Lighter Brighter Kitchen Reveal

Alright, here's a reminder of what our kitchen looked like during the photo tour. 

It was alright. Kind of boring and too traditional for my taste. Even a little country looking with those baskets and apples. I'm not really sure what I was thinking except I was working within the confines of those cream walls that wouldn't allow for anything too bright. Well, not anymore...

Oh my goodness! 

I lo--ove Befores and Afters! 

Here's how it looks now:

I like it so much better. Except for that little pink bowl on the island...it's driving me crazy. In it's place, I'll one day have my butter in a dish like the one below. My mom started keeping our butter in a container like this (only red) when I was a girl. If you cut your stick of butter in half, both halves fit perfectly. 

(link)

Won't that be wonderful? Here's the other side:

And the desk corner...

Here's the breakdown of what's changed and what it cost:

1. Directors chair we scored on Freecycle! So much more comfortable and I plan to sew my own cover in a fun print.
2. Place mat from Pier One ($5) and bowl from TJMaxx ($9)
3. Painted the frame with Martha Stewart craft paint from Michaels (color: Sea glass) 
4. Spray painted my baskets - hard to see, but I got carried away and did the "dipped" basket look, with beige on the bottom half

1. Tea towels - pink from fab.com ($2 after a $10 gift card) and orange from Pier One ($4)
2. One of my birthday presents was this lime green egg timer from Anthropologie. It was a little splurge but since I'm one of their biggest fans, they send me a 15% off during my birthday month and I was lucky enough to be in Denver where there's a store. (We don't have one here.) I love that it's magnetic and retro and gives me that extra timer I need when I've got something going in the oven AND the stove...which you know, happens all the time!  

The only other things I purchased were the silverware caddie (sky blue - next to the sink) and the various vases/bowls (two green, one orange - no I didn't buy the pink one, it's just trying to make do). All these were from Goodwill and totaled $9. Oh, and the green mini strainer - also from TJMaxx. It was $7 and I'm really excited because I've wanted one of these for a while. Now I can wash berries and not use a strainer that takes up half my dishwasher! I got rid of a medium size one that I've used for this purpose, following the good ol' One-In-One-Out rule.

If you're not familiar with the One-In-One-Out rule, it's a way to help establish or maintain minimalism. While you're attempting to cut down your stuff, or even after you do, accumulating more is like undoing the work you just did. This rule means if you add or replace something, simultaneously get rid of something. I used this rule with the silverware caddie too. I hate to spend money on something I've already bought, but the dark brown one I had was really draggin' us down. When the little yellow butter dish comes my way, I'll get rid of my current one. 

In this do-over, I was conscious of how much it cost and I tried to add color in items I'd use rather than fluff. In the end, I spent $36 which isn't much more than I would've paid for a gallon of good paint, back when I didn't know about paint re-tinting! I have a short list of things I'd still like to add, like a rug and simple curtains, but I'm happy to wait until the timing's right, budget-wise. For now, I'll just enjoy this lighter, brighter scene. 

P.S. The paint color is Stone Gray by PPG (available at Pittsburgh Paints) and is the same color we have in our main floor bath.