It’s Week Two of the One Room Challenge™ and I don’t have a lot to report as far as blog-worthy visuals go. The most important progress arose via a scientific method consisting of equal parts contemplating, procrastinating, and shopping. However, I did get a significant chunk of actual work done by covering all the brown walls in one coat of primer, and I’m proud to report that the baby poop has been wiped clean! (I considered that as a headline, but didn’t want to attract the wrong crowd, if you know what I’m sayin’….).
The kitchen has brightened up considerably with a coat of white primer covering the brown walls, but don’t worry, it won’t be remaining white!
Perhaps most importantly, I finally nailed down the image I want to have printed for a wall mural. The feature wall in question turns out to be almost a perfect square at 80 inches high by 84 inches wide, so I needed to find something that could be cropped to those dimensions without losing any substantial details. I also had to ensure it contained all of the colors from other kitchen features, such as the terracotta tile and black countertops I’m stuck with, but also the green peel and stick tile I’m using as a backsplash. I also needed it to serve as my final color inspiration for the rest of the walls, and possibly the upper cabinets (lower cabinets will be green). I think I accomplished all of that with the image I chose, but I want to keep it top secret, pending a dramatic reveal! (Hint: think pink.)
Future feature wall now coated with primer at left, and former home of the ill-fated wine fridge at center.
My other planning project for the week involved the mystery of the cabinet hole/broken tile I teased you with last week [above]. When the handyman came over to install my light fixture the previous week, I asked his opinion on whether the wine fridge I’ve never used in all the years I’ve lived here could be easily pulled out so I could use that valuable space for hiding the trash under the counter. Having a trash can out in the open has been the bane of this tiny kitchen’s existence, so I had a random “what if…?” moment and next thing I knew, we were dismantling the useless thing piece by piece and freeing it from its tiled-in prison. Welp, I guess it’s out for good now!
For a cabinet to fill that space in, I searched three separate used building supply stores for a base unit measuring 15 inches wide and with no drawer at the top so that I could fit a full size kitchen trash bin underneath. It seems that most commercially available under-counter pull-out contraptions are made for shorter bins to account for the drawer at the top, but as long as I have the whole height available to work with, why not take advantage of it? However, I did not find one of the right configuration, so I may have to bite the bullet and order a new cabinet from either Lowe’s or Home Depot, which puts a significant crimp in my miniscule budget. This is exactly what I need, if anyone happens to have a spare or knows of a cheaper source:
I also spent a fair amount of time researching replacement tile. In the eleventh hour, I found ONE of the existing 17x17 inch tiles in my garage storage room (thank you, previous owner, but couldn’t you have left me TWO?), so I was able to glean some identifying info from the back of the tile. Seems it’s made by Ceramica Falcinelli in Italy and of a type called “Gres Porcellanato”. However, it’s long since been discontinued, and I was unable to find anything that would even blend in. I have a plan, though it assumes we can get the broken one out without breaking it further. I will replace that with the “new” tile, then use cut parts of the partial tile to fill in the smaller holes. Is it even possible to get a tile out that big without breaking? I don’t know, but if not, it’s on to Plan C (C for more Contemplation).
That’s it for this week’s report. By next week, I hope to have found and installed a base cabinet, patched the tile, and covered the cabinets with a coat of primer. Oh, and I need to get my top secret wall mural printed! See you next Thursday!