~ French Linen Basket Makeover : How to with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Basket Makeover Using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint - French Linen

Another way to store things in the kitchen is by using baskets. 

This is a very old solution that still works in today's kitchens as well. 

When choosing storage options for the kitchen, baskets are always tops on the list for many people. And for good reason, they not only add a nice hidden storage solution, but they can also bring in a touch of warmth, color and/or texture.  Somewhere along the line, I had a "collection" of sorts of these very inexpensive baskets. There were mostly out of sight, but they were also exactly the right size for a shelf area where we needed quick access to things like keys and they are in easy sight so something needed to be done to them, just to pretty them up a bit. 

So out came the ASCP again!  I've had the French Linen Annie Sloan Chalk Paint for a while, but never found the right place to use it for any accessories or furniture. However, when I tried it with the new colors in the kitchen, it was a perfect complement.

You can see from the before and after that a little bit of paint makes a big difference.

~ How -To: Black Glaze on Kitchen Cabinets or Wood Furniture Update

Over the years some posts on blogs get a lot more views than others. And some of those posts will continue to get quite a bit of interest year over year. How to do a  Black Glaze on your wood Kitchen Cabinets has been one of those posts here at The Decorated House, both on this blog and on the original site over 13 years ago.

Before doing the Faux Bois finish, we added the moldings and painted the cabinets all white. The cabinets are all solid wood, and in good condition and back then it didn't make sense to me to get cabinets that were not all wood to replace them. After 10 years I was tired of white and really would have liked some nice upscale solid wood cabinets, but that was a lot more expensive than what I was willing to do.

Instead, I found books (this was before all the diy stuff hit the internet) and decided to try my hand at faux bois paint technique. That was about 13 years ago. The finish has held up extremely well.

The kitchen mini-update was supposed to be quick and easy. You know how little projects can take a lot more time than you thought. And although the cabinets still look pretty good, I wanted to give them a freshening up. The doors were all removed again, and I redid all the black glaze. The insides of the cabinets got a coat of paint, and new storage organization was anywhere I could fit it into the odd and sometimes small spaces. The mini update is still going on, but I think an end may finally be in sight.

As I was writing the post,  I showed this before and after picture to Sweet Hubby and he wasn't skeptical for a moment that it was really the original kitchen until he realized the same size window is still there. The picture is not that good, but I think you can get the idea. They were built in 1959 and they looked the same although a bit worse for wear in 1986.

If you have wood cabinets

~ Small Kitchen Storage

Where to put those small kitchen appliances??

Work in the kitchen is continuing. It is taking a great deal more time than I had planned. Maybe it began with the slightly crooked drawer which was a learning experience to figure out how to make it perfectly straight. Or it might have been the desire to have more pull out baskets in the cabinets and to make them all match. It's hard to remember what started this latest episode of the kitchen redoing. The more work I've done, the more it seems it might have been easier to have just torn the place up and cabinets installed. I just didn't want the kitchen so torn up that I couldn't cook for more than 24 hours. I love to cook, and eat!

After all the work, I'm not even sure too many people would notice there is a difference! A lot of work has been on the inside, reworking the limited cabinet spaces with more pull out wire baskets, adding more turn tables, painting the insides as needed and just trying to get more organized and less cluttered.

When the new refrigerator came a few years ago, it turned out to be less than 1/4 inch too wide to fit in the space intended for it. So we brought in this white "hutch" that was once used in the living room in it's original natural wood finish, and years before that it held a TV. Yes, televisions used to be smaller!  It had been painted white at some point in time, but need repainting to match the other white in the kitchen.  It certainly filled up quickly with things from the kitchen. And since I have almost no drawers in this room, having 3 nice size drawers was very welcomed.

When I was tired of getting the big mixer out of a lower cupboard one more time, it was moved here where we kept other small appliances that we use on an almost daily basis. Instead of worrying about having these things out in plain site, I'm going to just embrace the convenience and the pretty lines of these work horses in the kitchen.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ Bon Appetit! Brownies - French Farmhouse Kitchen & White Kitchens

When I first saw the cover of the latest Bon Appetit magazine, all I wanted was a brownie! As much as I love chocolate chip cookies, brownies sometimes are even higher on the food chain of desire.

