October 27, 2013

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.
 
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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.

 
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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.

 
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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.

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

 
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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.

 
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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.

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

6 comments:

  1. Your kitchen is charming! I've been wanting to add tongue and groove pine boards above the two rows of backsplash tiles in our kitchen and I love the way it looks in yours. We have a small kitchen and had planned to refinish the original wood floors. Unfortunately the previous owners installed a new plywood subfloor with thousands of staples that we were unable to remove from the maple floors. :(

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    1. Thanks so much Vickie, the tongue n groove was so easy to do. I did it myself in a day. I couldn't nail mine up because of the tile behind it so I just cut them very snug and pushed them in. I say just do it. . . that's too bad about your floor :(. . . I'm not sure what I'm going to find when I start ripping up layers, but at this point nothing surprises me.

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  2. Your kitchen may not be as large as you'd like but it's got spunk and character that I love. It's very farmhouse fresh feeling. Looks like your a lover of enamel ware also. I have a little collection myself and am always on the lookout for more.

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