Four Darling Daughters: Corky Kitchen

After moving into our home about a year and a half ago, I decided it was time to replace the shelf paper! Yes, I know that most people probably do that first thing but at the time we had a 3 month old Sadie and were planning our October wedding...it just wasn't a priority. Combining our lives, also meant combining our kitchen stuff...and there just wasn't enough room for everything! So I washed down the ugly shelf paper (or at least thought I did) and the most important items made the cut...everything else would remain in a box in the basement until the day it was needed. When I needed something from the basement, I would; wash it, use it, and stick it under the cabinet (unfortunately, even if that meant that it wouldn't be used again for another year).

After a year and a half of this our cabinets were completely out of control! One thing taking up so much space in the back was a Tupperware cupcake taker. Do you know how often I make cupcakes and actually take them somewhere...never! Time to declutter and time to get rid of this shelf paper which just didn't go with the red kitchen!

The only shelf paper I really liked was from Chick Shelf Paper, but it had to be ordered online.

It matches our kitchen curtains but I just didn't want to wait. I also kept thinking about the cork liner. At first I didn't like it, but then I kept thinking that it would go with anything. A good thing when it comes to our kitchen color history. When we moved in our kitchen was yellow. It stayed yellow for the first couple of months and then we (we as in Dustin) painted it light green. I picked the color and he painted it. I was so committed to green that I bought a jadeite bowl, two jadeite saucers and a leaf-shaped jadeite candy dish for our cabinet with the glass door. By April we could no longer stand the green so we (we as in me) painted the kitchen red. Almost a year later...it's still red! But you never know when that will change...cork it is!

Luckily, the old shelf paper came up in one piece! Some of the cabinets were oddly shaped, so I used the old piece as a pattern to cut the new piece. The first one, of course, was cut upside down, but I only made that mistake once. (At $12 a roll, you don't want to waste any!) It is pricer than regular shelf paper, but it's supposed to be permanent!

This is what I turned around to find, while cutting the next piece. Sadie used the step stool to climb into the sink....oh...that is what she meant by, "Sadie's turn" and that is what I get for repeating everything she says but not actually letting it register!

This is what I found hidden way back in the shelf. No, it's not mine...I guess it came with the house...and...I guess I really didn't clean the shelves like I thought I did! (Oops!)

Here is the finished project. I do have some touch-up painting to do now. The old shelf paper wrapped around the front side of the shelves and when it was removed...some of the paint was removed at the same time.