My DIY Vintage Dream Kitchen Remodel

In August (on my actual birthday) we purchased a lovely new house!!  It was built in 1954 and has so much Mid Century charm!  We are having the best DIY time remodeling it by ourselves.

Since it is a pretty big house, at some point over the years it was split into a duplex with a 2 bedroom downstairs and a 3 bedroom upstairs.  This means the house has TWO KITCHENS!! Yes, you heard me right.  TWO!!

With my darling husband being a master chef in the making and me being the queen of all things baked goods, we decided that we were going to keep both and have His and Hers kitchens.  The upstairs became my husbands modern dream kitchen with all of the new appliances and things to make all of his culinary dreams a reality.  My downstairs kitchen has become my vintage daydream, pet project, and pretty much favorite place to be. (My girlfriends say it looks like a kids playhouse, but everything works.)

This post is about my sweet little kitchen makeover from start to finish.

I will start with the initial before and after, because WOW! 

BEFORE

AFTER!! 

  The first thing I did was get rid of all of the old appliances and prime everything.

Before Primer

After Primer

At the same time I was searching all over Craigslist to find the perfect vintage stove.  It did not take me too long to find this beauty, that works perfectly and has been sitting in a lovely ladies storage for 20 some years.  Got if for a steal at $300!!

My new stove, sitting in storage waiting for me to take her home. 

Once I had the stove, I knew what my colors were going to be.  I was going to build the entire kitchen around the Aqua beauty!  I picked Teal, Pink and Yellow as the colors.

Teal, Pink and Yellow, with fancy silver drawer pulls!

I'm also using the same teal as an accent color through the downstairs and the connecting shelf.

Before and after shelf divider at kitchen entrance. Pretty new paint and cute *disco knobs.
(*Not really disco, but that is what I call them) 

At the entrance to the kitchen I wanted my own menu board, so I painted the side of this cupboard with chalkboard paint, and I turned a cute drawer pull upside-down to create a chalk holder.  Now Mamachelle's kitchen has a cool place to display all of the deliciousness being baked in there! 

After all of the painting was done, I pulled up the old beat up floor and installed a brand new one all on my own!  It was a process, but I feel like it was not too terribly hard.

My new floor!! 

Then I added some sweet details, and displayed my vintage collection of stuff and things.

Teeny Wonder Woman!! Eep!

Mr Chester Crumbs

Searched forever to find the perfect mini fridge to keep my milk and eggs.  I needed it to be the right color, but not cost a million dollars. Found this online for less than $200!

And here is the big after!  LOVE my kitchen!!

Yoink!!

He can never wait for things to come off the cooling rack! 

Hey, kid! Wanna buy some art?

Insomnia- 10x10 original acrylic on canvas- $95

I have posted several of my paintings on my Etsy account for sale. Please swing by and check it out. There are lots of great, original things to be found on Etsy. It's the perfect place to find one of a kind holiday gifts!!
I'm willing to negotiate with you if you are interested in buying more than one, just shoot me an email! If you are in Seattle, you can see them in person at my show:

Time	Thursday, October 21 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location	Gibson 206 Showroom 87 Wall Street - Belltown Seattle, WA

Fresh Paint

Heart Bandit

Alone Time

Collection (So far)

I've been away for so long...

Where do you begin when you have taken a seemingly forever hiatus from doing something?
I have a theory that I am to art as bi-polar people are to mood swings. You just cruise along all normal and stuff and then, suddenly, a manic episode where everything is moving in fast forward. That is how inspiration hits me. I get really super involved in certain mediums for a truncated period of time. During that time, I am very prolific and create tons of stuff in that medium, but if I take a break from it, or get interrupted, boom, the ride is over, back to reality. I've done it with music, writing, drawing, photography, painting, sculpting, sewing, cake decorating, knitting... you name the genre and I have probably dabbled in it at one time or another.

My family has been kind enough to dedicate one of our very few and precious closets in our tiny city dwelling for me to store all of the supplies, so if the mood strikes me, I will be ready. They also don't seem to mind when I spend a long weekend in my pj's keeping strange hours just creating one thing after another like some sort of machine until finally I am nodding off and Jon tells me that it is time to go to sleep. In that tiny closet, I have supplies to do pretty much anything. I like knowing it is there. Opening the door is unlocking the things that are always swirling around in my head.

On that note, instead of trying to detail with words everything that has been happening in my life recently, here are many visuals to show you what I've been up to:

Chewie is still the cutest doggie ever and I discovered he has a teeny mustache:

There was The Posies show at The Croc where I got to see lots of friends I have not seen in ages:

A new art store opened in my neighborhood, so I've been painting:

and I went to SXSW for the first time. Here is a video I shot backstage:


more happened, but right now I'm distracted by an empty canvas across the room...

In my head there are Wine Spirits and Robots...

I made some really fun stuff today. I love how they all turned out.

These are the Wine Bottle Spirits. I have been trying to find a crafty way to use the corks I've been collecting, and today I did! I LOVE these ladies so much. The photos do not do them justice. I'm very proud of them.


Back:
And then, do you remember this guy from a while back?



He was one of my favorites, so I remade this drawing in Sculpey:
Even the worm is smiling! Isn't he too cute?
And I made a tiny robot charm as well. Here is the whole gang together.
I wish I could get a better photo of the grape detail in their hair. It is really cool looking.

Snail & Lolly

Today we have seen more snow than I have ever seen in Seattle. It is cold, and slippery out there. I've opted to stay indoors and do productive things. I'm four pages away from that children's book I promised earlier this year, and I finished the Em & Her Brother 2009 calendar. Who knew that all I needed was a snow day?

Meet my niece!

This is Carys:

SOOOOO CUTE!!!

cat nap

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