A Thank-you and 3 Tips for Functional Decorating in the Kitchen

Wow!

I hadn't checked my blog in a few days, and came back to all of this love.  First of all, let me say thank-you to Kim at Savvy Southern Style and Beth at Home Stories A to Z for the features from last week's link parties.  I feel so honored for being featured amongst so many other beautiful projects.  If you have a minute go check out the other projects.  I also want to thank everyone who came here to see more, became a follower, and those who commented!  Not everyone outside the bloggy world understands the legwork that goes into a DIY project, so I appreciate those of you who get as excited as I do.  I hope that you will become a follower of the blog because I have lots more to share!

The color on the bookcases is a custom color that I mixed, but I will take a pic of the lid that has the formula and post it next week.  I am also planning a post on how I did the beadboard, since some have asked.

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3 Tips for Functional Decorating in the Kitchen

In the meantime, I wanted to talk about kitchen counters.  Here is a glimpse of one side of my kitchen.  I tend to rearrange mine frequently, but I have narrowed down what I put on them to functional items.  What I have realized though, is that the functional can also be beautiful.

1.  Display bulk fruit in a decorative bowl.     

I buy a lot of my produce from Aldi because of their prices, but it comes in bulk.  However, there's no need to keep those beautiful fruit in the ugly plastic bags.  Plus the colors of the fruit that is in season, generally complement the colors of the season.  (Check out the color of my pressed maple leaves with the color of the apples.)  Double plus, you're more likely to eat them if they are out in the open and easy to grab.  I can't tell you how many times my son and my husband pick up fruit because it's out.   So it's a win-win.

2. Decant, decant, decant.

Decant liquid soaps so that the countertop is not cluttered up with plastic bottles.  I used a small oil dispenser for my dish soap, and a decorative soap dispenser for hand soap.  They're not just for the bathroom!  If you're like me, you like the pricing that comes with store brand products but the packaging, eh, not so much.  By decanting, the "brand" of a product becomes less important. 

3.  Display grains/pasta in glass jars

Ok, so this is kind of the same as decanting, but you can do this with anything.  I love to display pasta and grains because of their beautiful color--especially the whole grain varieties.  Reminds me of burlap....and if you didn't know, I love burlap.  You can also do this with sugar or flour.  If you notice in the first picture, the large glass jar with the scoop holds sugar.  And jars don't have to cost a lot.  The ones you see below are from Hobby Lobby.  I think at half off they were around $3 each.

I know that you can get the Martha Stewart chalkboard labels at Staples, but I made mine with chalkboard contact paper which I also got from Hobby Lobby.  And you can also find the chalk markers there too.  

4. Bonus Tip: Bring in Plants

Plants are functional too because they help purify the air.  If you have a window in your kitchen, why not go for herbs to use in cooking?  My favorites are lemon thyme, rosemary, and basil.  They can make the ordinary extraordinary, and they smell wonderful too!  (You know...Rosemary and Thyme Roasted Potatoes vs. baked potato...yeah, I know which one I want!)

So much less expensive to snip some from your kitchen, rather than to buy at the store.  My kitchen doesn't have any windows, but I am planning to put some herbs in my dining room window sill.  I'll keep you posted.  

Thanks again for stopping by!  What do you like to put on your kitchen counters?