Kitchen Needing TLC

I recently realized that I have not shown photos of our kitchen on my blog. I think it's possibly because it's the major downfall of our apartment. It is titchy, poorly designed and we hacked away at part of it to allow more storage space, but the whole thing desperately needs a renovation.

I am hoping that out there is the blogosphere, someone has suggestions on how to make this space more functional. PLEASE comment if you have any suggestions... I am open to all ideas!!!

Pros:

1. We have a lot of counter space.

2. We have high ceilings.

3.We have all 4 standard appliances (fridge, stove/oven, microwave & dishwasher)

Cons:
1. We have no pantry.
2. There is very little storage space under the main counter top.
3. The fridge sticks out like a sore thumb.
4. The opening to the kitchen acts as a bottle neck. No more than 2 people can be in there at the same time. The fridge and dishwasher cannot be opened at the same time, and if they do, the kitchen holds all people hostage. No one enters and no one escapes.
4. There is a very awkward "corner" to work around, making a back splash difficult to pull off.

See the grey curtain in the bottom right hand corner? That was inaccessible dead space. The counter wall used to stretch the whole length. So we hacked at it and discovered about 9 cubic feet of space (YAY!!!). We installed a shelf and it now holds bulk food (dog food included). But... the pipe is still visible (photos will come one day) and it's very much a "home hack job" out of desperation for more storage space. We need to put a real door on it, but it's too difficult to match the laminate cabinet pattern so we're waiting to see if we will renovate.

Here is the awkward corner I was telling you about. The tiles at the moment stop then start again as you move around the bend, but we would like a full back splash... just not sure how to do it.

The cabinet knobs were all (once) blue glass. But, every single one of them was chipped or cracked. We switched them for chrome handles, but the ones on the drawers are still the original handles (we also need to change them, but they need different sized screws. It's on our To Do list).

In the photo below, you can see how the "dead space" was inaccessible. Who does that to a kitchen? Honestly???

 

I have looked at a million 'small' kitchens on Houzz.com, looking for inspiration. But their definition of a 'small kitchen' is somewhat akin to the size of my entire apartment. Also they suggest drawing attention to the windows and to use natural light to open up the space. Our kitchen is smack bang in the middle of our house. No windows.

We would love a white/grey/turquoise tiled back splash with white cabinets, a granite counter top and stainless steel appliances (wouldn't we all!!!)... but we don't live in Fantasyland.

This isn't our Forever Home so we don't plan on spending too much time or money on it, but we want to increase the resell value of our home in whatever small way we can. So, fill me with ideas!

No-Mess Painting with Feathers

Most of my students love painting with things that aren't paintbrushes. Lettuce. Pipecleaners. Ribbons. Oddly-shaped pieces of cardboard. You get the idea. The only problem with painting with flexible objects is the mess involved. My kids invariably end up with a squished piece of something that's too difficult to maneuver, and paint all over their hands. Some of the kids love it but some of them also hate it. Lets face it; not every child loves getting messy. When a 'I'm-not-touching-that' sort of child sees the other kids getting paint up to their elbows, they opt out of the activity and miss out on some great learning experiences.

Seeing as we recently did a unit on animals, I thought it might be neat to paint with feathers. After a quick rummage through our craft cupboard, I found a great way to limit the mess - clip a clothes pin to the base of it.

 I did my trial run with two children who dislike dirty hands and it worked!

They had a great time making tiger stripes with the feathers and didn't get much paint on themselves at all.

It has now made me think of all the other objects we could clip between a peg and use to paint; ribbons, yarn, pom-poms, scraps of felt or fabric.

I'll give it a go and let you know if it works...

Displaying Art that doesn't Match

I love pictures that match. I love the look of three pictures, all relating to one theme, hanging vertically on a wall, all in matching frames.

But I don't love it when we have only one wall and the 'picture sets' don't match.

Here's what I was up against:

I have two 'groups of people' photos in nice matching wooden frames:

I have three very different scenic paintings of different orientations in matching grey frames (dollar store), but not matching mats:

And I have three scenic paintings of Australian bushland in matching black RIBBA frames from IKEA:

How the heck do I hang them all one wall?

Well, it took a lot of creativity, then some hopeless despair, then a flip through the IKEA catalog to come up with this genius idea:

We just placed the pictures haphazard all over the place then called it 'organized chaos'. The picture rails are the only thing attached, so it's a lot less damage to the walls and as we get bored with certain pictures, we can easily switch them out for other works of art.

Problem solved.

Multipurpose Room

I recently posted about my craft desk and organizing the spare room closet, but I realized I haven't posted about the spare room in quite a while. So here are some recent photos.

This is hubby's office and he works from home. We knew he'd be working from home before we set up this space, so we had to make sure it would function smoothly for his business AND could also be a guest room if need be.

*Despite where we live, guests are few and far between so they get an inflatable mattress on the floor. I'd love a Murphy Bed to flop out of the wall, but alas; we have higher priorities.

