A TALE OF TWO ROOMS

Hi friends. Sorry I've been absent for a week or so, I've been working like crazy on our new closet office in our bedroom.  It's almost finished, but still needs a little more work.  I can't wait to show it off to you once it's done!

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On another note, my kitchen and dining room is seriously baffling me... Sure, I consider myself design savvy, but I hope I'm not the only one that can say that sometimes I design by error.... (meaning, I just keep making mistakes and changing it till it is right.) I'm sure it happens to a lot of people, but for me, sometimes I need to be cautious of what I buy and how it will look because were not the kind of people that can afford to fix every mistake.

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Anywho, you need a little history before I tell you my real dilemma.

This is my kitchen...... Which I hate.

From the cheep cupboards that should only belong in a garage, to the exorcist pea soup vinyl counter tops and floor!!  I HATE IT!!  It's probably the narrowest nonfunctional kitchen I've ever seen in my life. No romantic cooking with your husband in this kitchen!!! Unless you consider being wedged like a sandwich in between two nasty appliances from the 70's romantic.   I've done my best to make it look a little better.... Changed out the stupid plastic drawer pulls for nicer ones.... I even took the doors off the cupboards a while back to try an insinuate open shelving..... But lets be honest no one is fooling anyone hear.... This kitchen sucks!

This is my dining room........ Which I don't hate quite as much.

The table is wonky and takes up too much space... but I LOVE the chairs!  We recently ripped out a section of carpet because it was damaged.... But were planning to put wood looking laminate throughout the house hopefully within the next year.   I built my wall of shelves not to long ago.... and I LOVE them too!

The two rooms stand side by side and smack dab in the middle of our little condo by the sea.  You have to walk right in between the kitchen and the dining room to get to the other side of the house.

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Here is my little dream.....

 Rip out the horrible kitchen and extend it trough the dining room. It would wrap around the dining room and then pop out into the open area with a small island and a few stools.  We rarely ever eat at the dinner table unless we have company over.  It's mostly just a catch all for our filing papers and mail.  With a wrap around kitchen there will be more room for cooking and entertaining as well.  Maybe not for any fancy sit down dinners, but were potluck kind of people anyway.

Here is an idea of what I'm thinking.  The current kitchen is on the left.  Id leave the stove, sink and dishwasher over there, since the hookups are there.  On the right side, the fridge, a ton more counter space, my wall of shelves, and a little island with 2 or 3 bar stools.

The Grand Vision!

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The Dilemma......

The dining room is hardly functional at this point.  A design error on my part. For one, everything is so stark!  Prior to installing the shelving, the huge dandelion chandelier was a treat.  Now its just enormous and in the way. This really makes me so sad, because I really love it, but to get to my spices these days means I'm getting poked in the eye by an enormous paper flower!  Also after installing the wall of shelves, it made the room very vertical, and strait lined, so my round table is like a force against nature.  There isn't enough space to comfortably sit around it and its sticking out like a soar thumb.  *Sigh*

I love the wall shelving... so functional for us and lovely, it is for sure the keeper in this anomaly.

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What to do?....

Do I buy a new table that is rectangular to compliment the shelving on the wall?  It doesn't have to be a huge financial ordeal... Maybe even a picnic table that is old and rustic... or painted dark gray?

Or do I anticipate the dream and simply buy a small kitchen island and a few stools?

Thus leaving lots of space for the inevitable (or should I say hopeful) dream of wraping kitchen around the dining room.

What would you do?

I need some advice!!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!



THE PANTRY GETS A NEW HOME!

I've mentioned before in past posts that I've been strategiesing to move the pantry into open shelving in the dining room, thus leaving my walk in pantry to be converted into a walk in closet.  As much as Curt and I love living at casa del playa, it is after all a 750 square foot condo, and the space dedicated as the master closet, is well, not so master!  So the vision of this project was to make the pantry a more accessible, grab and cook kind of deal, along with creating a glorious walk in closet space in the hallway just outside our bedroom door.  YAY!

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And guess what!  I'm going to give you the whole tutorial!

Ready?

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First off, I wanted my shelves to look more industrial.  I first contemplated on making a huge rolling shelve unit made from gorgeous knotty wood, aluminum piping and metal plumbing attachments...  It would have been really cool, but in the long run between the astronomical price to build it and all the strange quirky problems that would arise from taking on such a project.... I decided to scale down a bit.  But!!  I kept the idea of having some gorgeous knotty wood, and purchased some inexpensive wall mounting brackets that though simple, I felt still had a modern industrial feel to them.

I purchased some very inexpensive pressurized 2x10 knotty pine from home depot for $8 a board.  They came 10 feet long, but Home Depot will cut your wood down for you free of charge.  Less work for me!  Woohoo!

Now comes the hard work.  I sanded down each board to eliminate nicks in the wood, branding stamps, and indents where the wood has been pressed.  I dug through the bin of boards at Home Depot to fish out the ones with minimal scaring, but getting a perfect board is virtually impossible.  I didn't mind to much, nicks and bruises go along with my industrial theme, and I just sanded them till they were smooth and not splintery.  Scares give the wood character.

Don't judge me for killing all my plants in the picture :O)

Developing my green thumb is something I'm still working at.

After I sanded down all my boards, I started staining.  I used an oil based interior stain by Miniwax called Ipswitch Pine.  It has a deep golden hue and it turned most of the knots in the wood a dark black.  So pretty.

Miniwax drys super fast which makes getting the job done a lot quicker.

Staining is a super simple process.  Just brush on your first coat, wait 15 minutes and then wipe it off with a clean rag.  I did two coats of stain on my boards.  I wanted that beautiful color to POP!

Note:  Since this stain is oil based, you will need turpentine to be able to clean and save your brushes.  I killed a nice brush before I realized.

See how pretty those knots turned out!

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After the stain dried, I put 2 coats of fast drying Polyurethane on the boards, which made them supper shiny!  It will also help protect the boards from stains and scratches.

Next I just installed the boards on the wall and voila!  I have an awesome, beautiful open shelving unit for my pantry!  Now to fill up those shelves!!!

"Beep Beep" from The Little Road!