It took me over two years to decide what I wanted to do with my kitchen.  My first kitchen had been the size of a small bathroom and had no dishwasher or major appliances.  I was able to hang a few cheap veggie prints on the wall and throw a cheap rug on the floor and that was the extent of my decorating.  When we moved into our condo, I was able to add a clock and a few other touches but I still had no real room or inspiration to do anything with the kitchen.  Finally, we built and moved into our first real house and suddenly I had an enormous kitchen and absolutely no idea what to do with it.  I tossed around several themes, including a wine theme, a Paris Bistro theme, and even an Italian theme.  Finally, one day I walked into the fabric store on a mission for fabric for an entirely unrelated project.  I looked across the store and saw MY fabric.  I saw it and instantly knew I wanted to do my kitchen around this idea.  My only problem was that it was a very exotic theme and I wasn't sure how to approach hubby with it.  I decided to surprise him with a kitchen makeover instead and the game was afoot....

I spent several months collecting and hiding and recycling things for the project.  This is a picture taken right after we finished painting.  I managed to volunteer my husband to chaperone an overnight 5th grade graduation trip to a camp.  As soon as I loaded up the car with sleeping bags, back backs, water bottles and bug spray and hubby and the youngest son drove off to the school to meet the rest of the class in the parking lot, my mother (who had been lurking around the corner at the top of the street sped down and pulled into the driveway.  We immediately emptied the kitchen of most of the little things and started painting.  We moved out the fridge and put the first brushload on the wall at 0745 that morning.  I selected a colour from Duron called Daplin.  it was a nice warm frappacino colour that I knew hubby would hate if I just showed him the color chip.  But I really wanted to create a warm but not dark atmosphere in the kitchen.  I invested in the paint, spending $30 for a gallon (on sale at Duron) because I think that is one of the things you should spend the extra money on.  We only ended up only needing one coat.

This is another shot of the other side of the kitchen after we painted and moved the stove and fridge back in place.  I had moved the kitchen table into the center of the room near the island because I didn't want to try and get the two heavy pieces of furniture in and out of the kitchen.

After we painted the kitchen, we recovered the chairs and the bench (more on the bench later) with the fabric that started it all.  This is a picture of my mom...on the left is the original fabric that the chairs came with.  I have hated that fabric since the day I bought the chairs but I always knew I would recover them.  I was so excited about how good the new fabric looked.  It had such a rich and warm and lush feel to it.  When all four chairs were done I really felt like things were coming together.

This is a shot of the kitchen that night after we hung the curtains.  I went with a sheer crushed voile curtain with a slightly darker linen stripe in it.  The curtains rods and fancy sconces and finials were from my mom.  She had them in her basement and had no need for them anymore so I recycled them.  In the right corner, you can just see the baker's rack I got from Wal-mart at an incredible price.  Originally it had been over $100 but I managed to stumble on it on sale for $39.95.  The rack fit perfectly in the corner of the kitchen and I use it mostly for plants because I have a taller dark wood bookshelf I use for cookbooks that is on the right with the fern on top.  The yellow object on the table is the drill we had been using to put in the brackets for the curtains.

This is a shot of the final decor on top of the cabinets.  A majority of the baskets I already had.  I purchased the large round terra cotta coloured platter for a nice price at Pier One Imports.  I also added a basket of eucalyptus in the far right corner and a black and gold urn in the right corner.  The picture is of a Thai fishing boat on a beach and I got it for free because the glass in the lower left corner was cracked and broken.  I simply placed baskets and greenery in front of it and hid the crack.  On the right, above the fridge I have a lovely piece of hand-woven fabric from Cyprus that was sent by a friend and if you look closely, you can see some of the pieces of Turkish copper my friends in Turkey sent for the project.  On the island, I place a vase of fuchsia coloured peonies because I love those flowers and wanted a pop of colour in there.  That is also why I added the Thai fishing boat picture.  I wanted a little blue, but not too much.  On the lower lever of the island I placed a wooden bowl full of fruit (my kids eat fresh fruit each day) on a nice art deco wooden tray that I scattered some polished river rock on.   Click here to continue to the next page.....