A Custom Lazy-Susan for Beth

Matt impresses me a lot.  He is always willing to put in the work required to achieve his goals.  He is a creative thinker and a very thoughtful person.

I mention this because he recently built me a pair of custom lazy-susans for our corner cupboard, thus making some of my kitchen-dreams come true.

He looked at pre-fab lazy-susans, but found them:
A) expensive, given their quality
B) lackluster in weigh capacity
C) very limited in dimensions

So, though he swears he is not much of a carpenter, he measured, drafted, cut, screwed, and crafted two lazy-susans juuuuuuuust right for our cupboard.  It involved making a "jig" first and then using that and a jig saw to cut the wood into appropriately sized round pieces.  (After explaining to Beth what the heck a jig was, I might add.)

This is the sort of project that I'd never have undertaken myself...mostly because of math, but also power tools.  😉

For the past five years this very, very deep cupboard was a sort of dumping ground where things not-used-often got pushed to the back never to be seen again.  (Okay, okay...I exaggerate, but you get my gist.)  We're terrible about taking Before and After photos so you'll just have to take my word for it.   

This picture is the closest I have to a Before photo.  At this point Matt had already placed the laminate tiles (leftovers from our bathroom) and secured the smaller lazy-susan to the top shelf.

We have a pretty small kitchen.  I remember when we bought our house people suggesting it was crazy-small for two folks who love to cook, bake, and can as much as we do.  I'm of the mind that more cupboards just encourage more gadgets and a large kitchen just requires more cleaning and maintenance.  Our kitchen--as is our whole house--is perfectly Matt-and-Beth sized in my assessment.

Never the less, I am astonished at the humongous difference just making this one cupboard more user-friendly has made in the kitchen flow.  We were able to juggle the pots and pans, etc. around so that all of our other cupboards are now uncluttered and easier to use as well.  It is amazing.  Every time I open the corner cupboard (well, all the cupboards, really) it makes me happy.  I imagine this will wear off in time, but seriously, the effect is dramatic.

He even bent metal trim to secure the edge and make it look polished and professional, too.  Plus, it serves the practical function of keeping things from flinging off if I spin the lazy-susan with excessive vigor!

The smaller lazy-susan on the shelf is 21.5 inches in diameter.  A little shelf-space is left at the front of the cupboard for our bread basket.  The bottom lazy-susan is 31.5 inches across--with a pie cut at the front.  It fills the entire space making the back corner just as usable as the front.  The pre-fab lazy-susans he was looking at came in intervals like 18 inches and 24 inches which would have resulted in a lot of still-underutilized space.  His custom-sized lazy-susan was the perfect solution to maximize the cupboard space.

Seriously.  There is nothing this man can't do when he sets his mind to it.  This is just one of the ways he continues to amaze and impress me year after year.  Also, he bought me flowers again yesterday.  For no reason.  AND made tater tot hotdish!

Seriously.  Whattaguy!