fresh paint in the kitchen

I think I have the worlds smallest kitchen. It’s so small it’s hard to get far enough away to take a good picture. I have seen walk-in closets bigger than my kitchen. But, just when I really start to complain I remind myself that Gramma had 8 children she cooked for. She cooked for more people everyday than I do for holiday dinners. So I have just gotten used to it.

I was going to bore you with pictures and a story of what the kitchen looked like when we moved in, but I decided I didn’t want to go there, and I’m pretty sure you really don’t care. So I’ll skip forward 2 years and just get to the best part.

I added a new backsplash to cover up the tile I put up when we moved in. I thought I liked the tile, and I did then. . . but my taste has changed and it just didn’t go with my *farmhouse* look I have come to love. I didn’t take the tile down (I’m lazy like that). I bought pine tongue n groove slats from Lowes. They are super cheap, easy for me to cut and they gave me the look I was going for.

 

 

 

 

The cupboards were birch plywood. Using the existing doors, I had a friend of mine run a bead down them to make them look like bead board. He then added trim to finish the look. I absolutely love my cupboards.

Around the stove area I went with tin tiles. I painted then with appliance paint to make them easier to clean.

 

This used to be a broom closet. It was 2 long doors. I had my friend cut the doors and add seeded glass. With a kitchen this small, I needed all the cupboard/storage space I could get and a broom closet was the last thing I needed. I use it to store my collection of crock bowls and tins. I hide baking supplies in the tins and use the pantry jars for dry goods. It just wouldn’t do it justice to have canned goods in there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the door off of this cupboard to house the microwave and give me a place to display some of my favorite things. I found the Garfield street sign in a cute little neighborhood antique shop, The Peddler Station. It has  some sentimental meaning to me, it was the name of my grade school when I was a little girl. The better Homes and Gardens cookbook was my Gramma’s. And the old scale was a gift from a friend. I love Frannie Farmer cookbooks, and here’s a few from my collection. Yesterday was my bread baking day. I decided to be like the pros and use some food for a prop.

 

 

So, now to put it in perspective for you. The next pictures is from the back porch, which we use as the main entrance into the house. You walk up 2 steps to get to the kitchen. I was standing on a step to take this picture. The pantry is to my left and the fridge to the right.

The black stand is an old newspaper stand. I have a lot of enamelware in my kitchen, I love the black and white. But with very little countertop space there isn’t much room to show it off.  The top bin holds old cookie cutters. The Grandkids love to  play with them and the rolling pins.
 

 

 

This is the other doorway in the kitchen. It leads to the living room.

 

And this is from the same doorway. You can see the chrome of the fridge, which defines the size. You can literally wash dishes and flip pancakes at the same time.

 

 

The next photo is in the same doorway showing the other side of the kitchen. I hate my appliances. But I’m holding out for reproduction pieces. I want pieces like Rachael Ray has in her TV kitchen.  I’ve priced them and they are pretty spendy. When I do get them, I plan on replacing the countertop with wood, replacing the sink with an old farm sink, changing out the lighting and ripping up 3 layers of flooring to reveal the original hardwood.

So the saga continues. Just when I think I’m done, I think of more things I want to do.

 

 

 

See ya soon, have a great fall day. . . ~D

The scoop on the Hoosier

 

Good morning and happy Friday.  I am committed to showing a blog post every week. I’ve been busy this week fluffing a few things around the house, getting the windows washed, raking leaves *AGAIN*. So I haven’t made had time for blogging.

Last week I showed a few pictures with my pride and joy Hoosier cupboard in the background. As promised, I will show it off.

 

Here in the remote confines of Montana, we have a local AM radio station that has a daily show called Trade-io. Listeners call in with items they have for sale or trade. It cracks me up because it really is hookey. People call for some silly reasons. Example Mrs. Jones who lives in Custer is looking for someone going to Billings to pick her up some cat food. It’s quite funny sometimes.  But for the most part it is all about people selling things. This one particular day an elderly gentleman called in selling *an old pine kitchen cupboard*. I quickly wrote his number down and called him. I didn’t wait until the show was over. (I missed out on an old farm sink for $25.00 by waiting one time). At the first sight of this beauty, I gasped, to say the least. He hadn’t mentioned a price when he called in so I had no idea what he wanted for it. I offered him $100.00. He whipped his head around and said “ you’d pay a hundred dollars for that? ! I said well, what were you thinking? Trying not to appear to excited.  He mentioned he had a buffet too and if I was interested I could have both for a hundred dollars. Needless to say, I left with both. I think he felt guilty because he threw in the sweetest little chippy white stool he had that came out of an old gas station. I used the buffet for a dresser for awhile but ended up selling it to one of my favorite vendors, In Rust We Trust.

 

 

 

My battery was dying so I wasn’t able to get a picture of the flour sifter that’s behind the louvered doors. You can see a little bit of it in the next photo.

 

 

I wanted to get more pictures of the inside too. The bottom right drawer is zinc, the cutting board is in perfect condition, and behind the door on the left are pull out shelves. I struggle with what I want to display on it. What would/do you show off in it?

