Decorating IDEAS
Getting
ORGANIZED
The Beauty of
BARGAINS
Use color to create a sense of continuity in an eclectic room. In this (previous page) spacious eat-in-kitchen, a cool spring palette jazzed up with a splash of red connects the old and new elements. Go ahead and have fun with accessories: Mix functional pieces such as Jade-Ite plates and mugs with purely decorative elements like terracotta flowerpots filled with clumps of wheat grass.
A new half bath, storage closet, stacking washer and dryer, and water heater are discreetly situated behind a "secret door" in the kitchen's green beaded-board partition. The unframed painting hung on the door - found at a Washington D.C., flea market - inspired the room's cool blue, green, and yellow color scheme. Big bowls and baskets - like the white-china vessel filled with pears and the 1940s wire swim-locker baskets shown on the 1880s step-back cupboard - serve as practical catchalls for kitchen sundries ranging from produce to laundered place mats. Glass-door cupboards do double duty, showing off their contents while protecting them from dust.
This $3 still life is actually a recycling project: Randy assembled the "painting" using a lithographed picture place mat and a simple wooden frame that he bought for about $1 and $2, respectively. "I just cut the place mat down to fit and stuck it in the frame," says Randy. And if it gets splashed with a little water while the dishes are beigh washed, nobody has to worry about it.
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