My Recipe For A Kitchen

Just last week I had no idea what I was going to cook up with this kitchen. But once I got out the Grand Hotel paper pack to assign the patterns and colors to each of the remaining rooms in the Willowcrest, my design choices for the kitchen came cascading into my mind. I liked them so much, I began to salivate! This is definitely not the paper I ever thought I'd be using in the kitchen, but sometimes, it's fun to fix something new!

Before I could really get going on anything, I needed to finalize my cabinet and appliance layout. Those would dictate every other thing I did in this compact room. I got out the ruler and graph paper to measure exactly how many inches I had to work with, then took them over to Design Space to design the cabinets. In cooking, it's what you call mise en plase. And I really like it when me is in place! I seem to be making a habit of using chipboard cabinetry in my kitchens, but I enjoy making them so much! Maybe one day, I will have a laser cutter and then I can switch to wood. :O)

It takes a lot of pieces even for a small kitchen!

The appliances were an easy choice - I had them leftover from when I did the Storybook Cottage's kitchen. They weren't the right ingredients for that project, so I put them on ice. They seem to have been meant for the Willowcrest! Both Russ and I liked the apricot color, and I thought for a moment about going with a peach themed kitchen. But the pretty rose vine wallpaper convinced me to repaint the appliances.

Once the plain lower boxes proved a good fit, the upper cabinets
could proceed. I used every bit of available wall space.

The wallpaper provided me with all the accent colors, and the appliances provided me with the era. Now we were cooking! With those ingredients sorted, our recipe was developing. It turns out that our second empire home will be stuck for all time in the early 1940's. Our brave homeowner finds herself unexpectedly alone and needing to find ways to be self reliant. When your man is away fighting evil in the war, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep the home fires burning. Our lovely home will become somewhat of a boarding house, with the entire attic space "to let". 

The accent colors came from the wallpaper using the
 closest acrylic paints I had on hand.

In this concoction, the kitchen has been recently updated. It has the feel of both 30's and 40's kitchens with design elements such as raised panel cabinets and a "porcelain enameled" sink. Luckily, in the 21st century, we can rustle up tiny "porcelain enameled" sinks with our 3D printers!

The cabinet hardware, cabinet feet and the appliances are painted Barn Red to match the darkest rose buds in the wallpaper. I can almost hear the music from that era playing on the kitchen radio, and almost smell the home cookin'.

The cabinets have their doors, pulls and feet installed.

For now, the upper cabinet rests on top of the stove rack.
It'll be hung up higher on the wall.

Once I added the above fridge cabinet to the recipe, it made the fridge seem
perfectly at home between the two doorways. 
Kitchens from this era were not as "fit out" as they are today.

Once you add details like crown molding, lace shelf edging,
painted handles and feet, the chipboard cabinets really come alive!

The sink really has the right flavor profile for this kitchen. Here's a look after lots of sanding and glossy finish applied. If you were really determined, you could spend a long time sanding to make PLA look like real porcelain. The holes have been drilled for the taps and faucet, but the drain is part of the 3D printing process.

I made a wee strainer for the drain. It may be only 5/16" round, but it gives off big flavor!

And it fits perfectly into the drain, flush with the drain ring. I wish I'd had regular bronze paint instead of a paint pen so I could have gotten the whole thing painted. The paint marker's tip is too wide to get in there! Ah well... It still looks cute.

To make the faucet, I used a screw-base cup holder in "brass" as the spout, then a "brass" earring back as the aerator/nozzle. Gem Tac works great for gluing these tiny metal parts. It's a strong hold, plus you can clean it up after it has dried because it is like rubber cement (but with no odor). Sometimes your junk drawers have just the right ingredients.

For the taps, I had straight pins, spacer beads and earring backs on hand. They look great in retro kitchens!

This photo is taken with everything in dry fit to make sure it all works together. Each piece is just set in and on, so you have to ignore the crooked and just notice the "feel". It's only a taste test.

Countertops and backsplash are just set on for now.
Sink is not fully seated into it's holes in the counter or countertop.

I love how the sink looks with the beam of sunset light shining on it! So "film noir"! 

Here you can see a better visual of why I wanted to have a tall apron on the window, and why I needed to raise the window up a bit. The sink fits here perfectly, now.

For 1940's era countertops, I had my choice of tile, marble or Formica. I used illustration art board as the base, then made various shades of Moss Green to create a look that can be either marble or Formica. Just a dash of this and a dash of that and viola! Soup! I gave it metal edging in a color that matches the faucets, because 40's kitchens craved their metal edging.

It was imperative to have all of the cabinets in place so that I could make an accurate template for the tile floor. I painted more illustration art board in green and beige, then cut 3/4" square tiles. I am laying them on the diagonal, alternating colors in the field. For the border, I will use Barn Red tiles in some way. 

But that is for dessert, my friends! I bid you Bon appétit and I'll see you next week! I hope you enjoyed my recipe for a kitchen!

xo xo,

Jodi