Coffee and tea station

We’ve always talked about staying in old, Portuguese villa, but it was “oh, wouldn’t it be great to live here” kind of thought, people usually have on holidays. I’ve never lived in a house, not to mention an old house, so, the holiday dream aside, I didn’t know how I would like it.

I’m still not 100% sure how I feel about it, or how I would feel, if we were staying here for more than a year. The garden is beautiful, the house is quite pleasant, not to mention huge, but it definitely needs some serious repairs and remodeling. Plus it’s full of temporary solutions – ugly and ultimately not solving much. I’ve noticed, people here are often satisfied with quick fixes. I mean… strings and cello tapes in home repairs? Come on!

The biggest eyesore in the house is the kitchen – leaking roof, false ceiling falling apart, cabinets with no right angles - you name it... So once more I was presented with ultimate debacle: how to decorate rented flat (without the bulldozer and major expenses)?

Setting up the kitchen was a priority. First of all, we added some shelves and painted kitchen cabinets – they are still wonky, but at least they are clean and all in one color! Second, and bigger change was the coffee station.

Creation of coffee station…

This part of the kitchen comes right in front of small stairs leading to the rest of the house. We decided to go with accent wall and wall sticker, to detract the attention from the rest of the space.

It’s the first rule of decorating the rented space. There are always million things you would like to change, but can’t, and the best way to deal with that is to concentrate on eye-catching elements.  The key is to find the part of the room eyes automatically wander to, and make it stand out.

The kitchen has red floor and black counter-tops – both strong colors, so it took us a while to figure out how to paint the shelves, the cabinets and the accent wall and not create a color mess. We decided on pale mint and teal which turned out to be great choice. Works with existing colors, adds freshness to the space and stands out nicely.

We used Asian paints with satin finish which have just enough gloss to hide wall’s imperfections. Shelves are made of reclaimed wood and few simple hooks for the cups. We refreshed the counter-top with black enamel from Dulux. It was supposed to have satin finish as well, but it doesn’t look like one. From the other hand it’s really easy to wipe, so no complaints here!

I was thinking of adding a framed picture or two, but in the end I decided not to pile up decorative elements and concentrate on cute jars and mugs. I have to say, I’m rather pleased with the effect. Plus the whole project was very time and cost efficient which is exactly what I’m looking for while decorating yet another rented flat!