Chez WMM, The Kitchen

Welcome back to Chez WMM.

There is a tray of mojitos awaiting you on the deck - do grab one before coming in to the kitchen - the kitchen is so much lovelier seen through an alcoholic haze...

Folks - this is no kitchen from architectural digest.

If money was no object, my kitchen would likely look like this:

or this:

But when we bought our little ranch house (circa 1978 - what vintage!) money WAS an object!

I wish I has "before" pictures of this room as well, as it was frankly a disaster.  Old laminate flooring, old ountertop, knotty pine cupboards, canary yellow wallpaper.

We lived with it like this for 2 or 3 years, as frankly, the blood red shag wall to wall carpeting in the family room in the basement was begging for more attention...

But where to begin?  Well we needed new appliances, so that was logical and we replaced them all with good quality stainless steel.  The one perk here was the double maytag oven.  I adore this oven and have never regretted buying it!

The countertop and cupboards.  Replaced and to be painted.  Flooring - all birch, all over the main and upper floors.  More storage space - cupboards, bought along the way...

If I was to truly tally every expense of the room that you are about to see, it would probably come in at around $8000, mostly because of the appliances.  Not bad for a kitchen reno.  Although, again, all done by us.  This room will eventually be redone in the future when everyone is done university, but it is certainly fine for now...

How did we choose the colour scheme?

Well, I don't do things like normal people, so two things guided me:

1) the old 1960s canisters that were in my house growing up:

Flour got lost somewhere along the way...

and

2) a vintage tin kitchen, also from the 1960s, that I picked up at a local antique store.  I actually had this exact kitchen when I was 3 years old, although mine was white..

You can't see, but there is a red plastic turkey in the oven.  Perhaps after the mojitos you are able to stay for supper?

So, I knew that I wanted this shade of green in the kitchen and so that is where we begin:

Taking the long view of the kitchen from the sitting room that is off it.  As you can see, we put the green on the bottom and put a lovely cream colour on top...It is not a large kitchen at all and space is always at a premium and we are always bumping into one another..

The view into the kitchen from the wee small hallway when you enter the house.  Yes, that is a TV - I have ADHD and like to watch some TV while I cook, especially old movies on TCM!  That is a new window with a little IKEA light over the sink.  I have a "thing" for curtain under a sink and picked these up at Walmart awhile back, while i wait for enough money to have proper blinds and curtains made for this room!

The wall opposite the sink:

This is an old shelf and cupboard I picked up along the way at my local antique store.  It holds cookbooks, my microwave, all of my baking supplies, extra bowls, spices, etc.  When we originally bought it we thought of re-painting it since it is certainly NOT a collector piece.  But then we got used to the worn paint and kind of preferred it that way!

To the left of this cupboard is my large pantry:

This was a steal!  It looks old, but was bought several years ago at the after-christmas sale at Wicker Emporium, a canadian chain you can visit here.  I paid all of $400 CDN for this and it holds everything: pots, baking tins, all of my pastas and flour and belnder, etc.  I just love it!

The small inexpensive island, replete with two ikea stools.  At the end of the island is a tall wicker basket where I store cookie sheets and cutting boards.  I take no credit for this good idea - Ina Garten, the barefoot contessa and one of my goddesses, has a similar in her kitchen and I feel that if it is good enough for her it is good enough for me!  Under the island are two wicker containers that store potatoes, garlic and onions and two cast iron posts.  Above hang all of our pots:

We do not love our potrack or light, but are keeping our eye out for the right one.  We will know it when we see it! 

Beloved double oven!  All of the upper cupboards have bottlegreen glass knobs that I picked up for an amazing price at Lee Valley.  Visit their website here - you will thank me later!

To the right of the sink are more cupboards:

Mr. WMM built the special drawers, which hold pot tops, bowl and what nots.  On the counter above is my beloved red kitchenaid mixmaster, which has been put to much good use over the years!

Above are glasses, vases and our day-to-day dishes and more cookbooks!  We took the cupboard doors off - I love open cupboards, athought it all requires a good cleaning now and then!

I like to make little vignettes:

To the left are my espresso cups, used every morning, and my anthropologie measuring cups.  so cute!

And the counter below ALWAYS has a jar of Lindt chocolate pieces - milk chocolate, 85% and 70% dark chocolates.  we each have one every night as our dessert!

Finally, near the backdoor is my bulletin board and calendar:

The calendar is of France and along the wall to the right is an antique picture post card set, titled "Scenes of Interesting Hollywood, California."  My favourite is Mary Pickford's home:

DO you think her kitchen was fancier than mine?

You are likely done your Mojito.  Another, perchance?

Nope.  Not an architectural digest kitchen at all.  In fact, pretty quirky and a little charming.  Just like us!  Hope you enjoyed the visit!