Our Kitchen In Black And White

I thought I'd share with you some

photo's of our kitchen.

It's one of the two rooms left to be renovated.


(Blogger is acting up!)

It's a room in transition
with two white appliances
and a new
stainless steel refrigerator
and stove.

I have plans to paint the cupboards
after adding a small crown molding
to the top and bottom
but there's no use starting
that until we do the other
renovations.

One day we'll have bead board

ceilings and crown molding

 different open shelves

and the old wallpaper

will be removed.

See the bricks in between 

the fridge and the open shelves?

Hubby wants to tear that unused

chimney out and re-arrange

that corner. 

We're thinking of building

the fridge into the corner

angled and then having

open shelving on both

sides with a bit of a counter

and then hidden shelving underneath.

Any thoughts on this?

I'd love to hear what you have to say.

So there you have it.

It may not be a fancy kitchen

but it's well used and loved

and suits this old farmhouse

and that's all that's important

to us.

Do you love your kitchen?

Do I Really want to start?

Country Living

I'm trying psych myself up to start 

painting our kitchen cupboards. 

I really don't want to start but I 

know that once I do ...

I'll be on a 'roll'. 

Before I buy paint I need to 

find a fabric for under the kitchen

sink. 

But that's where I'm having problems.

I need to find the PERFECT patterned fabric

keeping in mind that...

1) It must tie in the colors of the dining room.

2) It needs to have that 'farm cottage' look.

3) It needs to be able to hide dirt from

hubbies...OK.. AND my dirty hands.

4) It needs to be washable.

I haven't found one that jumps

up and says 'pick me!' yet.

But I'm looking.

Decor Pod

Since I'm not going to tear up the 

flooring and we have a grayish

floor

I'm thinking of painting the lower

cabinets a soft blue/gray

and the upper cabinets 

an aged white.

I wished they were as nice as

the cupboards in these photo's!

Harvest Furniture Blog

We will be adding some molding to 

the top and trim to the bottom 

and hopefully some brackets

to give them a custom look similar

to the cupboards below.

I'd also like to add some 'legs'

under the lower cupboards

like the ones in the photo above.

Harvest Furniture Blog

For now our counter tops

will have to stay

but hopefully one day we'll replace 

them...even if it means touching up

what ever we mess up in the process.

Harvest Furniture Blog

I love all the crown molding in the photo below.

Doesn't this kitchen have character!

The Inspired Room

We will be installing bead-board to 

the ceiling and also crown molding

like we did in the rest of the house

including the bathroom.

Romantic Homes

Sure wish we had wood floors 

like the photo below.

But...we're being frugal so unless

hubby or I burn a hole in the flooring...

it stays. 

Eric Roth

So for now I am scouring Ebay for 

the perfect fabric and hopefully one

day soon I'll be pulling out the old

roller and paint brush. 

Until then...I'll keep looking for

fabric and inspiration.

Are you looking to start any 

home projects in the near future?

Maura :)

Country Cottage Style

Home and Garden

I love country cottage style.

I love it not only because we live in the country... in a farm cottage...on a farm... but because it is such a warm and comfortable style

that suits us.

                                    It seems to fit into just about any  

lifestyle whether you live in the city

a small town or the country.

Country Living

It's the kind of decorating style that makes you

feel at home as soon as you enter the house.

House To Home UK

It's nostalgia.

Home and Garden

It seems to recall a more slower paced

kind of life where the family

comes home to a home cooked

meal and sits around the

table and talks about

the events of

the day.

And visitors

are encouraged to

pull up a chair while another

plate is brought to the table.

Country Living

Cottge Living

A country cottage kitchen is one that is comfortable to work in. It's unpretentious. It's a kitchen where you

feel like getting your hands in flour

and kneading dough.

It's the smell of home made bread baking in the oven

and fresh chocolate chip cookies waiting

in the cookie jar.

A country cottage home is a place where you can put

your feet up and relax after a good meal on 

a cozy couch or chair and talk

about your day or just

read a good

book.

Country Living

Country Living

This style of home is cozy and unassuming.

It's a home that combines the past with the present and shows our love of family and what's important to us.

So enjoy expressing your personality and showing what the

definition of home means to you.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Maura :)

Pasta Primavera With Italian Turkey Sausage

This is a recipe that I took with me up to British Columbia this summer when we visited my family.

We had had a wonderful day of tubing down the river and swimming and sitting on the beach.

When we got home we got busy and made this recipe for the gang. Everyone loved it. So I thought I'd share it with you.

Pasta Primavera With Italian Turkey Sausage

2 cups uncooked pasta

1 LB Italian Turkey Sausage

4 cloves garlic

1/2 onion chopped

2 small zucchini chopped

2 small yellow squash chopped

6 Roma tomatoes chopped

20 fresh basil leaves

2 tsp chicken boullion or 2 chicken broth cubes

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 Cup grated parmesan cheese

1) Bring lg pot of water to boil. Cook pasta El Dente. Drain.

