Keep it Out

Another Jeri's Corner post! How exciting, right? Creating a little space in your kitchen for oils, vinegars, salts and peppers, etc. is an easy way to decorate without cluttering up your kitchen with useless crap. I should have prefaced by saying that this may not always work for you, and there are a few conditions, but if your kitchen does meet the requirements, I would definitely give it a try. This picture is from Jeri's house - it's on top of her counter, but off to the side, and not in the way of all the major kitchen traffic. This is important - you don't want to have all this stuff in the middle of where you chop veggies or in the middle of where you prepare meals.

Keep in mind, this wouldn't really work for all kitchens. If you have a super tight galley kitchen, this is not a great idea. We had one before, and EVERYthing that was out on the counters kept it looking cluttered and messy. Also, if you have a modern home with streamline everything where absolutely nothing is on the counters, then keep that trend going and avoid a random grouping of oils, etc. Keep them behind closed cabinets.

Also (and this is KEY), please make sure to put the oils, vinegars, etc. into some kind of a cute container - unless the original bottle isn't tragic. It doesn't quite have the same effect is a bottle of Great Value olive oil is sitting on your counters! Finally, even though it's hard to tell in this picture, group everything together by placing all the little containers on some sort of silver, pewter, etc. tray.