Mother’s Kitchen Makeover

I know it seems like I have abandoned my little blog this week…. I feel like I’ve been in a whirlwind, lately. Two weeks ago my 80 year old mother, who just had her cast removed from her broken wrist, told me she really wanted to refinish her table and chairs in her breakfast nook. My mother is like me…or rather I am like her…when I want something done it gets done, like, now.  I told her to wait for me, that I would come see her and we could decide what to do in her kitchen. It hasn’t been updated in almost 30 years. Boy, does time fly or what?

Her kitchen still has her 1980’s tiny floral print wallpaper with country decor. I’m in no mood to scrap wallpaper off of walls….so I decided to do a tissue paper faux technique to cover the paper and paint. Saturday, two weeks ago, I drove to my hometown and Mama and I went shopping for fabric to make curtains and from there we bought paint for the room. I thought I could get it all done in a day, but as it turned out, I only was able to finish the tissue paper and paint. So, I brought the table and chairs home with me to refinish.

I finished painting and staining everything last Friday but had not recovered the cushioned seats. (That’s when I was surprised by a surprise birthday party!) And it’s a good thing. Because the next day I found the coordinating  fabric that goes with the curtain fabric we bought. I had to buy it. It was too perfect not to. And besides, she wanted blue and this was a very pretty blue.

So the first of this week,  I moved to Plan B. I repainted everything, chairs and table legs to go with new fabric.

This is before…you can’t see the tiny little flowers….they are there…trust me.

She has had this table, since I was in elementary school.

And this is after… The tissue paper doesn’t show up in this photo, but it will when I glaze it this weekend…

Isn’t it amazing what a little paint can do?  What I really can’t believe is that my daddy approves. That makes me happy!

I ended up taking the table home with me to refinish. I sanded the finish off of the top and stained it. We love how it turned out.

I had  painted the chairs and legs a medium blue but was able to find the coordinating fabric so I repainted them cream and glazed them lightly.  This fabric is so pretty with the cream chairs.

This printed floral fabric is for the curtains. We haven’t finished them yet.

This is the finished…well..almost…Breakfast nook. We still have work to do on the curtains. I love it!

I found a soup tureen with blue and brown floral design on it at the antique mall that works perfectly on the table.

Don’t you love the rich walnut stain?

I painted this blue rooster on canvas and matched colors from fabrics. The stenciled design on the left is done using modeling paste to add texture and dimension to the painting.  He’s so fine.

HIS Mercies are new every morning….Lamentations 3:23

I found the sconce at an estate sale and picked it up for $5.00 and painted it to match, too.

When your parents get older there’s not much they really need, materially. But what they can use is a little sprucing up around the house. I remember when I was a child that my daddy and uncles would buy wallpaper every year and wallpaper my grandmother’s living room. It was always an old fashioned victorian style print…lot’s of roses and florals and ribbony stripes.That room must have had dozens of layers of wallpaper!!!! It impressed me that they would do something so sweet for my grandmother, that she couldn’t do for herself. A true labor of love. And after all she had done for them, she deserved it.  And what a role model they were to us grandchildren. Honoring their father and mother.

l loved doing this for my mother.  It was a pleasure. And the fact my daddy approves is icing on the cake.