Kitchen Updates

I am getting excited that spring is here because that means we can pick up where we left off with our house projects! We are intending to complete the pantry/entryway project in the next couple months, and we also have a lot of "finishing" work to do in the kitchen.

I had been keeping an eye on bench/wall shelf sets for a couple years now and finally found a deal I couldn't pass up. I wish I had a before picture to show (actually, maybe I don't...) of how cluttered and messy this area always looked. We had two sets of peg hooks on the wall for coats which was always overloaded and a rug on the floor for shoes, which always ended up all over the kitchen floor, plus a cardboard box full of hats and gloves, etc. Not pretty at all. Now we have a few hooks for stuff, plus storage for shoes and hats and gloves where they are out of sight! No more tripping over shoes, and it neatens up the entry into the kitchen so nicely! Now I just have to figure out what I want to hang on the wall there. I am also planning on replacing the canvas bins with baskets and I am going to make a seat cover for the bench (the cushion is the same color as the bins - I just stuck a table cloth on it to get an idea.)

I also hung out pans on the wall next to the stove, which is very handy!

And painted our fridge black to match the other appliances! It was very easy. We picked up 2 cans of black appliance epoxy from Home Depot and voila! :) One trick that worked well for me was to paint the door handles well ahead of time. Then while the fridge is no longer sticky, but still needs to set for a bit, you can reattach the handles and use the fridge without ruining your nice finished coat.

My new Keurig is at home :).

See my pantry door? I made a change to that too!

I bought some Chalkboard paint and turned the panel into a memo board!

We love it, and the kids are having so much fun with it I am planning on painting the bottom panel too so they can have their own space and my lists stop getting erased for all their fun little pictures :).