We pulled out all of the stops this year in the kitchen for Christmas and you know, we really enjoyed doing it this year too! In fact, I have decided decorating the kitchen is a must every year now!
Every morning when I walk into the kitchen and see those bits of Christmas sprinkled throughout just makes my day! The kitchen is the last of the old, tired, boring décor left over from the previous owners.
Despite it being someone else's choices, I feel I have done a good job making it feel more like me since we moved in. We are making a home afterall, and these things take time. In my opinion, if you take your time, then you are doing it right. When you live in a home, you get the feel of it, what works and what does not.
Those walls were covered in wallpaper, colors I would never choose for myself, but removing wallpaper doesn't require a lot of work so we removed all of it. There were enamel knobs on the cabinets, and plastic in one of the cabinet doors that was supposed to look like glass.
After the wallpaper was gone, we painted the walls. Below the chair rail white, and above the faintest dove gray.
The built in happened... we really enjoyed this project together. The kitchen was beginning to feel more like ours. It added so much more storage to our kitchen too.
The backsplash came earlier this year, such a simple project, and yet it made a huge impact in our kitchen. The pattern is something I have always been fond of. I am an old soul and tend to lean towards those classic staples when it comes to decor.
Over the years, we added more storage with the pine cabinet we painted white next to our refrigerator. We also added a small cabinet with a granite top for our microwave to set on.
Storage is key in this kitchen. We need oodles of it to hold all of my vintage treasures... oh, and I guess we need it to hold food too. Oh, and pots, and pans, and all of those kitchen accessories we need. If it were up to me, the cabinets would be filled with vintage dishes, and nothing else!
Eating? Who cares! I need storage for all of my vintage finds! There is a pretty high probability if I had more storage, I would find more items to fill it with. I need to adopt the idea of bring something home, let something leave... only that does not sound as much fun to me.
Minimalists would never understand my tchotchke approach in decorating our home. I laugh when I think back to a friend who came to visit me at my mom's house one day. He said, I knew you would be a tchotchke family. I replied what is that supposed to mean?
He smiled and said nothing, just that I knew you would have every nook and cranny of your home decorated. I asked, is there any other way to decorate?
I am assuming I get it honest. There were always things layered in my mom's home. Longaberger baskets stacked to make side tables, and Christmas mantels decorated with candles, and greenery, and silver and gold ribbon... there were items on top of the end tables, and sofa tables, and even decorated underneath them too... there were flowers sewn into the tie backs of her lacey curtains around the bathtub... are you getting the idea yet?
I had a another friend visit when I was in high school and asked if the flowers were real. I said yes, she changes out the roses everyday so she has fresh flowers in the bathroom. The reply I received from that statement was absolutely hilarious! Wide eyed and surprised, he asked really? I laughed and indicated I was just kidding.
So, when I think about decorating, I guess I did get it honest, but I am guessing you too enjoy decorating or you may not be here... unless you come for the peanut stories. I get it, he is pretty cute, and does get himself into a lot of mischief around here which is always fun to read about.
What would you say is your decorating style?
I do not think I can honestly say I can identify with just one style, so I guess that would make me an eclectic decorator. One will never know what will draw me in to a piece.
Christmas in the kitchen was fun, taking ordinary items and making them Christmasy. I added ornaments to a beverage dispenser, added a ribbon to our utensil holder, placed a punch bowl on the counter with silver garland inside of it. None of these things were very difficult, in fact they were so easy. The wreaths on our cabinets are actually candle rings, just add ribbon to hang them from and you are done.
Christmas doesn't have to be difficult, make it what you want it to be. If you want it to be easy, then make it easy. I have certain things I like to see every Christmas. I do not care how they are displayed as long as I get to see them. Do what makes you enjoy the holidays. If that is putting out one ceramic tree and calling it done, as long as it makes you happy, then go with it.
No reason to feel the pressure to decorate, or go out and buy more, you can make your home look like a million bucks using things you already have around the house. Everything shown here I already had, the only purchase from above was the ribbon. Can you believe I only used one spool of ribbon for it all? I was super surprised too! So for $4.00, I made the entire kitchen over because I used what I had.
