Getting Plastered!

Here is our kitchen as it looked when we bought the house. 

In the planning and construction  stages ...

 

 

...and this week with the vent cover plastered. (Oh, did you think I meant myself? NO! NEVER!!)

I may add another layer, but I got this done Friday. I stained the rounded wood trim. We still have crown molding to put up and baseboards, but I'm liking the look so far.

The Hill Country House in August, 2015

It's hard getting a photo in a small space! This room is about 12' x 7'. This is the pantry space we have been working on for the last few weeks. We have several names for it:

Prep Kitchen

Butler's Kitchen

Dirty Kitchen (I think we've nixxed this one!)

My husband has been calling it the Prep Kitchen, I have just called it the Pantry. 

It is designed for the prep work, the "dirty" work of cooking. This type of room has come about because of the openness of new homes.

I've divided it into areas:

This is the baking area. I have emptied all bags into air tight containers and labeled them. The drawers and cabinets under the counter hold measuring cups, measuring spoons, bowls, etc. The vintage cannisters on the top shelf hold my collection of cookie cutters. They were stored at my parent's house and survived the fire! Each cannister is labeled to hold different types: Holiday, Animals and People, Shapes, Molds, etc.

This is the coffee/tea center. The k-cups for our Kuerig are in the drawer. (I didn't get a photo, phooey! I have divided the drawer into sections for different types of coffee.)

The coffee pot conveniently rolls out for use and when not in use....

...the door can be closed!

Beside this you can see the toaster oven. Above that on the shelves are coffee cups, breakfast cereals, and other breakfast foods.

 

My spice jars (8 oz. canning jars labeled) are on stair step risers that my dad made for me according to my specifications. Actually, it is one piece that fits exactly between the shelf supports and is a lot like stadium seating!

You can see in the panoramic picture that I have interspersed cookbooks and baskets (for things like chips). We use fresh vegetables as much as possible, but cans are beside the spices so far.

I'm sure I will make changes when I start doing more cooking in this area. 

I have my bread machine out in the picture. I prefer baking bread in the oven, but it was wonderful smelling baking bread as we worked! 

We have a wooden screen door on order that will be installed between the pantry and the main kitchen. 

We picked up a couple of trays for our coffee table when we were at Home Goods last week. I'm sure the display will change, but for now I have some succulents (not real but they look real!), antique books, and a pair of my husband's great granddaddy's glasses sitting on the books.

I found a large Mexican blanket at an estate sale and I threw it over the dining room table for that elusive "you know it when you see it"  Texas hill country look.

 

We also bought a few antique
"milk of magnesia" bottles that I have soaking. $1 each! 

These predate the Phillips brand of my childhood.

Things are coming along! We have tons of little finishing details to do, but I am having so much fun cooking in my new kitchen now.

 There is still a LOT going on behind the scenes right now. My life will calm down some day, I'm sure! Nothing bad, only busy!

Until next time.....

 

 

 

Thrifty Doings in the Hill Country!

We were in the Hill Country last weekend and I made my usual stop by the thrift shops! I found this fairly large (about 18" x 22") framed needlepoint. I am thinking I will remove the piece from the frame and make a throw pillow from it. Someone put a LOT of work into this!

We also started moving cabinets into the pantry. It will be a "prep kitchen", "dirty kitchen", "butler's kitchen", "working kitchen". We've heard it called so many things! We are going to call it a prep kitchen. It will have a sink and dishwasher, the coffee pot, crock pot, mixer, etc. This is where the dirty work will happen and the "mess" can be hidden during parties. Our kitchen/living room/dining room is so open, we decided this was a good idea.

I also worked on my glass cabinet doors. The glass in the cabinets can not be easily changed. The trim that has to be removed to get to it is on the front and the top is curved! I wanted to put antique glass in the fronts, but decided that was too complicated for me. Instead, I used Gallery Glass and "textured" the inside of the glass. If I ever decide to change it, I can peel it off. 

First, I bought Crystal Clear Gallery Glass. I bought 6 small jars, but only used 2! I spent about $5 and less than an hour to do all my cabinet glass (6 panels)!

I left the cabinet doors in place and cleaned them really well with Windex! Then I squirted the medium onto the glass, working just half the glass at a time to keep it from drying before I could finish.

I chose to smear it to cover the area I was working, then pat it out with my fingertip. You could try other ways to texture it.

Here you see it drying. Only one glass has been done. It was fully dry within the hour, but that would depend on the temperature and air circulation.

Here I have shot the picture through the door toward the kitchen window so you can see the texture. I am really pleased with how it turned out!

I did not put it on the outside of the glass because I wasn't sure how it would hold up to regular, grease splatters, dust, etc. It might have been fine, but the inside of the door is more protected.

Be sure to join us for the We Support You blog hop, starting on Thursday! I will post on the 11th! In the meantime, I'm working on my project for that!

See you then!