Kitchen Make-under?

Ironically last year at this exact time I posted "Kitchen Corner Office."  This year I've updated it again.  After the debacle with the contact paper in Annie's room, you would think I would never use it again.  But I decided to take on a small project in the kitchen.  This time it was about removing contact paper.  How hard could it be?  Well, did you know that when you pull off the contact paper and all that is behind it is linoleum wallboard, the wall board will actually pull away from the WALL?  It was a little crazy, so I had to slowly peeeeelll the paper as gently as possible and this was between the counter top and the bottom of the cabinets.  And once you start the process, you just can't stop.  You can't.  Not easy.
Here is the before:

I think I'm taking that poem down one of these days too.  Too many people just really don't like it!

So a close up of the before:

And after:

I added a lamp.  I put contact paper inside the shelf box.

(I really need to paint under the cabinets - those look BAD!)

Now, instead of spices... and sugar and salt which I'm trying to eat less,

I placed a Christmas present Vera Bradley recipe book.  It's perfect for holding the recipe you are baking!

So now we have white linoleum backsplash and a cleaner look to the kitchen.  And a candle always makes things look and feel better too!  The Make-Under!  Kind of like a good make-up remover, softer and smoother looking.

Modes of Play

Charlie got a new video game called Minecraft.  It is a rare innocent game where players can build worlds and houses and other fun stuff by 'mining' their way to crafting and building houses.  You can also play in two modes: Survival or Creative.  Not to go all philosophical, but I feel like this is such an analogy on life.  Right now I am definitely operating in Survival mode.  (I can't even think of the word that I should be using for analogy - my brain just isn't working.)  No matter how many buttons I hit, I can't get out of the Survival mode.  As desperate as I am to be in Creative mode, it just won't let me in.  But I know it will come around again and I'll be ready.
The good news is that a few weeks back I was in Creative mode and I captured it in pictures.  Here is a project that Annie and I worked on December 26.  It took about all day and I don't know why I underestimated the power of contact paper to really work me out.  (I didn't learn that day either because another kitchen project involved contact paper too!  More on that later this week...hopefully:)
Annie is using my old dresser from when I was little.  Yes, it's been around the block, so to speak.  So here it is before:

This is the way it was since she was a baby and I painted it with her monogram in the middle.  She has outgrown this look.  There isn't usually a staple gun out on her dresser either.

After trying to sand it with a sander I got out the scraper and it worked relatively quickly.

Underneath it all you can still see the brown flower decals my mother added to it when I was little.  She wonders how I come up with ideas - she was the original creative mom!

We are going for a more modern look, so we used The Macbeth Collections designs shelf liner, aka contact paper, which I picked up at HomeGoods for about $4.  

It took a lot of work to get it smooth and close to even on the drawers. :)

Then we covered the top, put the drawer pulls back on and voila!

We are going to look for different pulls though... We did top it off with a mirror painted to match.  I'll try to post that pictures later.  

So here is how it looks with her new rug, (HomeGoods, $39!!) and the basket that held her gifts at Christmas.  

 
As if that didn't take long enough, we decided to tackle her closet.  (If this is the door, can you IMAGINE what the inside looked like?!)

All cleaned out and ORGANIZED!

Contact paper as wallpaper.

This was another fun thing we did using paper cupcake holders from, you guessed it, HomeGoods.  By poking a small hole in the center you can push through a light from a light string.  I don't know how you find these particular cupcake holders because I threw the box away, but these are not just wrappers, there is a base that makes a cup.

It casts a magical glow over her new "big girl" room.   And I have to admit that she more than just a big girl, she's becoming a young lady.