As usual this recipe had a bit too much saturated fat for the way I like to cook and eat. I want to enjoy my food without worrying about clogging my arteries. No I didn't think about that sort of thing when I was twenty.

I'm busy working on the kitchen. Not the biggest makeover I've ever done, but lots of things on the to do list nonetheless. As usual one thing keeps leading to another. Hope you enjoy this post with a wonderful and unique French Farmhouse Kitchen featured in Bon Appetit.

The the first kitchen posted here, which is in the same issue as that brownie, stole my heart. So I had to take a closer look. Is it the stove? The cabinets? The sink? How about this antique table? Um, maybe. The yellow isn't my color, but I love the floor and the wood cabinets with white.

The white kitchen above also appeared in Bon Appetit, last year. This time it is easy to know exactly why I love it. The white is fresh and clean looking with the dark stained chairs and floors.

And the same for the Christopher Peacock kitchen below. I don't think I could find a kitchen designed by that man that I would not love.

The most interesting thing to me about the French inspired kitchen in the first picture, is that I'm not in love with all of the individual things in the kitchen, and yet..... I love the space. I feel very at home looking at this space. The sum of the parts in this kitchen, designed by my favorite kitchen designer, Mick de Giulio, is much greater than the parts, for me anyway. I guess I just need to study this one for a little while, as I munch on some brownies of course. It just might be the antique island that calls out to me the most.

....................................

When I first wrote this post I was experimenting with different recipes of gluten-free brownies. There are lots of good recipes that you can find on line. It turned out to be a fairly easy one to come up with. The chocolate hides any unusual taste from the gluten free flours. My favorite is to use ground almonds with a small amount of brown rice flour. Yum!

See Y'All Soon~

  ................................................................................

Click on the pictures below to visit The Decorated House Shop!

~ Mixed Woods Kitchen, Natural and White Cabinets

What a beautiful example of how to mix natural wood finishes with white painted cabinets in a kitchen!

One of the elements that really works is the details of the island. Here they used a wood top, great for food prep, with the same white finish as most of the cabinets.

On the side/front of the island there is an inlaid tile area. It's different from the backsplash and mimics the color of the island counter top.


On the other side where the bank cabinets features the cook top, you see the same beautiful wood repeated in the bottom cabinets, side by side with the white painted ones.

I had a wood counter before the current granite. It would not be a choice that I would make again if I could have stone. The upkeep was not terribly bad, but it is quite a bit more than a granite.

Quite a pot rack there isn't it? The kitchen is quite large, and it actually was not oversized for the area.

Since I keep looking a kitchen pictures in my file, I'm concerned that I'm itchin' to do something in the kitchen. Fortunately I have plenty to keep me busy on other house projects right now so the kitchen is far down on the list.

See Y'All Soon~

~ White Kitchen Inspiration 3, Home Office & Fireplace

There are some things about this kitchen and adjoining areas that would be very difficult for me add to my home. Especially the fact that the ceilings are 2 stories high. Interestingly though, these very high ceilings from this time period of building have given way to a 10 foot ceiling height as being more livable, both the scale of living in the spaces, and for heating and cooling them. I do however love a vaulted ceiling, and a little over the 10 foot height is perfect to me for the vault.

Looking at closeups of the upper cabinets of the desk area and kitchen, you can see that the homeowner added color in a very subtle way through the color in her green and yellow dishes that show off from behind the glass front doors. Wonder if she has added or deleted any colors since this was taken.

This is a custom built desk center, but of course you could accomplish a lot of this by using some stock cabinets or older wood furniture pieces and have a top cut for it.

For instance the cabinets were built to mimic vintage cupboards. So it would not only work equally as well to use a fabulous find from a flea market, thrift store or antique market, it would add a little more character to a kitchen as well. And most likely at a good price!