It’s my favorite piece by far.

 

The Grandkids are coming over after a hay ride today to play in the Huge pile of leaves I ‘ve been saving for them so I made them some pumpkin spice muffins. I also wanted to show you a very special bowl I have.

 

It was given to me by my husbands mother when we moved in. He remembers his Gramma serving mashed potatoes in it.

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t really show up but there is the most awesome crazing going on in this beauty. I just love it. It will be a treasure for many years to come.

 

Have a great fall weekend. Thanks for stopping by. D

 

Autumn Decor

 

I didn’t do a lot of fall decorating this year. I’ve been busy making some changes in the kitchen. But I did add a few small touches that I wanted to share.

Don’t you just love chicken wire? I know I do. I ordered this cloche from a catalogue. I wasn’t expecting it to be so big. For the longest time I didn’t know what to do with it.  my farm table in the dining room is almost 7’ long, and it needs BIG stuff on it. So I put some seasonal veggies and ornamental corn in a grain sifter and sat the cloche on top. I actually like it, for now.

 

 

Next up on my to*do list is to paint the dining room. It and the family room are all one room, it makes it difficult to separate the 2 rooms. I have a story about the Hoosier in the background. I will share it when I do a post on the dining room.

Trencher bowls are so fun. I use it as the go*to piece in seasonal decorating. I have had fresh lavender buds in it in our bed room, pinecones and greenery for Christmas, and I use it on my holiday tables to hold my homemade rolls. Now it is posing as a harvest accent piece, filled with Sweet Annie, pine cones, star anise and the tiniest of tiny white pumpkins. Have you smelled sweet Annie? If not you should get some. It’s sweet fragrance fills a room nicely.

 

 

Up next is the fireplace mantel. Quite simple, just how I like it. The color is a little off. it’s not really this bright. The living room is painted Cottage Linen, a Glidden color. It is just a shade darker than Antique White, which is in all the other rooms in the house.

The old window came from a house my sister was helping tear down. It was the house my babysitter lived in when I was a small child. The rusty cream can was given to me by a friend, the Gilbert mantel clock is my pride and joy. It was given to my dad many years ago and he gave it to me right before he died. Bobbins. .. .I have some a lot of bobbins. I’m quite smitten with all things sewing. The dented lidded metal box is a Diamond matchbox. I paid 5 bucks for it at a flea market.

 

 

 

I never did figure out how to make all my pictures enlarged via Blogger, but I recently learned I can blog from windows live. From there I can make them any size I want, now I’m happy again.

It’s football day. . . GO PACKERS !

 

Thanks for stopping by. I need more followers so help me spread the word.

where kids create

I finally finished the 4th bedroom in our house. The 2 rooms upstairs are so sweet. They have beautiful hardwood floors, sloped attic ceilings and just so much character. I knew when we moved in I wanted to make one of the rooms into a playroom for the 5 small Grandbabies. (There are 7 total but 2 are teenagers and hang out in the family room with the Wii). Of the 5 small ones, there are 2 girls and 3 boys so I had to keep it somewhat neutral. Although I don't use pink in my décor, I felt compelled to use a small amount in this room.

This awesome bed came from the Born in a Barn event I went to a this summer. I got it all for 30 bucks. I was going to paint it, but when I started to inspect it, I actually fell in love with the gray-blue color and the chippy-ness it already had.  The quilt was from The Marketplace, one of my favorite antique malls. I made the ticking pillow case out of a military cot cover.

 

The night stand is an old phone table, the back was missing so I just turned it around so the back became the front. It holds story books close by for the bedtime stories they all look forward to when they stay here.

 

I found this little table to go with the small childs chairs I have been collecting for awhile, I didn't do anything to it, yet. I'm thinking I may paint it and just let the kids distress it naturally. I found the sweet little tea set yesterday at Goodwill for 3 bucks, I just love it, I think the girls will too.
   

 

 

I just love the sweet little high chair. I found it a few years ago at a second hand store, the shelf came from Goodwill, I just painted it cottage linen, a Glidden color. My son made the handprint for me when he was in kindergarten, he's 33 now :( a pair of old baby shoes, a few blocks and some old baby jammies completes the little nook.  

 



The child size closet, actually a cupboard, is used to hold dress up clothes for the girls, tinker toys and trucks for the boys. The pink basin on top holds the crayons and colored pencils. I used wooden boxes for coloring books, old jars for blocks and old baskets for legos and building blocks through out the room, just to give the feel of a childs room from days gone by. 


 

 

  
And lastly, the toy box. I found the rickety old screen at the Born in a Barn sale, I love the patch made of well. . .old screen. It makes a perfect magnet board. The toy box helps to hide the assortment of toys. It was handmade by someone years ago, its so primitive, I just love it. . .

 

 

 

 

 

I’m working on the missing piece of trim under the closet. As much as I love working with my saw, making new base trim and such, the mitered cuts and angles kick my butt.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend, we are actually having fall weather, sure beats the winter weather we had last week. Thanks for stopping by.