Hiding the Clutter with Fabric!

There it is. My mess. I can't believe I'm posting this picture. My only consolation is that my "after" shot somehow redeems me. :)

See? I was inspired to organize all the crap on that counter, which really tends to be a catch-all. We'll see how long that lasts. But I'm loving my fabric in the cabinet doors. What a difference! It's SO much cleaner and neater feeling on that end of the kitchen now!

Yay, me!

P.S. One of these days I'm actually going to SEW that wing chair slipcover, instead of having the fabric draped over it all willy nilly. Whatever. It's on the list.

New Kitchen Shelves

OK, I'm going to just pretend that I didn't hear Diane's whining, because honestly, I think the only pics I've EVER seen of her house are of her bathroom shower curtain or something. So I don't feel the LEAST bit obligated to post pics on HER behalf. (Hear that, Diane? I think you should start your blog now--quid pro quo!)

Below please observe my fabulous new kitchen shelves, made by yours truly. I just bought the brackets at Lowes, and put 1 x 8 boards on them and painted 'em white. The little spice shelf underneath is just a 1 x 3 that I screwed in from the sides of the brackets. I LOVE having my spices out from behind closed doors under my built-in cabinet. Now I can reach them when I'm cooking! Can you see my fresh garlic from the farmers' market too? :) Please excuse my lack of staging. I'm seeing my mojito mix on the counter, and a bag of potatoes, along with my old green dish towels. Whatever. This isn't a magazine. It's my house, right?!

Oh, and P.S. those tomatoes on the windowsill came from my garden!

I built this bench over my radiator, because I couldn't stand looking at the radiator any more! It also reminds me of when I was a kid, and I used to hang out on top of our warm radiators and talk on the phone for HOURS.

I just used a leftover piece of plywood from a cornice project I had done, added the wood legs that my friend Kelly had picked up at a salvage sale, and mounted the back of the plywood board to a 1 x 2 at the back edge of the wall, so the board wouldn't be putting pressure on the radiator when you sit on it. Then of course I had to make a cushion for the whole thing.

And pillows, of course. Kathleen sits here pretty much every morning and eats her breakfast before school. I've strategically left the table out of the photo, because it has been recently requisitioned for my wireless printer, and is collecting paperwork like crazy. Again, this is real life, folks. I need an office. Bad. I'll put that on my list right next to "needs a second bathroom."

My Uppers! (Cabinets, not dentures...lol)

I still need to give them a couple more coats of paint, but aren't they just scrumptious?! I love them.

I got to christen the kitchen last night with Kathleen's birthday dinner party (she's 14 now--where have the years gone?) There were 12 of us all together, and between the kitchen, LR, and DR, we had lots of room, and it was quite comfy. I'm liking my house for entertaining! We did a make-your-own wraps dinner with chicken and steak, and I made guacamole, salsa, spinach-artichoke dip, and a fruit pizza for dessert as Kathleen's "cake" at her request. My uncle brought a delicious butternut squash soup and a salad, my sister brought yummy scallops wrapped in bacon, and I had shrimp coctail out for Kathleen too. It was a smorgasbord and it was all yummy! (Oh, and don't forget the WINE! There was WINE!) We had lots of piano, clarinet, and flute playing, too. I love a house filled with music. It reminds me of my childhood. My father stayed a little while after everyone left, and played the piano while I did some cleanup and talked to his wife. It was just like the old days! He can't read a note of music, but he plays beautifully by ear.

We had a needle felting party here two weeks ago, and there were nine of us in the living room doing our crafting, and we all fit with plenty of room to spare too. *sigh* I just love it here! I love it even more now that BF spent all day yesterday in the yard doing cleanup. I can't believe the amount of leaves he managed to rake up. AND he's been trying to dig trenches to get the pooled water to move somewhere. I bought a swamp. (But I don't mind! It's a pretty swamp!) He also burned the old kitchen in a big ol' bonfire out back. That was pretty funny. Don't worry--he brought the non-burnable stuff to the dump. It's lookin' pretty good out there now (instead of hillbilly-hayday with the old kitchen in the driveway--now if we could just fit the boat into the garage....) I even have tulip and bluebell greenery coming up, and hellebores blooming! Yay spring!

