Thrifty Kitchen Kitsch

Intrigued?  You SHOULD be!

So, let's just start out by saying that I am not crafty.  I am not that type of lady.  My arts and crafts talents are limited to knitting and makeup application.  And in the knitting department, all I've made is a bunch of scarves, a head wrap and an experimental wristlet.  So I'm not sure I can count that as a talent.

I am also terrible on follow-through.  I have to strike while the iron is hot, i.e. while I'm still interested in a project, because I will abandon it for sure the minute I get bored or frustrated with it.

Anyway.  A-HEM.

We have, you may recall, just moved into a new home.  And this home needs some furnishings.  And it was decided by the Vicarage Think Tank (me and The Vicar) that a new kitchen table was a top priority.  Actually, this was decided by way of a lot of whining and complaining on my part and sighing and conceding on The Vicar's, poor man.

So, yeah, I wore him down until he agreed to look for a table and chairs.  I PROMISED him I would be my thriftiest best.

And would you look at what I found!

Actually, Mom spotted it first, thrift shopper extraordinaire that she is.  She took us to a place that can only be described as a junk shop--more like a junk warehouse.  She warned us before we went in.  She said, "Ok, this place is a crap shoot.  Sometimes it's all junk and sometimes you can dig up something worthwhile."  And, about 25 seconds after we entered she called me over to where she was standing with a, "Hey, this looks like you!"

It was in good condition, the chairs were comfy (we all checked), and the owner was willing to give it to us for $100.  SOLD!  When we got back in the car, I said, "I'm going to spray paint it-

--RED!"  Before anyone howls at me, The poor Vicar did not spray paint it by himself.  We did it together.  We both got mightily high and discovered the answers to all of life's most puzzling questions.  Together.

 Three cans of Glossy Ruby paint: a little less than $10...

And then it was time to do something about the faded and dingy seat covers.  I can't say that I have a fabric stash, but I did happen to have quite a bit of red and white ticking leftover from our kitchen renovation five years or so ago.  FREE FABRIC!

Now, I have never covered seat cushions before.  And I am so NOT crafty when it comes to fabric.  My only experience with a sewing machine was the sewing class I was required to take in 8th grade and I got a C.  I couldn't even make a pillow.  It's bad, folks.  But I took a good look at the way these cushions were already covered and decided I could copy it.

I'm sure there are plenty of more professional and efficient ways to cover a cushion.  And I'm sure more experienced seamstresses would be horrified if they turned any one of these over.  But, to me, they look good and the lines are straight!

And I did it BY MYSELF!  Usually I hand all fabric jobs over to Mom, who probably could have gotten this task completed with a lot less time and sweat than I did.

But it's sweat that I'm proud of and sweat I can claim as all my own!  I am so PROUD of myself and so THRILLED with the results!  I keep strolling through the kitchen to get a glimpse of it!

So there you have my kitschy kitchen table and chairs hack.  Not bad for $110, eh?

Next up: drapes for Redheaded Snippet's room made from a $20 Target shower curtain!  There's no stopping me now!

And so it begins again

It's been 8 months or so since we finished the major over-hauling of our kitchen and The Viking is growing ever restless. He can only sit back and enjoy the afterglow of a project for so long before his fingers starting itching for a new one. For the past 6 weeks or so I've been seeing warning signs and, this weekend, my suspicions were confirmed.

You may recall this door, pictured here in a "before" photo of our kitchen:

This was taken as The Viking was just starting to tear stuff out (can't you tell by the two detached cupboards and the clump of insulation visible in this shot?) and I stopped him so I could properly document it.

Anyway, that old door remained much the same even after the rest of the kitchen had been given its much-needed facelift. It became one of those things we meant to finish but ran out of energy for.

Well, as of yesterday, the door now looks like this:



I love it and think it looks just lovely. But I know he's been haunting The Home Depot again and I know what that means; he's gearing up for another project.

Sure enough, he said something to me a few hours ago about doing something about the coat closet or Man-Cub's closet, I get to pick. He thinks the coat closet is a more pressing need right now, but I still get to pick. I think we're going to be tackling the coat closet.

And, directing your attention back to the photo of the newly green door, can you blame us?

