Kitchen Updates

Hello!  I thought I would pop in and share a couple of big changes in our kitchen.  If you follow me on Instagram, you've already seen them.   Even though I was happy with our all white kitchen, I was ready for a change and so one evening while cleaning out a cabinet, I came across my can of Annie Sloan chalk paint in French Linen and wondered how it would look on my lower kitchen cabinets.  So I tried it and absolutely loved it.

Problem was, after painting the lower cabinets, I now hated the countertop.  However, I've always hated our countertops.  When our home was renovated, leftover ceramic floor tiles were used as countertop.  Yuck.  But new countertops have never been in our budget so the only thing I could think of to do was to paint them.   So, that's what I did and I just love them now.  :)

To paint the countertops, first I cleaned them really well to make sure there was no grease or anything that could prevent the paint from adhering.  Then I primed them with Kilz oil based primer.  I let that dry for 24 hours.  Then painted one thin coat of Rustolueum Oil based enamel in Glossy White and let dry for a full 24 hours.  To roll the paint on, I used a foam roller meant for very smooth surfaces.  I did a total of 3 coats making sure to let it dry a full 24 hours between coats.  Also, using oil based paint was important as I was afraid latex would just bubble and peel off if got wet often around the sink.  It was definitely stinky but luckily our kitchen has lots of windows for ventilation. 

I can't believe I didn't do this sooner.  It is super easy to clean and very durable.

And I love the shininess as well as how they look with the french linen paint.

And of course I had to make some cute little cafe curtains from some Ikea tea towels that I just bought.  They completely take me back to my grandma's kitchen.  She had something similar and they were always blowing in the breeze, which I just loved.

The whole project took about a week when you consider the drying time between coats but it was totally worth it.  I just love it and the total cost was around $20 for primer, one can of oil based paint and a roller.  Gotta love that even more!

Have a great week!

Farmhouse Table

Last week I came across a fabulous gem that just happened to be in our own store.  I don't work there that often and sometimes my hubby will get sneaky and bypass me completely when he finds inventory so that I won't want to keep things for myself.  So, I happened to pop into the shop early one morning last week to do some cleaning when this fantastic piece stopped me in my tracks right at the door.

Of course I immediately called him and asked if I could take it home and being the sweet man that he is, he didn't mind at all.  So we loaded her up and I parted with our barnwood table I built and put it in the shop in it's place so it really was a win win, right?!

This farmhouse table must have previously had a sink in it as there was a hole in that shape in the top.  I didn't care cause I knew I could cover it with a piece of wood.  The patina on the table is probably the best I have ever seen.

It is the perfect worktable for our kitchen.  The perfect height for being able to use for rolling out pastry and baking.

The other side has an open shelf space that is perfect for storage.

I also worked on another open shelf project with a thick piece of barn wood that my hubby found in a local creek.  It's been drying out and aging for about a year and I finally decided to use it for my cookbook collection.  I really do like having them displayed for inspiration.

The wood pantry that used to sit in that area is now in our laundry room where we needed storage, so that worked out perfectly as well. 

And yes, I do enjoy changing things up in the kitchen often.  :)

Anyone else the same way?

Have a great day!

Inexpensive Window Treatments and a Giveaway

Hello!  Because I tend to get tired of things quickly and because our wood blinds had been on the windows the entire 5 years that we've lived here, I decided to change up our kitchen window treatments.  I came across this photo and have been drooling over it ever since.  So, I thought I'd give it a try.  I picked up some coffee bean sacks at my local farm supply store and got to work.  It took all of 5 minutes.

I'm so happy with the result and it was so stinkin' easy!  How great was it that the coffee sacks fit the width of the window perfectly.  All I did was attach them to the inside of the window trim with screws, bunch up the fabric and tie it with hemp twine that I already had.  Simple and cheap!

Obviously, this part is just for looks and I needed something for privacy on the lower half of the window.  So, I found some corresponding inexpensive fabric that looked like some kind of faux linen, $3 per yard, and sewed some cute little cafe curtains to pull at night.  I already had the little cafe rods that I purchased from Lowes years ago.   You can't really tell from the photos but the two textures together are wonderful.

