CABBAGE LEAF PLATES IN WAITING

 These cabbage leaf plates have been my go to set for Easter for many years.   I keep them stacked on a stainless pot rack in my pantry year round.  I can’t believe how popular and expensive they’ve become.  They were very reasonable when I started collecting.  Most came from Home Goods.  My daughter refers to these as one of my home decor stock market successes.  My husband wants me to apply my skills to the real stock market.  LOL

CABBAGE LEAF PLATES STACKED IN MY PANTRY

I have bowls, serving pieces, luncheon and dinner plates and more.

My favorite Easter serving pieces even have bunnies on them.

SERVING PIECE WITH BUNNIES

Happy Easter to all who celebrate.

MISTAKE GONE RIGHT

When we were updating our kitchen, some cabinets were sent with the wrong dimensions and couldn’t be used. Of course I found a spot for one of the mistakes in the attached butler’s pantry. It was the wrong depth for the kitchen but the perfect depth to rest on my existing low pantry cupboard.

MISTAKE GONE RIGHT

 I purchased more of the kitchen hardware for both cabinets.  The bottom half of the new cabinet holds spices and baking supplies while platters and plates I don’t use frequently are on the upper shelves. 

HARDWARE THAT MATCHES KITCHEN HARDWARE

I use my lettuce leaf plates all the time. I store them on the shelves of a tall pot rack. 

FYI, that bundle of tassels hanging on the pot rack is my fun addition. They’re new camel tassels! Camels are allowed to dress up too.

BUNDLE OF CAMEL TASSELS

Do you have a mistake that worked out?

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PAINTING INTERIOR DOORS AND WINDOWS BLACK

When I renovated my kitchen there were many decisions to be made.  I know this is going to sound silly, but the decision I agonized most about was whether to paint my window grids and doors black.  In retrospect I can say that there was nothing to decide.  Black was the only choice.  

WINDOW ABOVE THE KITCHEN SINK

ANOTHER WINDOW WITH LAYERED ART

BLACK FRENCH DOORS 

The back door got the same treatment.

BACK DOOR WITH NEW PAINT

Once I decided that I liked interior black doors, I quickly painted the door to the butler's pantry and the powder room too.

BUTLER'S PANTRY AND POWDER ROOM
 WITH BLACK DOORS

Have you painted your interior doors and windows something other than white?

If you missed my kitchen renovation, go here to see it.

MY KITCHEN RENOVATION REVEAL

After talking about renovating my kitchen for many years, I can now say that I did it!  I couldn't be happier with the result, and I couldn't have done it without help from my design guru friend, Monica, @monicagarrettinteriors.   She made my ideas work, offered suggestions that only someone who's done this before would think of, and sourced my wish list. 

I'm really excited to share my new kitchen.  I knew I wanted to remove the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and create one long galley kitchen.  

MY NEW GALLEY KITCHEN

 This next image includes the dining room opening into the kitchen.  I kept my original table and chairs, but removed the single pendant light and replaced it with a pair of oversized beaded wood lantern pendants.  

DINING ROOM TABLE AND CHAIRS WITH NEW LIGHTING

If you're looking into the room from our family room, this is the view.  Did you notice that I painted the windows and french doors to the sun room black?  The black paint ties the room together.  Everyone who follows my blog knows how much I love to use black in my home.

VIEW FROM THE FAMILY ROOM

The other dramatic change that we made to the space was removing the cooktop countertop that jutted out from the wall and divided the room in half.  I've written about the countertop and my knotty pine kitchen before.  To see the BEFORE now, click on the highlighted words.  Or, wait and there's also a link at the end of this post.  You'll see that we gutted the entire kitchen.  The floor was all that remained.  We moved the cooktop and hood against the wall.  The hood was on my wish list and was my splurge.  I love it.

MY BLACK AND BRASS HOOD

I wanted a marble countertop and backsplash, but gave in to my practical side and chose a porcelain marble look alike for easier maintenance.

MY PORCELAIN COUNTERTOP AND BACKSPLASH

Also on my wish list was a floor to ceiling pantry.  You can see it on the opposite wall.

