Kitchen Facelift |

Photos of our new kichen reno - 75% complete!

Thanks dad and mom with all your help with the kitchen reno!

BEFORE: (image taken on the day we inspected the house before purchasing it)


MIDDLE:AFTER:

White and Yellow Flower Knobs on the two middle doors. I found them at Michale's and they match the wall paper that will be going up on the opposite wall! They add a unique touch to the cabinets! Some of the honey tins that were used as centre pieces at our wedding. And a cute little yellow glass jar purchased by my mom for $2 at a local rustic furniture shop!Retro Popcorn machine from my brother New Faucet New School House Light

Now all that is left to do is to put up the 'tin tile' back splash and the wallpaper and bead board wainscoting up on the other side of the room.

More Pictures of the other side of the room and the new faux tin back splash to come!

Get Vintage |

With KO TWO Photography. Watch this promo for KO Two Photography's Vintage line.

Cookie Jar Wars | I Need your Vote!

I wanted a retro yellow cookie jar to match my decor in the kitchen. So I typed that into E-bay and it came up with a lot of great options!
I don't know which one to choose so I thought I would ask for your vote!
Based on the way my kitchen looks in the pictures in the previous post, which cookie jar gets your vote?
Thanks for your input!

The Choices :

The Striped retro jar with Handel?
Vote 'Retro Cutie'!


The clear yellow glass antique jar with the pretty design that would match my new little glass pot?
Vote 'Antique Glass'!

The yellow milk can look that would match my old-fashioned tea kettle?
Vote 'Milk Can'!The rounded glass jar with a barrel look?
Vote 'Yellow Barrel'!
OR the Cute Bee Hive to go with all my honey tins?
Vote 'Honey'!

"A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand"

Keep an eye out for a future post to see which cookie jar will win the War to be the first and only cookie jar in my kitchen!

Egg Cup Candle Holder |

I was back home this weekend and my mom had a tea light candle placed inside an egg cup. I thought it was the cutest thing and a great idea for a candle holder!

So I took some photos of some of her other cute egg cups to show you how cute they looked too!

Using unconventional things as candles holders gives any table or room a casual and eclectic look! It is also a good way to give old things that you might not use very often a new purpose!

Other unconventional Candle Holders - Found on Canadian Living

Antique Tins:
Tea Cups:

Bottles and Cake Trays:

Logs:

Bird Cages:

Glass Jars:

Antique Bird Cage |

Yesterday I had to kill some time while waiting for a photo order so I went into 'Memory Lane' a large 'Antique Mall' in London ON.

I have been looking for an antique bird cage for some time (as I don't like the look of the large, moderns plastic ones) and surprisingly I came across a beautiful bird cage in 'Memory Lane'.

It is made by Songster a Canadian Company and it has been painted white. It is a hanging style cage and the base and stand are cast iron and are beautifully detailed with birds and trees.

It looks great in my office up against my plumb coloured walls. And a Canary would look awesome with its yellow colour in contrast to the purple.


Now I just have to decide if I want a Canary or a Finch. I like the colouring of Society Finches and Spice Finches. And it would be nice to have a pair so I didn't feel that they were lonley (as long as I could get a pair of males or females as I don't want to deal with baby birds). But I Love the song of the Canary (as I had one growing up) and the yellow colour would look awesome in the purple room.

Canary|

Society Finch|
Spice Finch|

Kitchen Love |

We are giving our kitchen a face lift.

The kitchen cabinets were still original to the house (50s style) and had a kitchy moulding on them. It was nice but did date them quite a bit.

But instead of tearing them down and putting up all new cabinets, we (or I should say my dad) is cutting out the middle of the doors and placing bead board behind them to make them into shaker style cupobards that will look like this:


We choose to paint them a colour called 'Eggshell Cream' that is an off-white colour as our refrigerator and stove are off-white.


And, I have always dreamed of picking out knobs and handles for a kitchen (weird I know) but we got to choose them a few days ago and we chose brushed nickle knobs for the doors and brushed nickle mustache handles for the draws. I also had found the white and yellow floral knobs at Michale's a few months ago. We are going to put them on the centre doors under the sink to add a little bit of charm to the cupboards.


We are also going to put bead board up on the walls to plate rail height. It will be painted the same colour as the cabinets. It will look something like this, but it will be a bit higher up the wall:


I also purchased wallpaper to go above the bead board (since the wall is already wallpapered it just makes this an easier option). Plus I DO love wallpaper, I just hate removing it.
I bought this wallpaper almost a year ago when we bought the house and I love its soft yellow colour and the off-white flowers that will match our cupboards.



Currently the backslash is a neutral beige tile. The only problem is that there are 'accent tiles' that have images of: Fruit Baskets, Trees and Pretzels... yes Pretzels on them.

SO we will probably cover that up with plastic tin, which is an awesome product that Benjamin Moore makes. The thin plastic sheets that are made to look like old fashion ceiling tin can simply be glued on over the existing tile.


Along with all our antique tins I think this kitchen will come together looking retro country, with a casual relaxed feel.

Shelf in our kitchen with our tins on it.
As well as the niche in the wall with our retro cook book and other retro items.


Tins Close Up:

Keep watching as I will definitely post photos once the face lift is complete!

Glass Curtains |

My office window is rather high and it is on the North side of the house and so it doesn't get a lot of sunlight. So for these reasons I decided that it would be a good idea to hang my glass ball collection in the window instead of curtains (since light and privacy were not issues).

I simply decided what order I wanted each piece to go in relation to each other and then I strung them up on an old curtain rod using ribbons that were cut at different lengths.

Now my window is more of an art piece on the wall and all the light that is on that side of the house can still come through unobstructed!