That space between the top of the kitchen cabinets and the ceiling – my original display with vine wreaths and lights.
There’s that space between my kitchen ceiling and the kitchen cabinets that I’ve always wondered about. I guess if I had known more about building a house when we built ours I would have asked for more storage in the form of cabinets all the way to the ceiling. But that was a long time ago and I digress…
Instead, many years ago I was at a friend’s house and I noticed she had a similar situation and she did something very simple and creative…she unwound a grapevine wreath and added white Christmas lights and voila…problem solved! I got home determined to so something similar. I went to Michael’s and bought two wreaths and thought it would be a simple project for a Saturday afternoon – one hour max! Wrong! First of all, those dang wreaths would not unwind the way I wanted them too so I ended up separating them into sections and using brown pipe cleaners to put them together side by side by side. Next I began wrapping the lights around the separated wreaths and was making headway. I had several extra strands of lights from Christmas that I decided to use. Of course, I tested the lights before I wound them. I finished up and placed them on top of the cabinets, plugged them in and…a section right in the middle of the display wouldn’t light. Really???!!! Yep…I then remembered why these lights were in a bag and in the attic! I should have introduced them to the trash can! So after a quick trip to the store for another set of lights, unwinding the bad lights, rewrapping the new ones…it was now 3 hours later and I was finally finished! Yay!
Over the years, I started adding things to the top of the cabinets. At first it was pretty sparse but over time I was loving the look! It was a nice way to display things that I loved. I didn’t turn the lights on all the time either. Usually they were plugged in over the holidays and on special occasions. With just the under the cabinet lights on, it gave the kitchen a really cozy hue.
Now…over time, as you can probably imagine, things get a little…well, dusty. And not just a use a Swiffer and get rid of the dust dusty, but sticky dusty from cooking and all that goes on in the kitchen. I’ve taken everything down on occasion to clean it all off but it’s been awhile. These past two weeks, I’ve really noticed that everything had a cloudy and fuzzy look so I pulled up a bar stool and took a closer look. UGH! The wreath and lights looked like they were growing fur! Not good…
So today I retired the wreaths – to the garbage – and bought some cute little LED lights, cleaned off the top of the cabinets – more UGH – and washed EVERYTHING from the top of the cabinets. Some things had to be washed twice! I got rid of some items, and added others from around the house. It turned out to be a fun project and tonight I’m sitting in the kitchen really enjoying the finished look. Now…on to the next project!
Southern Señora 