Just scroll up a bit. That area, that wasteland of coats, jackets, bags, gloves, hats and umbrellas is where the coat closet is set to be. You can see we need it badly.



This is just completely unacceptable. You can't see it, but there is a most lovely umbrella stand buried under there. I want that to be seen. I want to keep actual umbrellas in it (even though I know there are going to be baseball bats and field hockey sticks stashed in there as well) so I don't have to go rummaging about in a pile of nylon and wool whenever it's raining outside.

You may wonder why we have been dragging our feet on this. Well, we've been looking for a suitable piece to fill that space, but can't seem to find one that's just right. It's an awkwardly sized area and we want a lot out of it. We need hooks for coats and jackets, enough for all of us and a few for guests. We need hooks for bags as Red Headed Snippet and I have at least 2 each. We need storage for hats, scarves and gloves once the weather gets delightfully cold, and I would like a place to stash wet shoes and drippy boots, if possible. It would really be nice if there could be a place for the kids to deposit their backpacks after school and a mirror placed near the door for last-minute check-ups on the way out would be heavenly. As if all that isn't enough, it would really make me happy if all that lovely organization could be contained behind a set of doors, or even a single one, so I don't have to be tidying it all up all the time. So, basically, I want to build a coat closet behind the kitchen door, but I want it to be pretty. I am impossible to please, aren't I?

I am supposed to be looking around for ideas right now while The Viking has the kids at Target picking out things for their Operation Christmas Child gift boxes but I've decided I need to blog/whine for a while first. I know designing a space on our own is the best way to get an organized space custom-made for us, but I just hate doing it. I can't come up with stuff on my own out of the blue. I need inspiration, a visual example. I need to see a picture of a great coat closet someone has built in their own home and then expand on that. And I can't seem to find any. And The Viking is going to be home soon and if I don't have some good ideas, he's just going to pound some 6-inch nails into the wall for us to hang coats on! No, he won't do that, but he's going to want to leave for The Depot with a list in his hand within an hour of coming back.

While I'm whining, anyone got any brilliant ideas for what I could do with this empty space?



It's the wall just outside the pantry and it's been bare ever since the remodel. The Viking likes it bare. He enjoys having just one wall that I haven't filled with stuff. But it's really bugging me.

Uh-oh, guess who's home? I'd better go...

Pantry Paradise!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have a pantry.

It's finished and it's beautiful. I keep wandering over to it, opening the door and just standing there drinking it in.

Wanna see?


Of course I had to put a few kitschy little things in there, right in the center where I'm sure to see them first thing when I open the door. The round tubs hold our medicines and vitamins, the old bank bag hides the grocery store bags we've accumulated and the big silver pot is actually a Laotian steamer used for making sticky rice (and I'm sure other things, but I only know how to use it for sticky rice). I may be using them for practical purposes, but they still make me smile when I look into my pantry (37 times a day just for fun).


I know these pictures do not do it justice. You can only see half the shelf space and thus cannot fully appreciate the depths and breadth of its storage capacity. But, alas, I lack the mad picture-taking skillz possessed by The Viking and so this will have to do.

It was so wonderful to unpack that last box and finally put everything where it belongs. The first thing I moved was the dog food bin; I have hated having that thing sitting in the living room all these months! The mop and broom finally have a home after 8 years of simply leaning against the wall next to the fridge, and all miscellaneous items now have a place to hide. Filling the pantry cleared a lot of space on the counters which lets the beauty of the beadboard and butcher block really shine through.

We finally have that spacious, uncluttered and lovely kitchen we've dreamed about since we first moved in here. It's amazing what a difference it makes and I still feel like I'm going to wake up and find it was all a very realistic dream.

The completion of the pantry meant we could finally give the floor a good cleaning and clear out all the pieces of wood, boxes of tools and piles of debris from the far flung corners of the room. Remember this?

All the wood has been removed! That large red thing is a storage box The Viking made for the fire station and has since delivered to them.


This area also got a bit of a spruce up:


It was a big moment when The Viking packed up his tools and carted them down to the basement.