The entire picture shows some really great ideas for organizing and hiding the computer parts. Behind the doors and drawers are a file cabinet, storage, and places for the cpu and printer, etc.

This whole area was created with great skill from many people. The only thing that was disappointing was with a budget like this, there was no original art work. Lots of prints that everyone has, but nothing that really completed the space as being personal to these people. Now maybe the stylist took out everything that made it more personal except for the wedding picture on the desk. Maybe there really was a captivating painting over that beautiful fireplace.

I noticed that there were very small touches of yellow. Again the stylist may have dictated that by the use of the yellow flowers on the table. The homeowner did have some yellow dishes as I mentioned earlier. But in a room that is so very neutral, I just had a craving for a dash of color to accent that incredible fireplace. But that's just my preference I know.

(Art work in last photo provided by Robert Courtney. Thanks Sweet Hubby!)

See Y'All Soon~

( Home owner: Christine Ryan
Kitchen Designer: Eline Nealer
from: Beautiful Kitchens 2003.)

~ Inspiration From A White Kitchen Part 2

This kitchen had so much to see, today will be part 2, and then one more post after that. The entire area consists of the kitchen with a counter bar for eating, a dining room and a sitting room with a fabulous fireplace. The combination of the homeowners' vision along with the skill and knowledge of their architect, kitchen designer and builder made this one special place to live.

There is a richness and warmth in this white kitchen which is not always present in a room without more obvious colors. This comes from the textures and surfaces. The stone floor, which could be cold, instead reflects hints of the gold and umbers that we see in the wall treatment. All this brings forward the vision and plan of the homeowners' for a farm style kitchen updated to for today's needs and look.

The bar stools look very comfortable and mimic the same curved lines of the back of the dining chairs, without being an exact copy since they feature a beautiful open design on the back and a different leg. Although a dressier choice that what you would think of in a farm style design, they give a classy contrast to the use of the beadboard on the sides of the cabinets and the counter bar area which it usually thought of as country style.

Although the table and chairs are beautiful pieces of furniture, it would make little difference to me if they were replaced by an old wood board table and a couple of comfortable chairs. Why? It's the windows. The star of this side of the house is this glorious bank of windows. I am not too sure how to have so much window area without an unbearable heat gain in the deep south. But I certainly love the look.

As you can now see the kitchen and adjoining rooms are actually 2 stories high. It certainly adds the spacious feeling.

One of the things that was so nice to see in this photo shoot is the lack of "stuff" brought in. I'd be curious if it was necessary for them to take out much that belonged to the homeowner. Her taste seems already quite edited and uncluttered.

See Y'All Soon~

{Owner: Christine Ryan. Kitchen Designer: Eline Nealer.
from Beautiful Kitchens, 2003}

~ A White Kitchen To Inspire

Are you one of those people who just loves open shelving in a kitchen? Although I understand the love, I'm not in that group, entirely anyway.

Although pretty and great for grabbing something quickly, open shelving drives me crazy. I love the look of "open" only with glass doors instead. You can show some texture and color of your dishes, etc., but you don't have the problem of dust. And for most people there is also the grease in the air from cooking meats.

As you can tell, I'm not in love with doing more cleaning than necessary.

Another great idea from the kitchen featured here is the closed storage above the cabinets. When the owner planned her kitchen, she had the architect include a very high ceiling for the kitchen. This presents the problem of how to treat the cabinets in such a way as to keep them in scale, but still usable.

Excellent solution here.

A few years ago I feel back in love with the simple beauty of whites and silvers, again. We do go through whims of loving colors and combinations of colors don't we? After going through a strong white phase several years ago, I really craved color, especially the colors of the French and Italian countryside. Too much white is still a bit stark for me, but I continue to long for more whites in my decorating.

This kitchen utilized more expensive nickle finishes, but of course you can achieve much the same beauty with chrome. I never thought I'd come back to loving chrome. But you just never know what you will find appealing as time goes by. Most interesting is that this kitchen was completed at least 7 years ago, and still looks quite undated.

