Rejoicing in the Small Things

My apologies for my blogging absence.  Its not entirely easy to blog when one doesn’t have internet at their house.

This is a sensitive subject.  FastWeb.  The name brings false assurances.

I also don’t have hot water or gas.  Another sensitive subject.  I’ll not blog on these topics.  Just bemoan them briefly and cling to Jesus while I’m still boiling bath water and washing my hair with a pitcher.  Definitely first world problems.  So I won’t complain another second.

Instead, I’ll rejoice that we’re in our own place!  I’m cooking our meals. Finn is back in cloth diapers!  Bear is learning to potty in strange places!  I have an oven!

This last note is a particularly joyful one, since in our excited haste in getting our apartment, we failed to note, on numerous occasions, the lack of oven in our apartment.    How do you miss not seeing an oven?  Easily, apparently, when the aroma of independent living has just touched your nose...

Several girls living here last year likewise landed themselves a place without an oven.  Their landlord assured them that one would be provided shortly after move in.  A small toaster oven is all that came to fruition.

But praise God that we know/are connected with some many wonderful people who know so much more than we do!  Shortly after arrival, with the upcoming prospect of decorating our new place, I began asking around for where I could buy junk furniture.  These pieces are often vital to my decorating taste, and I was worried that Italians hoarded their furniture for thousands of years and never got rid of it.  Some do, actually.  But alas, not all!  And for those friends of mine who sell their trash I call treasure, there is Kijiji.it.  Its nearly identical to Craigslist, expect all in Italian.  Which is great, for Italians.  So I toggled meticulously between my Safari page and Google Translate to decipher what folks are selling.  Quiz me on my Italian furnishings.  I’m becoming quite proficient in this vocabulary.  

I’ve stumbled onto some great pieces that my sweetest bestest greatest husband ever (sufficient Alex?) has singlehandedly retrieved from across the city and has carried/bussed/taxied it to our building and up to the top floor.  Without an elevator.  I married a rock star ladies and gentleman.  Or at least a great guy who understands my love of shabby chic.

Among those pieces, was an oven.  Forno.  Forno mobile (fohr-no moh-be-lae), to be exact.  And that’s what my husband made it, mobile.  All the way up to our apartment.  Its terrific.  So is he.  I’ll bake you something later honey.

Note the tile...

The kitchen is the main area we’ve been focusing on getting settled into.  And rightfully so.  Cooking here is fun and wonderful.  It requires a bit of planning and creativity for cheesy/mexican dishes (that we love so dearly), but overall its been great!  There were a few things I really did not like about our apartment.  One of the main things is the terrible green floral tile that is our backsplash and kitchen floor.  Its not a nice green, its dark and dreary and in no way matches the gray and black color scheme of the kitchen.  I laid awake at night before we moved in brainstorming ways to solve this dilemma.  Its true.  Decorating problems keep me awake.  I couldn’t redo the backsplash or remove it because we’re renting.  I got a great rug from Ikea to hide the floor.  The backsplash situation continued to haunt me.  But all of the mid slumber turmoil led me to a solution!  

Pegboard.

Which honestly, is the solution to a great number of things.  I’m a fan-as seen here:

My craft pegboard at our old crib.

And I realized that I could mount my pegboard above the tile to hide it, and create more storage for my small kitchen (always a must in Italy).  For those renters out there trying to problem solve an ugly backsplash- pegboard can only be your solution if there is wall space above your backsplash, not if your backsplash spans from counter to cabinet.  But in the odd layout of our kitchen, we had no such problem.  The wall screamed for pegboard!

The room on the lower level of our apartment serves as a living, dining, and kitchen area.  Though it rather comfortably accomplishes all three tasks, I was working through a way to unite all three areas with a color scheme.  I’m not a fan of black and dark gray (which most of my kitchen is)- so I thought I’d liven up the space with some yellows and tie it into my living area with navies and corals and whites!  Doesn’t that sound cheery?

And who doesn’t love chevron?

Materials:

• Pegboard (we used 3 pieces total-they can be located at your local hardware store in the tool organization department)
• 1x2in wood (we used 2 pieces (roughly 70 cm long) per board to anchor them)
• Drill
• Screws
• Wall anchors
• Spray Paint
• Acryllic Paint
• Paint brush
• Painter’s tape
• Measuring device
• Level
• Handsaw (or when in Italy, a sharp pocket knife)

When I hung my crafting pegboard in America, I found the studs to adhere them to.  But since we’re working with cement and plaster, we used wall anchors.

First, I spray painted my boards white.  Then taped off an area of chevron (I measured this out using the holes on the board) and painted yellow.

Then, I located the outlets on the wall and measured/traced the holes for them on my board.  This is a very important step that you’ll realize you forgot when you can’t find a place to plug in your coffee pot first thing in the morning.        

Alex skillfully carved out the outlet squares and cut the boards for the space.  With a pocket knife.  Rockstar, I tell you.

Next, using the drill, we attached the 1x2 pieces to the wall above the existing backsplash using wall anchors and screws.  For each pegboard we attached 2 parallel boards, horizontally above the backsplash and near the top of where the board ends (leaving plenty of room for hanging items in between).

The we leveled and screwed the pegboards to the mounted boards.

Pardon the strange angle.  Blogger is angry at me for returning...

Then for some extra flare, I used my handy dandy Silhouette Cameo to cut out a vinyl stencil of ‘mangiamo’-meaning Let’s eat.  I used silver paint to fill that in (tying it to the cabinets).

Again, stop auto rotating my photos blog bosses!

Then we used the pegboard hooks (sold next to the pegboard) to hang all of our kitchen gadgets!

The space looks a million times better already, and its so functional to cook and be able to grab the right tool off of the board.

Particularly the colander.  Which is of the highest of utmost importance here in Italy.

Praising the Lord for a place to cook and eat with my family!  And to be making a place where students and friends can come over and feel at home!  So many reasons to rejoice-and forget about the gas.  And internet.   

Update:: I posted this with our brand spankin' new WiFi!  Thanks FastWeb.  I take back my earlier thoughts...