And this:



Thanks to the help of my gracious and organized friend who shall ever after be known to this blog as Mrs. Nugent, the hutch now looks like this:


I have never known such spaciousness and ease in my own kitchen. I feel so spoiled and I absolutely love it. It is easier to keep clean, I feel a greater sense of accomplishment when I clean it and I find us gathering and lingering in there much more. Saturday is My Boy's birthday so we're having our first post-renovation party and I can hardly wait! The big debut! That will be the big test. Will the improvements make entertaining any easier? Stay tuned to find out!

I really must go. It's time to start dinner and then I must go lie down. I haven't been feeling well and have a busy weekend ahead so I'm trying to rest whenever I can.

Until next time...

Granny Pantries

So, in response to showing you all the ugly underbelly of my house in my last post, I'm going to move on as if it never happened and keep showing only small, quickly cleaned up, carefully edited snapshots of the progress here at my Wit's End. Everyone on board with that? Okay, let's proceed.

I've been slooooooooowly bringing things back into the kitchen and acclimating them to the new environment. I've thrown away 2 large boxes of stuff, something that brought a huge smile to The Viking's face as he cheerfully booted them out of the house. He loves getting rid of stuff whereas I have a harder time parting with things.

Today was a most victorious day; I stormed the dining room, battled bravely and reclaimed it as our own. There are still a few things I have to find a place for (like the pretty but impractical canister set that came with our wedding dishes), but WE CAN SIT AT A TABLE AND EAT!

Here's My Boy mugging for the camera while he enjoys his sit-down dinner of rice! See the canisters? They need a home!

All our boxes are unpacked but one which must wait for the completion of the pantry. But I did sort through it and get rid of some things so it's all ready to be put away. Speaking of the pantry, The Viking has been hard at work on it all weekend:

He was fussing over me taking a picture of him, but that didn't stop him from working!

The pantry is lined with 5 wrap-around shelves, has a long, shallow space on the right side to hang the broom and mop and enough space at the bottom to slide taller things like the dog food bin. I am so dorkily excited about this pantry, I can't even tell you. I keep swiveling around in my chair as I'm typing to look at it. I've never had a pantry before and it was always one of those things that sounded like dreamhouse luxuries to me, like a fireplace, laundry chute, built-in bookshelves and window seats. We have yet to put in our fireplace or laundry chute, and we'll never have the bookshelves or window seats, but, by George, we've got a pantry! Squee!

I've also been trying to figure out how to display some of my decorative items without taking up precious storage space. So far I've come up with two areas: a somewhat awkward cupboard over the microwave, and on top of the fridge.

The Viking had to rebuild the cupboard over the microwave. When we went to install the stove (good old Mrs. C) we found that her backsplash made her an inch too tall to fit underneath the microwave. This caused quite a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth until The Viking said he could pull out the cupboard over the microwave, mount the microwave higher to accommodate the stove, and rebuild the cupboard. This worked beautifully, except for the fact that we now have no doors for the new cupboard. We decided to worry about that smaller detail later.

When my organized friend came over she asked me how I wanted to use that space. I was unsure because I am rather short and have a hard time reaching it. She suggested I stash something up there I don't need to use very often, and if it was something pretty, I could simply leave the cupboard open like shelves. We tried some crystal pieces like candlesticks and vases, but they didn't look quite right. Then as I was staring at the cupboard trying to decide what to put in there it hit me! It's a perfect place to store my few pieces of stoneware!

The inside isn't finished, but once that outlet is covered and the whole thing is painted green like the outside, the white pieces are going to look great in there! I've had that soup tureen for years and rarely use it, but I love it too much to get rid of it. The footed bowl was a gift from my mother this Christmas as was the small gravy boat to its left. I acquired the candy dish from somewhere I can't recall now and the little pieces are ornaments I bought from abc distributing two years ago because I knew they'd be perfect for the red, green and white kitchen we were planning.


While I was at it I decided to try and sore a few things up on top of the fridge, an area I am probably never going to use for storing practical things. I had several picnic baskets/hampers stacked in my dining room that I decided would look pretty great up there. I added my great-grandmother's egg beater and a couple of red tea tins I bought at a yard sale for a quarter. I've had those things floating around for 3 years because I knew someday they'd be a nice touch in my dream kitchen!

