Kitchen Styling

Years ago now, I had the fun of designing a layout and installing (with Jeff and my father) kitchen cabinets into what was a bare room with a stove and a fridge in our 1920's house. I fitted things around the existing windows and woodwork, so there was (thankfully) no ripping out other than a few short lengths of chair rail. Ever since then, I have been looking for a plate rack to go on one remaining bare wall. I finally found one that would be well suited!

Here is a before picture showing the small stretch of wall above my dry goods area/rolly cart.

Jeff did some measuring and affixed the metal hanger to the wall. (We settle for 'more or less' measurements in an old house!)

And then he hung the rack for me! (That's the July 7th batch of pickles below the shelf.)

It was set up just in time for decorating with some new Emma Bridgewater pottery I'd ordered from England in the recent sale. I love the way the new pottery mixes and matches with my mostly vintage hand-me-downs and the few newer things I've collected.

On the top shelf, the striped mugs are espresso sized. The polka dot pitcher is a 2 pint sized measuring jug. I plan to use the Union Jack creamer for cream/milk and the 'baby' mug for sugar. (At some point I will have to get something with the blue stars motif to go with my striped pieces and they will represent the 'stars and stripes' so I do not appear unpatriotic!) The little glass compote in the picture below is my salt cellar, with an espresso spoon for scooping. The dish was from my Grandmother, along with the basket and the mini cutting board (which I had given her when I was little).

I just love the vintage look of the Happy Cows mugs...here's a close up with a couple of older Britains metal toys.

Not all of my new things fit on the new shelf! (It was a very nice sale!) Some of my new things will go in the dining room or pantry. I bought a half price ('first') 'Christmas' teapot to go with the robin and berries mugs, bowls and small plates I've had for 5 years or so. The pieces mix and match so well and I actually think they are fine for any time of year.

I got a bunch of 'seconds' of plates and pasta bowls and mugs in the sale in the Hellebore pattern. The seconds were much less expensive and I don't have to worry about stacking them on shelves or putting them in the dishwasher since they come with some blemishes to begin with. I was so excited with my new things that I took the picture before I even washed off the grease pencil seconds marks. I splurged for 'firsts' on a matching teapot and jug though, for extra nice display purposes as well as use.

And the pasta bowls. Won't my homemade pasta be even better served in these?! The two little French bowls can hold fresh, grated cheese and olives to go with the pasta! Or pickles, when I am serving other things.

A certain tea towel ended up in my cart too...

The pottery from England was packed very securely with compostable brown paper, so after unpacking, I hauled the boxes out to our bin in the garden to throw all the paper in. Of course, the dogs thought this was great fun and that the box was a toy for them. Saffy claimed it for awhile and then finally let Silas have a turn too.

Perhaps they thought they were going to go for a ride? They do get wheelbarrow rides when they hop into that, so maybe they thought it was something similar. Such silly dogs!

There are still a few finishing touches I'd like to get to at some point in the kitchen, like maybe replacing some doors and putting some kind of rack/hooks? on one wall of the pantry, but for the most part the kitchen is done. Anything that wears out can hopefully be replaced with something very similar. For example, we had to get a new faucet this spring. It was impossible to get the same one as before, but we got a new one with an even taller spout than the last one and it is actually even better to use! I like when new things are better then old...often times I feel like it's very much the opposite.

It takes me years to get house things done, but fortunately part of the fun of housekeeping and decorating is the process. Now, I'm going back to arranging and rearranging my new pieces of pottery!