I just completed painting my kitchen. It was basically all white, except for some very bedroom -suitable wall paper on a couple of the walls. I went pretty bold with a dark colour, but the results are exactly what I wanted.
This post is not really about my kitchen, although I will share my before and afters - but instead this post is about another kitchen from my memory - a kitchen that was my inspiration for completing mine the way I did.
My earliest memories of a country kitchen are of my Aunt Annie's kitchen in her house on the farm. At the time of my memories, her home would have been fairly new, built sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, meaning I would have been between 5 and 10 yrs of age.
Any memory associated with my Aunt Annie, brings me so much comfort and pleasure. She was the sweetest, warmest, kindhearted woman you could ever hope to meet. She loved me, as she did all the children in her life - and I loved her.
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of her kitchen is the smell. Her home always smelled of milk, and cream - that would be because they raised milk cows and the cream separating process was always completed in the basement of their home. She always had a pan of milk on the stove, and when you had a glass of her milk - you became the recipient of a real milk mustache - the likes of which you would never experience from store bought milk!
The other aroma of her kitchen was fresh baked bread and other types of baking. I can almost smell it still... I wish I could go back in time to that one place, that one aroma. It was pure comfort...
Her kitchen was large, maybe just a little larger than the one I have now. She had an island... it was attached to her counters, but it was an island none - the-less. She had a large table set under the window overlooking her farm yard - and a rocking chair in one corner of the kitchen.
I rocked and was rocked in that big wooden rocker many times in my childhood, by her - and also by other Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and probably my older brothers as well. It was what you did, while waiting for the cookies to come out of the oven, or a meal to be placed on the table.
She had a plate on her wall with a kitchen saying that I always loved to read as I was growing up. When I got married she presented me with one for a shower gift. It holds a place of honour on my kitchen wall, not only for the prayer itself, but also because she gave it with love.
I don't have a picture of her kitchen, but I don't really need one - it is forever in my heart.
My kitchen is not her kitchen, but it feels like hers in many ways. I did not place my kitchen table under the window looking out to the yard, because I have radiators near that wall, but one can still look out the window from any seat at the kitchen table.
There is a rocking chair in the corner, and God willing, perhaps someday some children will take comfort rocking there while they wait for cookies to come out of the oven.
There is no fresh milk being processed in the basement, but I have getting the aroma right while keeping the cookie jar filled with home-made cookies, and the freezer filled with muffins. Yesterday I made a German Apple Kuchen Recipe much like the one Auntie Annie made. Of course the real thing can never compare to the memory - but just the same, the Kuchen is pretty darn good!
I look forward to many happy years in my new kitchen - and I thank a Special Aunt for helping me along this journey with wonderful memories, and divine inspiration.
Before:
After:
Your kitchen is lovely!
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