Kitchen Post Number 37

You may remember that our kitchen started out yellow, and then we painted it brown, and then I tried to paint it green but no one would let me, so then I painted it white.  I said I liked it white, but deep down inside...I HATE WHITE WALLS!  There, I said it.  I couldn't stand the white.  So one day I went down in the basement and got what was left of our living room paint and slapped that up on the walls of the kitchen.

Now we finally have a color I can live with.

And our red chairs finally have a home!

Breakfast Nook Redo

Our kitchen's breakfast nook has seen a lot of changes.  Sometimes it looks like this:

Other times it looks like this:

Or this.  It was just too weirdly shaped for anything to stick permanently.  So I got the idea that I would tear out the pantry and build two smaller pantries on each side of this wall with a bench in the middle.  Add a table, and presto, breakfast nook.  I had a contractor come in and a $3,000 estimate later, I decided that was not gonna happen.  He did give me the idea, though, of doing a corner bench with a table.  He quoted that one for about $2,000.  I said, "Thanks for the free idea!" and went about doing it myself.

So here's what I came up with...and as usual, forgive the mediocre photography...if that's even what you want to call it.  The corner bench is actually three benches from Ikea, two with drawers, one without.  Since the kitchen is on the smaller side, storage was very important when
I was looking around for banquette seating.  These drawers are great and huge, and when I get tired of this setup, they can be used elsewhere easily.

I made the cushions and pillows myself, following this tutorial.  As mentioned before, I was trying NOT to spend $3,000 on this project, so I was dragging my feet about buying the foam for these cushions, which would have cost at least $60 with a coupon.  I looked around online a bit for alternative ideas, and I came across this great idea to use one of those egg carton foam bed cushions.  I happened to have one lying around, so I cut it apart, stacked it up, and voila! Free cushions.

The light was a $25 find at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I also got some drawer pulls when I was there for when I get around to working on the kitchen cabinets.  I made the shade in the background from some plastic blinds following this tutorial.  

I really wanted to have a dish towel on the front of the shade, and I found this one at Sur la Table for $8.

Bird.

I found the table for $65 using our neighborhood website.  It was originally that circa 1995 orangey oak that everybody has.  I decided to try my hand at restaining it, using this tutorial.  It worked pretty well except for a few things.  1. I decided to start staining the table in the middle of Typhoon June, so it took forever to dry.  2. It also took forever to dry because I did not do a good job of wiping off all the stain when I was staining it.  There are still a few goopy spots on the legs where the stain dripped and pooled together.  So I wouldn't recommend sitting on the legs in white pants for extended periods of time.  If you were planning on doing that.

The rug I got for $60 off of Joss & Main, which is kind of like Zulilly except for house stuff.  I was EXTREMELY impressed with the quality.  It's a really nice rug...that is now covered in little spots of stain...but still, high quality.

My Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs pictures have been in every one of our kitchens since our first apartment in Philadelphia.  The frames got a little spray paint face lift, and I took the prints to Kinko's and had them blown up to fit the frames a little better.  It only cost $1.60.

Yes, I have Scotch Guarded everything, and the covers come off and are machine washable.  Thank you for asking.  I will mention that when I was making the covers, I slipped one on to check the fit, and Lila climbed on top of it, stood up, and peed on it.  I was so pissed.  No pun intended.

Not too much has changed with the pantry that I hate.

I added a chalkboard to the inside of the door.

And I repapered the shelves because I think the old brown paper came with the house.  Like in 1957.

It's already been so nice to have a place to sit in the kitchen.  Lila likes walking around on the benches (Free-Range Parent here) and reading my macaron and cupcake cookbooks.  And so far she hasn't peed on it today, so one point for the breakfast nook.

Death to Gecko Green

Look who came to visit us last week!  Baby Chloey! Not to be confused with Baby Chloey.  Ignore the overflowing recycling bin.  At least we recycle, hater.

Chloey came to help me chose paint for the kitchen.  And after she and her mommy agreed that my greens were too much, I made what Johnny calls the "mature decision,"

...and I chose white. Wahn wahn.  Snowbound to be exact.  I hate that I'm using white, but the room already looks bigger, and it means that my fun prints and red chairs will stand out better...and your eyes probably won't hurt as much.

Next stop is a DIY roman shade for the breakfast nook window.

Kitchen Window Before and After

One of the big things on my list of organizing for January was to rid ourselves of the AWFUL Chili's style light above our kitchen sink.  As of yesterday, we are Blue Light Special free!

Before:



After:

Yeah, yeah, don't take a picture into the light. Whatever.  I also added a shade above our kitchen sink.  I purchased the curtains on the right a little while ago from Target, so I went back and bought only one panel, cut it to fit the window and attached it using three tension rods.  That being said, it is obviously not a usable shade, so please don't come over to my house and try to pull on it.



Lila is pleased with the new addition to our kitchen.

I only have a little bit more time to finish up the rest of my cleaning and organizing list.  Tomorrow is going to be devoted to dusting things I don't usually dust like chandeliers, more baseboards, lights, etc.  We are also very close to being finished with our coat closet redo, so hopefully we can show that off in a few days.

Hutson Kitchen Before and After

Now that Baby Hutson's arrival is less than eight weeks away, Johnny and I are trying to get some last minute projects done.  One of those projects was painting the kitchen (remember the awful yellow?).  We still plan to paint the cabinets white, but that will be a spring time activity.

Hutson Kitchen Before:



Hutson Kitchen After:



I'm also planning to paint the pantry door with chalkboard paint.  There's a great link on my Pinterest (button on the left) for how to make your own chalkboard paint.



Hutson Kitchen Before:

Hutson Kitchen After:



Do notice that one of those blue lights managed to stick around.  I'm trying to find an antique chandelier to hang there instead.  Though, Mitchell says he likes it because it reminds him of Chili's, so we might need to keep it for the ambiance. After we paint the cabinets, I'm also wanting to find a way to cover up some of the tiles that have random teapot designs on them.  Anyone have any experience with cheaply changing a kitchen backsplash?

Next project will be either stripping and painting the dining room or painting the entire front and upstairs hallways.