Just sick of looking at it! July 19, 2014

There are big plans for our kitchen. Big plans that will take time and money to complete. Other than painting the walls, adding some open shelving (link here), and installing a dishwasher (links here, here, and here) and water filtration system under the sink, the kitchen remains untouched and as ugly as when we moved in. The cabinets are faux 1980’s blonde “wood”, the backsplash is tin tiles glues to the wall and faux painted a weird bronzy color, the countertop is not only not pretty, but it is messed up in some spots, and the floor… mauve diamonds on vinyl are still hot now, right?
Oh wait, no.
NO, they’re not.
.
While we do not have the time or money right now to do a complete overhaul of the kitchen, we can do something about some of it for the time being. First came the painting the backsplash and adding a no-sew window treatment. Enter a quart of bright yellow semi-gloss paint purchased from the “mistints” at a local hardware store and 2 awesome lemon-y dishtowels from Crate&Barrel.
.
If you haven’t already noticed this, I like to bounce around the rooms in my house. I very rarely complete an entire room’s worth of projects at once. I envy those who can do that, and I have tried, but I just keep bouncing around doing things here, there, and everywhere. It keeps me happy and lets the rooms evolve slowly over time. Sometimes what I think I want to do in the beginning ends up changing as time goes on, so I guess it’s good that I bounce around, huh? Today’s bounce is to the kitchen!
.
This is the kitchen “before”, on move in day. It looks so dark and dismal in there, and we were just sick of looking at it!

.
I cleaned the backsplash really, really well. Paint won’t stick to dirty or greasy surfaces and, while I am a clean person, there’s always little bits of dirtiness in the kitchen! Then I painted about 4 or 5 coats (I lost count in all of the excitement!) using an angles brush and a small foam roller. You know, the cute little baby paint roller? LOVE those. It’s actually a bit sad how much I love those.
The first coat was pretty thin and I was worried that the paint wasn’t going to cover it, but in the end, it all worked out!


Tah-Dah!!

.
Now, for the really simple valance for the kitchen window. All I did was use fabric glue to glue pieces of the second towel onto each end of the first towel and then draped it over a cheap curtain rod. This was a “Sicilian Lemon” towel from Crate&Barrel last year. It’s no longer available, but there are lots of others that are awesome! I am not a towel expert, so I’m not sure what the weave of this particular towel is called, but it’s not fuzzy or a waffle weave. It’s flat. It kind of reminds me of canvas fabric. Anyway, it took me about 20 minutes tops to do and looks awesome!


.
With the bits of leftover towel, I made a small pillow that will eventually adorn the storage bench I plan on building to go under the open shelves in the kitchen.

Right now it just sits on my desk chair. Which I found by the side of the road, by the way. You know me and my garbage! Isn’t it awesome? After a thorough cleaning and conditioning (no, I did not move on to my hair, I’m still talking about the vintage office chair) It completes my office nook so nicely, and is super comfortable to sit in. In fact, I’m sitting in it right now as I am typing. 🙂

.
The kitchen is a little bit brighter and I am loving it! The best part? It was all done in an afternoon. I just love projects that are over quickly and have no problems that arise.
Eventually I would love to have some yellow penny round tiles for the backsplash like these:

but that will come in time. 🙂
.
LIVE SIMPLY AND CHANGE THE WORLD!!