If I were planning a house right now, I would love to have a kitchen window like this one below. Even a smaller version, in a smaller space would be wonderful.

I especially like the wall finish. Mine has been golden yellow for a number of years, and will be painted a parchment color. This aged finish is like done like the gold one I'm painting over. So I will most likely do something like it again.

Although this is a big budget kitchen for most of us, it has lots of simple ideas to make a kitchen simply beautiful as well as highly functional.

I had white kitchen cabinets for many years. For my busy, and I guess messy, family it was so much work. I was constantly cleaning coffee and juice stains, scrubbing off dirty paw (kid and adult ones) prints, and touching up the paint from all the wear and tear. When I did the faux bois wood paint treatment on my cabinets, it was wonderful not to have all every little thing show up and look grimy on them.

Somtimes I think about painting them white again. But not today.

{Owner: Christine Ryan. Kitchen Designer: Eline Nealer. from Beautiful Kitchens 2003}

See Y'All Soon~

~ Kitchen Cabinets . Mixed Finishes . Red & Wood

Kitchen with Wood Cabinets
and
Red Island & Select Bottom Cabinets

Standing in this kitchen and walking around, it was very easy to see yourself at home cooking dinner or baking cookies.

However, sometimes it's not all that easy to mix finishes as skillfully as it is done here. The key to the design was to not overdo it. The red is used on the island where you might expect it and then again along side the cooktop stove. It is not on all of the bottom cabinets.

This house was built about 2 1/2 years ago. I wonder if they would still choose the same finish for the faucet. It appears that the bronze finishes are no longer as popular. I have found that I'm getting tired of the look in my kitchen, but I've had it for over 5 years.

Sorry for the quality of the picture. I just grabbed my little camera and never looked to see what it was set on so I could get some pictures before anyone stopped me. But they didn't mind after at all. The kitchen was so well done I decided to post the picture anyway!

See Y'all Soon

~ Kitchen Island

This is the same kitchen as the previous post. I found another picture of the island, which shows more of it, and how really functional and beautiful it is. Even if the gray cabinets aren't something you would choose, that island could win you over. And I'd take the floor as well.

See Y'all Soon!

~ Kitchen Cabinets . Gray ?

While looking at kitchen pictures and ideas for a backsplash for Sweet Daughter, I came across this oversized, and too big for most of us, kitchen with gray cabinets. You seldom see this color used. But it is certainly an option of those who love the white/cream/taupe gray look of some of our Euro Sisters' blogs.

Although the size of the kitchen and house is more than most of us have any need for, the cabinets would be beautiful in a smaller kitchen. Maybe even more lovely in a wonderful small kitchen.

See Y'all Soon!

~ Paintings & Black Glaze Cabinets, Answers to ??s

I forget to answer questions just because I forget, not because I don't mean to get back to you. So here is one old one and one new one answered.

The first question is about the picture which appeared in this post.
Antiquing White Technique for Cabinets and Furniture.

The painting in this picture, and many of the ones you see throughout our home pictures that I post are by Sweet Hubby. He works in watercolors. Some of his work is available on Etsy as prints. Some time soon, I hope he will do some smaller original pieces for his shop, too.

Thanks so much for asking about them. I love his work so much, and feel very lucky to have such wonderful original paintings in our home.

Black Glaze on Wood Cabinets, Kitchen

Quite a while ago, someone asked if you could do the black glaze technique shown above on newer "finished" cabinets. Most likely yes! The pigment in black paint is so concentrated in most paints, that it will indeed stain the area you are wanting to highlight. You just have to be careful that you don't let it sit too long on an area where you do not want the black to be. Every so often the finish may be so "hard" that it won't take the paint. But that is not often.

For those not so pretty oak cabinets this will change them a lot. You can do the black glaze or the white. Either way, they will be greatly improved. I've had lots of people do this who had never done anything like it before, and every one of them did a fantastic job and loved it when they were done.

See Y'All Soon!

~ Thankful Thursday

Do you ever wonder where in the world other people store and keep things in their homes? For me I want to know about kitchen goodies. If you put away all the good things you need, and want to eat everyday, you wind up forgetting you have them.

