Our kitchen is a bit of a ramshackle affair. I don't spend much time in there, much as I'd love to expand my housewife duties to baking, it's another area where disasters prevail.

We haven't changed anything since we moved in & the walls are painted a dismal cream/grey, brightened only by a yellow & a blue swatch of paint on one wall where previous tenants must have felt the same about the colour scheme as I do.

I stuck some tattoo framed cards up during unpacking & haven't got round to sorting what I actually want on the walls.

I'm almost a bit ashamed that I had gone down the cupcake kitsch route & will be getting rid of the giant ceramic cupcake biscuit jar, sugar bowl & mini-jar during the redecorating.
I'm kind of stupidly snobby when it comes to shabby chic & I think it's too 'in' & easily bought to be considered good work on the kitsch front.
Just not my thing really.

With the handpainted sushi floor mat, from an American ebayer, and the Sourpuss Tattooed Lady platter & skull & crossbones toaster, the kitchen is just one big mess of reproduction kitsch.

So I've told my husband I'm buying paint & getting the walls sorted, maybe some cooler vinyl for the floor & some retro fabric for the curtains.

I've plans for the decoration too. I've a dozen postcard sized framed prints of vintage Ladybird books, the kind you would have learnt to read with in primary school. Peter, Jane & Socks the dog tomes.

I've my Ridgway Homemaker plate I plan on hanging & hopefully adding to that collection.

I'd love to paint the walls a really retro, hospital 60s green, but given it's a rental I think a nice sunny yellow will be more suitable.

It's all going to go a bit Changing Rooms the next few weeks!

Claire