Monday, August 19, 2013

COVERING THE OPEN KITCHEN CABINETS WITH FABRIC

With the weather outside being so unbearably hot, we've been doing more inside projects this Summer.

Open kitchen cabinets
Here is a recently done quickie project, "before and after".

Our kitchen cabinets had open shelving on the lower portion and while we liked them, it was a little sterile and not so "farmhousey"
(I think I just made up that word, spell check didn't like it, ha).

Back in the 1930's and 1940's, it was not uncommon to see kitchen cabinets that were open like this, skirted with fabric.  We thought that our cabinets might be 'softer', as well as adding some more color into the kitchen, if we covered them with fabric just like the old school kitchens.

Fabric skirted kitchen cabinets
So a very sweet friend found us some really cool fabric.  We gave her the dimensions and she sewed these for us.  We popped up a couple of spring tension rods and just like that, we changed the look of the kitchen.
Here they are up close (the far away picture doesn't show the color as nicely).  It's a bright red stripe ticking for that vintage look.

Kitchen Cabinets with skirts

23 comments:

  1. oh i love this! great job and a terrific look. what are your counter tops made of? soapstone? a wonderful looking kitchen!

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    1. Ha, thank you, it's small and tiny, and fairly old, but it's ours, LOL. Counter is stainless steel with built in sink, original to the kitchen. When we sort of had the house remodeled, we left that alone. It's old but we like it, gives character. :-)

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  2. I really like this, we used to have this in the farm house I grew up in, my mom hated it! ha ha, isn't that the way,

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    1. Everything old is new again, right? Hey, I'm glad to know it's something old school and retro, that's what I was hoping for.

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  3. LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! and am so jealous i might pay for the flight to come down there and steal not only the skirts - but the whole kitchen! oh 1st Man - you know that i love red in the kitchen! now you need all kinds of cool red appliances - i am slowly saving (fixed income - arghghgh!) to replace my white kettle and toaster with red ones. but i do have a red kitchenaid - bahahahah! and red jars and bottles and baskets!!! oh ya - i love the red and the white and the countertop - it looks fabulous! but i would expect nothing less of you and 2nd Man!

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber,

      I have the red kettle and small mixer. My kitchen has the red accents too. I think the color makes our kitchens pop :-)

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    2. Kymber, you always make me (us) feel so good. Thank you for the sweet words. Yes, we do have some red appliances and gadgets. And of course that's why the "Julia Wall' I blogged about just HAD to be red, ha. Now our kitchenaid is of course white, because that's the color we had already when we took it out there. Like Sandy said, red just seems to make a kitchen stand out.

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    3. 1st Man - what a nice thing to say! oh and i forgot to mention that when i come down to steal the kitchen. i am stealing the Julia wall too - bahahahahah!

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    4. woops sorry sweet Sandy - i thought i had left a reply to you but blogger must have eaten it! i loooove red appliances! i can't wait to get my red toaster and kettle - woohoo!

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  4. I love the open shelf look, but oh my don't they get dusty ?

    The skirts will probably stop that, my Mother used to have them too, and also across the sink if I remember correctly.

    It was out of necessity in those days, but now it gives a country 'farmhousey' look !

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    1. This may sound weird, but that house never gets very dusty. It's the weirdest thing. I won't complain though, ha. BUT, yes, the curtains actually do blog what dust there might be. We'll see how it goes later on, ha. Glad to know there are other farmhousey looks, ha.

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  5. Those are looking good. As a child those were on my grandmothers cupboards. And, you will be able to wash them or change them to go with the seasons. Great job.

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    1. Grandma's kitchen, I can live with that!! ha. You know, I didn't think about that at first but did later on, I thought we could have sets for different seasons or themes. We'll definitely have to keep an eye out for fabric we like. Thank you!

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  6. 1st Man,

    I love your cabinet and the curtains on the open areas. Your friend did a fabulous job sewing them.

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    1. She is a great seamstress and we much appreciate her work. Those cabinets are original, look to be hand made, simply, not something all arts and crafts like, more like 'hey lets build some cabinets for this house' kind of work once upon a time. But we like them. They actually had doors on them and when we had the house painted, we just said 'leave the doors off. Except for the middle. I kind of like having all the sink chemicals behind doors. Thanks for the kind words!!

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  7. I love the look of your kitchen. And I am so envious of your wooden plate rack! Mine fell to bits after about 15 years of use and I simply can't find another wooden one, the only ones I can find are metal and they don't have that charming farmhousey look. (Perfectly good word IMHO!)

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    1. Oh my gosh, thanks. I just saw some recently at a store but I can't remember where!! I will have to keep my eye out for them. And thank you for the nice comment!

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  8. I think the sterile look can be attributed to the shiny stainless steel. I absolutely love the stainless steel! The striped ticking is so cute.

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    1. Stainless is what the counter is. Stainless does look great but can be sterile and adding in all white doesn't help. BUT it would look great in a modern, city, setting, hoping for the restaurant/commercial kitchen look. But yes, the ticking and the color really turned it. We even first thought of stainless appliances and then went with white (fridge and stove) just to keep it bright and airy and not so industrial, ha.

      Thank you!!

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  9. Our kitchen has the same sortif fabric but in green

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    1. Awesome, great minds thinking alike across the sea! ;-)

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  10. It is very charming and cozy! I love it! Ok a somewhat obscure question...What cookware do y'all use? Is that Belique or Zwilling cookware? I am looking the pictures, thinking the curtains are cute and then...oOOhhhHH SHINY! haha

    I have Zwilling ceramic coated stainless steel cookware. Let me tell you that cost more than my first car. Now everytime I go to use my shiny new cookware I am so nervous I am going to nick it, ding it, scratch it or stain it! I am completely neurotic over this cookware. But it does look mighty pretty hanging on my wall. What does SM do to keep the cookware so pristine looking?

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  11. Love the pinstripe fabric! Softens the whole look of the kitchen with color and warmth. Good job.

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