A Room a Month- Kitchen Update

Now that it's March, I thought I would update you on the kitchen progress. This room required a lot of work without much visual reward. Case in point, here's the before picture of the kitchen:

And here's the after (from the same angle):

You can tell it's the "after" because of the calendar on the fridge. January was the Texas flag in a field of bluebonnets. March is a much more disturbing picture of an armadillo. We like to scare the crap out of people when they visit! Come over anytime.

There are visual changes in the kitchen, though you can't really see them from this angle.

See? It is different. I took the doors off one set of cabinets so we could have some open shelving and display our very colorful (and pretty!) dishes.

Then I lined the back of the cabinet with wrapping paper, and voila! Instant color. It really does brighten up the space, despite what it may look like here.

Additionally, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. A lot. I took every single thing out of every single cabinet and wiped every available surface. I cleaned the coffee maker, the oven, the refrigerator, and the microwave. I labeled.

Oh, how I labeled.

I also rearranged a couple of cabinets to make things more functional. I didn't show a before picture of this cabinet because it was just too embarrassing. Let's just say, for sake of argument, that this cabinet looked like a Tupperware party and a cookbook store got married and started procreating willy-nilly. Now, it's organized bliss.

One last thing, I decided to make the big switch from plastic tupperware-esque containers to glass ones since "they" say you shouldn't microwave things in plastic anymore. I bought a set of nesting glass containers with lids at Costco for $20, and so far, it has met all of our food-storage needs.

I would have loved to get a new rug for the kitchen, but I couldn't find one I liked enough to spend the money on. For now, the one we have works fine. Mainly, February was all about cleaning and discovering just how dirty a kitchen can get in six months (the answer is pretty dirty).

March's room- here we come!

February Room a Month

It's February--which means it's time to tackle another room. This month, the kitchen is on the agenda, and I've got quite a task ahead of me.

I have several issues with the kitchen, the first being that the room gets no natural light. It's tucked back in a corner, which makes for a very efficient layout, but it's a little gloomy without any sunlight. Since I can't exactly change that, I do want to brighten the room up a bit.

Which brings me to my next point. When we moved in, Richard commented that our kitchen looks like the Apple store. Everywhere you look, it's white. I want to liven the room up with even more color.

Additionally, when we moved in here, we had SO much more space than in our old kitchen, and I wasn't exactly sure how to efficiently arrange things in the cabinets. Now that we've lived here a while, I have a much better idea of what's working (and what's not). I plan to rearrange some of what's going on behind those oh-so-white cupboards.

Finally, though Rich and I keep the kitchen pretty clean on a day to day basis, it could use a good deep cleaning. I plan on wiping down all the cabinets (inside and out), sweeping and mopping behind the appliances, and basically just cleaning in all the nooks and crannies.

Next time you see this room, it will be more functional, cleaner, and, hopefully, prettier too!