Love it!  It's something small that makes me smile every time I walk into the kitchen.  And because I picked up some extra coffee sacks, I thought it would be fun to share two sets with two readers that would like to do the same, or something different!

There are two of these.......measuring 26 1/2 inches x 40 inches.

And two of these.......same measurements.  To enter, just leave a comment!  Two winners will be randomly selected and announced on Saturday morning, October 15.  Comments will be closed Friday night, October 14.


Have a great day!!

Kitchen Changes

Howdy!  Have you ever made a decorating decision that you thought you liked, but, the more you looked at it, the less you liked it until you just had to change it so you could sleep at night?

That happens to me sometimes and because I'm known to change things often, that's exactly what I did.  I'm referring to the big ol' EXPRESS sign in my kitchen.  I love it, I really do, but NOT in our kitchen.  I just felt like it didn't belong there, so, that kinda started a couple of small changes that I'm really happy with.

I think this word definitely belongs in our kitchen. :)

My hubby is always picking letters and numbers for me so I looked to see if I had the letters to spell out Family.  I didn't.  I was short the L and Y, so I decided to make them myself with wood scraps.

I simply printed out an L and Y from my Word program on the computer, traced them onto the wood and then cut them using a jig saw.

For the L, I used walnut, so I coated it in the dark raw tung oil that I coat my bread boards with.  For the Y, I used maple and I didn't want it light, so I spray painted it with oil rubbed bronze.  I also spray painted the A and M the same color.  The F and I are iron so I didn't do anything to those.

My goal was to have different shades of earthy browns.  I really like this so much better than the Express sign and it fits us perfectly because the kitchen is the heart of our home.

Another change I made was to bring the vintage looking concession menu that I made for my sweet hubby for Father's Day into the kitchen.  It just seems more appropriate in the kitchen and I'm so happy I did.  I think it's the perfect space for it.

And I'd really like to fill those two large jars to the side of it with vintage cardboard popcorn containers.  I filled the smaller jar with gray and white paper straws which we love.

Just small changes that made my day.....

I'm currently working on my laundry room.  Which is the room you see through the french door in the photo above.  And looks like you can see laundry all over the floor in the photo above that.  :)

I bought the cutest thing that I'm going to feature on my blog Friday for the new twice monthly feature here at Our Vintage Home Love.  I love it when I find something that makes me so happy that it inspires me to give some attention to a room that I otherwise wouldn't.

And I would like to take a moment and say that the comments you have all left on my bread board giveaway have truly touched my heart.  I don't like to get all sappy, but, sometimes you just gotta..........some of your comments had me in tears, not because they were sad but because some of you shared little memories about your dads and family that made me so happy.  I feel so blessed that something that is so special to me, has become so for you, as well.  Thank you for loving my bread boards.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  :)

Express Sign and a Pot Rack

Hey there!

I blogged about this old metal Express sign on Friday and I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.   Since it was red and I have red accents in my kitchen, I decided to put it above the big window over the sink.   Since we have 12 foot ceilings, I thought it would look neat to have an eye catching, fun piece of art way up there.  So here's how it looks!

Okay, so looking around, the only red accent I see is my stand mixer! :)  Oh, and the stripes in the curtains!  Oh well!

 

 I also wanted to blog a little about that pot rack.  I made it following the same plan as the ladder I made for our master bath that is now in the dining room.  I just used smaller dowels and stained it a dark walnut.  Then I attached screw eyes to the top and added a chain so that I could hang it from the huge screw hooks I screwed into the ceiling, making sure I got them into a stud, joist, whatever the ceiling frame wood is called.  :)

Tall kitchens are just beggin' for pot racks and I really wanted one to display my favorite cast iron pans that my hubby found for me.  He came home this weekend with a cast iron Griswold ebelskiver pan, which is that interesting looking bubble pan in the photo above.  I've never made ebelskivers before.  Have any of you?  Anyway, my hooks for the pot rack are just S hooks that hubby opened a little so that they would fit around the dowel. 

It's an inexpensive way to have a pot rack.   Or you could just use an old ladder if you're lucky enough to have one of those. :)

Have a great day!