The tall cabinet on the left and the two mounted to the wall are IKEA kitchen cabinets. The one on the far left stores all of our Costco bulk purchases (toilet paper etc.) The desk is an IKEA desk.

Previously, the ceiling light was a horrible flushmount thing that just created a yellow glare around the room. We replaced it with this wonderful ceiling fan thing.

Instead of a guest book at our wedding, we had everyone write a message on a picture mat, which now frames a wedding photo taken on Whitehaven Beach. It's the picture hanging above Hubby's computer. Not sure if he likes staring at wedding wishes all day, but he hasn't complained yet! :D

We don't have a television, but we use the iMac to watch movies and stream TV shows.

Oh and there's my craft desk, of course. I like that Hubby gets his masculine work area and I get my uber-feminine craft desk but they still complement each other.

The other end of the room has the chair that we reupholstered (before Molly claimed it), an antique school desk that I LOVE and glass shelves. It's also where our big junk closet is.

We used to have everything here stored on a bookcase. When we got puppy, we decided to put everything up higher... especially plants. These shelves are a discontinued item from IKEA.

They hold all of our books (we are largely a paper-free house) with our re-purposed license plate book end, a silver box we received as a wedding gift (originally a recipe box, but redundant now that we use the Recipe Box app on the iPad), my paper mache E, and a few pictures and knick knacks.

So there you have it; Our spare room/ office/ craft room/ floor-space-for-guests.

Candy-Free Valentine's Gifts for Kids

Valentine's Day never meant anything to me growing up. News reporters would comment on the number of roses sold and they might feature a few love stories with people getting engaged or an elderly couple talking about their secret to marriage. A few teachers at school might be sent flowers from their husbands, but it meant nothing to the kids. I didn't really have a problem with it.

Last year was my first Valentine's Day with Canadian children and it was a bit of a culture shock. First of all, it's commercial. There are cartoon Valentine's kits of every sort - Cars, Princesses, Toy Story. All you have to do is write your child's name on each pre-written card. And secondly, everyone participates. The kids had LOADS of candy. It was a tad overwhelming and I felt under prepared.

But not this year!!!

Thanks to this blog, I was able to create something cute to give to my kids that DIDN'T involve candy.

I purchased a 64 pack of Crayola crayons (about $7) and I already had the cello bags. I then used Photoshop to create the little bag tops.

It would have been lovely to just print the free ones from the blog, but seeing as our printer is running low on Cyan ink, I re-did it all with pink stripes instead and used a free rainbow graphic I found online.

Seeing as I was doing it all by scratch anyway, I printed the kids names on each one.

 So there you have it. Candy-free Valentine's gifts for 18 children DONE.

Junk Cupboard Organization

We've already mentioned that our condo is petite. Actually, I think that the Apartment Therapy 'Small Cool' competition would classify it as Little. But only just. If we didn't have our patio, it would fall into the Tiny category. təˈmātō, təˈmätō. Call it what you will, it's not large.

And with a piece of real estate such as this, we don't have the same storage options as others. We don't have a linen closet or a pantry and our laundry is merely a cupboard.

We do, however, have the luxury of a spare room, which has... a closet! Hooray!
Seeing as it's our primary storage space, it needs to be organized. We also had to find ways to get stuff in and out as easily as possible, because it's inconveniently shaped like a funnel. The door is far smaller than the space it conceals, so only rarely used items are stored up high (camping equipment, suitcases etc.)

It originally just had the shelf/ clothes rail, but we've since added some other smart storage solutions; both store bought and home made.

All of the stuff that you see on the left was originally stacked in a big pile. Not helpful when you want to access the item at the bottom. And around here, Murphy's other law states that the box that you want is ALWAYS at the bottom. *Groan*. We bought these invididual Rubbermaid shelves at Canadian Tire for $10 a shelf. They were 2" too wide for the cupboard, so we had to saw off the excess on each shelf. An hour later, our problem was solved. Yippee!

The blue and green boxes up the top are from the dollar store. Seeing as I live with another human and we like to use the same stuff, I have labelled what's in the boxes and pegged it to the box. It's not fancy or pretty writing, but it's easy to see and might save us some time when hunting for stuff around the house.

The hooks that hold the broom and swiffer came with the place and were attached to a wall (who puts their cleaning stuff in plain sight?), but one of them was broken. Instead of tossing them, we moved them into the cupboard and I wrapped rubber bands around the one with broken ends. It is now so strong, it can hold a Wet Jet Swiffer.

I have stolen someone's Pinterest idea with my wrapping paper storage. I think they suggested you attach it to a low ceiling with cable ties or something. Seeing as we have 9' ceilings, I think the cupboard is more practical and I just tied some yarn around the clothes rail. I also used the widely-pinned idea of using a toilet paper roll to secure wrapping paper. Genius.

