FINALLY! :) I decided to start with my kitchen since it's my favorite room in my apartment. A lot of the other rooms feel very "meh" -- I had great plans but their execution just didn't match the awesomeness that I was envisioning in my head. My kitchen, though, came out exactly the way I wanted. I love it so much!! :)
I threw caution to the wind and decided to paint my cabinets (gasp!) and remove the doors. Me and my mom have already figured out how to change everything back (we figured it out before I ever painted in the first place) so if you're a renter, you can stop having heart palpitations now, lol! I have a plan. I promise ;)
The scalloped border at the top is actually craft foam that I cut out in a scalloped pattern and then attached with command strips. Since it has a little texture to it, it actually passes for painted wood if you don't look super close. I wanted a scalloped border desperately. I searched tirelessly for scalloped wood trim locally and kept coming up empty so I came up with this diy version instead. It was much, much cheaper and I think it looks just as great as wood would have :)
I'm not a big candy eater but I like having a lot on hand for guests. And these sweet little jars from Michaels were absolutely perfect for storing it! They remind me of an old time candy shop!
I didn't want to paint the bottom cabinets so we just covered them with curtains, velcro and command strips again. Sidenote -- if you're a renter, command strips should be your new best friend. You can use them to hang basically *anything* and they come off clean. They have them for all different weights, so I've used them for everything from lightweight craft foam to a heavy metal sign.
Also I should probably add that I don't use my stove so the fabric isn't an issue (read: fire hazard) If it was, you could just pull the velcro off and hang the curtains to the side while you cook. But I basically just use my toaster oven for breakfast and lunch and eat dinner at home with my family pretty much every night.
I'm kind of a little obsessed with my microwave. It's MINT GREEN for crying out loud! eeeep! I got it on amazon but it looks like they don't have this color in stock anymore, just black and red (although they look awesome too!) And, bonus, it cooks well too! haha!
I have a loose "ice cream and sweets" theme going on in the kitchen and by far my favorite part of the theme is this jumbo ice cream wood die cut from Everyday is a Holiday. I love everything Jenny and Aaron make and honestly I wish I could just plaster my whole apartment in their artwork - I love it!
I also got those little fake donuts from Home Goods and the melted ice cream is from amazon. The ice cream scoops sitting on the itty bitty scalloped display stand are actually play food from when I was a kid. They still have a bit of the artificial ice cream scent that they had 20 years ago, *sigh*.
Above the stove I have a little cabinet that's perfect for things I don't need to reach very often, like my cookbooks. lol! I'm joking, I do like to cook... I just tend to do it at home and make up my own recipes with whatever is laying around..
The ice cream cone is a nightlight that I got on amazon. My little cat teapot on the right is Lefton. They're usually annoyingly pricey on etsy and ebay but I snagged this one pretty cheap last year in an ebay auction. If I could afford it I'd get the whole cat set (you can see the set here, isn't it cute?!)
The aforementioned toaster oven :) It's actually a toaster and a toaster oven, which I find pretty spiffy! Also I have these beautiful scalloped canisters from Bombay Duck. They don't ship to America so Laura from Cardboard Cities graciously shipped them to me from England. (Thank you Laura!!)
You can't really see them well but I also have scalloped unicorn glasses (yes, SCALLOPS AND UNICORNS) from urban outfitters. I got three last year and then they sold out.. I e-mailed them to ask if they'd be restocking them (I was kind of obsessed with having a whole set) and they said they were discontinued. Sadface!! I was randomly searching for unicorn stuff last week, as you do, and found they had been restocked after all! yay! My mom got me more as an early Christmas gift so now I have a complete set (although they arrived after this picture was taken, so there are only three here.) Sorry, unnecessarily long story alert! :)
One of the first things I decided to do when I had to start buying things to fill up a kitchen was that all of my mugs would be tv show tie-ins. From the left I have LOST, Parks and Recreation, Fringe, Supernatural, Mad Men, The Office, Twin Peaks, Breaking Bad and The Office again. I also have a 30 Rock one on pre-order (it says TGS with Tracy Jordan. I die!) It's probably my favorite thing I've done since I got my own place. I just really like tv...
When I decided on the ice cream theme I knew I had to have a print of Diana's ice cream photo hanging up! Way back when, I got a set of postcards of this photo as one of my first ever etsy purchases. The lamp is from the sadly-no-longer-in-business Fred Flare (although Perpetual Kid has it here!)
On top of my stove I have my little collection of salt and pepper shakers and my (of course) ice cream kitchen timer. The backsplash is magnetic so I used it to display some of my instagram magnets from sticky9. It's mostly my cats, surprise surprise! :)
And that wraps up my kitchen tour! Phew! Next up: my workspace. Coming soon, I promise ;)
ps. Here's the before and after!!! :)