Thanks for all of your very kind comments on my kitchen. I'm very happy with the way it's turning out. Next is a stove hood and some open shelving. I'm in no hurry. I love it just the way it is!

Ba-da Bingo, It's Lidingo!

IKEA, Elizabeth, NJ
I didn't like the Elizabeth store as much as the Paramus store, but since I had to go to their warehouse in Elizabeth to pick up my door and drawer fronts, I figured I'd check it out. Of course I didn't leave empty-handed. I'm especially fond of my new cheese grater. :)

I took this picture out my passenger side window while driving home. It's NYC! Don't tell anyone what a hazard I am on the road. Oy.

Et voila! My new kitchen doors! Yay! We stayed up until midnight getting it all put together. But I'll tell you what. It's EASY-PEASY to assemble this stuff. I can't get over how wonderfully clever everything is. Seriously, if you're vascillating on whether or not to do-it-yourself with an IKEA kitchen, I'm telling you right now to GO FOR IT. If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously.

Of course, now the floor looks like TOTAL crap. But I need to paint first. THEN the floor. These things take time.

I put handles on the sink fascias because I like the symmetry of it all. BF thought I was a little nutty, but whatev. He also thought I was a nut because after I put those slow-stopper-thingies on each drawer, I pushed it closed and clapped my hands with glee. It's the small things, people.

A friend of mine came in to have a look today and mistook my Pragel stone effect black countertops for Corian. Pretty cool, eh? I guess she didn't see the raw edge to the left of the sink? Heh. (It's on the list. Geesh. Stop rushing me.)

OMG how much am I loving my giant drawers?!!?!?! Oh, like SO MUCH!

And my pull-outs? Hell-OOO!

And everyone must have their very own Boholomen sink cover. I mean, really.
I've already made a batch of salsa today in my shiny new kitchen. One of these days I'll get all the holes filled everywhere, so that I can paint, then lay the floor, then get a table in there, maybe some window treatments--or not. I can't wait for it to be ALL DONE. But for now, it works, and I love it!!

GOOGLE WEB SURFING FRIENDS! PLEASE LOOK AT THE TOP MENU BAR AND CLICK ON "MY KITCHEN" FOR MORE PICTURES OF MY KITCHEN IN PROGRESS. I LOVE MY IKEA KITCHEN, AND I'D LOVE IT IF YOU WOULD POST A LINK HERE TO YOUR IKEA KITCHENS TOO! I GET A LOT OF SURFERS COMING TO SEE MINE--I'D LOVE IT IF YOU WOULD ADD YOURS TO THE MIX!

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!

~sharon

Construction Junction

Well, you asked for it, so here it is! My kitchen/woodshop. This is actually a cleaned up version, if you can believe it. BF tends to drop a tool wherever he last used it. It's my job to follow behind and try to keep things somewhat organized, so when he says "Where's the hammer?" I'll be able to put my hands on it.
We were thinking about using that cove molding in the corners, but now we're just going to caulk the corners and skip the molding. It'll look much more seamless that way. Note the stained woodwork that hasn't gotten its first coat of paint. I can't wait to get everything painted out. Even with one shabby coat of white, it's SO much brighter in the kitchen.
Note the new apron under that window over the sink. BF broke the old one when pulling it off to get the wainscoting on. I had to laugh, because he was busting on me for putting the backs of some of the cabinets on backwards. WhatEVER.

My new sink! Yay! My new faucet! Yay! New countertop! Yay!

New plumbing! Yay! Thank GOD I have BF to do this stuff. I could have done all the beadboard and trim, but the plumbing is beyond me. I mean, look at that mess. WTH? He even managed to figure out why the dishwasher wasn't draining properly. I bought it from someone from Craigslist about three months ago, so I didn't even know if the thing was going to work at all. I lucked out! $75 well spent!
I like the cap molding I picked out. What a pain, though, because it doesn't come with a lip to go over the top edge of the paneling. So there is a flat 1.5" piece of wood behind it that pushes it out so it goes over the egde of paneling. An ingenious solution, figured out by me, executed by BF. :)

My new dishwasher! Yay!! (The stove is new too, but the dishwasher is much more exciting, don't you think?)

