The Kitchen....

So this post is mostly for my sisters, especially the 2 who are further away at the moment.
       But as for a background for anyone else who may be interested, we have lived in our current (old and rented) town home for 2+ years and I hadn't really done any real decorating in the kitchen- mostly because I really couldn't stand it. So it served it's limited functional purpose.
     I decided this year to finally get around to trying to decorate it. If I could do a complete demo I would have, but being renters, that is not really our option at the moment. But the one good thing is that since we are renting, I knew I could have some fun with the decorating of it, and truly make it my fun place (for cheap of course.) I wanted to be sure to put things in it that made me smile and that made it look brighter since it is small and has old cabinets. And I needed to find colors that would somewhat mask the random dirty cream counters and white fridge.
    In the past I have usually had kitchens with red and classic colors, but this time I wanted to live it up a little and choose colors that I have really started to love. It is definitely not done by a professional but I had fun with fabric and spray paint and it ended up not costing very much at all. And most of all, I actually love being in my kitchen now.:)
   Kristin and Katelyn...I can't wait for you to see it!

BEFORE...blah

AFTER.....

BEFORE...

AFTER...
I found these funky letters ( that I painted) at Hobby Lobby- on sale of course. And the
fabric for the curtains is made from a shower curtain I found for $20
at Kirklands.

I had to make something to remind me about the blessings of doing dishes.
And yes, dear sisters, I made it all ( flowers included) by myself.

They were just too cute to not include:) and less than $3 each.

I may not have been able to fix the ugliness of our
functional stove, but I feel like I did make it look better:)

I don't know if you remember but i used the old sign I had an redecorated it. I covered
the frame part with leftover fabric, painted the middle, and then I used chipboard letters
(that I painted white) and then glued them on. Great quote that I found on a
friend's blog...thanks Clare.

I thought I would bring in another bird...could have been better, but I
thought it looked cute on the coral/ white polka dot fabric.

I found this owl ( it was white) at Home Goods
 for $4 and spray painted it...also to cute to pass up:)

See the pen holder on the fridge? Spray painted that too...it was a garage sale find.

Re-did the magnet board. I first painted it coral, but it looked weird.
So then, I just mode-podged the coral/ white polka dot fabric
onto it.

BEFORE....bland.

AFTER...Hello it is time to eat!

I found an old vase at Goodwill  for $1 ( it was 80's blue) and spray painted
it. Then I wanted to have some texture in the room, so I added some rope
to it with a hot glue gun... still not sure if I like it...I'm going to give it some time.

Our old faithful (also flimsy with a toddler) table and chairs. I recovered  the
neutral tan seats with some outdoor fabric ( makes it easier to
wipe stains off.) I feel like it makes the table more appealing
if that is possible. I have to say I still look forward to the day when we live
somewhere with room for a bigger and sturdier table.)

The shelf is a Spice rack from Ikea

I used my old spice jars from a spice rack that we got when we got married see here.
And recovered the labels with Avery round labels I found at Staples ( less than $4 for the pack and now I can reuse these jars over and over again.
Now I have the spices I actually like to use. And I reused the beat up spice rack to hold all of
my acrylic craft paints. ( I obviously don't have as much as Mom..yet)

Wanted a cute clock that coordinated, bought this one here for $6 at Target.
Spray painted the rim and hand painted the numbers blue.

Overall I think it turned out pretty cute!