Playing House

 I have a certain fondness for empty houses.  No clutter.  A person can breath in a house which is cavernous and full of echoes.  But, unfortunately, a person can't really sleep, eat or sit in an empty house.  So fill it we must.
The kitchen, shown here to the left was perplexing.  It is, essentially, a large room with a stove and refrigerator and a small closet-ish room with a sink and a dishwasher.  Initially, I saw this with dismay as I wondered where I was going to store things or chop food.  Once the shock settled I realized that some of my favorite kitchens are those without fitted cabinets and a typical layout.  I love eclectic and unusual houses so I couldn't settle for cookie cutter here.  The kitchen has been the heart of every  

home I have been happy in.  So this is where I wanted to spend most of my efforts.  Food is love therefore the kitchen and dining room must be love factories .. maybe not.  That sounded better in my head. Let's forget that.

Anyhow, I decided to begin my expedition.
I am an avid believer in free and cheap.  Its a passion of mine.  Cheap = happy.  However when it is freezing weather and you don't have the ability to scour the countryside for said free and cheap items, it's time to go to Ikea.  They have an "as is" section which I love to haunt.  Stained display couches, incorrectly assembled chairs, nicked picture frames; like an indoor yard sale for poor quality but very cool items.  After much circling and aimless wandering the solution made itself known.
Exhibit A:

We got a massive island type piece

 Kitchens are so messy and represent so much work.  And yet they are happy places, or they should be.  I was able to save some of my favorite things from being yard saled before our mighty trek to from California and used them to create a happy place for my family to stuff their faces.  Plus, I am a pretend foodie so I need a pretend culinary hub.


The results made me happy as a clam which, by the way can be found fresh up the street if a person has a bucket and a strong desire for good chowder.  When I take the kids to the beach up their we see the clams spitting water.

We are far away from friends and family so I feel a huge push to make our home life as pleasant and inspiring as possible.  It keeps things looking sane even when they feel so very out of control.

"Herban garden"

And for the dining room, we had no furniture at all. We thought about making it a skating rink or installing a swimming pool but decided the downstairs neighbors may be displeased.  Look how shiny the floors are. They definitely won't be looking like that again for a while.  I would blame my three boys but it's really that I am not very ambitious when it comes to floors.  A character flaw of mine.

The room had no lighting so we strung up some lights, bought wicker furniture and called it a day.  Apartment life is not alway my favorite but when I am not allowed to drill, paint or dramatically alter the place it calms my wild imagination and makes me settle for plain and clever.  The light in this house is just delicious.  We are flooded in light all day, a great way to fight those "I'm in New England and everyone is really grouchy and drive like maniacs" blues.  Natural light cures many evils. 

And that's that.