Coffee Central

We live off coffee. Come on, we have two kids under two. Yes, they are excellent sleepers, but we are not. What is it about having kids that makes you constantly tired? I don’t think I will ever be fully rested ever again in my life. That’s where coffee comes in. Glorious nectar of the gods.

We recently took a little corner of our kitchen and turned it into coffee central.

Pretty nice improvement from this, huh?

Actually, it was worse than that. The coffee and espresso machines used to reside on the other side of the kitchen – nowhere near the sink. I would have to run across the kitchen with my hand cupped under the espresso-shot-puller-thingy with hot espresso dripping in my palm to empty it in the sink. Now, I can just drag it across the counter.

But… that DIY’d board with photos, cards, ticket stubs, reminders, ultrasounds, was JUNKY.

While we loved the sweet faces of loved ones and fantastic bulldog cards, let’s be honest: it looked terrible. We needed something in it’s place. Cue: a random piece of wood.

I found this piece of reclaimed barn wood at the last Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market. It’s from a place called Porter Barn Wood. This piece was just $8.

I brought it home and Jason cut it into two pieces.

We mounted them with some simple iron brackets we found at West Elm.

For the bottom shelf, I picked up some authentic mason jars (also from the Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market) to fill up with our four most common needs…

Espresso (beans ground specifically for our machine), decaf espresso, coffee beans and decaf coffee beans. Since I’m breastfeeding, we always make half-caf/half-decaf coffee. My espresso drinks are also half/half.

Originally, I was planning to paint the tops of the jars with chalkboard paint and write the contents on that. However, my temporary fix of writing on little sticker works for now!

We also filled the top shelf with our coffee cups, latte mugs, espresso cup and a yellow bowl from Target.

The bowl holds the coffee filters and scoop.

We are thrilled with how the shelves turned out – but something was missing.

More on that later…

About Michelle Fortin

Michelle Fortin is a follower of Jesus, a wife and a mom. She's also an award winning broadcast journalist and public relations professional. Michelle spent nearly a decade working in television newsrooms across the country, both behind and in front of the camera. Training future broadcast journalists in her faculty associate roles at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and at Arizona Christian University was a cherished focus of her post-TV career. Today, she maintains a roster of public relations clients focused on empowering fellow “momprenuers.” She also serves as a speaker for various women's and mom's events. Michelle received her bachelor’s degree from Biola University and Master of Mass Communication (MMC) from Arizona State University. She and her husband, two young kids and English bulldog call Scottsdale, Arizona, home.

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