Designing a New Tea Nook - If You Could Build Anything
I’ve gotten tired of the layout of my room, and I feel weird that all of my books (and other things) that used to be on my bookcase are now in rubbermaid bins/under my bed, while my tea collection has taken over the whole bookcase! haha!
I’m thinking about building some floating shelves, about 5" deep (so 1 tin deep, going by the size of my largest tin, so that any tins I get in the future will still fit), with a slight lip on the front so I can prop pouches up without them slipping off the front of the shelf.
I’ll need at least 4 rows, 10’ wide, to fit what I currently have, so I’m looking at needing more like 5 10’ rows, just far enough apart for tins to fit (again, going by my biggest tins, I’m looking at about 7", enough to allow the tins to be slipped into place over the front lip).
Now, I have 2 places I could build this. Either on a section of wall between my bedroom door and closet door (that is only 10’ wide on its own, so no chance to extend the shelves if need be), or the corner where the bookcase currently is. If I were to use the corner, I would build 5-6’ long shelves extending along either wall, with corner shelves built in the corner joint of each level to display my teaware. Unfortunately, on the straight wall (between the two doors) I wouldn’t be able to add the parts for my teaware without it looking funny, or making the whole shelves 8-12" deep.
The shelves would be painted chocolate brown, which compliments the currently ice blue walls, and will also match the pale sage green I plan to paint everything next summer. I’m contemplating using coloured ribbon on the narrow front edge to label types of tea (herbal, rooibos, white, green, oolong, black, pu’erh, mate/guayusa) but haven’t decided.
In the future, once my friend takes her bar table/stools back, I’d love to get a tea cart, paint it chocolate brown to match the shelving, and use it as a brewing/serving station, but for the time being I’ll just use her bar set.
Hopefully that made sense, I’ll try to draw a diagram to better illustrate what I’m talking about. Edit: hope this works: http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h61/RenosMommy/potentialteacorner.png
If money/skill wasn’t an issue, what would you build (or buy?) to create your tea nook?
My first thoughts go back to something I wanted my grandfather to make for me before he passed – rather than dedicated tea storage space I wanted a “tea table.” Same idea as a coffee table, but much higher off the ground so you could sit at it and do tea, preferably with storage underneath (a shelf? a basket? A shelf AND a basket?) for brewing supplies and some of my favourite things to enjoy with tea (crosswords, books, journals, etc). I think the floating shelves is a LOVELY idea for tea storage, though it would be entirely impractical for the size of my tea collection. Bring able to see each tea would be so nice though…I’ve sometimes thought of some sort of large lazy susan style tea storage, but that also would be impractical for my tea collection. I look forward to seeing what you do!
my collection rivals yours, haha! But, I have a lot of wallspace that I can’t safely put furniture against, due to a really annoying little ledge along the bottom of the one wall. (putting tall furniture, like my dressers or bookcase against it makes for crappy stability, risking the thing toppling over. it’s annoying, but the whole basement perimeter walls have it).
cough
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/NNX4gWal5i0uUiCC-eiIUOnJOfe6_LFJWQwI2FsYNwU?feat=directlink
cough
I call it Tea Corner.
Of course that basket has been replaced by a plastic box and the kitties are very much enjoying the basket. And the shelves aren’t quite as tidy. And the table is SIGNIFICANTLY less tidy.
We bought the shelves in IKEA btw and they’re pretty much ideal for the purpose. Husband refused to make them hug the corner as apparently that’s a lot more difficult than it looks and he thought it was beyond is handyman abilities.
I was grinning the whole time reading yours. :p “Got that. Got that too. And that.” :p
Only difference is yours will probably be a little more extensive. I could easily have gone with a fourth shelf but we decided that it would have to be so high up it wasn’t really practical anymore.
going by the measurement of my bookcase, each shelf on the bookcase is about the height of two shelves i’m wanting to make, so even if the tippy top shelf is the height of the top of my bookcase, it’ll still work for me. and if I make the top shelf that high, then i’ll have room under it for a tea cart or other brewing station! :D Or I might toss a big beanbag chair in the corner under the shelves and have a really short (think step stool height) table next to it for a cozier feel.
Also, I opted for a little more space between shelves. You don’t want them just exactly high enough for the tins to fit, because you’ll get annoyed at not being able to easily get tins in and out with out whacking them against the shelf above. I at least would be driven nuts by that. I need there to be a little clumsy-room. Still occasionally bash the lowest shelf with kettle though.
that’s why I’m going with about 7-8", assuming the lip will be approximately 1" (max) it still gives me a couple inches of wiggle room. (95% of my tins are DAVIDs Tea, I have a couple Teaopia ones, but I have another idea for those ones. Then the rest are either ones I bought separately at craft stores or short-but-wide tins from Silk Road (the one in Victoria BC))
If I had no restrictions what so ever, I’d probably design a bunch of tea rooms that follow the themes of different cultures. Then I’d have my chai in my Indian room and my cream tea with scones in my British room. :D A multi-cultural tea palace!
But to be just a tad more realistic, if I were to work with what I have right now, I would say there’s not much I can do to make my tea space better. It’s not that it’s ideal the way it is. It’s that my walls slope low so there are few actual vertical walls to have shelves on. We can’t even put furniture against the wall because the sloping begins at 2 feet off the ground. And where the walls don’t slope, we have windows. It’s a low furniture household here! Then again, we may be forced to move soon (even though it’s completely outside our budget to live elsewhere) so I might be able to design a more suitable tea space soon. :)
That diagram looks pretty cool, ShayneBear. There is a tea stash thread that you should post the picture of the end result of the shelves with your tea in it. That is one of my favorite threads, I love visiting it to drool over everyone’s stash. (Well metaphorically drool, ;))
I have my stuff in a hutch that we got (My dad and I.) at Meijer’s several years ago. It used to house bagged teas, hot chocolate, hot cider and drink mixes. LOL. Now I’ve taken it over it has only tea, namely tea that I’m inclined to drink on a regular, or semi regular basis. My dad said friday night that he thinks I need to dial it back, the tea buying that is. I kind of lied and said that the only tea I’ve bought recently is replacements for the tea that I’ve drank. Oh poo. lol. With the exception of the tea I hope I’m getting for Christmas, I plan on trying to convince myself that I got enough tea to see me thru the winter…..maybe I should stay off this site, because ya’ll are just enablers!
I actually posted a picture of my current stash to that thread, i think! But i’ll definitely post an updated picture when/if I get around to building my corner :) (also, REALLY glad that diagram made sense, haha)
I have a similar issue, my parents think my tea drinking is a sick addiction and I get in a LOT of trouble if they realize I’ve bought anything new. So I feel your pain!
LOL. Yeah, I’ve been reduced to only buying tea when he is at work, and when I got space in the cupboard to hide it. (Got 1 big tin from Teavana’s that I’ve stuffed the majority of my Teavana teas in, with a regular sized one that has 2. Thinking about getting another big tin.)
I’ve heard people comment (On here that is.) that if it were a wine collection relatives wouldn’t make as big a deal of it. Though I think my Dad would, he’s a long time recovering alcoholic (stopped before I was born.) so he doesn’t like alcohol in the house, and would worry that I would get addicted to it. Never mind the fact I can’t stand most alcohol!
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