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!

February efforts.

Valentine's Day has now come and gone, and we are half way through the month of February! I think holidays like Valentine's Day are one of the ways the folks of the northern states make it through winter. These holidays are calendar talismans that you can grab onto to haul yourself through a few more weeks of grey, and sleet, rain, mud, snow and vicious wind. Valentine's Day gives you cheery reasons to draw hearts on paper and give them to your loved ones, an excuse to buy chocolates and put fresh flowers in a vase. Love, blooming life and mood elevating chocolate- a big tug through February. Then it is shamrock plants, green beer and comfort food- potatoes, corned beef and hunks of soda bread with butter to get you through March. After that it is a bit of a northern state roller coaster of spring days of warmth, wet and snows into April. But by then, we are feeling the sun, and the birds are back, and the forsythia is showing off...

So, as my garlic and cross to ward off the doldrums of winter, by the end of January, the heart plates come out of the cupboard. The dining tables get pink and red gingham cloths, sparkling crystal and the glint of silver plate. I love silver plate with its sneaky combination of shine and dinge.

This year I also made a tree.
To be honest, I made the tree for next Christmas, having seen a version of it in a December magazine. I liked the tree, and so, whilst trying to fall asleep one night in January, I built a version in my imagination. On one of the many snow days of January, Youngest and I gave my imaginary tree a real try.
But, Christmas is a long way off, so I decorated it for Valentine's Day to see if I liked our efforts.

 I set it up on an old chippy blue-green tramp art dresser I pulled out of my Gram's garage before it melted into the ground.

The tree is wood, with a Swedish style.

For Valentine's Day, I decorated it with hearts! The antique tatted hearts are resurrected from the trash pile in my other Grandmother's house. They were covered with some substance. But, I snatched them out, and here they are, cleaned up a bit. I do like a little dinge...
The other hearts are made from my Great Aunt Lib's sheet music,  pink watercolor and white cotton hearts.
I made a paper garland, and then hung some Dutch speculaas cookies I had made that have lambs under a tree.

It looked lonely on the table. So, I cozied up a stack of pink china plates and small pink books. The smallest of which is a herbarium guide I wrote in the 80's of plants in eastern Virginia.
I am not sure I am crazy about having decorated "trees" outside of Christmas. When I am ready for the next handhold tug into March, this tree of February will get stored with the Christmas decorations for next year.
This year my Valentine tree will help keep me afloat in February, with it's soft colors and anchors to the women of my past. They all understood the winter and did something to haul themselves through. Knitting, tatting, playing music, baking..gifts for themselves and the ones they loved.