2) Cook onions and galic in small amount of olive oil. Add sausage and cook till done. Drain (I just start cooking the meat and then throw the onions and garlic in)

3) Add squash, tomatoes, basil, pepper, boullion or cubes. Stir well 

Cook covered for about 15 minutes then remove lid. Cook uncovered until squash is tender but not over-cooked. (about 15 min. more)

Remove from heat and add parmesan cheese.

Stir.

Enjoy!

Use your own judgment on when your squash is done as it may take more or less time. We added more squash to this recipe and we doubled it for our crowd. It's an easy one to play with and add things to and it's really good warmed up the next day. If there's any leftovers that is!

It's a great way to use up your squash and tomatoes and basil if you have a garden!

Me steaming up my daughters kitchen

Beach hair day...don't look too close as we just got back from the beach!

Youngest daughter Caity helping.

Lots of laughs

Nearly ready for the cheese

Caity's adding the cheese

Smells SO good

CHEERS!

This is Growers Apple Cider and I can only get it when we go up to BC.

It's SO GOOD!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It's SO easy and fast and certainly helps you keep up with your garden veggies.

Have a wonderful day!

Maura :)

Pantry Dreams

I miss having a pantry and lots of kitchen storage.

If I could build my dream kitchen here at the farm I think I would choose any one of these wonderful pantries. Imagine having an actual ROOM as a pantry!

In my last post I had a link to a kitchen renovation we did a few years ago when we lived in the city. When I drew the plans up for the new kitchen I made sure there was TONS of storage as we were coming from a tiny kitchen...and I mean TINY.

The only room for a pantry was to incorperate the fridge into a wall of cupboards which included a slide out pantry on each side of the fridge...a nice deep cupboard above the fridge a tall skinny pantry that could also be used as a broom closet if you took the shelves out and a coffee bar with cupboards above and below a small counter. 

The rest of the kitchen had some pretty ingenious cupboards that ended up giving us even more space than we needed. I think had we stayed in the house we would have filled those spaces eventually.

Here are a few pictures of the storage features from our previous renovation.

On the other side of the farthest slide out there was a pantry/broom closet that was stepped back like the coffee bar. There were also corner cupboards at the end of the clipped counters.

This was the most unique cabinet I had ever seen. This was in a corner that was too cramped to put in a lazy susan. those two drawers slid out from the left all the way back to the wall behind the sink. Once they were slid back in place the rounded shelf swun around into that space so the door could shut.

I REALLY loved this spice cabinet right near the stove.

This cupboard was perfect for us because I had some very large items that wouldn't fit on a lazy suzan. In the area to the right which you can't see you were able to put very tall items.

This was my favorite cupboard. It fit all my everyday pots and pans...even large ones! And above it do you see the drawer with two handles? It was actually one large drawer that was big enough to fit all my cutlery and carving knives can openers and lots of other handy items. And everything was organized!

As you can see I was already using this room before we were done the kitchen renovation and we were just starting on the dining room. I was VERY grateful to finally have an actual kitchen to cook in!

My pantry cupboard here at the farm

A little more pantry space from a 'dead' corner

These shelves weren't there before. I'm grateful to have them.

Now here at the farmhouse I may not have that dream kitchen to work in....but what I have serves the purpose with character and charm. With a little more work and creativity it will be the perfect kitchen....FOR ME.  

Inspiration

Even though we're getting things prepared for demolition on our back porch

and the building of the new screened porch

my mind is still on our kitchen.

Last week I showed some pictures of what our kitchen looks like now.

As I mentioned...we haven't done much to it because we knew we would be doing

some renovations one day.

I really don't want a major renovation...been there done that in another house.

This is a little farm cottage in the middle of 'no where' so spending a lot of money on a kitchen renovation just wouldn't be practical.

So we'll do a cosmetic reno that will include a beadboard ceiling with a plain crown molding and a small crown molding along the top of the cheap cupboards that were already in the house. Those I will paint. The walls we may just leave but re-do the trim work around some of the doors and the window. The floor...I'm not sure what I'm going to do there. The counter top will be changed too....something lighter for sure!

Everything will have a fresh coat of paint.

One thing I MUST have is a solar tube installed for the light I'll loose because of the screened porch being built right out the sunny east facing kitchen window. 

I really don't want to loose my sunshine but it will be worth it in the end.

I'm hoping the end result will be light and airy and have lots of country cottage charm.

Here are a few inspirational pictures that I've found.

We certainly don't have the archatectural details this kitchen has but I like the 'feel' of it.

This is a cute kitchen. I like the red but I don't think I'd want THAT much of it.

I love the feel of this kitchen. I wish I had my country sink we left in our last house we renovated.

You can see pictures HERE

This is the look I'm leaning towards.

I love that green and I think it would make our kitchen light and airy and would blend in with the rest of the house colors.

Here is another picture of the same kitchen.

I think white subway tiles for the back splash would look great.

So what do you think about this green kitchen?

I'd LOVE to hear what you have to say.

(photo's from Country Living and Costal Living)