Light Touch 2018 - The Kitchen Whatnot

Hi my darlings.  Hope you're keeping fit and healthy.  I really hope you're not down with the nasty flu virus that seems to be all around us this year.  So many have come down with it and they have my sympathy.  We only have flu once or twice  during our lives, fortunately, and when it hits us we certainly know that we have the full-blown flu, eh.

I stayed indoors most of the weekend, monitoring the breaks in the rainy weather for the briefest of walks around the block.  I find that this time of year, I'm not looking for scenic, it's too cold and wet for that.  I just was some fresh air in my sinuses and a stretch of the old arthritic legs.  A quick walk around the hood is the fix I need.  Which makes this an ideal time for those little jobs around the house.

I do love how kind I have been to myself so far this year.

You may recall that I'm on a journey of little life improvements, taking a light touch to the challenges I meet.  I'm not beating myself up with huge amounts of work and tight deadlines, like I've done previously.  A light touch approach has a chance of success, at least for me.  So I'm keeping the jobs bite-sized and allowing myself the whole of the year to complete them all. 

It's a win-win.  I'm being kind to myself AND I'm setting myself up for success with this approach.

I've gone around the house, identifying the little improvements that could make life nicer, more pleasant, more organised.  Then I'm updating my list as I complete tasks.  So satisfying.

At the weekend I light-touched this corner of the kitchen.

It's a very useful old "whatnot" from Ikea.  I don't know what else to call it.

It stores my spices and herbs, sugars and rice.  I use it EVERY day.   I loved the exposed dove-tail joints, but it added yet another type of wood to the kitchen and that was one wood too far, it needed reining in.  So I emptied it all out, scrubbed the boxes and washed all the spice jars and bottles.  (I wash the glass "jugs" each time I refill them).

Then I gave it a couple of coats of paint.  Fortunately, I still had a little bit of paint left from when we painted the kitchen units in Farrow & Ball's Slipper Satin, back in 2010.

Within the blink of an eye the whatnot was back in place and delivering on usefulness again.

It's home is the hot beverage area, the place where the kettle and mugs hang out, along with the Ovaltine, Horlicks, teas and coffees and coffee mate.  You will notice from that list that we now enjoy "milky drinks" at bedtime.  I think that makes me officially old, even more than the grey hair! 

TP started on the Horlicks to help his insomnia (it's working, BTW!) and I started to realise what a nice little ritual it was, having a milky drink in bed.  Mine's the malty Ovaltine which I drank as a child; it's the "add water" type as 1) I don't like the richness of hot milk and 2) I'm not too good latterly with milk generally and I don't know how it would work warming up my soya milk.  Any experiences you can share on that, readers?

OK, I've fessed up to it now - my name is The Pout and I like having hot milky drinks at bedtime!

Do you have milky drinks at bedtime?  Have you got to that stage in life yet?

Oh how I digress.  Let's get back to the whatnot.  It also stores the truly huge mugs, the ones that would totally dominate the mugs cupboard and shove aside all lesser mugs.

So these big bruisers have their own space, neatly tucked on top the whatnot for ease of use through the day.

I thought I'd introduce you to them formally today, as I'm absolutely smitten by them.

I fell for the Magda from Habitat the instant I saw it.  I adored the shape and this colour.  

They come in stripes and spots too.   I'm a stripey sort of gal so I went for the stripes too.  I didn't expect them to turn out quite so big though, but hey ho, fortunately I like my coffee big!

These beauts were on my 2016 Birthday/Christmas list but weren't picked by anyone.  'Aver, occasionally Habitat marks them down substantially from £8, but only for the briefest of periods, so I "stalked" these mugs and swooped sometime last year when I spotted the discount.  So pleased that I did, they are indeed generously sized (massive!) and perfect for those who like their coffee BIG.  If you do too, I suggest you start stalking the Habitat site.  Now!

Stop the bossing and the digressing, Pout, back to your Light Touch.  Please!

OK, so now that I see the finished result I'm so pleased I went the painting route.  The whatnot doesn't fight with the woods of the countertop and floor.  This small tweak of just a couple of hours has made such a difference to this little area of the kitchen.   

It's lightened up the dark corner.   

It now looks like it was planned with the kitchen (it wasn't!). Sometimes all it takes is a little splosh of paint to make a big difference.

Yup.  Another successful Light Touch for 2018.

Have you been doing any home improvements lately?

Maybe you've made exciting big changes, like dear Vronni who's installed a multi-fuel stove and new windows and doors in the last few weeks.

Maybe you've been making little changes, just a moment's work, like my whatnot painting?

I'd love to hear.

A la perchoine.