Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The Heart of a Home

The kitchen is the heart of a home and if that's true, I say my kitchen had a heart murmur!  

It has ample cabinet space, stainless appliances, dark cherry cabinets, and all the necessary pieces--- it gets the job done, but it's always been just a little off.  It's the one room in the house that's never really fit in with the rest. I didn't know how to add some pizzaz without adding clutter. I need lots of counter space for baking, baby food making, and let's face it, the dirty dishes.

After blog surfing and daydreaming about redecorating, I was inspired to make an EAT sign that would hang on the one wall that I actually like in the kitchen. The trouble is that the one pretty wall in the kitchen is tucked behind the pantry and out of sight.   Here's a picture of it...



Even though I wasn't very inspired by my kitchen, I decided to make the EAT sign anyway.  I think they turned out perfectly!


Once I made the letters (and was very pleased with my coordinating papers), I realized the kitchen needed more than a little refreshing.  It needed a big change!  We are renters so there's no painting, staining, remodeling, or replacing---just redecorating.

First, I tried taking everything off the counter top.  But, it just looked bare.  And the outlets and switch plates were taunting me--- Why are there so many on that one little wall?!?



I looked past the switch plates and inspiration hit!  Here's what I did....

Brendon hung the utensil bar for me and I strategically placed the dish towel to cover the switches.  I put the new EAT sign on the next wall.  And, completely revamped the back wall.   I hung a new dry erase-magnet board that I made -- then made a menu planner using the left over paper from my EAT letters.



Here's a close up of the menu planner.  It's just scrapbook paper that I printed the days of the week on and covered in vinyl so it could be easily erased.


Now, I'm so excited to walk into the kitchen.  I love that it looks like a nicely decorated kitchen, instead of just being a room where we keep the food.


What do you think? 









14 comments:

  1. soo cute!!! i love that hanging bar with the white vase and green plant! looks so fresh!! i love having things there in my kitchen too!

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  2. i love those little changes-they definitely add more color and fun! great job!

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  3. sweet that doesnt even look like a dry erase board it looks like glass...?? I need something like that... I print a new paper each week to write our meal plan on and thats just not cool...haha so let me guess you got it at hobby lobby? :)

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  4. It looks beautiful! I love the changes you made, amazing job girl!

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  5. I LOVE it--I especially love the menu planner. Maybe when my MIA energy decides to return, I will have to try that. =)

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  6. wow who knew that adding a little pop of color would make such a difference! it feels warm and cheery now :) I LOVE your EAT sign - super cute! thanks so much for linking up to my party! xoxo

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  7. i love it - you did a great job!

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  8. Thanks! The menu planner is working out perfectly. It was really simple... just put a piece of clear vinyl (you can buy it by the yard at fabric stores) over the menu planner paper and put a piece of sheet metal behind it (from Lowes). Then, put all that in a picture frame and ta-da it's done!

    After making it, I realized that it would have been just as easy to take the paper to Office Depot to be laminated. It would dry erase the same way, but I wanted to give this a try since I already had the materials. It I redo it one day, I'll just put the metal in the frame and use the laminated menu planner.

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  9. So cute! I have a weird corner like that in my kitchen and it always looks strange but I love yours! I may need to do a bit of copying!

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  10. Gah i love the dry erase board!!! I will be making one very soon!!

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  11. What did you use for the letters? Or did you just buy them individually?

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  12. Pink Dagger~
    I bought cardboard letters at Hobby Lobby and then just glued scrapbook paper on them to cover all the sides. I found the tutorial at http://simplydecorate.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-copycat-eat-sign-from-cougar-town.html

    I hope that helps!

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