Looking at Simplicity Cottage's post with the darling photos of her kitchen has made me a little nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, I love my new kitchen - but I also LOVE old stuff, and it is so hard to incorporate antiques into my contemporary kitchen! The only old items I have right now in it are some vintage canning jars. Everything else is still packed away. The move from over 20 years in an 1830 farmhouse with land and barns, to this tiny cape has been quite a transition. In many ways, it is wonderful to not have all of the upkeep and rooms to clean, but I do miss the SPACE! And I really miss having room for the grandbabies to run around, even though they seem to be happy wherever we are! I will figure it all out eventually, or at least I hope I will! To give an idea of where we came from, I will post photos of the old place. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here are a few thousand words!
My husband found that old hardware store "island" at an auction on his 40th birthday! It was
so ugly - painted completely black, filthy, and topped with layers of linoleum. I could have died when he brought it in, because he put it in the middle of the family room that I had JUST cleaned in preparation for his "surprise" party! Of course after he refinished it, it was my most prized possession. It was huge - 24 drawers in all, and I knew just where everything was in each one of them!
This side of the kitchen led to a deck - and the previous photo had a covered porch. The kitchen had SIX doorways - two went to porch and deck, one to family room, one to the dining room, one to hallway and the last to a staircase leading up to the bedrooms.
We found this old cupboard in the remains of an old burned out and abandoned camp. Left the original paint as it was, and I punched the tin inserts. It was a great place to hide the microwave!
Old clock was a gift from my cousin - it came from the elementary school I went to!
This is kind of dark - window above the sink, looking out onto the covered porch and driveway.
Lots of good meals on this old stove! The center lifted off to reveal a griddle.
Now THIS was FUN! A bit of whimsy! I got these old VCT (vinyl composition tiles) tile samples for FREE from a flooring store - they just get rid of them when new samples
arrive. Since this counter was not used for food prep, I decided to tile the top, and just used regular flooring adhesive.
It kind of looked like a quilt - and it was fun to do!
The most relaxing part of the kitchen in the winter - pull up a few rockers & let the world go by.
A note on the headboard - it originally was my husband's baby crib - which, being circa 1944 makes it officially an antique! The handpainted scenes on the crib cannot be viewed in these photos, but my side has a little girl, and his a little boy ... he just "hooked" the headboard and footboard together to make it work for our queen sized bed. Definite conversation piece, LOL!
Big Brother Michael
We found this old cupboard in the remains of an old burned out and abandoned camp. Left the original paint as it was, and I punched the tin inserts. It was a great place to hide the microwave!
This is kind of dark - window above the sink, looking out onto the covered porch and driveway.
Lots of good meals on this old stove! The center lifted off to reveal a griddle.
The most relaxing part of the kitchen in the winter - pull up a few rockers & let the world go by.
Believe me now? Well, working with a small budget, I decided to check out eBay. Found a complete kitchen - and I do mean COMPLETE. It came with all appliances, even down to a garbage disposal and under the cabinet radio (didn't use those). Still have "extra" cabinets in the garage that we didn't have room for. The guy we bought it from delivered it from another state, too! He had bought a house with this kitchen and his wife didn't like it. I never thought I would like anything so contemporary myself, but the price was right and I really do like it now. Grand total? Two thousand dollars! My best buy on ebay so far!
so I decided to figure out something for the rest of the crap. Talking to the Jakester (hubby) and he disappeared into the garage and came up with this! And I LOVE IT!
It just works so well! I plan on painting it - but I honestly couldn't wait to try it out!! Decided the painting can wait until the break from school next week! I will post pics of the finished product when I finish. It's just an old shelf that he put heavy duty wire through, but it is awesome! EXACTLY what I wanted. Well, I wanted one that I saw on the Internet that cost about $200 ... but this is perfect ... and best of all, FREE! It even got me to arranging the drawer a little better, although I still have to work on the "rings" section.
Doesn't take a lot to make this girl smile : ).
