I am sorry to admit that the major changes in our kitchen happened months ago. However, I am also stoked to finally show you a little bit of it that is cleaned and sort-of finished.
First of all, we bit the bullet and painted over the garish (but once loved) lime green. We chose Moonshine by Benjamin Moore, as inspired by multiple spaces on Young House Love.
Kitchen Before
- The Mid-Point Look
It was cute, but not really functional for us since I never sat down at a desk when I could keep my laptop with me on the couch. We found that it really made the corner feel smaller than it was too. So, then, after initially painting the kitchen, we tried this:
My attempt at banquette seating
The issues with this arrangement were many, the most annoying being that , yet again, it was not functional at all. The small white table and chairs fulfilled an excellent role as romantic Saturday breakfast area for two in the adorable nook in our old apartment, but it certainly would not function as any semblance of a dinner table. I thought this setup was cute, but not great. In addition, the rug looks nice here, but it was way too disproportionate for the space and the tiny table.
Enter my Granni’s dining suite that I mentioned in an earlier post. (Derek’s dad kindly helped us pack it up and move it in his truck over a weekend.) As I previously mentioned, the table is much more functional–I’ll say perfect for the space–but the other pieces are far too large for this small space. That’s where the creativity comes in.
Glimpse of the general goodness
I chose to keep the buffet in the front room office.
Buffet as craft storage (on left)
The hutch is currently hosting the dishes I also inherited in the long end of the living room.
Lucky for me, I really do prefer non-matchy-matchy. So this way, I get to enjoy the whole set without compromising my current set of design principles. On the other hand, I now have a lot more wood on my first floor than I am used to, and I become increasingly tempted to paint or re-stain or whitewash everyday. But, as with most inherited things, I feel obliged to give the pieces a fair chance in their current state before I defile them.
Anyway, back to the kitchen. We removed the old blinds on the porch door and window.
Blinds are visible on the left
They were energy efficient and all that jazz, but not my style at all. I really do despise blinds. I replaced them with sheer, lightly patterned curtains on an ORB rod with clips. And just to add to the insulation factor and the light reducing factor, I lined them on the back side with brown sheers that I had lying around.
Pattern on the curtains
To bring in another layer of pattern, I bought a Martha Stewart stencil set at Michael’s and added a little whimsy to the far wall between the bedroom and the bathroom. It ties in with the pattern on the blue rug (in the above picture with the white table), which now sits between the two walls of cabinets in the kitchen proper.
Far wall stencil
And speaking of rugs, I had an amazing raid at the dollar tree, which hooked me up with my new rug. They had discarded FLOR carpet squares for $1 each. I snatched up pretty much everything they had, including 9 yellow, faintly striped squares. They sit PERFECTLY under the table when it is in its non-party state. They have held up well, stay put, and need no adhesive or connectors between individual squares.
My $9 Rug!!
Also, notice the unobtrusive addition of the Target cubed bookcase in the background. It is great for cookbooks and doo-dads, and someday great kitchen floor kids toys. Can’t wait to show you the other side of the room!
The Nest Nook 