Of course most fruits have to stay out in the open, so that's a challenge. And then there are all those nuts and dried fruits and yummy things. When you buy nuts and things like that in bulk, they get put away under the counter. Then we realize we are not eating them, so they get pulled out and sometimes left out. The other day I walked in and realized we had about so many different things on the counter! All I wanted was a simple solution. Somehow to keep them within sight so we ate them, but not so they took up space or were just a bunch of clutter.

I set out to find simple, small glass jars that would seal tight. What luck that I found them the first trip out. I love these small jars that can sit out with being too cluttered or taking up much room. They were at Ross in case anyone else needs some.

Pistachios, Almonds, Cashews, Dried Papaya, Dark Chocolate Almonds, Dried Ginger, 
Carob Energy Treats, Chia, Walnuts, Pecans, Sunflower Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds
Cashews, Hemp, for a few ideas. Doggie Treats are on another shelf. 

I know it's a very, very small thing. But I'm really grateful to have the space back on my counters and still be able to remember to enjoy the treats! A part of this new year for me is to try really hard to look for the smallest of things that I should be thankful for. The big things are so easy aren't they?

I love hearing back from you all when a holiday comes up and you are decorating with something that you purchased in my shop, or sometimes it's an everyday piece. Thanks so much, I appreciate it.

The French Chair collection is in pink and Tiffany blue colors. I think the simple black chair, with fleur de lis and a brownish gold frame is in the shop, too. I'll have to check because I know it's done.

~ Black Glazed Finish for Painted Furniture & Cabinets

** SEE THE UPDATE TO THIS POST ON HOW TO DO A BLACK GLAZE HERE **

When thinking of writing this tutorial I was considering what the differences might be between doing this black glaze the antiqued white (mocha) glaze that I have written about previously.

A lot of people like wood cabinets rather than white. I love both. Some days I love one, then the next day I love the other look. And it can switch at any time.
In addition to changing your white cabinets into a richer more finished look with glazing, you can also do this for wood cabinets. If you look at cabinet doors, etc. at the stores you will see that they often have a black or brown glaze on them, as do many good furniture pieces. This is pretty easy to do once you get used to it. Although this is simple, it can be frustrating at first, but once you get the feel for what the paint does, it is really easy.

1. Black Paint, one little bottle of craft paint will do most jobs.
2. Glaze, either the same used on walls, or use a bottle from the craft store found either in with the artists supplies or craft paints
3. Small art brushes
4. Rags, lots of them.
5. Latex gloves are quite handy to have, or you will have black hands most likely
6. Small container or bucket of water to dilute and clean up as you go.

Start with a small container and mix some glaze and a little water. Just enough water so that the paint is thin enough to run into the crevices. (Although I have done this with just water to make it thin enough, water dries quicker than glaze. If you feel good with the technique you can do it with just water.)

Add black paint to the ratio of 1 part paint to 3 or 4 parts glaze & mix.

Add more glaze or water as needed to control the strength & thickness of the paint.

You will use a small artist brush to brush on like a pin stripe line beside the moldings or lines of the piece. As soon as you paint that area, take a damp rag on your index finger, angled away from the painted area and wipe it clean, leaving the glaze where you want it. (Sounds tough, but it gets easy!)

Carved areas or crevices: Brush on the glaze into all the deepest areas and along side any moldings. The black can stain a bit where ever it touches. So be sure to control it. Keep water and damp rags nearby to remove from any area as soon as you need to. (If it gets on the wood where you really don't want it, Comet will usually remove it right away.)

The smaller the line and the more detailed you want it, the smaller the brush to a certain degree. You will not be using any large brushes for this kind of detail glaze.

I like to splatter and speckle mine when I'm done. You do this by loading the brush with watered down paint, and tapping the brush on something hard over the area you want splattered, and it will splatter specks from the tips of the brush.

OR you can use an old toothbrush. Load it with watered down paint, and then use your thumb to splatter the paint by pulling the bristles back and letting them go. Some old paint brushes are short and stiff enough to it that way as well.

