Minor Kitchen Update

Our kitchen has been a poor design point in our home since day one. It is the only room that we haven't painted and the upper kitchen cabinets, although necessary, are strange. Call me crazy, but I'm just not too into the floating corner cabinets. 

The game plan is to ultimately renovate the kitchen and hopefully knock down the wall between the dining room to set up a bar seating area, but seeing as we have a baby on the way, now is not the time for a kitchen reno. We do, however, desperately need some extra storage before our baby boy arrives. Here's what we did to help (on a budget):

1. We bought a small cubby bookshelf from Target for $80 to stash under one side of the upper cabinets. (Originally this area house an unneeded wine rack and the dogs' food bowls. We just moved the dog bowls to another part of the house and we'll probably sell off the wine rack.)

-It adds the extra storage, gives us a spot to place the mail and is a nicer looking set up than what we had before.

2. We added shelves (FREE!) to the right side of the cabinets to help balance out the floating corner shelves and again, add a little storage. (This portion of the wall was blank minus a clock.)

-It brings the dark wood finish from the bookcase to another part of the room and fills in the void. It also left the perfect amount of space for my fun project!

Now, for the fun project...

I decided that it would be nice to have a chalk board in the kitchen to put encouraging notes or bible verses, to list the things we are thankful for or just to write our grocery list on. I found inspiration on pinterest and decided on this creation:

 I just purchased an inexpensive chalk board and painted the frame with leftover paint we had at the house. Then I glued another frame (without the glass or backing) on to the chalk board to create a layered look. I love the way it turned out and the double frame creates the perfect ledge to place the chalk and eraser. 

I dig the update. It's a good temporary solution for us. (Although, I'm leaning towards getting the room painted sooner rather than later.)

Until next time...