Practical versus Aesthetic

One challenge I have in home decor is finding a happy medium between using something that is practical, versus using something that is just pretty. I tend to lean towards the pretty, aesthetic side over practical. Jordan always leans more towards practical first, then aesthetic.

Case in point: our dish rack.

Jordan and I really don't use our dishwasher unless we have people over for dinner.

We hand wash our dishes 95% of the time. It's just easier that way.

For the past two years, we've had this disk rack.

(For a closer look, it's similar to this one I found on Amazon)

I chose it because it fit the criteria I wanted:

- stainless steel to match our appliances

- small on our countertop

- and, duh, attractive looking

What I failed to realize when I bought this dish rach was that the stainless steel would rust, there was no where for water to drain and would therefore gather at the bottom or spilled onto the counter, and when we would place a towel underneath to catch the water, it would stink and create a wet mess on the coutner under the dish rack. (run on sentence, much?)

Jordan hates this dish rack.

For Christmas I recieved a $50.00 Amazon gift card and decided, after over a year, to finally check out some new dish racks to replace our pretty, but impractical one. 

I came across this one:

Larger than I'd want, but otherwise seemed great:

- stainless steel appearance on the outside, but plastic on the inside (no rust!)

- drains into the sink

- can hold a good amount of dishes

- knife block

I wasn't crazy about  a $70 dish rack, but with my $50.00 gift card, it only cost 20 bucks.

I can deal with that.

Last night my dish rack arrived and I set it up right away.

Here it is in it's new home:

Nice and roomy for lots of dishes.

You can barely even tell that it's plastic on the inside and not metal.

No more water on the counter.

This one drains right into the sink.

While it's bigger than I'd like, I'm pretty pleased with this dish rack.

It's definitely much more practical and functional than the old one.

And even though Jordan likes to tell people I don't do dishes :),

I gave it a good test run last night and it works perfect.

Jordan, you win...