Kitchen State of Mind

I had planned to stop by the grocer after I returned from my trip to State College this weekend, however, after grabbing a quick bit to eat I found myself beginning a new space planning project downstairs.

It first started with the sofa / sectional. I was just really tired of it taking up so much space, which then spiraled into me finding a new home for my IKEA Billy Bookcase, 9 cubby bookshelf, swapping my living room end tables and taking down my faux dining table.

As you can see below in my kitchen photos what a difference the change did. I apologize ahead of time for the low resolution before photos.  I'm not very good at remembering to take photos so these are one's I found on my hard drive.

Before

As you can see the bookcase was bit much for the space, and we were actually missing two shelves that would have been nice to have to make it a little more functional.  The bottom of the shelf has doors to hid but without the added shelf it really didn't hold much.  I kept my vita-mix and pyrex storage containers down there, but now my pryex are in a more functional location.  I'm still working on a good home for my vita-mix as I don't use it as much as the bullet.   My IKEA SLIPID knives (next to the bread box) I'm sad to say got put in a base cabinet since I don't have a home yet for them, but I hope to have them out to display soon since they are fun and functional.   Our HENNY RAND IKEA curtains are wonderful, because they allow so much light in, but also keep people from seeing inside.  

Here is a view of my funky wall, which makes it very difficult to make that space functional.  It's hard in general to find items to work in the space with windows flanking the bookcase and the funky wall.   The bookcase below is nice and I like the vintage feel that the faux finish gives, but in general it wasn't functional for the space.  The  Formica tabletop (below right) with sawhorses holding it up I will be posting on craigslist this week.

After

though still in progress

It's nice to finally see some art on my wall and of images I love.  The tree art I purchased from TJ MAXX at least 5 years ago and I still love it to this day so I'm glad it finally has a good home.  The Arm & Hammer sign I purchased for $5 a few weeks back when I went to the Toll House Indoor Flea Market in  Colombia.  The frame is IKEA Ribba with some fabric I found at JoAnns that included the blue wall color and allowed me to use to pull other colors from.   I originally purchased the clock for my office a few months back, but it clashed with the Lemon Twist wall paint from Benjamin Moore.  It fits much better in the kitchen and it's easy to read.

I love having all my fruit spread out on top.  As you can see we eat a lot of it.  We always like to have apples and bananas on hand and then whatever fruit maybe on sale.   On the top shelf I have my vintage bread box that I found at a Vintage Attic shop near Pottstown.  My fruit bowl on the right doesn't really fit into my vintage decor, but I love it.  It was originally purchased at a  Marshall's in Colorado about 4 years back.  The banana & napkin holder are some of my favorite items on this shelf.  I love the funky angle of the banana holder that gives it a vintage feel and at only $.99.  The napkin holder I found the other week at Antique Row in Colombia for just under $5.  It's also nice having my food processor and crock pot (shown in picture below) so accessible as I use them often.    The owl on the second shelf was a unique find from TJ MAXX for only $7.  I think he's meant to be a vase, but I don't really like vases since they get gunky on the bottom to easily.  Though I would love to find some fake flowers / greenery to put in them.   The pear canisters I got a set of 5 for under $10 at our local second hand store and these two store my teas and tassimo cups. 

The funny thing was I had this cubby bookshelf in this same location in my kitchen before, but just didn't like how it looked and it ended up not being very practical. It's really all in what you put on it and how often you use it and with the accessories chosen I will be using this far more often.

Below is my new temporary table for the kitchen.  It's an IKEA table top that I bought for $10 and a free vintage metal cabinet that is on my DIY list.  I've used two treatments on it to clean up some of the rust, but there is still much towards the bottom that needs to be removed before I can spray paint it.  The table top size is a better fit for the room yet still large enough that I can eat my meal at the table.  My last faux table was a 30 x 50 Formica table top being held up by sawhorses since we didn't have legs for it.  I made sure to snap photos of the table top before breaking it down so I can post it on craigslist.  I was thinking I would use it as a workbench, but it's to wide for that and the bottom partial board is peeling-something I really don't want to mess with.  

I love my vintage ceramic dish that I found at a second hand store.  It's serviced a few different purposes since I bought it 1) holds my packaged vitamins, pen/marker storage, fruit bowl and now my cell phone holder when I'm in the kitchen.  The crochet pear really doesn't have a purpose yet, but it's neat and I like how it looks on the table.     

This is my oddball wall.  The blue and green wall are at two different depths and their is actually another jog to the right of the green wall leading to my dining room (you can see this better in the before photos above).  I originally pained my wall blue, from Behr, but have since been wanting to repaint it.  I feel it has more of a California Surfer feel then a mid-century vibe so I've been on the hunt for a green that pops out to me.  I found this green paint online and was enticed by a kitchen re-due that use it.  It's parakeet from Sherman Williams.  I didn't want to just paint a swatch so I painted the whole wall section so I could get a better feel for the color, but I don't like it either.  First, I think I need to prime the wall first to tone down the surfer blue so that whatever color I paint over wont reflect any of the blue it it's color tone.  For now the walls will stay mismatched and clash with the peanut butter by Behr I have in my living and dining room until I find another color that I feel daring enough to try.

I really like how my vintage mirrors and coffee print looks in my Wall Frame IKEA Ribba against the parakeet wall color and create a nice view from that wall.