Pinterest-Inspired Stainless Hacks

Lets start with making a bar out of some stainless shelves. The storage here is a good idea. But indulge my ignorant rant for a second.

If the article is “25 small space hacks…” I think one of them should be “Don’t use up an entire shelf for the word ‘bar’ and some aloe.” But then again, I’m a pragmatist and not a designer. What do I know? This is why it took me 7 years to join!

Apart from showing me what to do with my kitchen barnyard animal figurine collection, I really like the idea of putting the stemware under the shelves.

Generally wine glass holders are mounted with a few screws onto the bottom of a wooden cabinet, but that’s going to be a problem on a stainless shelf. I have a couple thoughts on tackling this problem:

• JB Weld. Theoretically this should work fine, and we don’t need to make life more difficult than it needs to be.
• Short metal screws, that are sanded down. I have some doubts about this because of how little stainless they have to hold them on the shelf, but it’s worth considering
• Nuts and bolts. Assuming that whatever is on the shelf can hide the nut, this seems like the most secure idea. The nuts could go above the shelf or below on the stemware holders depending on the setup.

Of course, you could use your shelves in a normal, non-creative way too. I’m a little bit surprised at how nice this really looks! I tend to assume open stainless shelving will have an utilitarian, industrial design, but they made their shelves look elegant.

And here’s another kitchen for example. I mostly just put it here for the french bulldog.

Finally, if you don’t want the shelves in the kitchen, they would also work well in your laundry room. Being 6’3”, I can reach most things off the top shelf. However, when you consider the depth of the washer and dryer, I but I would need a step stool to reach the paper towel. Apart from this one concern, though, this laundry room is probably the winner for my first Pinterest project.

Microwave Shelves

This microwave shelf cost $330, but I think it’s really cool that it lets you hang some cups off the bottom. I love that idea, hate that price.

Why wouldn’t you buy a $50-$70 Atlantic Metalworks microwave shelf, drill some holes in the front, and hang some cool Ikea hooks? I’ve never done it myself, but surely a hole punch would make quick work of it.

We just saved about $250 on this project. That’s a #PinterestWin, right?

Work Tables

Unsurprisingly, stainless steel tables got the most hits (pins?) out of all my searches. There’s lots of basic ideas, and some things I’ve never thought of doing.

The kitchen island is a classic idea. Grab something like a STT-3060-E and a set of Casters and go to town. Of course, make sure you also have a pastry stand and cook up something delicious to put on it.

Or you can trade the wheels for a vintage rug like this one. With all your extra space from having an island, you can even store your bucket of random sticks in your kitchen!

But seriously, the magnetic clips for holding a towel is genius. Since the edge of the table is pretty thin, I’m not sure I would trust the magnets to hold up a towel on it. But if you added some heft with an earth magnet behind the table, that could probably cling to the clips enough to hold up whatever you wanted.

Continuing on the island theme, not everyone uses the included legs and undershelf. Some just use the top. Or, like this example, the top and two legs.

He used an Ikea bookshelf to support half and give storage, I think I would put it over some sort of storage whether cabinets, a shelf, or even an old dresser. But then again, my kitchen has one of those pass-through walls from the kitchen to dining room - perhaps I could easily turn it into a breakfast bar with inspiration from this one.

Or speaking of bars, you could just go all the way.

This kind of seems like the epitome of everything I’ve ever stereotyped a Pinterest project to be, yet I’d actually like to have it.

If you were going with kitchen island and didn’t want the bar stools, you could keep the table assembled and just frame around three sides with the barn wood look. Then you have the undershelf available from one side to store your Crock-Pot, pressure cooker, and various other small appliances.

There are several ideas other that only use the table top:

Like this dining room table

Or this outside table (love the addition of the towel bar)

Or a coffee table. Why would you do faux stainless when you could do real stainless?

Or this desk made with sawhorses. If it were me, I’d use a table with a backsplash for a desk so that I could put sticky notes on the back.

But I think my favorite and the most creative use for a stainless table is this:

A Big Green Egg station. They bought this instead of building it, but I believe in you. If you cut a hole in a work table (maybe the undershelf too) and used a pre-built stand for the grill, I bet you could have a pretty awesome setup for your next BBQ.

Before we leave tables, I found one other pin.

Give your cat a place to sleep, gosh darn it. I don’t care what you do with your stainless table, your cat wants to be a part of it. Build her a hammock and let her hang out in your island, living room, or patio table.

Sinks

As far as sinks go, I wasn’t sure how creative you could get. But there’s a few good ideas out there besides a commercial kitchen. A residential kitchen, of course, makes sense.

Now I generally don’t recommend putting economy sinks in kitchens since they tend to be a focal-piece, but this apartment may change my mind. With the dishes and pots on the shelves above, I really like the look. Or perhaps it’s because, like me, they didn’t do their dishes. This picture is realistic.

Of course, you can also use sinks in the laundry room. I talk to quite a few people who are doing that. With all the different options you can do a small sink:

Or a big sink:

One warning I give is to be careful with those sprayers - they tend to have a wide spray so you may have difficulty keeping some water off the floor. It looks like these people are prepared with their rubber boots though.

Of course, you could use a sink and pre-rinse to wash Fido. I grew up with a black lab that we tried to wash in the shower - this idea seems a lot better! Well, only if your dog is small enough to fit in a sink (our largest is 24”x24”.)

Since my experience in design and remodeling is basically limited to watching Fixer Upper and I don’t want to repurpose old t-shirts into scarves, these pins are more up my ally. What about you? Leave a comment and let me know how you’ve hacked your Atlantic Metalworks in creative ways!