FLOOR TO CEILING PANTRY

The pantry is a combination of drawers and doors and is perfect.

MY PANTRY:  A COMBO OF DRAWERS AND DOORS

I also wanted an appliance garage.  It's between the oven/microwave and the refrigerator.

APPLIANCE GARAGE

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love and how much use I've gotten from these double islands.  They almost make me love cooking.  Those legs!!!!!

MY DOUBLE KITCHEN ISLANDS

If you're considering updating your home, please contact Monica.

You'll love her style and appreciate her design expertise.  

Click on the highlighted words to be directed to her site.

Monica Garrett Interiors

 

Interior Design Studio + Online Furniture Boutique | Full Service Interior Design& Staging 

 

To see my latest post about the choices I made that worked, go here.

If you'd like to see my BEFORE kitchen, go here.  

Or click on the image to be directed to the BEFORE post.

BEFORE

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THE OTHER SIDE OF MY LAUNDRY/BUTLER'S PANTRY

I recently wrote about the room off our kitchen that serves as our laundry/butler's pantry/office.  If you missed Part 1 of the room (the left side), click on the highlighted words to be directed to  that post.

Today I'm sharing the right side of the room.  To help you visualize the space, this first image shows what it looks like from the kitchen.  The door at the end of the room leads to a powder room.

LOOKING INTO MY LAUNDRY/BUTLER'S PANTRY/OFFICE

How can you have a butler's pantry without dishes?  My transfereware is in the top half of the vintage cupboard that I cut in half.  My other set of favorite lettuce leaves dishes are always visible and accessible on a free-standing pot rack.  I've written about my lettuce leaf plates before here.  If you check out the link, you'll see what the space looked like before this latest change up.

MY LETTUCE LEAF PLATES ON A POT RACK IN THE CORNER

The cupboard on this side of the room holds all my pantry items.  It's where I store canned and dry goods, pasta, sauces, condiments--you get it.  It's my non-perishable foodstuffs back up.  It originally was a plain two-door cupboard top.  To make it match the cabinet on the other side, I added some fluting trim, stained braided trim, and since it was topless, I repeated the natural wood top to match the countertop on the other side.  There are two shelves inside that provide perfect pantry storage.  One day I'll go Marie Kondo on it, but for now cans and boxes and bags are just stacked there.  It's not too deep, so I can easily see what I have.  Of course I painted it black.

MY PANTRY CUPBOARD

No space is ever left unstyled at our house.  The top of the pantry cupboard is no exception.

STYLED PANTRY CABINET

On the left is a framed art collage.  The green in the art picks up the green accents in the room.

FRAMED COLLAGE ART

Below the art are a pair of cement garden spheres I'm using as bookends for my perfectly weathered leather books.  The spheres add another pop of green.

CEMENT GARDEN SPHERES AS BOOKENDS

I stacked my vintage bread boards as a backdrop on the right side.

VINTAGE BREAD BOARDS STACKED ON THE RIGHT SIDE

COLLAGE ART, LEATHER BOOKS, SPHERES, AND BREADBOARDS

VINTAGE BREAD BOARDS

As I mentioned at the beginning of the post you can see the other side of the pantry here.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.  See you soon.

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IS IT MY BUTLER'S PANTRY OR MY LAUNDRY OR MY OFFICE?

There's a room off our kitchen that serves many purposes.  When we purchased our home, it was my least favorite space.  Now, it's the room I like best.  I've written about this space before.  I'm not sure what to call it----my laundry room, my pantry, or my office.  It serves all those purposes in one small space.   I wish I had some before pictures, but just let me say that it had red indoor/outdoor carpeting on the floor, yellow and orange floral vinyl wallpaper and a utility tub hanging from the wall, flanked by a washer and dryer.  It was the first room we tackled. We pretty much gutted it.

Here it is today, recently updated to add a stacking washer and dryer.  Originally I had an under-the-counter washer and dryer.  It's demise prompted this update.  I do love the capacity of the new appliances, but I miss the long counter.  I had to give up a section of the long counter that served me well as a place to fold laundry or as a spot for a dessert buffet during the holidays.

