Time to change it up

So, yesterday I got a wild hair up my back side and decided to start changing things up in the kitchen. The cabinet that stores all our cups and glasses was ridiculously full. How on earth do two people accumulate so many beverage containers?!?! Do they multiply in the middle of the night? I think it was more the fact that we sometimes have a hard time letting things go. We think maybe we'll use it someday or it has a special occasion tied to it. But, with little homes its just not practical to hold on to things that serve no purpose. So after a quick cull, the cabinet looks much better and it actually opened up space on the top shelf where other things can be stored, if needed.

Notice the under-cabinet wine rack. Another great idea when you don't have a lot of counter space.

After that, I pulled down the thick yellow and orange checkered curtains that have been hanging over the kitchen sink for years and years. They went from the very top of the window to pretty much the very bottom. The muted yellow and orange, like many things we initially selected for our kitchen, just made things look dark and dingy. I was SICK of looking at them! And even though it left the window totally naked I didn't care. They were coming down..forever.

Look how much light comes in that window without the curtains blocking it! As much as I loved all the light, once the sun went down it left us feeling a little exposed. So I knew I wouldn't be able to leave it bare for very long. After I got off work today I thought I might run out and see if I could find a cheap pair of simple, sheer curtains that would still let the light in but give us our privacy at night. I knew I didn't want to spend a lot of money but as I was looking at the window envisioning what exactly I wanted I was feeling doubtful I'd be able to find what I wanted at any local store.

And then inspiration hit...tea towels!

Never mind the paint sample. They are all over our house right now.

My mom bought these tea towels for me two Christmases ago (you can still find them here). And I really love them, but they are sort of wasted hanging on the doors down there. We don't use them to dry anything, they have been there strictly for decoration but without being at eye-level they are easily forgotten about.  I decided to elevate their status.

I whipped out my sewing machine and set it right on my kitchen counter. I measured how long I wanted the new curtains to be and then measured how much of an opening the old curtain had for the rod. That's all I really needed and in less than 20 minutes I had stitched two new curtain panels that would be exactly what I wanted.  Once my husband came home and moved the hardware down to were I wanted it I popped the rod back in place. And there you have it!

The light fixture will be replaced, eventually.

 The tea towels ended up being a perfect solution. We still get light coming in, but it will still give us the privacy we need once it gets dark in the evenings. I actually feel like this is a much better use for the towels rather than just hanging on the lower cabinet doors. And it also doesn't hurt that this cost me zero dollars.