My Simple Kitchen Decor

My home is very simple and very small, but I love it none the less. This is one of the walls in my kitchen. It's nothing extraordinary, but it makes me happy. I don't decorate all that much, but the few things that I do decorate with are both inexpensive, practical and special to me in a small way. 

First things first. My husband built me these shelves to maximize the tiny bit of space I actually have in my kitchen and after I had been asking him to make me shelves for nearly 18 years, I'm so happy that he finally did. 

I have found that my children often steal my metal measuring cups and spoons and take outside to dig and eventually lose them. A few months later I may find them covered in mu, bent into a U or Z shape or maybe even hammered flat. They also tend to make off with my ceramic ones but those snap in half or shatter and rarely make it back inside unless it's into the trash can. A few years ago, I found these beautiful wooden measuring cups and spoons! My kids leave them alone and I think they look breathtaking! Maybe you're thinking that is a strange word to describe measuring cups & spoons, but I find joy in some very simple things these days.

That red thing off to the right side is one of my aprons. I wrote this post about replacing my black apron's buttons, but for some reason I don't see the black one in this picture. Maybe it was in the laundry. Anyway, I have a red and a black apron, while my black one is my favorite, I also love this red. Wearing an apron makes me feel feminine and it's something very simple but it's something I feel like serves a practical purpose and doubles as a decoration. 

The two white containers with their bamboo lids hold my white sugar and my homemade brown sugar. I found them both at Marshalls at different times, but they work well together. My favorite shape is a hexagon which one of them is covered in and the other has tiny, raised dots like braille, which is oddly stimulating every time I take that container down. Thank of it as an adult sensory bin! 

The sign on the way says, Happiness is Homemade, now I know it looks like that came from Hobby Lobby because it is just so darn cute, but I actually picked it up for a few bucks at Dollar General. I keep it there because it's a reminder that I need when I've cooked pancakes, flour tortillas, hot chocolate and chicken broth from scratch in one day and I'm ready to quit but my family wants me to cook more. 

The plant in the white pot is an orchid. White pottery and terra cotta pottery tie as my favorite types of flowerpots and dishes for my kitchen. The plant that is in the white pot is an orchid that I found at my local grocery store in the half-dead-and-on-sale-plants cart. Every orchid I have ever owned has died by my hands, but no this one. This one is a fighter! Maybe it's the fact that I talk to it like I talk to my chickens-like a baby- or maybe it's in the perfect spot in my kitchen with the perfect amount of sunlight and humidity, but whatever it is or whatever combination of things it is, this guy has shot off two or three new roots and about six new leaves since I've saved it from its untimely death. I haven't had it long enough it blooms yet, and to be honest, I'm not expecting it to, but just the fact that it's still alive and thriving makes me extremely happy. 

The cotton on the stick is my one winter decoration for this area. It's nothing special, just a few cotton balls tied onto a stick. It's simple but lovely Walmart find. 

I tend to keep these two banners up year-round. 

My wooden beads came from my last baby shower when my aunt and my cousin made me a banner with my unborn baby's name on it. After the shower I removed his name and repurposed the beads into the banner you see today. 

My dehydrated orange banner is also homemade, but we made it ourselves. We had a few extra oranges lying around one winter day and instead of letting them go to waste we sliced them and dehydrated them overnight and then added a string of jute and here they are. 

Another thing I like to keep up year-round are little houses. These are my winter houses that will stay up until March when they will be replaced with my white ceramic ones. 

What are some simple, but special, things you have in your kitchen that make you happy?