In the far left of the pic you can barely see my green Goodwill candy dish and two more of the tins. I'm not sure if any of that stuff is staying, but I don't think I have any better place to stow the picnic baskets. The littler things might be moved around a bit, I'll have to live with it a while and see.

So, the pantry is now nearly finished and The Viking just announced he will have it done tonight so I can start filling it tomorrow! I'm so excited! I'll be sure to post lots of pics of the finished product tomorrow night!

Yay for the pantry!

Oh my aching back!

My wonderfully helpful friend just left and, boy, am I tired!

To the naked eye, my kitchen looks no different, but on the inside, where it truly counts, it is much improved. And all the boxes formerly laying siege in my dining room are now disarmed and deposed.

I threw out at least two boxes of stuff because, apparently, I have too much stuff. And I still have too much stuff, but my lovely friend was being kind to me today and let me hold on to it for a little longer. The problem is I've managed to collect too many silly little things that I think are lovely and want to display. And I have very little counter space, which I also think is lovely and would like to display. And those two things are at cross purposes with each other. Sigh.

There are still several trouble spots that need some attention, but at least the boxes are gone. One giant step closer to getting my dining room back and sitting around a table as a family!

Still plugging along

So, we've been using our kitchen relatively normally for a week now and I must say it's been SO NICE! I can't say it's done, but it's close. I can cook normally and clean up completely, but I still can't put all our stuff away. The pantry isn't finished yet so the dining room table remains pushed into the corner, draped with a protective white shower curtain and covered with things that have yet to find a home, but need to be used regularly. Four boxes still wait in the shadows to have their contents unpacked and redistributed. And we keep having this conversation:

"Hey, have you seen the_____?"
"Look in the boxes in the dining room!"
"Ugh, never mind!"

So, I'm waiting for the pantry to be done so I can get my highly-skilled organized friend in here to help me put stuff in sensible, efficient, easily accessible places. In the meantime I keep trying to take care of little decorative items here and there. Like the valances and sink skirt! Mom got them done in record time and they're perfect!

You can't tell in the picture, but the fabric is red ticking and sets off all the colors perfectly! I love how it works with the berry vine patter of the paper, the green of the cabinets and the white of the sink surround and dishwasher! I have enough fabric left over to make basket liners for the baskets going in the shelving units on each side of Mrs. C, but I have yet to find the baskets!

Today, The Viking got the inside of the pantry mudded and finished most of the odds and ends of trim that were left. Now we just need to sand and paint the pantry, then build the shelves. That's going to be a bit tricky as we had to build around the original chimney, which was much faster and more cost-effective than pulling the wall down and tearing it out! But we put our heads together, made a few sketches and came up with a plan that will utilize the space as best we can.

Every once a while I go a little spazzy and fuss over things like, "Dog food! The dog food! Did we set aside a place to store the DOG FOOD???" But I think it's just the stress of the whole thing getting to me, don't you? The dog food will be fine!

The good news is when we have my family over for My Boy's birthday in two weeks, we'll be able to welcome them into a kitchen we can be proud of, instead of ashamed of! The birthday party has provided us with a goal: to have the kitchen AND dining room back in presentable form in time for our family to gather. And the way The Viking works, I know it will be done so I'm very excited about it! We kept telling everyone at Christmas, "NEXT TIME you all are here, we'll have our new kitchen!"

Okay, dinner has dinged so I have to go play mother! More exciting updates to come!

Now we're gettin' into the fun stuff!

Today was another productive day at our little cottage. Running water has been restored to the kitchen and the dishwasher performed its inaugural wash and dry cycle. The garbage disposal isn't connected yet, nor is the drain from the sink, so we can't dump anything in there, but we can surely fill the kettle at the sink once more!

I went out seeking a pair of stools for the island and a mat to go underneath them this afternoon and didn't find anything suitable, but I DID find a few other things I couldn't pass up:




I found these strawberry dishes at Home Goods, along with the sign behind them. I love that store; it's like a retail rummage sale! I always leave with some little treasure I've managed to unearth from the piles of goods clogging the shelves. I'm thinking of maybe using the bigger dish as a spoon rest, and maybe the smaller one for change and spare keys. I don't know, but I have a friend with great organizational skills coming over soon to help me put everything back better than it was before, and I'm sure she'll have some good ideas.


