Spring Farmhouse Kitchen Decor...

My inspiration for my 'Spring Kitchen Decor' this year started with the Old, Rusty, Bed Spring Wreath that I made at the end of January...

I had a few leftover rusty springs and a couple of chicken nests at our barn gave me ideas for homemade nests to go with my rusty spring decor.

I keep a 5 gallon bucket full of dried flowers and cannibalized thrift store floral's in one of the sheds.

It's full of old angel vine wreaths - moss - Spanish moss - dried flowers and all sorts of nest materials.

How do you make a nest? 

One might ask...

They are EASY~!

With a few natural items like moss and Spanish moss and twigs, you just play around with it until it meets your approval. 

I tore an angel vine wreath apart and used the bendable twigs to form the shell and then I simply filled the twig-nest-shells with some Spanish moss and dried flowers and some old green moss out of a flower pot outside.We have an old, cedar shake roof on the house that has been here many, many moons. It has these little moss circles growing on it that blow off in the wind. I walked around the place collecting the little moss cast offs and added them to my nest decor too.

You can make a nest out of anything natural, I would think...

Collecting the items is most of the fun.

To make the decor my own, instead of just Spring nest's for my Spring fever, I added the left over rusty Springs here and there to coordinate with the rusty bed spring wreath on the kitchen door.

Inspiration also came from a couple of new acquisitions last Friday at one of my favorite antique stores in Levan, UT. 

I think it's called, "The Old Country Store"? 

They have the word 'rustic' mastered. 

She usually has a great selection of white enamelware too, but she has been liquidated~!

Oh, the horror...

I was so depressed ~~~ =(

I was really in the mood for a new piece of enamelware... 

How could somebody have bought it all? 

Why would they do that to me???

I looked up at the ceiling in sure disgust and spied a beauty up on the top shelf - it was way up there calling to me ~
"Jen... Oh, Jen... Look up here... Ya, here I am, ready to go home with you..."

And I turned to walk away and another item started heckling me from the West...

Good Lord, what is a blonde woman to do except go find the 'Man-Child' and his wallet, as I had left mine in the truck~!

The piece I knew I had to have was this copper apothecary scale. It has brass and bronze upper pieces with brass chains and a hammered copper bowl. Rarely have I seen them with all their pieces. 

I didn't even have to ask and the 'Man-Child' had already scooped it up and had it on the counter for payment. We think alike and love the same rustic things...

The scale is hanging in a kitchen corner with a bundle of dried lavender and a homemade nest and eggs in the bowl. It completed an empty spot in the kitchen that I needed to fill with something unique.

But, there was that other item, way up high...

Oh, could I really leave it behind?

~~~NO~~~

It was a huge copper boiler with a perfect lid. Most of the ones I see have no lid, or they're just completely beat up. This one was rustic and used, but in wonderful shape. I pointed to it and the 'Man-Child' carefully lifted it down and took it over the counter to pay for it too...

It's currently sitting on the antique steamer trunk with its lid tucked in behind it. It has spring flowers and bird nests and my old milk pitcher tucked inside.

So, aside from the new antiques, it cost me nothing to decorate my kitchen for Spring this year.

I had a basket full of wooden eggs in multiple farmhouse colors that I used in all of the nests. I switched some farmhouse decor items around and freshen'd colors up for Spring...

If you wait until you have enough money to decorate and make your home your own it will never happen.

If you wait until you can afford to buy everything new, you are missing the point.

It is the old, the new, the made, the hand-me-down, the collected, the worn (but loved) things in your home that make it your own.

But, please clean up the mess when you're done being creative~!

=\

And smile when you go to bed that you've made your house your home...

I think Spring has finally Sprung~!

~At least here in Central Utah...~

Vintage Patio Chairs that need a redo~!

Look what I found~!

They were buried in an old shed over by the barn, where the roofing had been ripped off in a wind storm umpteen decades ago and the weather wore them out...

I mean seriously ~ they're old, they smell bad (they actually have hair on top of the springs...) They're rusty and crusty and ripped and ugly, but for some reason, under all that 'ewww,' I see some fabulous patio furniture for the back patio~!

They are HEAVY ~ the wind will never tip them over, or take them skidding across the patio. Because of the wind here, I'm always looking for outdoor decor that can hold its own weight ~ literally...

They have character and well, I'm a character, so we should make a good pair~!

They won't be hard to take apart and spray paint the frames...

The reupholstery might take some planning...

They're made by the "Certified  Chrome Furniture Company"

They're definitely 'vintage' like everything else around this place...

Both Chairs have their tags in the back and I do believe that once the re-do is complete, I'll tack the tags back onto the backs. I think I'm going to reuse the old, rusty upholstery tacks too...

I'm thinking, I'll spray paint the frames with rust spray paint and recover the seats with new pieces of memory foam and this upholstery fabric I picked up for $1 a yard awhile ago...

I'm not 'in love' with the fabric, so I didn't start today. But, I don't want to put any money into this either. This yardage is in my stash and it's the thickest upholstery fabric I currently have. I'm still trying to convince myself this is the one. The back patio is in direct sunlight all afternoon, so some cutesy, cheesy, cheap fabric isn't going to cut it... This is 5 yards of thick upholstery cloth, but it's so, so boring~ ugh...

They'll find a permanent home on my back patio, but if needed on the front patio, they would match the barn red patio set out front if I go with the fabric above...

Old, vintage, spring bottom, barrel back chairs like these are so comfy... These will be quite a project, but they'll be worth the save and my back patio is in need of a couple patio chairs...

My biggest question is~

Should I put a ruffle around the bottom of the seat,

or leave it plain?

Does anybody have any other ideas for these

old rusty, crusty, chairs?

Tutorial for refinishing wood furniture to look distressed and aged...

Well, I'm still dragging from the flu, but I managed to get the small bench for the bathroom redo, redone...

Truly, I thought it would be so, so easy, but... <sigh>

The end result is awesome, but the getting there was well, a pain in the rear and took me all day~!

You know how it is when you think you just have a painted piece of furniture you're going to redo and then you dig into it and realize the person that played with it before you made a horrible boo-boo...

The boo-boo on this little $2 bench was that they painted over a high gloss surface ~ yikes!

Yep ~ Big Mess...!

To read the rest of the story & tutorial, click "Read More"...

The Kitchen...

Time for the Kitchen Semi-Redo...

Yes, I've been working on various points of this baby all winter and it changes everyday, so this is it for now, but as every other room in this old farmhouse, this is also "Under Construction." But, she's come a long, long way~!

Sneak Peak, but changes have been made...

It's really hard to understand how far this has come without pics...

So, hold onto your chairs cause this one is pretty amazing~!

Meet "Sally Julia Burkett"... This is the woman whose home I currently inhabit. This is what the kitchen looked like back in the oh, probably, 1950's, or 1960's... Nice blue-marbled, abitibi (sp?) walls... Old, white, steel cupboards and very, very tiny. But, even she was happy here ~ just look at her smile.

She's Beautiful~!

My better half spent some years after he inherited this home from the "Burketts" putting in a new, remodeled and BIGGER kitchen addition ~ Thank the Lord~!!!