KITCHEN Decorating Ideas ~ Summer Kitchen Decor ~ Thrifted Decor

Welcome, welcome back. Hi, I'm Tracy and this week you find me in the kitchen in my home here in Sussex, England. Now I've had a very busy week restyling this space. In the spring I went with lots of pops of pink in amongst all my rustic styling. Now we're moving into midsummer I thought it would be nice to give it a complete refresh and go with lots of whites and greens. So come see what I've been up to. I've got two chandeliers in the kitchen and I've been dying to decorate these for some time but I never quite worked out what to use. Then when my son was in America a few months ago I sent him into Hobby Lobby and they had four of these garlands so he brought them all back to the UK for me and I've been decorating very happily with them ever since. Now you may have seen these in my last few videos, the cottage summer decorating and the chair makeover. Now I've got one in the kitchen already but I think if I use them in the chandeliers this one might be overkill having three in there. So I'll take this one down and also I'm going to take the one down that I'm using on the mantel in the snug. The snug if you've not seen any previous videos is a room just off the kitchen that we use for relaxing. And I've just got to say my American friends you are so lucky having a place like Hobby Lobby. We've got absolutely nothing like that in the UK and also from the UK we can't shop in Hobby Lobby. We can't access the website so if anybody knows how I can get hold of more garlands like this please please let me know. Well I'm delighted with the way the chandeliers have turned out so now we're going to move on to a dresser or hutch as you would call it in America. This is Mahogany Moe or Big Moe as we affectionately call her. She was found at the back of the auction house all dirty and broken and dusty and only 80 pounds so I gave her a huge makeover and now she lives very happily in the kitchen. I want to use some of these pots on her but they're just too grey. I tried whitening one of them it just really didn't work at all. So I'm actually going to use some of my filler technique. Now you may have seen a video on this please do check it out if you're interested. So it's wool filler mixed with soil and my new secret ingredient is just such an awesome colour and when you dab it into the wet mix it creates such a beautiful effect when you're doing faux stone. These pieces here were originally silver really super shiny Christmas ornaments which I rapidly went off and I've used this effect on them and it's completely transformed them. Really pleased. If you love anything like that do check out the video that I've got on it. I've got a collection of lead crystal decanters that I actually found at auction that were in amongst a large job lot of glassware and if memory serves me I think I only paid about 30 pounds for the whole lot. I'm really loving them on here I love them against the white next to the stone and then in front of the gorgeous vintage mirror which is mottled and it's discoloured and I love that it just adds to that whole overall effect. I'm keeping everything here feeling very clean very bright very fresh because after all it is summer styling but it does need something just to anchor it so I'm gonna bring in a big pop of green table styling now. I've tried different runners down the middle of this table and every time I keep coming back to this Hessian. I couldn't get one long enough so I've got two pieces and I just overlaid them in the middle. I'm using some sizeable table mats that I bought from John Lewis many years ago and on top of those these are actually plant stands so I'm going to place these but I'm using them as candlesticks again I bought them from auction put a paint effect on but they're really quite wide at the top so even one of these huge chunky IKEA candles is not enough so I'm adding three. Now I want something quite bold for the middle so I'm going to pop outside and see if there's a suitable hydrangea pot that I can bring in. These are all at various ages various stages of growth but predominantly pink and white. Now this one in the basket looks as though it's going to be suitable so we'll take that one in and use that as freestyling. I'll keep it inside for a few weeks and then it can come back out. Now obviously it's going to have a leaky bottom and I've got to keep on watering moving on to the big old pine dresser now or hutch. Now this lamp is just not cutting it for me for summer in fact it's been catching my eye for a while so I'm going to use this opportunity to take that and the vase out and I'm going to give those a makeover. I've given the top shelf a little bit of a reshuffle. The big bust on the left has come in and the pot that was in the middle has gone onto the plinth that the big bust was on. Now I do need something quite tall in that corner there because it's white walls and there's a gap between the end of the dresser but you know that is not going to work. Oh come on girl, move that one out the way let's try something else. Now this one's going to be much more appropriate. It's got the height, it's actually terracotta but I've done a stone effect on it to lighten it up. I want to put the pampas grass in but the stems are just too short they're going to fall all the way through so a vessel within a vessel just happens to be a cut glass vase but it fits perfectly. In go the stems. Ah, looks a little bit unsightly so I'm going to cover it up with a piece of hessian and no I'm not going to cut off the dangly bits. I quite like them, it just adds to that whole rustic vibe. Now the dresser itself is really quite old and we actually got it from our last house which was a manor house. It was left by the previous owners, they were moving on to another property that was much smaller so we kept it and I just adore it and I think now it's going to become a bit of a family heirloom. It's not leaving us. The white candelabras were originally glass and silver and I covered them all with white chalk paint and popped in some beige sand and fog candles. The little faux cosmos here are from a much bigger bouquet that the children got me for last Mother's Day. Now to fill the big pot. Again I want to make a big statement, I want a summer statement and what is better than Annabelle Hydrangea, those big bouncy girls and also some gypsophila. I've had somewhat mixed results with the cut flower bed this year, in fact it's my first time doing one. I'm still on a learning curve but the gypsophila has been prolific so I've actually planted some more behind this. So we'll be taking some bundles of that in. Now I have had much more success with hydrangea cuttings. These were taken just last year and they're already flowering, I've got some great height on them and I'm going to do some more towards the end of this month. I think it's a little bit too early at the moment so I will let you know how I get on with those. I'm also going to try doing some cuttings of the Annabelle as well. They are just so stunning, they are absolute divas but they look fabulous. Now as this stone pot has such a wide opening, a wide neck, I am going to use a vessel within a vessel. I'll put my water in first and then start to add them, obviously making sure that I get them inside the glass and not outside. But the heads on these, they are just absolutely stunning so I think a big pot of these will create that beautiful big pop of white and green. I'm not going to cut too many though because I want to make sure that I've got plenty left for drying at the end of the season. It's quite an art timing them, you've got to find them just when they're starting to feel waxy but before they start to turn brown. And then I cut them, take off all the leaves, stand them in probably about an inch of water and just let them dry out naturally. I'll then use them in my wreath styling and generally in my Christmas styling as well.