project: color my kitchen

I've been working on making my kitchen somewhere I'd like to spend more time. I'm usually in and out pretty fast. I have a funny way of collecting recipes and dreaming about being a great cook some day, but my favorite meals are simple and usually have nothing to do with cooking.

My old table and I were reunited recently after it spent a few years in my friend's garage. When I bought it {for 20 bucks} it looked even worse than this. I enjoyed repairing it back then so this time around it was also a fun, quick remedy of a little scrub down with some steel wool, a fresh coat of stain, a protective top coat and a nice massage with an orange wax concoction to make it feel loved once again. The thing is 60 years old. {1950 Drexel.} I love it's pretty legs and solid wood goodness.

Tasty cuties and my tea pot. Perfectly persimmon.

Artwork I bought in the under ground market in Seoul. Not the shady under ground type, there's a whole labyrinth of shopping in the subway tunnels. If you can get past the heavy smell of exhaust and the fear of getting completely lost you can do some pretty good bargain hunting down there.

I adore my drying rack from Ikea. My favorite dishes were found at an antique dealer in Sugarhouse for $2 for the set. Quirky animals make any meal more fun.

The rug was banished to the garage last fall with no hope of return. It's 100% wool with 100% cotton backing so I couldn't figure out why it had a terribly strong synthetic smell that I never noticed in my old house. I decided to have it cleaned as a last ditch attempt before selling it off to someone with out a hyper sensitive sense of smell.
Tada! The smell is gone. I don't know what he did, but he did it well. He did mention that the glue could have been the problem. All I care is the problem is solved, the rug can stay!
Camel {aka Coree, my cousin and roommate} and I are discussing options to reupholster her chairs next.

After all that, I still ended up eating my grilled cheese on the porch per my usual arrangement. But at least all the color has livened it up a bit in there and I liked looking in the window at the improvements.

Next project: tile the back splash.