Burlap Back Splash

This house was built in the late 50's. The kitchen counter top and back splash reflected that: It was ugly yellow  and gold-flecked! It took some time to decide how to redo the counter top. In the meantime, I came up with a solution for the back splash: I covered it that area with burlap.  

First, I made paper templates of the sections of the back splash area. Bill used the templates to cut plywood. I covered the pieces of plywood with burlap. Then I sprayed the burlap-covered plywood with copper paint.

The plywood was then glued and nailed into place.

It would be a while before we redid the counter top, but at least the old, ugly back splash was GONE!

Here is a close-up of the back splash. For any skeptics out there, I would like to add this: The back splash looks as good today as it did when I installed it almost seven years ago....

Copper Soffit

When I found a copper-clad blind at a second-hand store one day, several years ago, I was stunned by its beauty. I was standing in the aisle, checking out this blind, asking total strangers as they walked by, 'Is this COPPER?' I'd never seen anything like it before. I thought I would buy it ($3.99), take it home, cut off the slats and apply them to the soffit in the kitchen - apply it to the area between the top of our cupboards and the ceiling.

But my plans changed when I got home and found out that the blind just fit our dining room window, width-wise. So our son Allen helped me install it. It was a bit long, but I just left the extra slats puddled at the bottom. Then, some time after we installed this blind, I was walking through the dining room when it suddenly occurred to me that there might be enough extra slats to re-implement the original plan for that blind: Maybe I could have a copper soffit after all....

Long story short: I removed those extra slats, cut the slats to fit above the cupboards, and hot-glued them in place. I almost ran out of slats, so I had to start using the parts of the slats that had holes in them. I remedied that situation by strategically placing the holes so that, when I covered them with pieces of slatting, it looked like a weave of sorts!! I'm am sooooo funny!!!

The whole project pleased me no end. If you were to walk into our kitchen, you might not consciously notice the copper soffit; but it adds a certain . . . . ambience, if you will. Plus, you know, it's unique: Not many people have a copper soffit!!!!