house, lovely solid timber doors so well made they were crying out to be reused. The kitchen even had a lovely leadlight door on one cupboard which now houses my bed quilts. I sort of have an infatuation with quilts, OK, maybe more of an addiction! I like to change them often to give the bedroom a quick makeover - it's amazing how a change of pattern or colour can transform a room.

We didn't take all the cupboard carcasses as some were too large (like the pantry) for us to transport and others were damaged in removal. But we took all the doors and drawers, well as many as we could fit into the car/trailer anyway! It was a full load that made it's way to our home on the hill.

Once we had the almost whole kitchen back home, we had to sort out what cupboards would be used in the linen room and which would be used in the laundry. No easy task when the rooms are set sizes and we had to make these cupboards fit our space and still be practically placed to be usable and of course look nice as well.

We mocked out the dimension of the linen room on the floor of our barn and arranged base cupboard cabinets within that space, taking into account the door way of course, until we had a layout we thought would work.

The secret is to rethink what a cupboard could be used for, what practical storage solution could it provide for the room you will be using it in. Read on to see what handy kitchen cupboard features we repurposed to be useful in the linen room.

Next step was to sand and paint all the doors with an enamel based primer to stop the wood bleeding through, then 2 coats of semi gloss white to match the architraves using a small brush to get into the panelled areas on the doors then a smallish foam roller to do the rest and go over the brushed areas to give the same texture. This process worked quite well but took a few weeks of painting and waiting for it the dry, then repeating, flipping doors over and repeating again!

We purchased metal knobs and drawer cup handles from IKEA to match those in the kitchen for some continuity.

I knew when I first saw it that the leadlight cupboard would have to house something I was happy to see every day, something that didn't need hiding behind closed doors. So of course the quilts are stored here and the surrounding cupboards hold our sheets.

The base cupboards were arranged in an L shape along 2 walls of the linen room and we bought ready made laminate benchtops from IKEA and cut them down to size in length to fit.

One of the cupboards had pull out shelves that have become my towel cupboard. Really easy to fold the towels on the bench then store them away.

The bench space is also useful for assembling decor items such as table centrepieces and Christmas or Easter decorations.

The set of drawers next to that we use to store all those things you need now and again like light bulbs and vacuum cleaner attachments.

Then in the corner we made up a new carcass and shelve inside as well as an extra door to fit the space and to create a corner cupboard fold out door, as there wasn't a door from the kitchen small enough.

This corner cupboard is designated as The Christmas Cupboard - I always wanted a place to store my Christmas decorations and the corner cupboard which is harder to access things from is fine for that once a year access to the decorations. It fits all my ornaments easily as it's quite deep and has space for left over or bargain priced after Christmas wrapping paper.

Moving along from the Christmas cupboard we used what used to be a pot drawer at the bottom, which left a space above that I filled with 2 large baskets I picked up at a discount store for $8 each, that hold various decor items that get rotated out throughout the year. They were the perfect size to fit the space in both directions, I was amazed to find something that fit so well. The pot drawer is now the bathroom store with toilet paper, tissues etc, it holds loads so I can stock up on these essentials knowing I have somewhere to store them.

Last of the lower cabinets is another set of drawers which hold toiletries, soap in the top, hand cream, skin care in the next two and in the large bottom drawer hair care, as it's deep enough to hold bottles of shampoo/conditioner.

We used 2 very thin cupboards for either side of the window - the window is one I posted about here, where I showed you the window from the entry foyer side - it's a window in an internal wall. The linen room is more or less in the centre of the house, a space that would be dark all day without any natural light. So why not put a window in the wall - seems logical to me!

I love this window, if I'm walking past the linen room and the sliding pocket door is open I can see straight through to the front door, then on to the garden outside. It was made by my hubby who is very handy and manages to bring to life many of my DIY ideas.

Last cupboard is the pantry which we only salvaged the doors from. We bought melamime to make a new carcass and we use this double door cupboard to store the vacuum cleaner and brooms etc in the bottom half, electrical extensions leads, spare lampshades and other bulky items in the top.

The roof cavity access is also in the linen room with just enough space for a pull down attic ladder.We made sure to adjust the depth of the pantry now vacuum/broom closet to ensure the ladder wold fit past.

The room overall is not large, just over 2 x 2 metres, but we managed to add a large amount of storage into this small space. I love this room because it is practical, easy to use and access stored items, plenty of bench space to fold towels etc. But also because it is aesthetically pleasing to my eye, and the window adds that extra special something to what could have been a boring dark space, but instead I have a room I'm happy to be working in.

Last thing left to do in here is to add a little wall decoration, something above the window I think, but that is for another day and maybe another post.

I hope you have found some useful ideas in our DIY kitchen to linen room cupboards conversion. let me know your thoughts in the comments below.