The Pretty Stuff is Up!

Disclaimer:  These are the “House Beautiful” pictures J  I did move several things off the kitchen counter to make the pictures look better.  So, if you show up at my house, the kitchen will look great (even if it is messy), but you won’t likely ever see it look like this J

We’ll start with the full kitchen view.

We finally got the pretty stuff up.  After they touched up the paint last week, we were ready to put the pretty stuff back up in the kitchen.  I’ve had the teacup holder up in the kitchen for years.  My friend (and much needed advisor for interior design) painted it and I put on new ribbon and flowers.  We have the same tea cups, but I think I’m going to change one out when I find just the right replacement. 

The bay window looks great.  I made a new valance to add a little color. ($7 for a yard of fabric from the fabric store and 15 minutes of sewing.) It’s light green with white polka dots. And, I love the crystals and tea trinkets that are hanging from the window sill. The flowers hanging from the curtain rod are oregano blooms from my garden.  I need another bouquet to hang from the other side. 

We distressed the frame to the left of the window sill.  Actually, we ended up distressing a lot of frames that day.  It was great. Most of them are in different areas of the house, so you won’t see pictures here.  The kids wanted to help and when you paint on the white, it doesn’t actually have to be done well.  So, even the 4 year old was helping.  Then the bigger kids and I did the distressing. 

And, here’s a view of the full wall.

On top of the oven is a basket of our everyday vitamins.  It looks really cute and they’re easy to access.

And, here’s a snazzy feature.  The granite guys took the piece that they cut out for the cook top, cut it into two pieces, polished the edges and made cutouts on the bottom to make it easy to pick up.  I usually leave one on my counter.  But, when we have lots of people over for potlucks and such (which is usually at least twice a month), I can put the pieces on the cooktop and make more counter space.  It’s awesome!

I went to the open-air antique market today for some finishing touches.  I found this cute little thing. I’ll have to put some flowers in it. 

I also found this milk bottle from 1947 to add to my lineup.  I like the pink tint it has.

And, last but not least, I found a saucer to use as a spoon rest.  I want a couple more for the other counters in the kitchen. I’ll have to keep looking until I find just the right plates at just the right price.  I can get a beautiful saucer for cheaper than a spoon rest from Target. And, I couldn’t resist the cute little salt shaker with glass beads in it.  I found them in a shabby chic stand at the market today. I loved that stand.

So, that’s it for the kitchen blogs.  I feel so blessed to have this awesome kitchen and my wonderful  husband who pulled it all together.  And, I’m looking forward to sharing it with many people in the years to come.

Almost Finished!

The kitchen is now done, except for touching up the paint and putting the pretty stuff back up on the walls.  So, here is the House Beautiful photo shoot of the kitchen.  Trust me, it won’t look like this for long J These two photos show the big picture. Notice the subway tile backsplash and the chair rail, which wasn’t in before now. 

I have more space to store things in the kitchen, and a lot more counter space, so the counters are much clearer than they used to be.

This is the new working counter I’ve been so excited about.  Plenty of space to bake, prepare pizza and plenty of storage underneath for all the supplies. And, any pizza toppings that I’ve prepared on the stove are easy to grab from the pizza prep spot. 

Another view of the mega counter. We scooted the cooktop closer to the wall. It used to have a tiny little ledge next to it that was too small to be functional for anything. Now, it holds cooking supplies or the plate of heated tortillas for burritos quite easily.

This counter we extended and we added the cupboard at the end. That cupboard now houses the trash can. The trash can is much smaller than we're used to, so the kids will need to be emptying it more often. But, it looks great. And, one of those drawers is actually empty at the moment. That's amazing!

A view of the pantry. Yes, that’s two jars of Nutella.  Apparently, one of the kids couldn’t find the open jar (can’t blame them in the mess we had up until now) and opened the 2^nd jar. So, we’re forced to eat them both J The LED lights in the pantry turn on when you open the pantry door.  Gotta love having an electrician in the house.

Magnetic switch and lighting from inside the pantry.

Knowing how much we use the sink, we opted for a Moen faucet. A Grohe was definitely out of our budget, but we didn't want to go with a cheap brand. There are some (many, actually) areas of the house that get way more use than the standard 4 person household where everyone goes to work and school during the day.  The sink is one of those.  We cook a lot. When I say cook, I don’t mean we heat things in the microwave.  We don’t even own one, actually. We cook from scratch all day, every day. And, as a result, we wash a lot of dishes.  So, we need a faucet that will stand up to that kind of use.

And now for some detail pictures.

I’m loving the mason jars for storage and for decoration. And, our chickens have been laying lately. Go figure. Chickens laying in January. But, I won’t complain.

Close up of the subway tile backsplash and the cute, yet functional, things on the counter.

Oil rubbed bronze hinges and drawer pulls.

Close up of cupboards and beadboard decoration. With the beadboard decoration and the great paint job, you would never guess that these cupboards were built in different decades.

The cutting boards were hard to grasp and pull out, so dh added some cute little drawer pulls to them to make it easier.

I must say, I love the granite.  It’s so beautiful. And, what counter is complete without a jar of olive oil.

LED under-cabinet lighting.

Dh also put the LED lighting in the storage pantry under the stairs. Plus, he added a couple of shelves on the wall.  They just happen to perfectly house my 1 gallon buckets.  I love the buckets, but I have to find a cuter way to label them.

And, the working counter that I’ve been raving about perfectly houses all my baking supplies. The drawers have spices on the left (which now need to be labeled on top), basic baking stuff in the middle and rarely used stuff on the right.

The cupboards hold ingredients on the left , small appliances in the middle and rarely used stuff on the right (not pictured).  The Bosch Universal and the grain mill are used many times a week.

Here is a slightly more realistic picture of the kitchen in use.  The two little guys are helping me cook pizza for a birthday dinner.

And, since I have so much counter space, this counter is completely clear while we’re cooking pizza! This used to be my pizza prep spot and it was quite crowded. This time I used this counter for serving the pizzas when they came out of the oven.

I’ll do one more blog post on the kitchen remodel after the paint is touched up and the pretty things are back in place.

The Kitchen, Cont.

The counters are in!  I've been looking forward to this.  The black, granite counters are in!  This is the only picture I have, because dh covered the counters with paper to protect them when the backsplash is put in.  But, I'll have more pictures later.

He also started installing the plumbing - faucet, garbage disposal. 

Backsplash is next.