Kitchen Love

When we bought this house 1 1/2 years ago, it wasn't for the kitchen. It has 40 year old cabinets which are just ugly ugly ugly, and faux brick on the walls from the 70's. The old owners had put it up themselves, and thought it was quite the selling point. I didn't want to point out the ugliness of the orange-tinged cabinets with the pink-tinged brick. But with there not being a spare 50K or so in the budget right now, it all gets to stay!! There was however $25 in the budget when we bought the house for paint! So my ugly kitchen got a little taste of the good life with new orange walls. I know you have all heard me talk about my orange kitchen, and even seen photos of it. Well last week it got stepped up a notch.

A friend from church, Shannon, is an architect and a phenomenal organizer. She offered to help one person re-organize any one room in their home and give them lots of pointers on how to make it a better workable space. So we all put our names in a hat, and mine.....wasn't picked. Not what you were expecting, right?! But I just KNEW that I was the person meant for this mini-makeover, so I wasn't surprised at all (OK so I was totally surprised!) when Shannon called me to say that the original person drawn couldn't do it, so they pulled another name was drawn and it was me! Woo Hoo!!

So Shannon came over, took lots of before photos, then we got to work. (I will get her to send me some before photos and add them here when I get them)

I chose my kitchen to be re-done. She took everything out of my cupboards and re-organized them in ways that I had never even thought of, but which make so much more sense. Then she wrote a list of homework for me to do over the next week, such as clean out my junk drawer, (admit it, we all have one)so here are my newly cleaned out junk drawers - yes I had more than one...
There were several things I needed to get, including shelving. Her idea was to put some shelves up high along two walls and move all my 'pretties' up there, which would in turn create more space in the cupboards where they were stored. I LOVED this idea, as I miss having space above my cabinets to do this with.

I bought the shelves and brackets ($44 for everything at Home Depot), and really got into the spirit of it all and made curtains and the bag bag which you saw in a previous post. I already had a bolt of white muslin, so I just bought 2 yards of the orange polka dot at Joann's and made some simple but cherry curtains.
I had some Homegoods/TJ Max gift cards, so I bought some orange cooking utensils and a few things to put up on my new shelves.

Well when Shannon came back to install the shelf and take 'after' photos, she was so excited to see that I had made the curtains etc. She said not everyone does their 'homework'! I will admit that I didn't do one thing on the list - I was supposed to clean out my fridge. I just ran out of time, BUT Shannon, if you are reading this, it's all done now!

Shannon and I installed the shelves, and when we put all my stuff on them, it was like magic - I fell in love with my kitchen!
I have always loved my orange walls, but I knew it all needed to be pulled together better. For some reason, the cabinets and faux brick don't seem so bad anymore, and my huge table/chairs seem smaller. Best of all, we seem to be spending more time in there. I actually look forward to being in there now! I do plan on painting the cabinets and brick, but am waiting for warmer temperatures to do that.

And as usual, it all looks so much better in person...so you are all invited to come on over and check it out - I'll even make cinnamon rolls for the occassion ;)

And now you know the story of how I fell in love....with my kitchen:)