My 1950s Kitchen Refab Project

Hello Friends!

I've been putting off this post, well posts in general, but I'm back! I've spent the last 6+ months fostering kittens so I've been very preoccupied and exhausted. I currently have 3 kittens sleeping somewhere around here. They are so cute but so much work. Hoping to get them placed soon and get back to normal, if there is such a thing.

But! I'm here and ready to start sharing again! Tonight I'm sharing the journey of revamping my kitchen. This is what my kitchen looked like the day I saw it for the first time. I was a little overwhelmed by the work I saw but more so incredibly optimistic and excited about bringing it back to life. My house was built in the 1950's so 60 years of life have passed through this house, especially the kitchen. I'm only the second person to ever live here and that was a huge burden on me to make sure to respect this house and the period. Plus I wanted it to be a fun room! I spend so much time in the kitchen and even though it's the smallest room in my house whenever people come over we always end up all in this room at some point chatting and eating. I love my kitchen.

The before pics commence. The kitchen was just drab and sad feeling but so much potential. 

It took me about 4 months to even begin thinking about working on the kitchen. I had an idea of what I wanted but it took me forever to find just the right project materials. Before I did anything though I repainted the cabinets and replaced the hardware. That was fun (NOT). Some of those pulls were rusted so badly I had to saw them off. 60 years of kitchen grime and water running down from the sink. I found my pulls at Home Depot, Liberty Cup Pull & Liberty Steel Bar Pull. All cabinets and walls are Benjamin Moore White Dove.

 


                           

 

Ain't she pretty! BTW That Magic Chef was vintage, vintage, vintage. Solid metal and had a gas leak. So I didn't use an oven for 6 months.

I found this paintable faux beadboard wallpaper at Lowes and painted it to match the cabinets. Also as you can see the ceiling is pink. I love the pink ceiling. I actually saw the paint color in the deck months before and thought the name was my favorite, Cats Meow. And then my mom saw it and said, "Well that is precious! You should paint the ceiling this color!" And so I did!

6 months after I bought my house, an oven! 

Before and after at the time. Already a transformation! And it stayed that way for another 6 months.

Then I finally found my inspiration fabric. This fabulous Romo Villa Nova pattern. It's part of their High Society collection, it's called Tea at the Ritz. 

My heart exploded. 

I designed this cornice and once it went up everything else fell into place.

I picked out this Congoleum confetti vinyl tile. Congoleum has been around for 130 years. It definitely had its most memorable time in the 50s and 60s. Check out these examples!

1931 Congoleum Vinyl "Rug"

 1945 Vinyl "Rug"

1960s Congoleum Vinyl. Woah!

Well my choice was a perfect match. It took me another year to get around to actually finding someone who could order and install it for me. But now it looks great!

There's the original 50s asbestos vinyl floor. It probably looked great with that big brown oven.

All covered up.

Brand new! Yay!

Oh I should take a minute to talk about the shelving. I knew I wanted open shelving. The kitchen is so tiny I wanted it to feel open and airy. I found these brackets at House of Antique Hardware. They weren't cheap but it's what I wanted. It was actually really difficult finding the perfect ones. They are very custom, thus the price, but it was worth the time and money in my book.

And we're back! Here's what it looks like now. Quite the transformation. I've still got things to do but it's been a fun project. 

This is on my ultimate dream list here: A pink Big Chill fridge

$$$$.$$

It's definitely on the "Someday" list but won't it be perfect!?!

Well I hope you've enjoyed this post and are inspired to get creative and take a leap of faith on your next project. 

See you soon!

xo, Chelsea

Happy Fall Ya'll! Autumn decor inspiration and some how-tos

 Hello everyone! As I was organizing and cleaning until 3am this morning as expected guests are now coming tomorrow instead of Sunday I realized I haven't been keeping up here, you know how those semi conscious thoughts come flowing in the exhausted wee hours. Soooo,  I'm officially working on some things! Last year mom stuck this little witch hat on Mr. Crow as a joke but I love it! So he's always up to no good. As is Lil Bit, below. Nothing but adorable trouble. My tablescape has changed since then but he thought he made a nice ornamentation. The orange pumpkins, above, I got on major sale a few years ago. They were metallic gold and I almost gave them away this year because I started to hate them but inspiration hit me when I realized I had some orange paint in my paint stash so I gave them a quickie glaze and voila! Orange pumpkins that I didn't have to rebuy!
                          

