Small Kitchen Improvements

This is a picture of our kitchen on move in day. Ah...the warmth of August! (that door to the small mud room now stays firmly shut to keep the cold out). Not a great picture, but it shows one of the curtains that came with the house.


Our inherited curtains were a blessing and a curse. They definitely made our home feel more welcoming and less bare those first few weeks as we were settling in. However, the curtains were straight out of Country Curtains and not quite our style. After a few months and a trip to Ikea we got the motivation to finally start replacing the curtains.

Here's how the windows over the sink look now.

We used the Dignitet curtain wire and Ritkig curtain rings which were pretty easy to install (after taking down the old hardware and patching/painting). The fabric is also from Ikea and we had enough to recover the dining room chairs too!

Our kitchen is not very large so we need to maximize our storage space. Sean installed our pot rack above the window in our little nook between the cabinets and bathroom. The area also serves as our coffee/tea station and recycling center! The recycling baskets were a good Ikea find (Dokument wastepaper basket). They are off white so they blend in somewhat with the cabinets and are a bit prettier than the paper bags we were using before. Next thing to go are those brass knobs and hardware!


Sean also installed a small shelf over the stove. It is the Ekby Bjarnum - also Ikea. The light birch & silver matches our kitchen cart/island (I'll have to get a wider shot). Installing a vent hood isn't on the top of our priority list and it is fun to have a place to display some items that have been hiding in boxes for too long.


I hope our house doesn't scream IKEA too much despite using many of their products. We had a successful Saturday night shopping trip that helped motivate us to do some decorating and improve our storage.