The glaze outlines the molding shapes and really adds a lot to ordinary cabinets. Lots of people have done this who had not painted much or at all before. Once they got the feel for it, they all did a fabulous job with it.

~ See Y'All Soon ~

~ Cool Down or Is Everybody Oversized?

It is hard to keep cool in the middle of the summer. I'm getting a payback for having a good giggle at other people who agonized over choosing kitchen appliances. Every time I would read someone who was in the midst of a hissy fit over their refrigerator choices, it made me laugh. I've spent weeks, not days, or hours as I would think reasonable but weeks to find a refrigerator. Thank goodness I did find out the first one wouldn't fit before it was delivered, but that was in April!

So what could be the big deal? The answer, they don't make stainless steel, good quality, refrigerators in the same size that refrigerators were 10 years ago which fit in homes built in the 1940's to 1960's. I'm pretty sure that it is not over statement because the sales people at the stores said they are looking for the same thing for other people. They are almost all too wide or too deep. And when my granite was installed I only considered the width of my refrigerator at the time not realizing that they were mostly wider now. It seems from chairs to refrigerators, America is oversized, except for a few of us. :)

I was ready to scream, and then realized how darn silly it was. You know, there are more people in the world who have no clean drinking water than there are who need to own big refrigerators. o I can just get over it. And I did. But it left a delimna of what to do. I already had the stove, so I couldn't go back and not do stainless steel.

The answer to this riddle is of course, moving one thing somewhere else. Isn't that the story of my life lately?

I have to move the island somewhere, and put the refrigerator here. I was able to stay with Maytag which is nice to go with the stove finish. (Maytag counter depth French door mfc2061kes)

And it will be interesting to see if the sales lady idea works. I paid $15.99 to "move the old refrigerator to another floor" but I want it to go "down the street" to my daughter's house. I so hope I get a really, really nice moving guy!

Sweet Daughter doesn't like the idea at all. But Sweet Hubby does. :)
As you can see the counter is close by where we walk in with all those grocery bags and it will be quite easy to put things away. Now do you want to sit and visit with me while sitting by the refrigerator? I don't know but we will see. It is also small enough that if I hate it, I might be able to find a way to knock an inch out of the wall where the old fridge was. But that is not happening now!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Sweet hubby will be finishing putting the wood on the roof of the porch so we can get a new roof on this poor ol' house. And then I need to plan a trip away for a few days. We need a break!

** EDIT:
Thanks for your very sweet comments on the room before the redo in the last post. I don't expect it to look "better" than it did. It's just that it will serve a different purpose now. I made everything for the daybed before, knowing that DD would be taking it one day. Now it will have to go in her garage since her new room mate will be in that room, a shame, but it's not in my garage thankfully. :)

The color is Laura Ashley Gold 4. It does look wonderful with woodwork. It's not a yellow gold, but it is a good color. As I said, some days I loved it. Actually I need a bit more yellow like the living room area. But I still don't know exactly what the walls will look like, but not so new looking anyway. Bye!

~ Corners, Faux Leaded Glass & New Art

Here is a quick picture of the faux leaded glass on the storage piece we made for the morning room. This area was the breezeway in the homes built at the time and it is a 10 x 17 ft space right on the other side of the bar. It so nice to have an area to sit and have people there without them being directly in the kitchen.

This shows a closeup of the faux lead glass I did on the doors, along with the new minature art I put in Etsy.

**SOLD*** Thank You Pat!**

The glass was glued in so it was not a good option to take the glass out to have someone work on. And besides this was much cheaper. You can buy the faux lead strips at the craft stores and liquid lead in bottles in the same area.

I looked at a window which I had that was leaded glass and made a pattern similar to it so it would feel as though it was from the same time period. When you use the strips, and cut them, they have a straight cut look to them. So you can use the liquid "lead" to make "blobs" where the strips meet just the same as real leaded glass work.

