What do you mean “Adding some Tuscan to your kitchen is a lot like writing”?

The more I work at getting the house ready to paint, the more I’m convinced that the main thing you really need to do to refresh your home is to “edit” it as harshly as you do your writing.

Do you really need a picture (or groups of pictures) on every wall? Of course not. You also don’t need to line every wall with furniture, either, even if your hubby will gripe and whine that you’ve moved his favorite chair. (No worries. As long as he can still see his big screen TV and reach his remote, he’ll live.)

And to make matters worse, a Tuscan kitchen is all the rage. But honestly, no, you don’t have to blow the bank to go a little Tuscan, especially in these hard financial times. A coat of paint on the old cupboards and island (I had to go with white because my kitchen is a tad dim, though I'll likely repaint them antique white before I'm finished), new cabinet handles (black wrought iron) and, if you have low cupboards like I do, stuff on top.

Speaking of stuff. Obviously my loved ones decided I needed to collect barnyard fowl. (Who knew?) Luckily, I didn't get many — only four roosters and one duck, to be exact. Ah, but apparently bringing the outside in is the key to Tuscan, so up they went, along with a small white vase with a grape motif and complete with fake leafy vines, two wooden wine presentation boxes, several unique bottles, one ceramic strawberry pie plate posed upright in a plate holder. When grouped in threes and fours, and with some space between each grouping, it worked!

Adding a braided rope strung with realistic looking papier-mâché vegetables and garlic cloves (bought at Value Village thrift store for fifty cents), a black wrought iron four-bottle wine rack (bought at VV for a whole seven dollars; a wine rack is a must in a Tuscan kitchen, don'cha know), a burgundy kitchen mat and whimsical burgundy potholders and oven mitt, worked too. So did a trio of black wrought iron candle holders (to match the black wrought iron chandelier that came with the house) on the old worn maple table, along with using a predominantly burgundy and red tapestry-look Pashmina as a table runner. (Since Pashminas at the Liquidation Center were five dollars each, and since I couldn’t decide which color or pattern to choose, and since I was in a hurry, I bought four of them). Oh, and I also tilted a large and lidded ceramic blueberry pie plate on the buffet and stood a Tuscan-look pie plate in a black wrought iron stand beside it. Lastly (for now), I put my nicest cutting board on the island and placed on it a Peace Lily in a bright red ceramic plant pot, a small apple basket filled with my favorite Red delicious apples, a cute ceramic strawberry figurine. TA DA! The start of some Tuscan, which is just what my shoestring budget ordered. Okay, so it helped that I already had stainless steel and black appliances because my old ones were ancient and dangerous. But any color appliance would likely work just as well.

Crazy, isn‘t it?

I think so, too. But hey, the house needed the help and I needed something to do. Besides, it's best to decide on a theme before dashing off to the paint store, right? Think of it as writing. You need a plot or at least a vague idea before you can get down to work.

Tip: For under and above cabinet lighting, I went to the Liquidation Center and bought a basket-load of wireless battery powered puck lights. They were a whole one dollar each plus the batteries — can’t beat that with a stick.

Hint: Stickup puck lights tend to fall off when hung upside down, so what I did was remove the back from the rest of the puck light, carefully tapped a small nail hole into the back’s middle, removed the nail and pushed a thumbtack through the hole facing out, removed the sticky backing paper and pressed the puck light’s back into place via the thumbtack, then I attached the puck light to its back. Sure it‘s time-consuming, but it's far less than stringing wires, boring holes and likely electrocuting myself. Cheaper, too. And hey, I don’t mind pressing buttons — I type, remember?

Is it the best kitchen in the world? Not even close. But it’s simple, inexpensive, is a huge improvement from what it was, will certainly do until I can do more, and, like writing a story, is a work in progress.

A bit at a time, that’s the ticket; I’ll get there... eventually.