The Coffee (and tea) Station!

As promised, here is the long-awaited article on my Coffee Station!

Welcome to the second post in the series: Turning Drab Army Housing Into Our Home! As noted in the series introduction and the first posting of this series, I am a coffee fanatic and am lucky to have the perfect area for a Coffee Station. Here is my first general draft drawn up on my Galaxy Note.

As much as I would love to hide or move the water cooler, it must stay for two reasons: 1) There is nowhere else to move it that makes sense. 2) We use this water for making coffee and tea and for hydration.  I am looking into some creative ways to at least “hide” the ugliness.  You can read more about my ideas for the water cooler here.

Notice that my Idea drawing said “Wallpaper?” WELL…I couldn’t find any of that removable wall paper that was either cheap affordable or in my style.  I am seriously trying to avoid painting, but after taking over 60 photos of this area, I realize that it NEEDS more panache. Therefore, I will consider this space almost finished.

Organizing the Coffee Station:

I used Ikea’s Grundtal Kitchen shelving system instead of a separate shelf and hook system because it offers more versatility.

Grundtal Wall Shelf

 

 

The hooks are Fintorp hooks. I used these because they will not come off without unscrewing the Grundtal rails and the hooks have a sort of knob at the tip–which prevents the cups from falling off easily.

Fintorp Hook

 

Grundtal Also has great storage add-ons for the shelf system

Grundtal Hanging Containers

 

One of the things I love most about this area is the storage!

Here is the Coffee Station Cabinet–I hope it stays this organized!

Top Shelf in the Cabinet

 

 

Bottom Shelf

 

Loving the Organization

I purchased these Krus storage containers at Ikea as well, but they are only available (as far as I can tell) at the Ikeas in Europe. They feature removable dividers and come in 3 sizes.  As you know from my Family Command Center post, I LOVE organization!

Which brings me back to my Grundtal storage containers–which by the way feature an airtight seal…

Coffee Beans & Tea

 

Adding Style:

These lovely airtight containers store our loose leaf teas.

Pretty Storage for Loose Leaf Tea

 

And these lovely ladies are for brewing that perfect pot of tea.

Blue Ceramic and Brown Betty Tea Pots

 

It took me a few days to figure out where to put the sweeteners for tea and the coffee filters…but then I remembered that I had this cute little basket in my bedroom.

Storage Basket

 

It was important that the cups we use every day were readily accessible–Hence the hook system.

Hooked on Coffee

Yup, those are Ikea cups…50 Cent Euro each 🙂

Magical Machines:

And now for the magical machinery that makes my addiction possible.

The Magical Machines

 

Because the only outlet in this area is a 220, we had to buy a new coffee machine, water boiler, and coffee grinder.  I prefer a mill, but can’t spend the 89 Euro just now. So, the tiny  grinder that you see peeking behind the coffee maker is our temporary solution.

I LOVE this coffee maker! If you a photographic memory, you noticed that the coffee maker in the first photo of this post was black and red. So what happened? A teenage boy, a ball, and a dog. Yup. The boy somehow managed to shove my coffee maker off of the counter and it slammed against the Command Center wall. After that…it didn’t work. So, we bought this one. And the bonus is that we now have two carafes! For some unknown reason the carafe was not inside the coffee maker when the boy had his little spaz moment.

So there you have it, my Coffee (& tea) Station! Simple, practical, and down right awesome*!

*Not tooting my horn–I am just so excited to have this in my kitchen!

 Coffee Station Reveal

 

 

Cost Analysis

Now come on over and enjoy a hot cup of java or a lovely pot of tea with me in my little sitting room.

The sitting room will be next week’s project 😉