This next idea, however, is my own. Previously, my wrapping paper had been standing in the corner with some venetian blinds, scraps of wood and curtain rods. Every time I reached for the ironing board (which, thankfully, is rarely), everything came crashing down. Now, the wrapping paper is up high and all of these other stick-like objects are corralled in a big cardboard packing tube.

It also stands up on its own, so it's much easier to shove out of the way.

Oh and in this shot, you can see our new dining room chairs (collapsible) and the extension leaf from our new dining table. Very versatile dining set for a small space. But more on that another day...

So there you have my storage problems solved. I'd love to hear other solutions/ suggestions on how to organize junk.

Photos Featuring an Accent Colour Grouped Together

I thought I'd share a bit of artwork on display in our place. It's nothing fancy and I find myself looking at it so often that I take it for granted, but I remember being so proud of it when we first put it up.

We found the frames at a garage sale for $1 (can I get a woot!?) then spray painted them white.

We then printed a whole bunch of our favourite photos that feature our favourite colour; turquoise. Some are portraits and some are scenic.

They all have that greenish-blue colour somewhere in them, to tie the artwork into the accent colour in the living room.This is the opposite wall...

I'm still super proud of it but seeing as I can stare right through it, I can now understand why people have their artwork on rotation throughout the year. Perhaps something to consider...

Dry Rice Saves a Soggy Flash Drive

The flash drive I use to store and transfer all my work documents is super clean now, after it went for a ride in the washing machine in one of my pockets.

Woops.

But...

I had once heard that if your Blackberry goes for a swim, you should pull it apart and submerge all the pieces in dry rice for a day or two, to fully dry it out. Then it should be good to go again.

We figured it was worth a shot with my flash drive...

So, here's a tiny bowl with a little bit of rice.

Then I completely covered it up and left it for 48 hours. Not sure if it needed that long, but I didn't want to risk shoving something soggy into my USB port.

And I am pleased to say it worked! Hooray! All my files are exactly where I left them and are now backed up.

I realize that a flash drive is not a superbly complex machine so I wonder if this method could actually save a Blackberry... but it's worth a shot.

Craft Desk Tour

Since my first post about my craft desk, you can tell that I am smitten with it. I don't need to mention again how much I love it... but I will.

This time, though, I am sharing the INSIDE photos with you. Hooray!

So, here it is from the outside. LOVE.

And here it is open...

(When I flicked back and forwards between the two photos on my camera, it looked like my desk was barfing it's guts out... tee-hee...)

The shelves above hold a lot of my smaller supplies - sewing supplies, paints, brushes, markers, ribbons, fimo etc. And seeing as they are glass, they have to be tidy and look decent. We love turquoise/ tiffany blue and it's featured quite prominently in our apartment, so I have continued the theme into my craft desk.

The surfaces inside were painted with high gloss Feather Gray from Benjamin Moore. Anything I spill on it (a regular occurrence), wipes off easily.

 

The box with a bow around it was featured here, the stationery holder with the paper flower was featured here and the sewing machine cover was feature here. Oh and lets not forget about the recently added thread spool/bobbin storage, on the doors.

The drawers below are not as organized and they house a lot of stuff that hubby has tried to throw away (who would throw out old shorts with an awesome print?) but it's the first place I look when I have a crazy idea that needs an oddly shaped piece or a certain type of ribbon etc.

Happy crafting!

Decorate Mason Jars and Coffee Cans Different Ways

Thought I'd share a few of the different jar/coffee cans I have on display in my craft desk. Seeing as the cupboards above my desk have glass doors, it's vital that my craft supplies are stored in a pretty and chic way.

So, from L-R these are my suggestions:

1. Put the right items at the front. My mini glitter glue collection looked crazy with all the colours showing, until I realized I just had to shove the blue/green colours to the front to match my craft desk decor.

2. Re-purpose an old sweater. See this previous blog post.

3. Put pretty items in. I am not going to decorate this tiny glass mason jar because it's holding shells and they are pretty enough on their own.

4. Wrapping paper. Enough said.

5. Stickers and Frosted Glass Spray Paint. I would love to pick the stickers off to leave little circles of clear glass, but I had another jar go horribly wrong when I tried it, so the white stickers are staying on for now.

6. Paint Chips on a coffee can. See this previous blog post.

So there you have it! I never throw away a glass jar or a coffee can, so keep posted to see if I come up with any other ideas :)

Old Sweater = Sewing Machine Cover

I recently told you how I chopped up an old sweater to decorate a glass jar, but I only used a tiny portion of one sleeve to do so.

So what to do with the rest of the sweater?

Well, I have been meaning to make a sewing machine cover for a long time, to hide it's ugliness (they are such ugly machines, don't you think?) whenever I open my secretary desk.

See:

Not pretty. Ever wonder why I didn't post photos of the inside of my desk yet? The sewing machine is the reason why.

Anyway, I chopped off the bottom half of my sweater. Then, by sewing only three seams, I whipped up this beauty in less than 5 minutes:

Ta-da! Problem solved :)