Inspiration

I love it when I am introduced to a new blog that I am unfamiliar with. There have been many blogs upon first investigating them, I find a whole list of projects that I want to try. Some notable ones that have provided much inspiration include: The Lettered Cottage, Young House Love, House of Smiths, Thrifty Decor Chick, the list could go on and on. Even though these blogs and others that I check out regularly still continue to inspire me, but nothing compares to finding a new blog that is full of content that you haven't really seen yet.

Well, in January, I found The 36th Avenue blog, and was soon pinning project after project that I wanted to try. One day, Desiree posted about a makeover on the cabinet above her fridge. It looked great, and made me cringe to think about how cluttered the top of my fridge was and how disorganized the cabinet up there was.

Her cabinet looked so great, and mine was not looking so great. It was messy, and since it was hard to reach, we ended up not putting stuff back in it so that the doors weren't even closed most of the time.   The top of our fridge had become a catch-all for anything that we wanted to keep out of the reach of our daughters, and it continually bothered me with how bad it looked, so I was motivated to get to work right away. It took me all of five minutes to clear off the top of the fridge and to find a new home for everything that had been in the cabinet. I was able to donate about half of it, and found room in another easier-to-reach cabinet for the water bottles and pitchers that we use often.

My cabinet was already painted white, a project that I worked on two summers ago when we first moved in. Desiree used actual beadboard in the back of her cupboard, but for ease of use, I just used beadboard wallpaper for now. The seam is fairly visible though, so I will probably replace it with the real thing at some point.

Within a few hours of seeing the inspiration post, the wallpaper was dry, and I was ready to shop around my kitchen for the accessories to decorate with. I had everything on hand, so this really was a $0 makeover that makes a big difference. The best part is that the top of our fridge has remained virtually clutter free since this makeover. I also now have a place for my cute cookbooks, canisters, as well as the big glass lemonade pitcher that was a wedding gift and has been shuffled from cupboard so cupboard over the past 7 years.

So, thanks to Desiree from the 36th Avenue blog for helping to inspire me to clean out, simplify, and update the look of my kitchen.

-Mandi