Dirty Little Secret

I hate to start a post off with ugly, so I thought I'd open this post with a picture that is inspiring some of the changes in our kitchen.


Sometimes Bloggers present themselves in a manner that make readers think their lives are perfect. I hope you never feel that way here. I love my life, but it's far from perfect. My house is often messier than I'd like. My children are often sassier than I'd like. My husband is often lazier than I'd like (although to be fair, for the last couple of weeks, he's been on fire!). My budget is always lower than I'd like.

In an effort to prove my less than perfect existence, I'm sharing pictures of my kitchen with you. I even made them extra big so you can appreciate them that much more. The quality is crap, but who cares really? I'm challenged to find anything I like about this room. My Momma always said, If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Well. So. Hmm. I'm glad to have a working dishwasher? Those corks are a nice touch? How 'bout that tile work? I'm so glad there is more of it in the MASTER BATHROOM?

Saturday morning I woke up thinking it was a normal day. Then I walked into the kitchen and thought, I.just.can't.take.it.any.more. Then I was all like, Hey Sweetie. I think we should demo the kitchen today. Since we were headed out the door to visit friends for the day, we were rendered helpless to do anything about it. Until the evening.

The picture above is an in progress shot. Still an ugly duckling but she is starting to show some potential. The upper cabinets are all coming down. The same horizontal planking we used in the Studio closet makeover  will be installed and we will add two rows of open shelving. We have little budget, a bit of a plan and very little common sense. Sometimes you just have to dive in before you can think better of it (something my Hubby has been promoting for this project for awhile). This ridiculous way of doing things has some how paid off for us several times over the last couple of years, which is really just encouraging us when perhaps it shouldn't.

Since we can't create our dream kitchen right now, we are in the process of just trying to make it livable, make it so that I don't break down in tears every time I'm in there. Kidding. A little.

I'm still undecided as to how to handle the 50 year old texture spray painted, cabinets. Sand, scrape, paint and new hardware? Skirt them and pretend they don't exist? I don't use any of the cabinets. They gross me out. My Suburban, new house owning friends get this. My Village, old house owning friends don't. I use one drawer for silverware which I have bleached, scrubbed and lined. I'm a special kind of crazy. I get it.

The first 1 and the last 3 pictures are from my Pinterest boards and are some of what's inspiring our mini makeover. I'll be back very soon with one of the only things I do like about my kitchen and a recipe that you will hate me for.