Grinding Gears

After painting our kitchen we decided we needed some new art. We stopped at an antique shop on the way to a camping trip and came across some old rusted gears from some monstrous machine. I had been wanting something wrought iron and pretty flat so we could open our cupboard door without smacking it. These seemed just the ticket.

 We brought them home and my hubby went about cleaning off the rust with a wire whip. He then set up a station and coated them with Rustoleum Primer. I hit each side with a flat black spray paint (I forget the brand right now but odds are good it was Rustoleum again. Love that brand.) and then we brought them in the house where they sat for a time. How to hand them? My hubby found some L-brackets in his shop and primed/painted them in the same color so they would blend.

And now they hang in our Kitchen. We both think a third gear would be ideal - so we will be on the look out for one of these this winter when we hit antique shops. Really love the look and really love how you aren't going to spot this look in every Kitchen. (Ignore the dishes in the sink. The Green tub is me soaking my Spray Hat to get the excess dye out of it.)

Sunday Snippets 10-09-2011

Sunday Snippets: A Snapshot of this Sunday in photo's with no other explanation's.

New Curtains for the Kitchen

After the painting of the kitchen in July, I decided to upgrade the curtains. The new color in the kitchen is a bold high gloss yellow and I wanted something graphic and black and white to go with it. (I was thinking in the category of a toile but not. Wanted modern not 70's retro.) After HOURS of digging through fabric at Mill End Textiles I found this fabric and thought HEY! This might be it! I cam home with a metric ton of it and washed it and dried it and iron and starched it. Then I folded it up and stuffed it in a corner and put ointment on the burn I got from the iron. About one month later I got up the gumption and started the process of making curtains. I followed the process outlined on Design Sponge to sew these. Great tutorial.

I had a nice space on the floor to lay out the fabric and measure it. The windows in my kitchen are two different sizes so custom is really the way to go for me. The pattern is more old fashioned than I would have liked - and I learned that sewing with patterns SUCKS. I did not match up and it shows. Decided I could live with it not matching up and am still happy with the look.

My trusty machine. I had the ironing board set up in here too. Cut. Pin. Iron. Sew. Repeat for 10 hours. I am a SLOW sewer.

The window in all it's naked glory. I took this in the morning before I was insane from sewing all day long.

And the window the next morning with the curtain hung and happy. The rods are from Target. It took about another month to find tie backs that we liked and installed. I purchased MUCH ribbon thinking originally that I wanted bold red satin tie backs - none of it looked right. IN the end we ended up getting glass bead tie backs from Hancock Fabrics and little white hooks that you use to hang mugs for the hooks.


I am not a master seamstress by ANY measure - but I am happy with the DIY curtains and my hubby likes them too - so that is really all that matters. Our Kitchen is really coming along.