Creating a tea station, even in a small kitchen, is possible. I’ll show you how I made over my previous tea station to make it much more practical and useful in my small space.
There is a quote I love:
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” -William Morris
Unfortunately, while I love the quote, I’ve haven’t been following it very well in some areas of my home. This week, something you might not expect inspired me to make a change back to things that are useful and beautiful in my home. What’s this item that inspired me? It was the change in the new packaging of Bigelow Tea.
The new look of Bigelow Tea is sleeker, more sophisticated…and beautiful. Seeing their new boxes instantly inspired me. I have been having an issue in my kitchen with clutter, more specifically in our “tea and coffee station”. We have a big Keurig, that takes up quite a bit of space (yes, both a drip coffee maker and a Keurig), but it is only being used about twice a month. Then, we have lots of others items that we just leave out – tea boxes, coffee beans, K-Cups, etc.
It’s driving me CRAZY. It’s not useful and it’s definitely not beautiful.
The family stories on the top of the new Bigelow Tea box design inspired me even more. This box tells about how Bigelow founder, Ruth Bigelow, worked in her New York brownstone kitchen to create a better cup of tea. Well, I’m not actually blending up tea from scratch like she did, but I still want a place in my home where I can make a better cup of tea because it starts with calm and peacefulness – not frustation because I can’t find the tea I want.
Bigelow Tea made a change — they wanted consumers to have a box that was cleaner and simpler — and that’s what I wanted for my tea and coffee area. I’m going to show you what I did, even in my small kitchen, and maybe you’ll be inspired to make your own tea station.
Our tea station starts with one of the most beautiful things we own: our tea chest.
When David and I were invited to South Carolina to hang out with the Bigelow Family and the company, I was moved to tears when I saw a surprise gift they gave to us. They present us with our very first tea chest, engraved with our last name.
Unfortunately, since our trip in May, my tea chest has been placed where I can’t enjoy it — high on one of my shelves, because I had no space for it. But if I’m not using it, what’s the point? I decided it was time to give this a more prominent spot in our tea and coffee station.
While we can hold 8 varieties in our tea chest, I wanted to store even more in our tea station. I was tired of storing tea in multiple areas in my kitchen — I wanted everything together. Not only does it make it easier for me to see at a glance what I have on hand, but when I have guests, they will be able to see too.
My dilemma is that with a small kitchen, I also have limited counter space. My solution was to buy a little wire shelf with legs (it’s traditionally used in kitchen cupboards) and a sturdy, clear plastic bin (sized 8.24″ x 14″) that would fit perfectly under the shelf.
The plastic bin will hold 5 full boxes of Bigelow Tea, plus additional tea bags in the back. Since Bigelow is wrapped in a foil pouch, you can rest easy knowing that it’s not going to be losing tea all over the place and that it will stay fresh, even if it’s not in the box.
Our tea chest sits on top of the wire rack perfectly and the bin of tea slides easily under the rack. If you don’t have a tea chest yet, you could pick up two of the bins and place one on top of the shelf. If you wish, you can remove the tea bags from the boxes too.
And here is my new tea and coffee station! Gone is the Keurig machine so I have plenty of room for my tea. We kept the same mug tree for holding mugs in a small amount of space (bought at Bed, Bath, and Beyond), plus we only kept out the essentials. Things like extra coffee have been placed put away. And just like the new Bigelow Tea box designs, my new area is cleaner and simpler. The area is useful….and without the clutter, it’s even beautiful.
I am very happy with my new tea station and am already finding it to be much more practical and useful than my previous set-up. Just in the time I’ve had it set up, I’ve already started drinking some other varieties of Bigelow that I had on hand, but didn’t pay much attention to, because I didn’t have them right there. I think this set up will also be great with the upcoming holidays.
If you want to learn more about Bigelow Tea’s new package design, check out this video:
Check out my entire shopping trip at Walmart for Bigelow Tea
You can also keep up-to-date on all of Bigelow Tea’s happenings via @BigelowTea on Twitter and at Bigelow Tea on Facebook
Do you have a tea or coffee station in your home?
Jenny says
I love this! I am so inspired now to get my tea chest out of the cabinet and make a tea station for our home! I picked up a tea chest on clearance last year after Christmas for only $7 at Tractor Supply of all places! I love being organized & I love my tea! 🙂
Diane says
I love love love this idea!! The box is also beautiful!! Great post!!