Tuesday, March 31, 2009

~ My French Country Kitchen~

 Hi there,  and welcome to my french country kitchen! 
Grab a cup of coffee and I'll tell you about how I removed some cabinets and redecorated it on a budget!


The photo below was how the kitchen looked before... 
very closed in by the
overhead cabinets above the peninsula.
My apologies for the poor quality of this photo but it was taken before I had a digital camera!
 
After many years of wanting those upper cabinets removed over the peninsula,
 I decided one day out of the blue to loosen the bolts that held them to the ceiling and discovered that it might be fairly easy to take them down.

(NOTE: I don't recommend trying something like this when you are home alone)! 

I got them half way down and discovered that they weighed a ton, and had to make an emergency call to hubby at work to hurry home an help me before they came crashing down!
(Can you picture a scene from I Love Lucy..lol!!)  LUCY you did what?!!! 
Oh... you've got some splaining to do!!

At any rate the cabinets finally came down.
 

Here it is after all opened up and looking much better!  
The open cabinet you see in the photo below was where they were attached.  
Which left half open and a door on the other side, 
also a whole lot of holes where the other cabinets had been attached. 
 Now, I couldn't have that!
Solution...  Add trim moulding and stain it to match and voila!! 
Cute open display cabinet, and open kitchen!
I had always wanted a pot rack to hang my copper from,
so I transformed a white wrought iron light fixture that we had taken down
from outdoors and removed the light fixture,
 then spray painted it in flat black.

Above I added more wood appliques below sink
Above is my
   black antique reproduction Swedish Mora clock I bought on sale from J.C. Penney. 
(sorry, it's no longer available)

My old hutch above...
now replaced with this one below that I found on Craigslist!
  

I found this great designer (Robert Allen) fruit motif fabric at Wal-Mart for 3.00 a yd. 
So I bought the whole bolt and made window treatments, chair cushions and recovered this office chair that was a thrift store find, giving a cohesive look to the kitchen area.

I also built the farmhouse table to use as a desk, from a set of table legs found at a resale store
and bought the top and apron from Home Depot and stained them to match the legs.

The wallpaper above the paneling (which I intend to change or paint eventually) was a solid olive green grass cloth.  I primed and painted over it and applied a border that matched the fabric.  Then stenciled the design below it by making my own stencil using posterboard and a fleur de lis design.

I made the window treatment on kitchen door using the same fabric.
*****
Some day I'd really love to have some new cabinets and granite countertops and new flooring, but until then I've tried to make my kitchen as charming as possible on a budget.

I'm so glad you could stop by, and hope you enjoyed the tour!!
Sherri :-)

6 comments:

The Stylish House said...

Sheri,
I get so excited to see a new face on my site. I have not been blogging long but have been having a wonderful time. We have a lot in common; my DD is an only child who is on her own, and took Griffin her kitty with her. It is great to see them grow up and start their own lives, but I also turned to the computer hence my blog.
You did a great job on your kitchen. Let’s face it if you have a fat pocketbook it is easy, but you did it with clever ideas. I am a big DIY gal; honestly I would rather take a sad little orphan piece and transform it. It really is all about making the right choices to get that pulled together look. I can tell that hutch you found second hand is a good piece; it looks like it might be maple or cherry. I covet your grandfather clock. I have the perfect spot waiting for it at my house. I can’t believe I am writing this at 4 am. Snoring husband syndrome! I will enjoy following you, it is great to meet you…~Cathy~
Wow, I am honored to be your 1st follower and your 1st commenter. Blessing to you and your blog!

Bargain Decorating with Laurie said...

Sherri, thank you so much for stopping by my blog. Welcome to Blogland! Your kitchen looks great. I look forward to getting to know you. laurie

Chari at Happy To Design said...

Ohhhh Sherri...your kitchen is gorgeous!!! I love, love, LOVE IT!!! Girl, you've done a fabulous job with redecorating this room!!!

First of all, I just adore that beautiful fabric...the black with the fruit!!! Ohhh my!!! It's a fabric that I would have definitely picked for myself! It looks fabulous made into curtains and all of your accessories!!! Can't believe that you got it for just $3/yd...great buy!!! Love your fleur de lis paint treatment over the grass cloth too! You are really such a talented lady!!! I'm so impressed, you build...paint...sew...decorate! Is there anything that you can't do? Hehe!!!

You have some really beautiful furniture too...that Grandfather clock is gorgeous!!! Ohhh..and I love your idea for the pot rack...genius...using a light fixture!!! It's so pretty with your copper pots and pans hanging from it! I also love the wall that you did with all of the pretty copper molds...sooo pretty!!!

Well my new found friend...you have one of the prettiest homes I've ever seen!!! And I love this kitchen!!! Thank you so much for sharing it with us...you are such an inspiration!!!

I see that this was your very first blog post! Ohhhh my...I have thoroughly enjoyed the tour and look forward to seeing more!!!

Warmest wishes,
Chari

Gloria said...

Love your kitchen, especially love that black fabric! Great choice!
Best regards,
Gloria

Unknown said...

Love the fruit material. And want that clock. You did a wonderful makeover on your kitchen. Honestly when i saw the before picture i was shocked. lol

Dawn said...

Beautiful Sherri. I love that you kept the pine cabinets but updated them. I heart knotty pine!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin