{please look away from the band of swine paint that still circles our ceiling ..}
Magazine inspiration photo of one of my kitchens in the 1990s.
Once upon a time, back in the late 1900s, I fell in love with a kitchen shown in a magazine photo. I tore that page out and kept it for years. The image inspired a full paint, tile and curtain makeover of my kitchen about 17 years ago.
My kitchen makeover from the 1990s
You can see my version of those curtains above the sink in that old kitchen photo from before we moved, about 13 years ago. Many thought it was odd to hang lightweight fabric over a sink, but I valued the look more than the practicality. Even now, with a ten-year-old and white slipcovers on a sofa, my decorating priorities haven’t shifted much.
Even in the 90s I wanted to paint that desk — I still remember not liking it!
That same antique stained glass featured in the older photos has traveled with me through different rooms and houses. Much of what I own has been reused and reinvented over many years; I like to make things last and to bring familiar pieces into new spaces.
How can you furnish a home on a budget and continue to use, reinvent and reuse the same pieces for decades? That’s a topic for another post — I have plenty of tips to share.
Since that first kitchen I’ve moved several times. Each move, I brought along the remaining lengths of that beloved fabric, intending to use it again. I don’t keep everything, but my favorites seem to follow me from home to home. For various reasons I didn’t use that fabric again until recently.
A few months ago, I finally sent the fabric home with my mom and asked her, very nicely, to sew new curtains for my dining room — she had made the original kitchen curtains many years earlier.
Over winter I had hung black-and-tan curtains in the dining room. They worked, and they were recycled from an earlier home, but they didn’t convey the quirky, cheerful look I wanted for summer. I was ready for something brighter and livelier.
With June here, I brought back that blast-from-the-past fabric. The pattern, which I now see echoed everywhere, still looks fresh and stylish after 17 years. Since there wasn’t enough length, we added a coordinating blue band at the bottom to reach the proper length and give a tailored finishing detail.
The room is still a work in progress: the carpet will be replaced, the ceiling painted, and I’ll continue to tweak and repurpose pieces. Decorating is an ongoing process. The changes are part of the fun of making a space feel personal and lived-in.
If you enjoy seeing how a room evolves, I’ve documented the dining room over the years with before-and-after updates and seasonal tours that show the ongoing progression of the space.