It's not completely finished, but I am dying to show off the before and after of our kitchen.

This is what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house in 2003:

We had originally hoped to do a thorough remodel and kept trying little things to perk it up a little until then: a coat of  paint on the walls, a coat of paint on the warped and water-stained wood floor, little rugs on the painted wood floor. We painted the cabinets. It still sucked. Yucky floor, dead space, that damned forest green counter top.

Eventually, we realized that a professional renovation is still a few years away. Cooking up our own homespun version of a  remodel was our only way to make the kitchen a pleasant place to be in the meantime.

Luckily, my honey is quite handy. He built a box around the perimeter of the ceiling so we could have recessed lighting. I have never had that - it feels so fancy!  Bought a new fridge. It's the side-by-side kind with filtered water in the door.  I never had a new fridge before either- what a difference. I feel like a princess. We covered the ceiling in textured tiles. We put down faux-marble self stick linoleum in a checkerboard pattern. Repainted the cabinets and replaced the hardware. Repainted the walls in a bright cantaloupe.  Added some overhead cabinets and a shelf where before there was just unusable space. 

And finally- the fun part: decorating! 

Voila:

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the crown moulding. 

I love my kitchen  now!

I hope you will appreciate that I didn't clear off the counter for these shots. It's not perfect around here, but it's perfect for us.

You may recognize a bunch of this stuff:

See that little  jar next to the mugs? That is a bottle of M.S.G. from the spice rack my mom received as a wedding gift a million years ago!

Today we ordered a new countertop - just formica from the Depot. But it's in a deep blue faux marble which is going to look so awesome with the paint color. For the cabinets, I wanted faceted blue glass knobs- which my honey found super-cheap on ebay. What a difference it made when we put those on. Once we get that countertop, it's really gonna pop!

Here are the blue knobs and new cabinets:

Those lanterns are just hanging out there until I figure out where I want  them to go. The bowl and covered pitcher were made by my dear friend Madelyn Macedo. You can get one for yourself at her etsy shop.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell  you: see the edges of the doors on the new cabinets? Well, my honey routered our old cabinets to look like that!

We picked up the red clock at a secondhand shop. My honey removed the cord and replaced  the mechanism but it still isn't working right, obviously. He set the date to Feb 14 because we like to say 'Every Day is Valentine's Day.' Please don't vomit. It's sweet.

Above the stove, the bird shelf:

All thrifted. I wasn't even trying to collect bird things specifically. As I was decorating the kitchen, I realized I had so many that I should group them together.

In the bottom right corner you can see our fez monkey salt and pepper shakers(we have a thing for fez monkeys):

Even the shelf thing is secondhand! We saw it at a yard sale for 2 bucks- it had a yucky blue paint job.

And it finally gave me a place to display my plates! These were  thrown and painted by me in Madelyn's studio, maybe 5 years ago?

Frida-inspired eyebrows and antlers, clearly. But anyone who knows me will tell you these are my eyes. 

Our awesome new fridge! 

If you look closely, on the butcherblock  you will see a purple-covered sugar bowl that I commissioned from Madelyn. It has a fez monkey on it. Lucky for you, she added this motif to her line of ceramics! Yep, it's another one of her bowls  on top of the fridge. ( I have lots of her mugs, too, but those are in the pantry.)

That cake stand I told you about last week, freshly cleaned and piled with vintage ribbons:

Prepare to be amazed:

Set of vintage ceramic chickeny canisters, yard sale.
Fifty. Cents. For the set. Yes.

We still have some work ahead, but we did what we set out to do: make the kitchen feel like us.

Wow, it took  me an hour and a half to write this post. I hope you enjoy it!