Hi- I am moving into my first house that I can actually decorate- be still my beating heart. Does anyone have some, cheap, funky ideas for a dark and slightly dingy kitchen?? Any and all welcome!

Wow, all that potential! Great, isn't it?! I'm still excited about having my own place even though it's been a year now and I'm only renting!

If you've got cupboards with melamine doors and drawer fronts (as opposed to wood) you could cover them in sticky-backed plastic (cos it'll wipe clean) - either brightly-coloured translucent, a snazzy patterned one, or see-thru with magazine pictures underneath. First take off any door / drawer handles. Then cut the plastic the size of the door, peel off the backing, and put it sticky-side-up on your work surface. Put all your cut-out pictures face-down onto the sticky and then smooth the whole shebang onto your door or drawer front. Poke a hole through any screw holes with an awl and screw the handle back on. I'm currently covering my wardrobe this way with pictures of clothes, shoes and bags - maybe you could use foodie pix?

Also a row of empty wine bottles each with a big obnoxious fake flower in will grace any windowsill! I like the roses with the plastic raindrops...

Kris

dark and dingy kitchens usually need to be cleaned before anything else. at my house, the kitchen ceiling was so covered with grease, nicotine (the ex-owners smoked inside) and dirt that it had to be scrubbed down with enzymatic cleaner, which you can get at paint supply places. we then stripped the wallpaper and cleaned the walls with the same cleaner.

painting the ceiling bright white makes a room feel much lighter. you can get "ceiling white" paint. then paint the walls any bright, light color you like. yellow is always good in a kitchen, but ours is pale blue-green and it looks surprisingly good. if your cupboards are dark wood, or just ugly, painting them makes them much more tolerable. just use durable, easy to clean paint. and take the doors off before you paint them! i like the way it looks to paint the spaces behind the doors in a different color than the doors themselves, so a border of contrasting color shows around the doors. putting bright, pretty contact paper over the cupboard shelves looks nice. if the light fixture is dirty or doesnt let a lot of light through, replace it. that really made a difference in our kitchen.

i hope some of that was helpful! buying paint isnt really cheap, but you can't really get around it either.

stella

congratulations! it's so much fun to actually decorate.

one hint for cheap paint: there's usally a section of mistints in the paint store. they are quite a bit cheaper and if you live near a hardware store, you can stop in on a regular basis to check.

I have a friend who painted her whole apartment in beautiful sea-like colours, just by fooling around with mistints and a gallon of white paint. she mixed some of the stronger colours with white to get nice medium toned blues, greens, yellows. it was very cheap.

good luck.

if ur floor is ugly or just plain gross, a cheap + easy way to cover it is with contact paper. they've come out with some pretty cool patterns lately.
you can either try really hard to line up the patterns by cutting lengths + laying it out even (nerve-racking but neat)or...you can be sporadic + crazy by just cutting random shapes + placing them all over the floor until its covered (easy).
if ur worried about removal, dont be. after a year in a very small bathroom, it pretty much just peeled right off for me, you can use heat from a hair dryer if there's any resistance.
cleaning + painting a light color (ceiling too!) are also great ideas...
you could always start some small herbs in a window, or if their isnt much light, get some hardy-we-dont-need-much-sun-to-survive houseplants,this variety usually doesnt need much water either.
white christmas lights are nice around cabinets or the ceiling.
if you have any kind of collection of old silverware, utensils, etc. consider hanging them on the wall in a pattern.
good luck!
gwendolyn

Thanks for all the ideas, really, really helpful. We have gotten all the furniture in and are getting down to buisness in the not too distant future, it looks like contact paper and cheap paint are going to feature largely in the process. So- anymore ideas, for anyroom (tiny bathroom????) are greatly appreciated!! Thanks- from the un-crafty one.

Ahhh, bathrooms are *Fun*!

if its really tiny, I suggest mirrors...pick up some cheap ones at yard sales, etc...it will make it look bigger

actually, my 2 top tiny bathroom tips are:

1) A theme! you really want it to be coorinated and not too busy...so try and have something common between your shower curtain and your toothbrush holder ;)

2) STORAGE! clutter=evil when you have a little space...maximize the space you so have with cool storage bins, baskets and trays, especially under your sink!

Also, if you can, paint it white....or yellow....bright!

wow, that was a really disorganized reply on my part..my train of thought is all over the place...oh well, hope I helped even a tiny bit :)

*Beth*