Painting the kitchen

My weekend project is painting the kitchen in the efficiency cottage at the Summer rental. This building started out as a little boathouse, built around 1906, just a shed really. But at some point it was very roughly turned into living quarters, probably in the 1950s. The interior walls are all that old punkboard which is warped and crooked and it has thin strips of wood tacked along the seams, in all odd patterns, not nicely measured. My parents bought the house and the efficiency in 1982 and although we've done some remodeling in the main house over the years, the only thing that we've ever done in the efficiency is to put up panelling in the livingroom about 5 years ago. The bath and kitchen still have the old cabinets and sinks from the 50s. When we bought the property, the lady who we bought the house from was living in the cottage and she requested to be allowed to live there for the rest of her life. She was born in the town and wanted to stay there. She lived here for several years, and after she had to go live in a nursing home, we rented out the cottage for several seasons.

So it's only been within the past 5 years that we started using the cottage ourselves and doing some work in it. I did paint the cabinets green about 5 years ago, but they need refreshening now with a nice fresh coat of white paint, and for the walls I used my favorite color again 'Home Restoration Tea Room Cream'. Alot of the kitchen collection that was once displayed in my house (during my brief time as a home owner) is now displayed in this kitchen. I'm working on a section of the room at a time, rather than tear it all up at once. I took all the decor down in one section and painted the walls, ceiling, counter and cabinets, and then put all the decor back, and then moved onto the next section.

Here are some snaps of my collectibles (also known as clutter) above the fridge

A window with some vintage green dishes hanging above it to cover some very bad paneling seaming, and the corner cupboard. Yes, there is a cedar chest in the kitchen. I bought a cot to sleep on, and I had to put the cedar chest in the kitchen to make room for the cot. The 2nd photo is a closer snap of the cupboard and a few little craft things that I made. I hung old cookie cutters with green handles on the wall here. They are hanging between 2 odd strips of wood that are on this wall.

One last photo of the finished half of the kitchen. It has a wide door that leads into the sleep-in livingroom. I hung a lace panel down each side of the door. The throw rug covers the heater which hasn't worked in about 5 years. I'm only here in the Summer, so it's not bad without heat really, and I have a small space heater to use, just in case.

The other side of the room are shelves and cabinets over the sink and stove, and that is next weekend's project.