Kitchen Help Needed - No experience necessary

Thanks to those of you who stopped by earlier today and saw my textless pictures.The pictures that were taken completely, solely, and totally unaccompanied .....by me, myself and I. Then I singularly and unassisted ...as in, alone and without aid, uploaded them to my computer.

I believe in giving credit where credit's due.

However, it took me so daggone long to get the pictures on here that I had to leave to pick up my kids before I had time to write anything. So for today only, the early bird blog readers did not get the worm, but hopefully will/did come back to get the full story behind the pictures. Not that there's a real mystery here, I mean they are basically just pictures of my kitchen - but I do need your help. Keep reading - and look closely.

This first picture is similar to this one (hopefully, if you click on that you'll see my pre-painted, pre-redone, kitchen), but now the walls are a golden, buttery color - not like real butter which is palish yellow, but more like the fakey colored Wal-Mart butter. It's prettier than it sounds.

The trim around the windows, and also the cabinets and drawers, are pickled. Pickling is a treatment that looks like white glue has been streaked across the wood. Very classy - take my word for it :)

The bead board is now painted a semi-gloss black. A gutsy move on my part. At least that's what the so-called "paint expert" at Benjamin Moore warned me about. What I told him was that I am 53 yo and have spent plenty of years playing it safe. And if I want to paint my bead board purple with orange polka-dots, then I will. I hope Mr. Be-Real-Cautious-Paint-Guy reads this blog and sees how good it looks. And I hope he learns to keep his Expert Mouth closed around menopausal decorator wannabes like me.

If you're an Attentive Blog Reader (not a mindless skimmer...), you may have noticed in the picture of my "old" kitchen, I used those clip-on Martha Stewart dish towels, with the days of the week embroidered across the bottom, as cafe curtains. They were a little too "cutesy" for the new paint colors (but don't worry, Al, I recycled them - my $20 has not gone to waste - Amazingly, I am now creatively using them to dry wet dishes. I'm so 'green', aren't I?)







If you magnify the picture above (by clicking on it...I learned that in Blogging for Dummies), you can see that there are actually three slightly different cafe curtains on my windows. They are all made from red ticking, but the first one has a gold and red toile strip across the top - the second one has a floral material (from an old sheet I saved), and the other two are plain.

Which ones do you like? They are all just pinned up right now, but my sewing machine is awaiting your choice. I'm hoping to finish them up this weekend.

This next picture is blurry (but I'm not complaining about my camera...even though in the viewfinder this shot looked perfectly clear...), but you can see the toile border if you squint one eye and cock your head sideways.







Here's a little better picture of the pickling effect on the trim. The kitchen was already like this when we bought the house in March. I love, love, love the look - but I'm not sure if I would've gone to the trouble to do it. I'm a Lazy Decorator who likes projects that can be done in a couple of hours max. Instant Gratification is more my cup of tea.





I'm going to do a separate post on using plates for decorations. I have plates on the walls in most of my rooms - and on my book shelves - and in my curio cabinet - and in my bathroom. And sometimes we even use them to eat off of :)






Because of all the windows in our kitchen, most of our storage is beneath the cabinets - so I've had to think out of the box for storage. Most of our pots are hanging (picture was too blurry...sorry), and most of my bowls are on top of this china cabinet. I'm weaning myself of my rooster collection - trying only to keep the Best Roosters. I used to collect cows, bells, birdhouses, etc. Those were my Country Living days (I do still subscribe to the magazine- but I find myself drawn to a more traditional decorating style as I "mature".)

Eww...Eww...Ewww! (Does anybody else remember Welcome Back Kotter?)
I just realized that the inside of my china cabinet is white bead board. I think I'll paint it black. It'll be so fun to go back to Benjamin Moore tomorrow and tell the guy I need more glossy black paint.




Here are a few roosters that made the cut. Although I may have to rethink the fake topiary after reading the blog Jodi refers to in her comment today (see comment #5).




P.S. Did I mention that I put all these pictures on here by myself?