KITCHEN: Room-by-room Redo

Every couple of years I go through a complete room-by-room redo. No, this doesn't mean I throw all my old stuff on the burn pile (heaven forbid!!) and go to some big store and buy whole new rooms of things, just spankin' new off the assembly line. I don't know how anyone could afford to, and I would never want to. I love my little house. It's just that after a time, everything needs refreshing. 

It starts with a deep down cleaning. This means scrubbing, cleaning out drawers and cabinets, getting rid of the crud that accumulates insidiously in all the little spaces. Then comes the redoing part. In some rooms this is as simple as rearranging the pictures on the wall and adding a rug. Or it might be the added work of repainting the walls and trim. Sometimes it can be as elaborate as replacing a faucet or appliance. Throughout the year I keep notes on what I want, or need to do. I've never had a toilet paper holder or towel holder in my bathroom. It's only been 21 years that we've lived here! So that's on the list. Repainting the pantry was on the list. Brightening the living room was there too. So, after much thought I have begun.

For the kitchen it was repainting first. When I told my husband I had finished, he looked around, confused, "But it's still the same." "Same beautiful color, brand new coat of paint," I replied, a bit huffily. Painting is a lot of work and is not properly appreciated by non-painters.

Then I took everything off the tops of my cabinets, washed it, and decided what would go back up, go to another room, be stored in the shed for another time, or given to decorate one of the boys' homes. 

 Under one cabinet I have a chalkware fruit and a tiny rolling pin that was my great-granny Al's. Beside it is a 1930's trivet I couldn't resist for under a dollar. I love the woman. Doesn't she look just like Popeye's sweetheart, Olive Oil?

Then everything came off the possum belly cabinet and I went through it. I am working on less cluttered looks, so some things got packed. That's great-granny Al's 1945 Joy of Cooking.

You won't believe what all is in the drawers! Generations worth of kitchen implements passed down to me. 

This is a close up of the shelves in my possum belly cabinet. I like a bit of whimsy in my home, and some things never fail to make me smile. On the top shelf is a Victorian toothpick holder shaped like a porcupine. Below are two little pig shakers I found at a yard sale for 50 cents. The wooden chicken toy was a present from my moma. She had gotten it to sell, but I was enamored of the little pecking hen that someone had handmade for their child. And the T-rex was found by my boys in a parking lot (probably missed by a weeping child!). 

Every time I see it, I grin, thinking that it looks just like a boy dino hollering, "I'm hungry!" 

On to the wall cupboard that my pop made me. I had a mish-mash of coffee mugs and glasses. Through the time that I was considering what I wanted to redo in the kitchen, I was gathering mugs from Goodwill that I sincerely loved and wanted to see everyday. I found a set of blue tea glasses at an auction, eight for $1. I stashed all of them away until I redid the kitchen so it would seem all fresh and new to me.

 In my cupboard I have a blue bottle with a cork that I glued an old doll's head onto that we found while digging in my grandma Tommy's garden. I don't keep medicine bottles out and so I would never remember my vitamins. But my dolly stares at me till I remember my pill in the morning. The congregation of animals are all ones that my boys have gotten me at one time or another. I made a party hat for the rhino and loved it so much that I am going to hat them all in some manner. Then I will have a bunch of "party animals"!

This is a tiny corner. The radio was a Christmas gift from my husband's work. The container for taters was the wire wastebasket at the railway office where my great-grandfather was station master in the now defunct community of Jupiter, Arkansas.

The round hoop at the top contains a niece's needlework. At the bottom is a gift from a friend of a child's playing card that looks just like the Country Mouse. Above is a page from a children's book that my dear friend gave to me. I framed it because my moma said I am Mrs. Goose! 

Something I was unsure about was my little kitchen table. We eat all our suppers in the dining room, but if I have a boy home we often will have a lunch or snack at the kitchen table. And in my small kitchen it is what I use as an extra work space. I adored my little yellow table with the green edged enamel-ware top, but it was very small. And the legs were too wobbly to roll out pie dough. 

I decided to trade it for a late 1800's table that my parents had put down in the little cabin by the creek. It is lovely, handmade with square nails, on wheels, and very sturdy. It will be perfect while teaching this new year's cooking classes. I also took out the old metal school chairs that I had covered with oilcloth and put in two chippy old green wooden chairs that I had bought for a couple dollars and put back. 

With everything squeaky clean, newly painted, and rearranged, it feels like a new little kitchen. It makes me very happy, which is good since I spend a huge amount of my waking moments in there!

 I hope you have been encouraged to try something new in your kitchen. It doesn't take a lot of money, my changes were all for little to no money. Make things fresh in your home to refresh yourself!

"Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul." 

~Alice Walker