 

 With and without cat.

 

 

I've got a thing for vintage Halloween, anything really. Here is my kitchen shelf with some of my vintage collection. I found the Red Devil box mixed amongst some old nails and tools left from the original homeowner. The vintage Milky Way ad is from the 1950s by Ludwig Bemelmans, author and illustrator most famously for Madeline. So perfect!

Someday I would love to visit Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle in NYC. He negotiated that he would do their murals for free in exchange for free rooms anytime he wanted. Check out some pictures here. So beautiful!

Turkey Pie anyone?

 

 I found this wonderful vintage repro deco poster at the thrift. I'm incredibly lucky!
 

I got these adorable little hooty owls from Magpie Ethel! I love all of her things, so much inspiration.

 

Trick or Treat. Adorable sign from Target.

 

                                      
I've been crafting away the last few weeks making holiday vignettes. I made this absolutely adorable haunted house. I was sad to see it go but I know they will love it! Spooooky!

So I wanted to share a little DIY project inspiration. This one is very easy if you have the nack. I found this vintage Menaboni print of two Evening Grosbeaks. I thought it was sweet and would look cute out during the holidays with the piney branch. The frame was worse for wear and unfortunately the print has water damage but for a few dollars worth it in my opinion. So home it went!

 

So first off I sanded the entire frame. There were some big gouges and overall scruffiness going on but since I was going to be painting I just wanted to smooth it out some. Nothing perfect. I had some green paint in my paint stash and made a chalkpaint mixture. Here is the thing about chalkpaint. It's not a perfect science in my opinion. There are many, many, many premade varieties on the market but I, personally, refuse to pay $30+ for a quart of paint that I could potentially make myself. Not everyone is that adventurous but I'm cheap baby. So here is the blend I generally start with:

1 cup latex paint

1.5 tablespoons tap water

2.5 tablespoons plaster of paris

 

Mix the water and POP well, we don't want lumps. Then add the paint. I generally use at least 3 or 4 tablespoons of POP. You'll need to test out your blend and see how it's looking, depending on how much of a chalky finish you want you'll want to add more than the 2.5 tbsp in the starter recipe.

 

So after I sanded my frame I painted it with my chalk paint. Chalk paint tends to dry pretty quickly and this was such a small project I waited maybe 30 minutes then I lightly sanded to distress and finished with some Restor-A-Finish in Walnut I had handy. This darkened it a bit, I wasn't crazy about how pastel it turned out, and it sealed in the paint finish. I found out about Restor-A-Finish when I redid my mid-century buffet earlier this year.

 

 And Voila! Finished product. I did actually end up completely taking the picture apart to look more closely at the matte and picture. There was still moisture under the glass!! :O So I cleaned it really well and put back together. I'll be tablescaping with this soon, winter is coming!

I enjoy seeing what everyone is doing with their own holiday décor. If you have suggestions for other great blogs or IG users please share. I'm heading to the Country Living Fair this weekend, anyone else attending? I love it!

Have a bright day!
Chelsea

Bathroom Updates and Repurpose Project

So as a quick recap: This is what the living room looked like before I bought my house.
These are the original homeowners toile curtains which I actually really liked but didn’t want to use in my living room. I saved them to potentially use elsewhere and ultimately decided to have them made into my shower curtain.

This is how the bathroom looked before I bought my house.

I thought the curtains looked nice with the original tile.

I took down the original curtain rod and spray painted it a dark bronze color. I also repainted all the trim work with Benjamin Moore White Dove and the walls and ceiling BM Navajo White.

I found this vintage floral hook at an antiques store and the London canvas print at Target! Perfect touches!

Curtain repurpose project completed!

Have a bright day!

Chelsea