A Kitchen Chalkboard - or two - or three ..................

I don't have much wall space in the kitchen .................

But I do have hutch space - and not one to ever leave anything clutter free I decided to create a chalkboard on the side of it !

A little picture molding - and voila - a place to keep notes ( and believe me this is going to come in very handy - since my memory is horrible these days )
This could so easily be done on a pantry door - or even a kitchen cabinet door ( if you HAVE to have a chalkboard and don't have wall space, that is LOL )

Since I painted the whole unit in chalkboard paint it was pretty easy - I put a coat of polyurethane over everywhere BUT the section I want to use as an actual chalkboard

And then because one wasn't enough - I painted an old clipboard I had

( I kept it open with a twist tie so I could paint under the clip )

I added a stencil ( with a chalk pen )

found a stand at the dollar store

Which was the perfect size to rest the clipboard on -

And then what the hay - while I was at the dollar store I found a cutting board with a hanger on top
for 2.00

And made one last one

probably a terrible cutting board - but it makes for a great little art piece

I added a hook to hang a whisk from

Okay I've got to beat it myself now - I have too many appointments and errands today and too many layers of clothing to put on to try and keep my core temperature at a level I can live with .............
Hoping this cold snap leaves soon - it's really been unbearable lately

I may hang a chalkboard from every piece of furniture I own LOL !!!

Have a wonderful day everyone !
Much love
Me

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AN EXTRAORDINARY DAY

Adding Planks to a Kitchen Table

Good morning everyone -

It rained cats and dogs here yesterday - and when it does that - for some reason my brain starts getting a little creative...............( think of trying to entertain a child on a rainy day - ain't easy )

Smack in the middle of working on the plank wall - ( because I seem to have a huge problem with finishing anything lately ) another idea was born................what if I took my little farmhouse table ( which does in fact open up to double the size in the photo below - you can see that post HERE ) and added planks to the top to make it even bigger - a real " work station " type of top?

in our previous home

I quickly ran to get the left over planks - there were 5 left over - and would you believe it - 5 fit perfectly for what I wanted to do - ( if that's not a sign that it had to be done I don't know what is )  I'm not sure why it looks lower than the counter top in photos - they're almost the same height

Suzan says - OMG John - I just had such a fantastic idea
John says - Oh no............
Suzan says - I want to plank the antique farmhouse table in the kitchen
John says - ARE YOU INSANE?  THAT'S AN ANTIQUE - I'M NOT SCREWING ANYTHING INTO THE TOP OF THAT..................
Suzan says - But
John says - NO - N.O. - NO WAY - FORGET ABOUT IT

I have a thinking ( SHOWER ) cap that I keep in the linen closet - ( you can actually see me wearing it HERE ) I sometimes use it when I'm painting - seriously - especially if I'm painting a tall piece where paint may end up on my hair -  but it also works for thinking strangely enough - and within minutes I had a plan ( because I'm nothing - absolutely nothing - if not determined.

Suzan says - What if I had a way where the original top would not be affected at all?
John says - Well that's impossible - how are you going to stop the piece from sliding all over the place without screwing it into the wood?
Suzan says - LIKE THIS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First we put brackets underneath the planks to hold them all together

Next we flipped it over and ran a pencil along the underside where the " real " table ends

And put a piece of molding on either side to hold the plank top in place - like this

Ideally we would have put molding on all 4 sides - but I couldn't afford the space it would take to make the table larger in depth - only length - but a piece of anti slip rubber ( like you use under carpets ) will hold it perfectly.
This is how it looks underneath - locking it in

Next I painted the top with ASCP Pure White...............again imperfection is fine - this is only the first step

Once that was dry - I made a wash with French Linen ( I eyeball it at this point - but half water - half paint is usually a good rule of thumb )

This took very little paint - maybe 3 tablespoons - this little bit was all I needed

After brushing it on

Next - ( and I don't have a photo of this step ) I took a damp cloth and wiped the entire surface.
I'm a very fast painter - if you aren't - this last step should be done in sections because a " wash " dries very quickly.

When you're done you should have a piece that looks like sun aged driftwood

This piece is now large enough for me to have a small prep area

I feel like I should have my own cooking show now !!!

Suzan says - can you take a couple of photos for me?
John says - of what?
Suzan says - of me, in the kitchen, in front of the new table
John says - Okay

I hurriedly pulled together some accessories

John says - Oh for God's sakes, I don't have time for this nonsense
Suzan says - c'mon - it'll be funny

Suzan says - Wow - I thought I was the world's lousiest photographer
John says - Is it bad?
Suzan says - Well it's very blurry which I don't mind at all - but I don't look anything like Giada de Laurentiis
in this whatsover..................
John says - Who the hell is that?

Are you impressed with my planked table idea?
No?  How about if I told you I painted it and white washed it in my favorite  little black dress?
Yes I did - I most certainly did!  ( I like to live on the edge like that )  I used to go dancing till the wee hours when I felt like having fun.  Now I sometimes paint in " good " clothes instead.

John says - that's the last thing we're doing to that table, you understand?
Suzan says - yessir ( but only because I can't think of a single thing more I could do to it myself.

We added a shelf on the bottom HERE

and height to it HERE

and now we've added some " girth " lol
and it's removable if and when we choose to take it off
NOT A SINGLE DROP OF THE ORIGINAL WOOD WAS DAMAGED IN CREATING THIS POST...................

