Sunday, January 31, 2016

Cupboard Anthropologist

The mudroom into the kitchen

We're moved in and are living out of boxes.  Unpacking the kitchen has been a challenge.  I've decided to cover the shelves with contact paper, but first I have to remove the old stuff. 

Each cupboard and drawer has told me a different story as I excavated the layers of past strata.  One cupboard held three layers of contact paper; 90's tan filigree, 80's heart wreaths, 70's checkered green and then underneath, pistachio green paint.  On some shelves linoleum has been affixed from different decades.  Inside the structure there's an even older hint of yellow paint.  

I wonder about those before me.  Why not cover everything in one pattern?  Why do some places and not others?  And why oh why, did none of you just update the whole kitchen?

In its defense, all the cupboards are very well built.  Nice thick sturdy wood, every door still fits tightly still.  The original hinges and handles are still shiny and in good working order.  It's like going back in time while trying to live modernly.

Here's the before of one of the cupboards:




At one time, somebody painted the outside and front of the shelves, brown.  They also didn't do any taping, so it's all over the inside of the doors too.  

I decided to go a neutral cream on the shelves and overlap the front edge so it looks like they've been painted white.  To spice it up, I added a sage green patterned paper to the back.  Sage green will be the accent color in the kitchen to give it a little pop of color.  I would love to remove the cupboard doors here, but hubby is against it.

Here's the cupboard with the new paper applied.  Much cleaner and lots more fun!  I've put my red and white Fiesta dishes and love the little board for the cups.  I'll post a photo of that once I wash the dishes again.


The excavation continues, I'm about a fourth of the way through.  Time to get out my tools and do some more.

1 comment:

  1. Take the doors off. A kitchen is a woman's domain. Go for it. He will adjust.

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