COLLECTIBLES IN THE KITCHEN

As I promised in the last post about the kitchen reno, I am going to show you some of the collectibles in the room and tell you a little about them.

Before that, I would like to thank all of you for your interest in the making of the old 'new' kitchen and thank all of my newest followers for coming aboard.

I am forewarning you, this will be another long one.

So, here we go!

This little "Champion" pedal car belonged to our son, Brent, when he was a little tyke. It was originally a bright turquoise blue.  You hardly ever saw him without it while clipping along, frontwards and backwards, at a high rate of speed!

I have quite a collection of Wisconsin pottery.  When I was in my colonial phase of decorating, I ordered it all out of a magazine called "Early American Life".  I really paid a lot of money for it when you add it all up (there is way more than what you see here).  But those were the days when I could! Retirement put an end to that!  Even though my tastes have changed, I still love these, so here they stay.

I picked up this chicken at Raley's Super Market while grocery shopping.  The eggs are wood found at a garage sale.  The tiny toothpick holder was a garage sale item also.

These white platters are from a restaurant supply store and we use them daily. The square, colored, dish at the end is from good old Ross's.  I purchased the dish rack from LaurieAnna's beautiful store on line.

These are some child's toy cooking utensils picked up at shops and garage sales.  The little "cocktail" rooster is a book of drink recipes given to me by a friend.

I just love this little lamp that I ordered on line.  I thought I might paint the chicken when it arrived but decided I liked it just the way it was. I love the little shade and here is some more of the Wisconsin pottery.

Many years ago, when we had our small antique shop and I had my kiln, I made these ceramic pieces.

An old stoneware crock, tin cannisters from the 30's or 40's, sponge ware pitcher from different sales and a sponged heart shaped ceramic muffin pan, a gift from my sister, sit atop the cupboards.

At the top of another cupboard sits some more tin cannisters, a general store candy display case, with another piece of Wisconsin pottery lurking in the background.

I'm not the greatest seamstress but I made this sink skirt.  Have the cupboard doors in a safe place, just in case.

Another vignette on the other side of the sink holds a dish from Costco, which the Captain had to cut the top off of so it would fit under the cabinet, with a nesting chicken from a garage sale for $1. Was too cute to pass up.  Also here is another view of the countertops. I am so happy with the quartz and love that it really does resemble marble.

We have had this old medicine chest for many years and I use it as a spice cupboard. It is wearing the original green paint.

Before picture

We were looking for an island (before reno) and found this one at Ikea.  I liked that it had the drawers and that they were deep enough to hold dishware, but it had natural wood legs and sides and cream colored drawers with see-through glass panels.

After picture

I felt it looked too modern so we painted it white, painted the glass inserts in the drawers, and the Captain put some of the back splash beadboard in the end panels.  We removed the little wood heater we had on the brick hearth and pushed the cupboard against the brick. Now I feel that it looks part of the kitchen, although I'm debating, whether or not, to paint the knobs black. (Oh, oh, the Captain is reading this!!)

This little stamped coffee cozy was a tag sale find along with the recipe book sponsored by Wesson Oil...

And

...A little painted tin trash can, same era as the tin cannisters.

I love this collection.  They are Swanky Swigs from around the 1940's.  Some of the glasses came with jams and jellies in them but, I think, some were just part of a juice set with pitchers.  I have found all of them at different antique shops or tag sales, but have never paid any more that $2-$3 for a glass.  I'm glad I started collecting them when I did, because I haven't found them for under $9 now.  I know I paid a little more for the pitchers but I love the cute shapes.

This great blackboard was out of an old school house.  It is a large piece of slate and it weighs about a ton!

This little slipper chair has been with us for many years and has gone from pink velvet, to blue, to rust, to what it is now.  I love the lines of it.  The old crock was my mother's and the chicken lamp was a gift from the Captain and what started this chicken coop theme. The little red child's chair came out of a house in San Francisco.

This top picture is one that I worked and the print was ordered from the back of "House Beautiful" magazine years ago.  It reminds me of my sister and me at my grandparent's house when we were young.  By now, I'm sure you have seen the trend here.  I am a great catalog and magazine shopper!

These are a few of the bowls that I collect.  I don't know why bowls appeal to me so much, but I do use them.  The corner cupboard was in pieces when we found it. 

The Captain made this shelf for me out of some old door casings and it displays various garage sale items including some more Wisconsin pottery.

This settle bench was part of a set of two that was used as a banquette in an old house.   The owner gave them to us for the price of hauling them away.  We used parts from the damaged one to make one bench.  I was bound and determined to get some of the lovely white that so many of you use in your rooms and made the ruffled cushions out of two king size pillows and an old set of curtains.  The little doggie pillows are my most favorite things!  They were both picked up at different garage sales, a little rough for wear, but still adorable.  The chicken one, I've seen in shops with an $80 price tag.  I got this one for $10 and used blue craft paint to cover what I thought was too much green.  One of the blue flowered one's, I got from Target and the other matching one, I picked up at a garage sale.

This is an old gaming table from around the early 1900's.  The little shelves under the top were used (so we were told) to lay the gamblers' guns on, so they were close at hand, in case someone needed a little reminder not to cheat at the cards. We painted the base of the table and the chairs with chalk paint.

We bought an old dresser at an antique shop many years ago and found this end of a cardboard box advertising the crackers under the lining in one of the drawers.  We noticed the swastica on the box and thought it might be German, but found out that that was an American Indian sign also. Not exactly sure what the connection is.  We had it framed and think it could be from the 20's or 30's.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed learning about these collections.  Of course, when we started this remake, most of them were NOT coming back into the kitchen, of that I was sure, but, as I've told you before, little by little, here they are again!  Why do I always put myself through this?!

Hope this wasn't too much to take in..

..just be thankful you don't have to dust it!!....Judy

I'm sharing all this with:

Home Sweet Home

Home and Garden Thursday

Feathered Nest Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Rustic Restorations Weekend

Saturday Show Off

Sweet Saturday

Seasonal Sundays

Make It Pretty Monday