Our Tiny Kitchen At The Red Painted Cottage

“In the childhood memories of every good cook, there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.”
                                                                         ~ Barbara Costikyan

I wish I had taken before photos of our kitchen, but the bottom cabinets were so hideous, that as soon as we closed on the cottage I immediately got to work in removing them and painting...

I have to say, that after 12 plus years, the cabinets I painted have held up great.  There's been no chipping or peeling of any paint; and the bottom cabinets were all laminate!

These are the steps I did in painting these cabinets:

1. Removed all the cabinets and drawers, along with the hinges.  There were no handles or knobs on these. 
2. Even though they were laminate, I gave everything a good sanding.
3. I put a good quality primer over all. 
4. I wanted to make them look like they were old, so the first coat of paint I put on was a funny mustard/brown color.  This was my base coat of paint.
5. Over that, I painted a sage green.  I think I put two coats of each color of paint on the cabinets. 
6. Then I lightly sanded wherever I wanted the base coat to show through.
7. I finally applied 2 coats of polyurethane to everything. 
8. Once dried, we put all the doors and drawers back on, and I bought new pulls that we installed on each drawer and drawer. 

The upper cabinets were in great condition, so we left all of them as they were.  We did replace the refrigerator a few years after we bought the cottage, but the only place for it is literally around the corner from the kitchen, as you can see in the photo below.  My mother had an old wooden microwave cart that we use between the stove and the refrigerator.  The stove is an old almond color, but it works fine, so we've left it alone. 

If you're wondering why there's a clothespin on each towel, it's to hold them in place when the wind blows through the side door.

On the other side of our tiny kitchen, holds our binoculars, keys, and breadbox (which I found at our local flea market for only $3).

The kitchen sink is in front of our large window.  The printed fabric on the window shelf is leftover oil cloth from an old tablecloth; and the clay pots I had painted and decided to bring to the cottage...

Between the living room and the kitchen is our side entry.  We have a tiny chest freezer in there...

This is the other side of our side entryway.  I love the stone...

Mr. Cottage hung all his iron pots and pans in the kitchen...

And on our refrigerator are plenty of memo pads for us to write what we need to either take home or bring back with us next time.  Isn't this a cute one!  I bought it from Hatley's in Canada, on boxing day (December 26).  Click here to see more of their great products.

Our tour will continue on Friday.  See you then, if not before!

I've joined up with the following parties, come on over:

Savvy Southern Style
The Blissful Bee