Peaceful Sunday

                   Wishing you a peaceful Sunday!

                                                                            Carolyn

                                    

Customizing Our Rental Kitchen

After owning our own homes for over 17 years - it was hard to walk into a rental home that was nice but not our own taste. Renting has some limitations that ownership doesn't - but some freedom, too. Here is how I made the kitchen more my style without making permanent changes...

I shared Our Kitchen last January. Here are some pictures from that time.

BEFORE

It is big and roomy but dark. I wasn't fond of the bisque appliances with cherry stained cabinetry.

AFTER

By removing a cabinet for open shelves, painting the walls and building in the refrigerator I got more of the light and white that I wanted.

BEFORE

Bringing in our own appliances helped modernize the look.

AFTER

Notice that above the fridge and above the microwave - I made a box with pine wood to go above the cabinets so they look staggered. The white gives my kitchen a two tone look. I didn't paint any of these cabinets - I used:

Contact paper that I ordered on Amazon.

To be honest, I wanted to cover all the top cabinets in white contact paper but it was very hard to get the adhesive smooth on raised panel cabinet doors. Too much detail on the corners.

All I did here was take off the cabinet doors and covered the cherry cabinet frame above the microwave with white contact paper. The very top is a box made out of 1x12 pine that I painted white. It is only nailed in two places to secure it to the wall so it will be easy to get this kitchen back to "original" when we move on. Instead of showing more open shelves I hung this Shabby Black Art that I made from an old window. To see more details on how I covered the fridge - see the links at the bottom of this post.

BEFORE

I found the stove on Craig's list for $200, the microwave was on clearance for $150 at Lowe's. The fridge and dishwasher were ours already. Notice the goofy tile behind the bisque color stove (it was a diy project that didn't turn out so great - not my own, either) The "decorative accent tile" is not my style so I purchased a faux tin tile for $20 at Lowe's and it is applied with sticky velcro.

AFTER

I could have used two but a $20 investment covered the other stuff instead of having to spend double to go the whole width of the stove. It works.

So even though I spent a little bit of my own money here - I can take what I purchased with me or sell it when we leave. I am so happy with the changes and staying here doesn't sound so bad now that I have fixed the major things that bugged me.

 Here are the other projects I did that helped make this home feel a little nicer to us and make it more our own style. Click on the links below to see more "rental" fixes...

Painted Stairs

Vinyl Wood Floors

Custom Frame in Your Fridge

Remove a Kitchen Cabinet for Openness

Open Kitchen Shelving

Lighter, brighter and more of my own style.

sharing with: cozy little house, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

My 70 Mile Yard Sale Treasures

                                                            Hello everyone,
                            I thought I would share some of my treasures from last weeks 70 mile
                           yard sale on the eastern end on the Island.One of my favorite finds was
                           this old iron bed for the boathouse for $10. It inspired me to do a little
                           makeover in the boathouse.....yep already!

                                      I changed the way the bed goes in the boathouse and seems bigger this way.

                                 The old solid wood green door in the corner was from the same location -$5.
                The white wicker chair was $25-I will give you a better look at it soon but it might be a
                 different color.

                                                 Love the chippy green of the bed.

                             This beautiful handwoven green picnic basket was $30. I love it and
                              think I will store some lace and linens in it.

                                                 This old handmade pillow was $2.

                                           The beautiful old christening gown was $10 and the rack
                                        it is on was $2.

                                 The aluminium boat with 3 seats was definitely my biggest purchase. It has 3                                     seats in it so it is perfect for our grandchildren too.
                                 I got some other smaller things but have not photographed them yet. I think I
                                 did pretty good getting these treasures and it was a fun day-albeit a long one.
                                 My husband thought they should rename it the 12 hour yardsale-I am pretty
                                 sure he was happy I went with a friend this year!

                  Just a few quick shots to give you an idea of the sale. Tables were set up at homes or        businesses all along the road for miles......at least 70!

                                    Almost forgot - I bought a new birdhouse too,similar to the one on the left                                       $10.

                                     There are always antiques at several sites.

                                We enjoyed this stop down in Murray Harbour-lots of variety.

                                   

Lots of traffic!

                                         Passed by this pretty country church.

                                                        Country scenes.

    We enjoyed our picnic lunch here by the lighthouse in Point Prim.

    I was a lovely day!

  Hard to believe the weekend is here again- I better stay home this weekend and get some work done
  we have some tours from Japan over the next couple of weeks and then time to do the fall clean up
 in the garden. However, we are promised some warm sunny days this weekend so I am looking
forward to enjoying them.

I am joining Show & Tell Friday at My Romantic Home.

Hope you have a lovely weekend!
Carolyn

Old Fence Features in the Laundry Room

Any time I can improve my 'doing laundry' experience - I will. Let me show you my latest projects for storage and folding laundry by using an old wooden fence.

I recently stacked my washer and dryer, which gave more room for a table. You can see that post HERE to see the difference. I fold lots of laundry for my family and I wanted a large space to spread it all out.

So I topped (4) 4x4's with a section of old fencing that I had used in Luke's Room and to Frame in My Fridge. I used a 1x2 on the front to make it look more finished and cross beams on two ends to make the legs more sturdy. The little iron bracket you can see in the photo below is more for decoration.

Underneath fits the garbage and an end table to store bleach, softeners and dryer sheets.

Above the table hangs the piece of the fence that I cut down to fit it into this space. I used an iron nail button to secure a little wire basket to the center of it.

I got hooked on these Tide laundry soap pods while staying with my mom this past summer. So I can store them here for easy reach.

Or use the basket for fresh flowers.

That 'sock' bucket (aka sock hell) works great for odd socks waiting for their mate to make it through a batch of laundry. I didn't want to take up my valuable folding space so I used 's' hooks and a chain to raise the bucket up and over the shelf bar above.

The wooden drying rack fit right under the window. I love having a window in the laundry room.

The laundry room feels open, easy to work in and bright with a rustic edge of style.

Maybe that will help me want to do more laundry...

Sharing with: Common Ground, French Country Cottage, Funky Junk Interiors

featured @ I LOVE THAT JUNK

Afternoon Tea in the Conservatory

                                                               Hello everyone,
                                The little conservatory on the back of the boathouse that my husband and son built
                               in the past year is a lovely place to enjoy a little quiet time and a cup of tea.

                                      I have surrounded myself with some garden beauty while enjoying
                               my tea and taking some time to write in my journal.

                                Peeking in through the old french doors with the etched glass.

                                I have a collection of old postcards that my aunt had saved for many years.

                              As the time for tender annuals is almost past here I took some in to enjoy
                             in the conservatory.

                               Love having the plants soaking up the sun in here.

      I am looking forward to more sunny afternoon teas surrounded by some of the garden beauty
                that I enjoy.

                   Guess,I haven't written since the 70 mile yard sale. We had beautiful weather and my friend and                   I covered a lot of territory in our 12 hour day but still didn't get to all the sales. We were both                       happy with our day and the new treasures we found.My biggest purchase was a flat bottomed                        boat for our pond but more on all that later.

                  Thank you for visiting,

                  Carolyn