Have a wonderful day all !
I'm going to chop and dice up Corn Pops and have a bowl of cereal at the table now - and then I'm going to put polyurethane on it to protect it.  ( 4 coats - since it will be getting a lot of use )
In my little black dress.

If anyone from the Food Network wants to contact me please drop me a line here on the blog - we can discuss salary.
Have a wonderful day!
Much love,

Partying here !
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Hell's Kitchen ( transformed )

Good morning everyone !

I've had quite a few emails asking when I was going to show the kitchen finished and I realized last week that I've only shown bits and pieces of the kitchen so far - so thought I'd try to show it to you in it's entirety - which is a difficult thing to do because it's a small kitchen ! ( you don't want to know some of the positions I had to get in to get these photos )
Most of them you will have seen before because - well - they're better photos than I was able to take today lol

So here we go - I'm just about as ready as I'm every going to be !

We started off with this
A kitchen that we had to completely gut down to the studs 2 days after moving in ( I'll do you a favor and not repeat what was behind those walls )

Not only did the walls and ceilings have to come down - they also had to be thoroughly disinfected with tons of bleach.................that being done was the biggest relief of all.

The kitchen today looks like this

Because it's a small kitchen I decided to have a niche built for the fridge - every square inch counts as those of you that have small kitchens know :)  Having it flush against the kitchen wall is a huge space saver.
The back door leads out to what I'll very loosely call the " mudroom " so I was able to take the space from there - and while they were doing it I decided to build a little niche for the microwave as well - to save counter space.

Here's the view from that black door and my favorite part of the kitchen.- you can see that I used industrial type of shelving flanking either side of the stove - I picked these up at IKEA for 15.00 each - they're discontinued.

And the stove backsplash is simply a mirror I had on hand

In order to keep the sink centered to the window - I had wine cabinets ( or water ? ) installed on either side of it - this kept the configuration I needed

same thing for the cooking section - except there I went for a place to store cookbooks ( which still aren't unpacked completely 6 months later ) excuse the mess of it - eventually it'll only house books - they're next to the stove for easy access :)

Although I really wanted a marble countertop - things happened and the budget had to be tweaked a little to allow for the wiring to be completely updated included a new panel box - oh and an implant for my tooth
So we went with marble tiles 12 X 12 for the time being - hopefully this will be changed out next summer for the " real " thing - but I'm pretty happy with is as a " make do " alternative for the time being
This came to 300.00 - the marble slab would have come to 3000.00 - it's light and clean looking - and I love
that it's reflective.
That back splash you see are marble " thresholds " that are placed at bathroom doors - and work perfectly.

I also created a kitchen window sill shelf using one of them

Although this was a frugal makeover - I DID splurge on my French Country window - it opens inwards and I'm still in love with it

I'm also still in love with the little window that I chose to keep - I painted it black - the glass is original with waves and dimples and a little latch -

I chose open plate racks on either side of the window instead of cupboards

and placed a hutch on the opposite wall for dishes and such - it's a small kitchen and I wanted it to look a little more " open " ( additional dishes are kept in the dining room hutch ) but this is perfect for the everyday ones we use.

I wallpapered the back for a little more impact ( you thought I'd say " pop of color " didn't you? LOL )

I originally wanted a tin ceiling - alas - once again the budget was attacked by something else -
Because I wanted the very high ceilings ( which had previously been lowered by panels ) to have some interest  I opted for panels from Reno Depot ( which is just like Home Depot here in Canada - I go to both regularly )
These are not the ones I bought but just wanted you to see what they look like prior to installing - they're mdf - and cost roughly 150.00 to do in total - aproimately 25.00 a panel - again a nice alternative ( to something I really wanted )

There are 4 squares per panel

and it was finished off with crown molding

The lights over the farmhouse table were purchase from Amazon - for 24.99 each - I have no idea why but they're now 65.00 each - I have filament lights in them and they look really pretty at night

ok - skip the above photo - that was a total fail LMHO - I can't get the filament !!!

As you can see in little snippets above I went with black or black and white artwork on the fridge wall
It's the only wall where I could place artwork - and I wanted it to have an impact.

Which ties in with the original door that I painted black
You can also see that I have a " thing " for niches - I had one built for the microwave as well to clear
up counter space...............

Outside the kitchen is a room we'll be turning into a walk in pantry - this is also the outside access to the pool area.  I'll continue the black and white tile into there as well.

I painted a little frame that reads " MANGE "  with chalkboard paint I had on hand - so I could change out the message from time to time  UPDATE:  Mange means Eat in French - not mange as in what dogs get like some of you questioned - OMG - I'm laughing my head off here - I might change it up to Fleas or Heartworm ..................

and of course you've seen my vintage storage door ! ( which is tucked in a corner )

And I think that's about it.......................it's.not my dream kitchen - but still - it's fresh enough to remember the way it looked when we first came to view it - and so I'm still a little thrilled when I come down the stairs each morning - and the light is just starting to creep in

Is it time for the before's yet?

Much love, ( please forgive any mistakes - I'm falling asleep and way too tired to proof read lol )
Oh and the floor - I forgot to mention the floor - these are stick on tiles that we paid around 120.00 for.
You can read my thoughts on them HERE

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