Kitchen Love

Sarah from Modern Country Style is hosting a wonderful link party today called Kitchen Favourites.

Have you met Sarah? If not, you simply must! Her blog is a blend of delightful writing and gorgeous photography. But the best part is she is a total sweetheart, and visiting her blog is like having a friend over for coffee...or tea! :)

Now...

The idea is to share a favorite spot in your kitchen, but I floundered a bit on this because I have more than one favorite.

Not because it is the hands down, most gorgeous kitchen ever, {it's not} but because every part of this room, every nook, took a tremendous amount of effort to get it there.

{And we are still working...Is a room ever really done?}

Some of this you may recognize, because I have shared much of it along the way as we have worked!

Ours was the ugly duckling of kitchens.

Truly.

I wish I had a true before shot of this room to show you~ before as in when we first bought this home! But maybe it's good I don't or you'd be off running for sure! ;) {The halfway pictures are bad enough!} But in fairness, I will be showing a bit of those so you can see what we changed. :)

I love standing here at the sink, and looking out the window. But it wasn't always so...Here are a few "halfway house" pictures!

Old sink, old faucet, old counters...

Working...

A lot of paint!

The window was primed and painted, just like the bead board and cabinets!

The pantry doors have a bit of personality now with their chalkboard doors!

And when our kitchen was flooded, we removed the laminate down to the vinyl floor that was there when we moved in...

But it wasn't anything a little primer and paint couldn't handle!

To read more about this painted vinyl floor, click here.

But do you see a glaring problem?

Yep, one long wall of nothingness. Not good! But that was okay, because I had an idea. An "island" of sorts, since the room couldn't accommodate a true one, was set against that long wall...

The island was made from an vintage dresser found on Craigslist...

I am working on open shelving that will go on either side of the large chalkboard, but for now the chalkboard is a little lonely up there!

But this old house, especially this kitchen, has taught me something very valuable. You do the best you can with what you have. Some things could be replaced, others we had to get creative with until we could replace them! Hopefully next summer we will replace the flooring, and someday we will rip out the old cabinets...But I got to thinking that anything I did would be better than leaving it how it was! ;)

But guess what? This is not the only kitchen you can see! So do make sure and head on over to Modern Country Style, and see every beautiful kitchen that has linked up! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you have a wonderful day and weekend, too!

Blessings,

Jenni