If you've been a long-time reader of my blog, you know that I asked the carpenter to cut a vintage corner cabinet in half.  I got a strange look from him, but he did it.  The top half holds my collection of transferware and the bottom half became the cabinet under the counter.  I store all my laundry and cleaning supplies in the under-the-sink cupboard.  If you know me, you could guess that I would paint the cupboard pieces black.  I think this was the beginning of a pop of black in every room of my home.  Since the counter space was so deep, I opted for a wood counter.  I like the contrast of the painted and stained pieces.  To tie the two finishes together,  I added stained rope trim on the drawers and on the cupboard.

 My vintage hamper fits perfectly into the gap left by the previous appliance.  I encourage dirty baseball uniforms to go inside the hamper instead of onto the floor.  Sometimes it works.

VINTAGE CORNER CABINET ON THE COUNTER AND UNDER THE SINK

One of the best design decisions I made for the space was the addition of two file drawers in the remaining under-the-counter space.  It's so convenient to have it nearby and so accessible.  I like to think that it helps me be a LITTLE better organized.

PULL OUT DRAWERS WITH HANGING FILE FOLDERS

Another design decision was to add a butler's sink with a gooseneck copper faucet.  

It's been a lifesaver more times than I can count.

BUTLER'S SINK ABOVE THE CUPBOARD

The china cupboard is the star of the room.  I'm always a sucker for a palladium window.  Let me show it off with a few close-ups.

CUPBOARD TOP AND FORNASETTI PRINT

LOVE PALLADIUM WINDOWS

Every knob needs a tassel.

KNOB WITH TASSEL

Have you noticed that I like brown and black transferware?

I needed something on the wall against the washer and dryer.  My Anthropologie elephant volunteered to leave the kitchen and be part of this space.  The containers below him hold laundry soaps.

ELEPHANT IN PROFILE

That elephant is just too cute.  He's one of my favorites.

MY ANTHRO ELEPHANT

No room of mine is complete unless I have a chandelier.  This room is no exception.  I did a verdigris finish on this vintage acanthus leaf pendant light and I also changed some of the crystals to black ones to pick up the black in the room.  

MY VINTAGE CHANDELIER

  You haven't seen the pantry side of the room yet.  Here's a sneak peek.
To see the full post, click here or on the image below.

SNEAKY PEEK OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM

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Another Laundry/Pantry Change Up

Recently I updated my kitchen with new fabric and furniture.

Since my laundry/pantry adjoins the kitchen I decided to continue the new look in there too.

BEFORE

AFTER

 If you saw the post about the kitchen you'll recognize the Schumacher chevron fabric on the window and also as a full length drapery in the powder room.  I also changed the two prints on the wall.

View from Kitchen

I also changed the curtains that cover the under-the-counter washer and dryer to a Lee Jofa linen fabric.  If you saw my post on my additional kitchen chairs you'll know that I used this fabric on a pair of parsons chairs too.

  I kept the swing arm curtain rods for easy access to the washer and dryer.

This is the opposite wall with the tiered restaurant pot rack and part of my pantry cupboard.

This is the best I could do with the photo of the pantry cabinet.  The room is long and narrow and I couldn't get back far enough to get a good pic.   You get the idea though. 
(I tried standing on the counter,  lying on the floor, and I even tried to take it from outside through the window.)

  It is an old cabinet.  It needed a top so we added boards similar to the counter.  To co-ordinate it with the corner cabinet we added rope molding and fluting on the sides.  It's been perfect as a pantry.  It has shelves and is just shallow enough so I can actually view everything I have stored inside.  The wide doors also make it easy to access.

This last image is of my favorite feature in the room--the three framed prints.  If you've been following me you know I'm always using architectural prints in my styling.
Below the prints is an urn with a boxwood ball, the books I covered in architectural prints,  a vintage document box, and my signature finial and orb.   I use these document boxes for storage in almost every room.  This one holds small jars of labeled paint samples from my home.  It's much easier to open a small container than it is to open -- and find-- a gallon of paint when I need to do a touch up.


 
So what do you think of this change up?

If you missed the kitchen redo post, go here.  If you missed the previous pantry/laundry change up go here.  To see the parsons chairs in the Lee Jofa fabric, go here.


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