Back in the day we had 1950’s metal cabinets and they were covered in art work – all the time. When I got a new kitchen I welcomed a clean, clutter free space that I designed and claimed it as mine. I know the kitchen belongs to everyone. But I’m the one working in the kitchen for what feels like my whole life sometime, feeding all these people healthy meals. And I like it neat. It makes me think more clearly and feel more peaceful. When everyone dumps their things on the counter, it tips my rocker.
However I missed all the girls’ art work around me to go with the constant flurry of life these little loves bring into our home. Slowly I started taping things back to the walls around me, in small orderly doses. The same plaster walls I watched contractors painstakingly sand, scrape, paint and make so beautiful I never wanted to cover them again. Over Christmas I hung up a temporary chain with hooks to display Christmas cards and well – it stuck. It’s staying. And now it has become my place to hang art installations by my children.
Today I cleared out the last of winter, the paper snowflakes, the valentine art and put up new art, grouping their styles of work together. Which is possible because our kitchen art mostly comes from school art class where projects are similar in scope for all my girls. The basement art is a totally different scene.
These ideas and this post is SO simple it’s almost silly, but for now – this kid art in the my kitchen is making me smile. Because it doesn’t require framing, or a great expense or having a fridge covered in what soon feels like clutter to me. It’s just clipped and taped (with double sided tape on oil-based paint).
So I guess what I’m saying is, today, do something small that makes you happy. It worked for me!
