Hi Friends!
First off, a quick but heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who commented or sent messages of support our way about our decision to pull back on the blog posts a little bit. We appreciate you so much!
So, with thanks out of the way, let's get to today's post. You remember in my recent post about the 'faux' sofa table that I confessed I'm sort of bad with decorating. I get part of the way there, and I get overwhelmed so I just throw in the towel. And, look - in the interest of being totally honest - I'm not that creative. That's why I love Pinterest so much - a million amazing and creative ideas that I can copy or tweak to meet my needs.
I saw a kitchen pin from BHG as I was scrolling the other night and it caught my eye. The layout of the kitchen was pretty darn similar to MY kitchen and I knew I could use this to duplicate a look that was pretty close to this one. Now - I am in no way motivated to repaint my cabinets, even though I love the pretty color in this picture - I'm perfectly content with our white cabinets. But I did love the pop of color against the white serving dishes and I loved how clean and crisp the counters looked.
And, if you read my living room post after we first moved in - you know two things about me. I love blue and all it's different varieties and I am loving white decor right now. I guess that would explain why this kitchen caught my eye.
Follow along below and see how I gave my kitchen a quick little pick me up in less than a day!
First things first - here's a before pic of the kitchen and of the cabinets. I snapped a quick pic so please don't judge the clutter!
I really love the layout of our kitchen, but it's blah and there's not really any open wall space to decorate and I'm not at all a fan of the backsplash - but, it's what I have to work with right now. Someday I'll get motivated to change out a few things, but for now, that's what we have.
I started by clearing all the junk dishes out of the cabinet and removing the door. Then I sanded and painted over where the screws and hinges were that held the door in place. You can also see here that I painted the fronts of the shelves white - they were the same color wood as the rest of the interior but I wanted the white contrast.
Once that was done, I grabbed my handy dandy Annie Sloan chalk paint to cover the interior. I painted two coats on the bottoms, sides and tops of the shelves.
Once the paint was dry, I just loaded up the shelving with white serving dishes. I adore bright, crisp white against a pop of color.
I accessorized the counters pretty much exactly like the picture because I loved it so much! Glass jars to hold pasta, freshly baked cookies, and tea bags. A vase for flowers, a glass bowl for fresh fruit, and hand towels to match a brightly colored, striped rug.
Eventually (maybe when I get around to changing out the backsplash...) I might do the same thing with a cabinet to the right of the sink that I'll fill with white dinner dishes.
And just for fun - here's a quick and easy peanut butter cookie recipe for you, in case you want to fill your own glass jars with some freshly baked cookies...
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
DIRECTIONS
Cream together
butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in eggs.
In a separate
bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into
batter. Put batter in refrigerator for 1 hour.
Roll into 1 inch
balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a
criss-cross pattern. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 10
minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.
