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COMPLETE AT LEAST ONE ACTIVITY IN EACH SECTION, AND THE STARRED ACTIVITIES.
SECTION ONE:
SECTION TWO: 3. Pick up a package of inexpensive tea towels at your local store. Find a simple line drawing or design you like and use coordinating colors to embroider them by hand. Alternately, try playing with cotton dye if your towels are cotton. Or applique a simple design to match. 4. Find a hot pad set you like, either at a local sewing store or online. Make a set of patchworked hot pads and oven mitts to match your new vision for your kitchen. Remember to use a thermal lining so you don't burn your hands when you use them! 5. Find or create some new shelf liners for your cabinets. These can match your theme or be as plain as you'd like. One idea: fuse some coordinating fabric to shelf liner with an iron on LOW heat (very low, or it will melt). This adds stability to the things you put in the cabinets without sacrificing the Pretty Factor(tm). 6. What appliances stay out all the time in your kitchen? Sew a "cozy" to the dimensions of your small appliance, using fabric or patchwork to match your theme or color scheme. (Added bonus: this protects them from dust, too, which can kill them in the long run.) 7. Do you have a window? In your journal or on paper, draw several different ideas for new window coverings -- roller shades, banners, tab-topped curtains, anything. Let your imagination go wild with this. Alternately, add some coordinating fabric to your existing curtains for an inexpensive pick-me-up. 8. Think for a minute about meal presentation. How do you usually serve (or be served!) food in the kitchen? Whip up some simple placemats and napkin sets that match your new theme or vision.
SECTION THREE: 9. When you have a vision of what you want firmly in your mind (and in your journal), pick up ten paint chips that match or closely resemble your vision. Paste them in your journal and look at them in various light throughout the day. How do they change in natural/artificial light? When you pick one, paint the walls and/or cabinets your chosen colors. 10. Survey your appliances. Do they match? Make a wish list of things you may like to replace one day, or of things you can refurbish with heat-resistant appliance paint.
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11. Make one piece of art, all your very own, to hang in your kitchen. This can be as simple as a painted canvas, done in several colors of the paint you've used, or as complex as a small kitchen-themed quilt, or anywhere inbetween. Hang your artwork, then take a picture and paste it in your journal.
12. Explain what "styling" is, and what it means to your kitchen. Look online for examples of how others have "styled" their kitchen treasures, and describe or paste in pictures of at least three possiblities for displaying and styling your own collections that you may adopt.
13. Grow a plant or two in the kitchen. Herb gardens do well in sunny windows, if you have one, and can add a touch of freshness to your cooking, too, for example. Pick a spot where you can add some growing life to your kitchen, and plant or place a container there.
14. If you don't have a kitchen of your own (or one you can't do anything with, in the case of some renters), make one in a shadowbox or doll's house with inexpensive furniture from a craft/hobby store. Make everything the way you will have it in your real kitchen when you can have one, and hang it somewhere prominent -- in the kitchen you have, maybe, or somewhere you'll see it.
15. Determine how you would like your kitchen to smell. Does it smell that way now? Come up with some alternatives for scenting your kitchen on an ongoing basis, and implement one of the ideas.
SECTION FOUR:
16. DECLUTTER. Go through your cabinets, drawers, countertop items, and hidden areas, and throw away or give away anything you are not using on a regular or semi-regular basis. (The six year old cracked glass can go; the holiday cookie cutters can stay even though you use them once a year. That kind of thing.) Anything duplicated or broken should probably go. Do this for fifteen minutes a day for a week if it's a big job, so you don't burn yourself out. Take before and after pictures and post them in your journal.
17. Cook a meal with your journal at hand. Make notes of what goes smoothly in the preparation and clean-up, and what is awkward or clunky. (i.e. Are your cooking utensils close to the range, or do you have to rifle through a far away drawer to get them?) Make notes afterward of what you can change, and change at least one of those things when you can.
18. Are there any repairs that need to be made? Leaky faucets, faulty burners or nasty drip pans, burned out lightbulbs or strange noises in the garbage disposal? Research how to fix any of these problems yourself, and either a) fix at least one, or, b) write out a how-to on how to fix one of them, and call maintenance or a professional if the problem is too big for you to handle.
19. What would make your kitchen life easier, more fun, or a more pleasant experience? Invent a gadget (on paper or otherwise) that would make your life better.
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1. Look at some others' kitchens online. Imagine your perfect kitchen. Go into some detail: What's on the walls? How does it function? Is there a theme? Make a journal entry describing it, with pictures if you can clip any or draw them.
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