Filling in the Awkward Spaces

You know that space above the cabinets? At least those of us with the lower end "builders" cabinets do. They do not reach to the ceiling, and in my kitchen, there was only an 11 inch clearance. I would have loved to extend them up, but I also didn't want to spend a fortune and have to work within my physical limitations.
Enter the answer: fabric. I love fabric. It can cover a multitude of sins, and in this case, it gave me some more storage that did not have to look like a house magazine to not feel cluttered. This is a very inexpensive project, less so if you have scraps of fabric to use instead of having to buy new.
Other resources could be sheets at the Goodwill, or yards sales, and a teeny bit of sewing know how. I did these on the machine because with all the straight lines I would have been bored silly doing it by hand, but a back stitch is all you need to know how to do.

This is the finished work. The curtain extends on both sides to the ends of the cupboards.

These are held in place with cup hooks and long dowels from the hardware store. To keep them in the ceiling, I suggest using a lightweight anchor to keep the cup hooks in place. To keep the look streamlined, I slit a very small hole in the fabric where ever there was a hook, I did keep the sections as panels, rather than one long piece. This is to avoid dealing with the whole thing when putting thing away, and will also make washing and putting it back up easier later on. This set up does not have anchors (yet). I was very impatient and just wanted to get them done, but I do strongly suggest a lightweight anchor. Unless your fabric is heavy, that is all you will need.
The top has a pocket hem of just and inch and a half, and the bottom was cut using pinking shears, so just a 1/4 inch hem was needed, but if you worry about strands of threads popping out, you may want to double the hem to hide the edges. The pinking shears tend to keep the fraying down.

Here is is above the sink

The curtains are a little slapped up there. It was a practice embroidered towel I did, but I couldn't bear to wash dishes with it after all that work, so I split it in two, hand sewed a seam and voila!

New Look in the Kitchen

A little over two weeks ago I received news that my estranged father had passed away.  Lots of drama and strife of course, so in an effort to ignore all that for a bit, I decided to finally tackle refinishing my kitchen island.
About a year after we moved in to this house, a store called "The Mill Store" opened a little under a mile down the road. I loved roaming the aisles and smelling the fresh pine scent of all the unfinished furniture. At one point, we got a great deal (well under 200 dollars) on an unfinished wood kitchen island. That was over 15 years ago. Other than putting a few hooks on it and getting some  metal baskets for the shelves, I didn't nothing to personalize it.

This is what it looked like after using it for so long and not having it finished. There are also two wood slat shelves that sit underneath.

So, in a fit of despondency and a strong desire to get something accomplished, I decided to paint and refinish the butcher block top. Tip: if you have a butcher block top you may want to do a little wet sanding before you oil it next time. I am happy I did!

After sanding off the parts that the cats used as a scratching and rubbing post and painting it a nice old fashioned cream color, my husband and I created a copper hang rail for it and I painted the knobs for the drawers black. I am looking for some nice, small, glass knobs, but that can wait a bit.

Here is what it looks like now:

We are hoping to create a paper towel holder using more copper, but I love having it handy there. I don't use paper towels often, but when I do it is almost always right there at the island with goopy hands, so having it here is perfect. Those holes behind it were from the original wooden hooks, I will probably hand herbs from it during the summer to dry.

This side is the copper rail we put up. It is just 1/2 inch copper pipe and brackets from the plumbing section at the hardware store.