The Giant Spoon

(This lovely find will eventually have a home in the kitchen.)

School's in: Staging a kitchen

In two weeks we'll be in full deep cleaning mode, and staging mode.  The cleaning part I know, the staging part, well, not so much.  So I've been doing a little research and getting some ideas on what we can do to pull the kitchen together.

In this kitchen (and in the photo above) I like the idea of adding a little pop of the same colour.  Smart little ideas like using yellow flowers, lemons, a yellow pepper, a yellow book and yellow bowl make this kitchen look tidy.

I like this kitchen because it uses mainly white accessories. 

Using the limes in a container looks fun, and the white flowers in the neat and tidy rectangular vase keeps it simple.

The picture frame on the countertop in this kitchen is an interesting idea.  But what sort of picture would you put in it?

Okay, so the Le Creuset french oven really sucked me in with this kitchen.  I still want one.

And so, with a quick 101 on kitchen staging/styling (and so on...) I devised the colour palette above.  The top left row starts with two paint colours that are in the kitchen (and family room, can't forget that!) and the third in from the left is the cabinet colour (Behr's 'Pot of Cream').  I think green on green accents, a little pop of yellow, some white and a highlight of a cool blue could work nicely together. 

Kitchen shelves

Like most people with limited kitchen space, I like to take advantage of wall storage for items that I use on a regular basis when cooking or baking. Of course, this storage needs to look good -- who wants to look at something ugly in one of their most-used rooms? My shelves were decent, but in need of a little spruce-up. Here's some tips that I like to follow:

- Display things that you use regularly, but aren't crucial to have within an arm's reach (like pots and pans, utensils, spices, etc.)

- Take dust wraps off of books that you display -- they're usually much prettier looking without them (I have some really ugly ones that didn't make the cut)

- Include some quirky items that add some personality

- Find jars and containers that look pretty, and use opaque or ceramic jars to hide not so pretty items

- If you're installing shelves in your kitchen, be sure they can hold the weight of heavy items (mine are installed according to Trevor's 'so strong you can hang off them' mantra -- which means making sure you hit some studs or use proper wall anchors!)

Cookbook display

I *heart* cookbooks, especially when they're pretty on the outside.  I also love displaying cookbooks in the kitchen.  On our trip to Seattle we had brunch at the Steelhead Diner, where cookbooks were displayed near the kitchen/prep area.  Whether it was just for show, I have no idea, but it looked good!

Spring in the kitchen

Cynthia brought me some cheery yellow tulips and a very cool white ceramic pitcher for my birthday (among other cool things...*ahem* a pen with a chic GREEN holder!).  It makes the kitchen such a happy and spring-y place now*. 

*Note: The kitchen isn't finished yet, can you spot the missing outlet covers?

Dishtowel chic

This is my new addition to the kitchen: the Macintosh dishtowel from Crate & Barrel.  It looks so lovely and spring-like (and so far I haven't been able to use it properly because it's too pretty!).  There's also a red Macintosh version, but that would be wrong wouldn't it? (I think I might be locked up soon for my addiction to green).

Other designs that I saw (and liked):

the Tomato Slice dishtowel;

the Lettuce dishtowel (look at all that green!!);

the Eggplant and Artichoke set (I was fawning over that before I saw the Macintosh);

and the cute Teacup Print towel.