I didn't get this today, but at Goodwill a few weeks ago. It was $2 and I knew it was just the right color for the kitchen, plus it matches the cup to my great-grandmother's old egg beater that I plan to display (once I unpack it). Behind it is another Goodwill find, my $3 lamp. I topped it with a $6 shade from Lowe's and, voila, a great cottage lamp for less than $10!


I had been looking at signs similar to this on ebay and was glad to find one at Home Goods today. It's metal and was only $6 and I've been gazing contemplatively at the walls all night trying to determine the perfect spot for it. I really like it propped up against the backsplash, but counter space is kind of precious, even in this newly spruced-up version of the kitchen, so I doubt I'll be able to leave it there.

I have a few other things that I've been collecting since I decided on the color scheme two years ago, but they're packed away and will have to wait their turn before coming out to serve their purpose. It's going to be hard waiting until all the utilitarian stuff is situated before I can start gilding the lily!

Well, I'd better get myself to bed. I have a lot of things to catch up on tomorrow (such as laundry, grocery shopping and planning My Boy's birthday party) and I had hoped to make it a sewing day: I'm longing to bring forth the lovely red ticking fabric and whip up some cottage valances and a sink skirt! And, hopefully, I'll be dumping slop down my kitchen drain in time for the dinner bell!

COUNTERTOP!

Yes! The countertop is IN!

Thursday afternoon, The Viking called from work to tell me the countertop would be dropped off the next day sometime between 9:00 and 12:00!

Friday, The Viking worked from home to be present for the dropoff. I went to the gym and to Target and came back an hour later to find THIS:



In my excitement I dropped my bags on the floor and ran over to the counter with a squeal! It's so beautiful! And clean-looking! And wooden! I couldn't believe it looked better in real life than it had in my day dreams!

The Viking was happy too, and already at work prepping and sealing:
That's a piece of the backsplash in his hand.

After a few moments of admiring the new addition, I had to leave for an impromptu overnight trip with my mom, sister and aunt, so I snapped a few pics of the room to show off and ran out the door.

Roughly 24 hours later, I arrived back home to find THIS:


He'd installed the backsplash, the sink and faucet, painted the shelving units flanking Mrs. C., replaced the trim and window sill and finished the ceiling and crown molding. Every time I think it just can't look any more beautiful than it does, he finishes another little job and I'm blown away again. I keep wandering into the kitchen at night, just to admire it!

He's hooking up the sink, disposal and dishwasher tomorrow (after he takes My Boy to the Monster Truck Jam over in Philly as an early birthday surprise)! That means I can start cleaning up and moving all the stuff that's been crowding the dining room back into the kitchen! And I'll be able to cook normally again this week! I cannot wait for that!

Of course, there are still other things that need to be done, such as the inside of the pantry, the doors for the cupboard above the microwave, and the coat closet between the dishwasher and the kitchen door. I also have to get floor mats, two stools and a few other sundries, as well as make the valances and curtain for under the sink. We'll still be chipping away at stuff for several weeks yet, but as of the start of the work week, we'll be cooking, eating and washing as normal once again!

I can't wait to have our first dinner guests; I've already starting agonizing over the guest list!

Okay, off to bed for me. G'night!

Home Stretch Part II

Only got about an hour before I have to leave, but I would like to start out by sharing that I have just spent the entire morning sitting in the kitchen, something I haven't done since Christmas! And there may be no countertop, so sink and slabs of wood leaning against one wall, but it's still a whole lot nicer than it was the last time I sat in here!

So, where were we? Oh yes, I remember. The pantry had just been finished, the walls had been papered and beadboarded, and the microwave and Mrs. C had just been moved in. With that, it was time to bring the fridge back in.




Shortly after the cabinets and their doors were painted and reassembled, the Viking turned his attention to the spaces on either side of the stove and under the sink. We pulled cupboards out of there, used them elsewhere and didn't have it in our budget to buy new ones so he decided to create custom units to replace them.

Here you can see the shelving units on either side of Mrs. C. They're going to be painted green like the cabinets and left open with baskets for potatoes, onions and other items I'd like to have handy.

