Which room of the house do you spend most of your waking hours in?

Mine is, hands down, the kitchen.

There is something so defeating about spending all day in an area of your home that you don’t enjoy. The problem I keep running into is that this house is a rental and we are hardcore saving for our future farm. There is a very limited amount of money I am willing to spend on this house.

So – Is this my perfect dream kitchen? No.

Is this my favorite decorating style? Not really.

But it’s close enough.

When you are on a tight budget sometimes the reality is “close enough” is the best you can manage. In all honesty “close enough” feels much better than you’d think.

Here are some before pictures. This is after I had already painted that cabinets white, spray painted the hardware black, and brought in this couch table that we turned into an kitchen island.

Goals:

• Change the backsplash for dirt cheap, and make it neutral so the next renter doesn’t hate me.
• Create some temporary open shelving. If I have all of these antique plates and glasses I want to see them!
• Redo the “island”
• Create a designated bread area. 
• Decorate with what I use all the time.

 

Painting the falling off tile backsplash – 

 

The white cabinets  + cream counters + cream backsplash = hot mess.

It looked awful. The least expensive one of those three to fix is the backsplash. I found this super cheap paint that is supposed to be used on boats?? It worked great on the tile and is very durable so far. 

Rust-Oleum Marine Topside Paint

Create some temporary open shelving. 

I just removed the cabinet doors and are saving them in a safe place for when we leave. We can very easily put them right back on. Then, I painted the inside of the cabinets and placed clear contact paper on the bottom of each shelf, to help with the wipeability.

I love the look of the mismatched dishes. I do have an entire matching set, but where is the fun in that?

To break up all the white I hot glued a small piece of scrap wood an inch away from the back wall. Then, propped up some of our serving dishes on the back. These get used everyday, 2-3 times a day.

The last place I added open shelving to was in the spice cabinet. If I am flinging it open with every meal, why not just open it up?

Redo the kitchen island

I sanded and stained the top dark walnut (AKA the best stain in the world). Then I grabbed three yards of this blue striped fabric. I made a very simple and soft ruffle by sewing it with some elastic at the top. To keep it on the island I used fabric tacks. This way even little babies can’t pull it off.

Create a designated bread area

 

Decorate with what I use all the time

For years I’ve gone back and forth between being pretty hardcore NOTHING ON THE COUNTERS EVER and I love pretty things.

I think I’ve landed on I love pretty things. 

The key (for my brain anyways) is to make those random pretty things actually functional and just not pretty for pretty’s sake….mostly.

Hanging knives and dough scrapers by magnet strips and keeping butter in a super fancy antique glass container – I can justify them because they are serving a purpose.

And sometimes I like hanging things just because I think they’re pretty.

 

I know this is laughable by HGTV standards, but these small changes have made a huge impact on the feel of the room. Once spring and summer hit there will be fresh flowers and produce all over the counters. I’m sure by them I’ll be madly in love.

However…those counters are begging for some sort of love….

hmmm….

Thanks for taking time out of your day to hang out here!