Last night, when BF was getting irritated with some of my ball-busting, he said..."Go over there and hold those two wires together, will ya'?" Har. Good thing I'm not a dummy. Or I'd be dead.

Naked Kitchen

So yesterday morning I said to BF: "You know, since we had such a work-filled weekend last week, why don't we take it easy this weekend? The only thing I'd really like to get done is to put the new kitchen sink faucet in, and the new bathroom faucet. What do you think?" And his reply was: "Well, wouldn't you rather get that dishwasher in?" and I of course replied "Well, of COURSE I would LOVE for the dishwasher to be in, but in order for that to happen, we need to replace the countertops."

So without going into how my logic works, suffice it to say that in order to install a dishwasher, Kathleen and I went to Paramus , NJ (2 hour drive) to IKEA and bought four new base cabinets, a new sink, and new countertops for the kitchen. Oh, and a shoe rack for my closet. But I digress.

So while we were gone, BF pulled out all of the old cabinets, and ripped the "tile" paneling off of the walls. I got home and said "So, is the dishwasher hooked up or what?!" *sigh* No dishwasher. But I did get a naked kitchen!

We put together one of the cabinets last night, and he did one this morning. They're pretty simple. Next, when it stops raining, we need to go buy beadboard for the walls. Then we can install the cabinets, then the dishwasher, then the countertops, then the sink, and the faucet. Oh, and when that's all done, I can put in the new floor and paint the walls.

So much for my quick and easy kitchen reno. Oh well. It had to get done sooner or later.

I'm just TIRED today, and I don't feel like working. Is that lame? (Don't answer that.) BF deserves a day off too, doesn't he? So don't hold your breath for the "afters". IKEA didn't even have my door and drawer fronts, so I have to go back to the Elizabeth, NJ IKEA and pick those up in a couple of weeks.

I won't even tell you about the dried up mice carcasses that BF unearthed when ripping out the cabinets. Eeeew. I think we'll seal up some holes.

Kitchen Before and After

This kitchen needs a bit of a major overhaul. I'm tossing around the idea of either getting IKEA cabinets to replace what's there (not the built-in--that's staying!), or possibly just replacing the doors on the existing cabinets and painting them all white. I want a black countertop, probably laminate, unless I can do granite on a budget somehow. And I have an 18" vinyl tile picked out for the floor already...almost the same color tones as the one that's there now, but the one that's there now is BAD...lol.
In the picture above you can see the single light fixture that was on the ceiling. I replaced that with a track light. That's the previous owners, too! Hee! They had rented this place to the same guy for the last 17 yrs. It was in pretty rough shape. They did a lot of fixing before I moved in, as you can see from the wall patching!
The green "tile" you see everywhere is going to be covered over with white beadboard wainscoting, and the walls above will be painted a very lovely shade of "morning fog" blue. Hee. I THINK that's the name of the paint color. It's a pale blue-green...you've seen it everywhere. Of course, who knows...by the time this actually gets done, I may have changed my mind again, and I'll have to use the blue somewhere else.
In the picture above, you can see that I have completely filled the built-in with stuff....and then some. I need to find a solution for the shelf underneath. Right now it has tools and all sorts of crap on it. Hopefully when I get done using the tools every day, they can find a new home. You can also see the dishwasher stuffed into that corner. It's not hooked up yet. That will be installed to the right of the sink, and then I'm going to put a rolling microwave cart in that corner. Right now the microwave is on the other end of the kitchen...not too convenient.

Track light! I love it...we configured it so each light shines on a task area: sink, stove, pantry, table, built-in. Love it.

This is my temporary fix, and my new stove. I just basically moved all my stuff in and called it done...hung the shelves above the counters because I needed more places to put stuff. If I don't go the IKEA route, I'll be building two upper cabinets out of vintage windows, and then putting shelves in between them. That was my first idea, and I'm starting to turn back to it. Sigh. I don't know!!
The "table" here is the vanity that I'll eventually be using in the bathroom. I didn't have anywhee to put it just now, so it's the table for a while. I have a couple of table choices in storage for this area--one a rustic painted drop-leaf, and one an antique oval drop-leaf. We'll see!