Re-dress the kitchen

The kitchen is where the action is, right? Where there is food, there are people. And, at Cowfeathers; dogs.
My cute little kitchen at Cowfeathers Farm was once a "summer kitchen". It was located behind the house a short distance away. The kitchen was the most likely place to catch on fire, and not attaching it to the house could save the house in that instance. Outside the kitchen was a cistern with a water pump.
It has changed a little in 200 years. We have running water now, and the house was attached to the kitchen in the mid 19th century by what is our dining room. When I renovated the kitchen more than a decade ago, I added a lot of windows which make it brighter and feel bigger. ( And insulation!)
This winter, the kitchen had started to look a bit unloved. My painted floor had been worn by 12 years of footsteps. I loved the wear, because I do love a bit of dinge, but it had tipped past dinge and into dingy.


These are photos of the kitchen past...

This was not too long ago, but the floor was still in okay shape in this photo.  Also, highlighted in the photo, is the LIGHT added by the windows.

This month's re-dress of the kitchen was designed with the painting above the mantle in mind. The painting was done about 20 years ago signed by; B. Jeffords. It is of Cowfeathers as it appeared before our arrival. I love this little reminder of what the house looked like when we bought it. And, I love the primitive style of the wall painting. The painting is both above the mantle and on the wall adjacent.

Slightly older photo, but you can see the island I built with my dad, and the painting the travels from above the mantle to the piece of wall between kitchen and dining room. 

I love the blue I chose for the walls. I'm a blue fan, for most things! But after repainting the floor this month to highlight the painting, I had to sacrifice my blue walls. 

Kitchen as it stands now..... redressed for 2019.

 The painting is now the focal point of the room. It is grounded by the floor checks, and the black of the island. I couldn't find the exact wall color I wanted, so I mixed it from paints I already had. I took most of a gallon of a off-white that had a bit of yellow in it, and added a paint that was yellowish brown, called "Reindeer Fur".  When I got to what I wanted, on it went!

With the richer, darker colors, I wanted the lighting to have more depth. So, I took a trip to Restore and found an old brass chandelier. I painted the candle holder things black to upscale it a bit. Thanks to Marianne Yost in Aiken for that idea!

I still have some things to transfer over to the new color palette. The back stairs and the under sink cows come to mind! I also now want to move the ceiling to another tone... I am currently reworking the nearby half bath. It was my tribute to sea glass, but is getting a new dress too. Certainly will blog about it's new outfit when it's done!