We used some inexpensive premade narrow cabinets for this project. Although I prefer real wood, I just didn't want to deal with making drawers. The pieces we added to it and the trim are all wood, so once they were painted and the whole thing had a light glaze, it looked like wood.

See you all later, I have some blog surfing to do later on to catch up!

~ Monday, Corners of My Home, Morning Room

It was wonderful weekend here. Not quite as hot, so we spent time on Sunday getting my old pots, and some new ones :), filled up with flowers. I'll snap some pictures during the week to show you. I ran out of flowers and need just a few more. It was all the more special because my Sweet Husband loves helping with this little task. It sure made it go more quickly and less strain on me. We found good looking resin urns/pots at a great price. They are planted, but need a little bit of paint since they are too gray right now.

Here is another picture of that kitchen island that I painted a faux checkerboard wood butcher block top for. It is arranged differently all the time, so it has the brown transferware on it now, with different things.
We built a wall of storage here, but I think I still need more than the island gives me. But I love the way it looks here.


This was all natural wood and the top was not good butcher block to begin with. Solid wood, though. I painted the bottom satin black, did a bit of distressing, and then painted the top to look like the checkerboard. It is sealed with several layers of matte varnish and has really held up well.

Happy Monday!

~ Corners of My Home

I missed Monday home pictures. Somehow it's already Wednesday. So here is a little spot in the kitchen. A large white platter that matches a set of dishes, and a bunny with a lid that's been at home here longer than the platter or the newer kitchen. I've had white dishes forever. A lot of them were way down in the bottom of the cupboard. A couple of years ago I saw a table set by Martha Stewart, all in white and loved it! So mine have been out ever since. But I learned to appreciate my own when my friend Sally started showing pictures of hers.

We really love gravy around here. This is a picture of our "gravy" bowl. It is really a small soup tureen. It's been so long since I bought it, I have no idea what it was sold as. Gravy and biscuits, with a dash of veggies, is a great meal. I have since added a few tureens, but I still love this bunny.

The small BlogWorld seems to keep getting bigger and bigger. Each time I visit someone, I seem to find another new person from that site. By the time I get to a few sites, and even get a post or two done, time has passed so fast and it's time to get off the computer. It makes me appreciate it greatly when you take the time to come by and leave a post here. I know it isn't easy to keep your site going and visit your friends, too!

~ Monday ~ Corners of My Home

The morning room had ugly cement block walls when we first moved in. This was a "breezeway" of that time period, a room right off the kitchen. I did what anyone would do in the 80's, I wallpapered it! It takes two layers of course to get rid of the lines of the blocks. You know that was fun to strip later on.

Now I'm happy to have the blocks. I love old stone walls, so after stripping the paper, I painted the walls to look like stone. In a couple of places I did a broken stone effect. This is one of them.

The ceiling in here was green for a long time, but with a grayish tone. Then a few years ago, when the kiwi green became a part of the decor, my hubby painted the ceiling for me. I really don't like painting ceilings. Does anyone? I guess not. I think almost everyone who buys an older house has one or two (or 100!) things like this that start out as the worst parts, and end up as some of the best for making it a home.

This once ugly area is a favorite spot to me now. The room just beyond the door is the Family Room.

*Added: The border around the room is anaglypta, embossed paper. Although I don't care for wallpaper borders, I make an exception for anaglypta. I love the carved molding effect they can give. As you can see this one has been painted to give it an aged look.

~ Kitchen - Finished Pictures

Thanks again for stopping by and the nice comments

about the kitchen.

The Finished Kitchen:

Window Treatment:
1st Remodel with White Painted Cabinets:

To say this was a "remodel" on a budget is an understatement! I probably had a total of $1,000 for all appliances, countertops and paint. The counter in the foreground was wood. It had benefits, but some drawbacks as well since it is a porous surface.

So this white kitchen looks a bit vintage? Well, yes, this picture is from the early to mid 90's. Before the big trend of white kitchens hit blogs anyway. The white was a lot of work to keep clean and back then only crisp, clean white counted. There wasn't much glazing going on in the commercial lines.