Expanding My Kitchen

I love anything vintage, especially things with meaning.  But you probably already can tell that from touring my baby's nursery.  I have loads of furniture from my grandparents' and in-law's homes in my house.  I joke that there are only about 5 things in the house that Hubby and I have ever purchased!  Consequently, the house is stuffed, but stuffed with things that mean something and are very loved.

Today I wanted to share a few pieces that came from my grandparents' home that are expanding my kitchen.  My kitchen in my previous home in Georgia was not huge, but had a total of 26 cabinets in the kitchen - amazing storage!  It was laid out really well and fit a lot in to a smaller space.  And I cannot seem to find a picture of it anywhere....When we moved to Texas, we had to buy a home 4 days before Christmas, so there was not a lot to choose from!  We lucked out with this house, because it had been under contract, but had fallen through while were here house hunting, so it was meant to be.  The one hard thing about this kitchen though, was it only has 10 cabinets!   Somehow I had to fit all the stuff from my old kitchen in here, and THAT was a challenge my friends!

So I had to get creative!  My living room is right off the kitchen and is actually quite spacious, so I have used 2 cabinets that came from my grandparent's home to hold less frequently used kitchen items.  Since my living room is currently a complete disaster as Baby A has been playing in here quite a bit this morning, I will spare you a picture of where these 2 cabinets sit in the room - another day....

A moment to tell you about my grandparents house....My family moved every 3-4 years growing up as my father got transferred a lot for his job.  My grandparents though, lived in the same house my whole life.  So this house was the one constant place for me growing up.  It was very hard for me to see the house sold when they were both gone, so I actually got lots of furniture pieces from the house when my mother cleaned it out (she was an only child, so my parents, my brother & I split were able to split everything up). Here's their house (which is just outside Pittsburgh, PA):

It's currently on the market again, and I swear I would buy it if it made any sense at all (which it doesn't...).  So both of the pieces I am using to expand my kitchen actually came from the laundry area in the basement of their house.  Here is how it looks today in the MLS listing (I don't seem to have a picture of it when they lived there):

See that brown cage looking thing?  That is actually the laundry chute that comes from one of the rooms upstairs.  When my grandparents lived there, there was a huge table under that chute that ran back into the room where the rug is in this picture.  And at the end of that table by the laundry chute were 3 cabinets that my grandmother used to keep her laundry supplies etc. in.  I have 2 of those cabinets and my mother has the third.  The yellow walls here are the same as when my grandparents lived there, and all the cabinets were painted that color as well.  Oh - and see that giant sink that is just to the left of the washer?  That is a huge soapstone sink with 2 sections - the water from the washing machine would dump out in to one side of that sink and my brother and I used to play in the warm, soapy water....but I digress.

So, when two of the cabinets came to me, I painted them a soft white to fit better in to my home.  Here is the smaller cabinet, that is wood.

It sits in a corner of my Living Room and holds all my cookbooks and recipes.  That Love sign is for Valentines Day naturally, but I change things out on that nail occasionally (wait til you see the cute St. Patrick's Day thing I got at the Dollar Tree yesterday to put there next....).  The nail was already there - my grandfather had a calendar hanging there.  The best thing in the world about this cabinet - when I open it, it still smells like their house...even though I painted it.  I love that!

The other cabinet is metal and larger, and sits in a niche to the left of my fireplace.  This holds Christmas dishes, lesser-used dishes, serving pieces, and all the seasonal items I use to decorate my mantle.

I don't know what I'd do without these 2 pieces to expand my little kitchen!  Now I can use what few cabinets I do have to hold the things I use all the time, and other items are hidden away in other rooms, and no one's the wiser....well, until now since I have shared my secret....

Linking up to Cha Cha's Sentimental Sunday again....