The sink "front" and legs are going to stay white and I'm making a skirt out of red ticking I bought on Fabric Row a few weeks ago. You can also see a corner of the finished island in this shot.

Once the new cabinet units were built and the cabinets for the island were anchored, measurements for the countertops were FINALLY taken and the order was placed. We decided to go with the red quartz for the island top. It came in about a week ago and looks better than we had even imagined.

We painted the "front" of the island the same green as the cabinets and I sanded them a little to distress them. We found these great porcelain knobs and chrome drawer pulls at Home Depot that I think add just the right touch of vintage charm.

Here's The Viking, resting on his laurels for just a moment, looking very tired and proud, as he should.

Completion of the island left little else to be done besides little jobs like trim and crown molding while we wait for the butcher block to come in, so we put in the light fixtures and started on the ceiling. We put the chandelier in a few years ago and have decided to keep it (though I am seriously considering spray painting it so it better matches the chrome of the stove, sink and drawer pills, but don't tell The Viking). The fixtures over the sink (which you'll see a few pics down) are new and provide lots of task lighting over the sink.

I don't think it shows very well in this pic, but this is the ceiling camoflauged with the faux wood planks made by Armstrong. It's not the real thing, which we originally wanted to install, but it looks pretty darn good, was easy to put up and was much kinder to our budget.

So, here it is, the most updated pic I have of our kitchen renovation, including my sweet Viking, sitting at the computer, checking his email. As you can see, we wrapped the "back" of the island with beadboard to match the backsplash and lower half of the walls. You can't really see the color of the island (it shows up much better in daylight), but I think you can get the general idea. The large piece of cardboard to the right of the island is concealing the dishwasher (or protesting it, according to The Viking), and yes, the bulb is blown in the far right lamp over the sink. It keeps blowing out for some reason...have to check that.

The plan now is to relax a little, finish the trim, paint the side door (not pictured), find some kitchen rugs and a few stools, make the sink curtain and valances, and wait for the countertop to come in. Once that's here, the sink goes in, the disposal and dishwasher get hooked up and we are back in business! I was hoping this would all be finished by next week, but at this point I'm hoping to be back to normal by My Boy's birthday the first week of March. We'll see.

Okay, gotta run. Hope you enjoyed all the new pics and the first view of our new vintage cottage kitchen!

Coming Down the Home Stretch Part I

One of the things I did not foresee with this kitchen project was the complete disruption of my computer usage. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and "duh", but it hadn't occurred to me that blogging was going to be a problem even though the computer was formerly housed in the kitchen and I was fully aware that it was going to have to be moved. I figured we'd just set it up elsewhere in the house (which we did) and everything would be fine computer-wise (which it was not). The phone line was inaccesible for a time and then we decided to switch phone services, which did not go as smoothly as planned. We were without Internet access for a horribly long time, and without phone services for a while too. Very primitive.

So, needless to say, I'm way behind on posting kitchen progress. As of the last post the floor was finished, and we were geting ready to start painting the cabinets and building the pantry.

Here's the pantry framed up and spackled, and a sneak peeek at a few of the cabinet doors seen drying in the lower right corner.

Here we have the spaces where the fridge, microwave and stove are going to go. The beadboard backsplash is up and most of the cabinet doors and bases are painted.

Those two cabinets you see sitting next to each other in the middle of the room are going to become the island. Right now it's being used as a drying rack, but soon they'll be bolted together, anchored to the floor and wrapped in beadboard.
This is the view from the dining room. The pantry is framed and (mostly) spackled, the cabinets are painted but doorless, the walls are still bare and the microwave and stove have yet to be moved in.
Now, here's the same view with the pantry finished, the wallpaper and beadboard installed, the cabinet doors painted and reattached, the microwave and Mrs. C in place, and the added touch of a little lamp I bought at Goodwill for $3. What a difference! This is when things really began to speed up and started getting exciting!

Well, that's going to have to be enough for now. I have a lot more pictures to share, but I must get to bed or I'll be a cranky mess all day tomorrow. But I will bring everything up-to-date tomorrow. I have nowhere to be and only laundry and other chores to do so I'll be able to finish part II then.

Good night!