Art and Accessories for the Kitchen

For our five year anniversary gift to each other, Mike and I bought some artwork for the kitchen/ dining area.  It's a four panel map of lower New York City and we love it!  It's the perfect reminder of our home for the past 11 years and the city where we met.

I found the artwork at the furniture store (in Seabrook, NH of all places) where we ordered our sectional.  (I'm counting the days until it arrives!)  It's definitely an older map, although I'm not sure of the time period, and the colors match perfectly with our downstairs color scheme.

I had been hunting for a large-scale panel piece of artwork for the dining area for quite some time.  Since it's a large wall, I wanted it to have a few panels and look oversized to fill up the space.  I was inspired by Guiliana and Bill's octopus artwork and by the wallpaper panels on Little Green Notebook. At first I thought I could create the look myself by blowing up a print and using Ikea frames but I couldn't find a print that I loved.  And you definitely need to LOVE it when it comes to an over-sized piece of artwork.  So it was fate when I saw these map panels at the furniture store.  It was a map of our old home and the colors were perfect.  I even loved the fonts used in the map!  It was definitely a splurge but we love it and know that we'll have it forever.





But now that the artwork has been hung, it just highlights everything else that needs to be changed in the kitchen.  We have a lot more work to do:

I just have to keep reminding myself that it all takes time.  I have been adding some little touches though.  Like this rabbit hook that I found at Anthropologie:

He looks so cute perched by the back door.  And it's the perfect place to hang my keys.

And I love my Rifle Paper Co. Calendar.  It makes the kitchen look so cheerful.

And finally, here is the awesome rug that I'm basing all the kitchen colors off of.  I found it at a local junk warehouse called Building 19.  Have you ever heard of it?  They sell the most random things, from clothes to food.  Almost all of it is junk, but they have the most amazing selection of oriental rugs for some reason.  Like 9x12 Safavieh rugs for $300!  Incredible!  I think I paid $19 for this guy.  Seriously, it must be an interior designer secret around here.  Who knew?

So there you have a mini tour of our kitchen.  I still have a lot to do so I'm holding off on the reveal.  But it's slowly coming along!