Step 3: Paint the Ceiling

The poor kitchen ceiling!  We had an infestation of flies one year.  Everyone was affected!  It was big news in the neighborhood as we lamented the buzzing and those red speckles they leave behind.  My poor ceiling is no exception.  Plus, we had a roof leak, so there's those stains, and some show-off put boot prints on my ceiling. Then, there was the exploding bottle of wine....

Needless to say, my ceiling needed to be painted!  If I had the budget, I'd pull down the old ceiling, put in something new, and put in two lights instead of the one lone fixture in the middle.  Instead, I simply painted the ceiling I have, cleaned the light fixture, and made sure I had a bright enough bulb in it.  If I have any wiggle room in the budget, I might update the fixture, but really, it's just a basic white kitchen fixture that goes with any style. Although, a low-profile fan light would be nice.  The ceiling is fairly low in my kitchen, though.  Ok for hobbits like my husband and I, but any of our tall neighbors or relatives could easily find their heads meeting anything that hangs down from the ceiling.  Plus, it could wreck the clean lines and make the room feel cluttered and smaller, and the ceiling lower.

One thing I promised myself (and my sister) was that I am going to keep the make-over authentic.  It won't have cutesy décor or fads or novelty items for that fakey catalog "cottage" look.  I live in a real, functioning cottage, and everything has to be real, functioning, and practical.