It rained for the first time in weeks and weeks tonight. Heavy enough that I don't have to stand outside for an age with the hose. It’s the first real break I’ve had from the garden in a while.

When you stop moving, you notice the mess. Picture me, a 38 year old former IT guy, standing in a kitchen with a bunch of heavy stainless steel machines, listening to the rain, and realising his workbench is better organised than his pantry.

I have a lot of high-end kitchen equipment. I’ve always been a "buy once, cry once" guy, and am patient and diligent in saving my pesos until the right sale comes along. Amongst many, I have a Benchfoods Dehydrator, a Chamber Vac, and a Magimix that’s built like a tank. An instant pot and a meat grinder. A sous-vide and several stove-top pressure cookers. But right now, they’re scattered. They’re sitting on the ends of benches or tucked into corners where they’re a pain to use. The ice-cream machine lives in the garage. The pantry overflow is in the mudroom (aka ' the room of requirement'). It’s... painful.

When I was in the army we had a saying 'A dirty soldier means a dirty rifle. And a dirty rifle means a dead soldier.' In furniture making if your hardware is a mess, your workflow is a mess, and ultimately your work is a mess. The kitchen is no different.

I’ve spent the evening fantasising about a dedicated pantry cupboard. What the Brits would call a 'Larder'. Not a "flat-pack" special, but something built for the actual mass of these machines. If the Benchfoods unit weighs 20kg+ loaded with a whole rump, I don’t want it on a shelf that bows over time. I want a station that’s built to the same tolerances as the furniture I sell, that my children will argue over who gets to keep it when I die.

The Build Logic

1. Real Shelving: Through tenons. Housed joints. I want the weight of the equipment to actually sit into the frame, not just floating on top of some brass pins.
2. Specific Footprints: I’ve already measured the base of the Chamber Vac. I want the shelf at exactly the right height so I’m not leaning over like a hunchback when I’m batch-prepping 10kg of meat.
3. Ventilation: Dehydrators get warm. A closed cupboard is a recipe for mould or a fire. I need to figure out a venting solution that doesn't look like an industrial extractor fan.
4. Power: All of these things plug into a wall socket. I'm somewhat tired of running extension cords all over the place, so integrated power is a must.
5. Timeline: I have paid work to do. I just had a (third) baby. I have social commitments. I have church. If I can get this done inside 6 months I'll be ecstatic.

The Material

I haven’t decided on the timber yet. It needs to be something that can handle the humidity of a kitchen and the weight of the gear. It needs to be something I already have in the woodshed. And it needs to be achingly beautiful.

The rain will stop eventually and I’ll be back to the garden, but for tonight, I’m just looking at the gear and doodling and sketching.