A Great Start

So we have already managed to get started on some of our projects for the year.  Right after Christmas we found an ad on Craig's List for an entertainment armoire that looked to be the right size for our kitchen storage and it was right around the corner from us.  So the hubs and his dad went and picked it up that evening.  It had huge molding around the top that totally didn't jive with the style of the piece so we pried that off before we even got it in the garage.  Over the weekend we got some simpler trim for the top and got it installed.  Now I want to paint it the same creamy white that we plan to paint our cabinets.

Before we had kids we entertained a lot, so I have quite a collection of pitchers and table linens.  Our old house had a huge pantry where we stored the pitchers and we had a buffet in the dining room where we stored the linens.  In our current house the pitchers have been stuffed wherever they will fit, mostly in the cabinet above the fridge where I can't reach them.  We have the linens stuffed in a basket on a shelf in the dining room and trying to find something is impossible.  I plan to use the new cupboard to hold the linens, probably split between several baskets, the pitchers, art supplies and school supplies for the kids, and possibly the printer and extra paper.

Part of the reason for keeping the printer and supplies in there is that the hubby built himself a new computer last year so the family has inherited his old one.  He has his man cave on our sun porch but we had nowhere to put the old computer.  I was working on my laptop at the dining room table.  At Christmas we had a ton of family over and had to borrow a folding table to seat everyone so we decided to kill two birds with one stone and build a desk that could serve as a kitchen table when the need arose.  It can pretty easily be pulled over in front of a small settee we have in the kitchen.

We followed Jamielyn's tutorial.  We scaled it down so it would fit in the kitchen better and also so we could use stair treads for the top.  That cut down some on construction time.  We picked up table legs, the stair treads, some 2 x 4's, and some 1 x 2's when were getting the trim for the cupboard and the hubs came home and built it.  We haven't attached the top yet because we want to try an antiquing and waxing technique and we are going to paint the legs and apron with a robin's egg blue chalk paint.

The kids have already sat there to play on the laptop and I have spent some time online there as well.  I think these two additions are going to prove quite useful!