Kitchen Curtains

I find it funny that I can be going along quite contently, not thinking too much about what I don't have, then I'll see something on someone else's blog and and say to myself, "If only I could have that" or "Maybe I could do that." 
Clear as mud, right?  Thought so.
Let me explain.
It all started when I found this page of Welcome to Deluxeville's Blog
http://welcometodeluxeville.blogspot.com/2010/07/old-and-new.html
and I saw her kitchen.

I love her kitchen.  And this picture was taken before she got her gray, boomerang Formica counter top!

The number one thing that makes her kitchen way more vintage than mine is her white cupboards, which were dark, but she painted them.  My cupboards are an orangish brown and I do not like them.  Now, that may sound petty, and I know there are bigger issues to be thinking about than what color my cupboards are.  Please do not get me wrong, I appreciate what I have.  I know there are many who have much less than I do in the way of kitchen cupboards.  But, I find that if I don't dream every once in a while life gets mighty boring, and the fact is, we are going to be living in this house for a very long time and darn-it, if I've gotta live with it then I want it the way I want it!  Plus Darling Husband gets the livingroom for his "man-cave" home theater and said the kitchen is all mine (decorating wise). 
The more searching I do on the Internet, the more I find out that VINTAGE style kitchens almost always have one thing in common!  White woodwork and white cupboards.

Example #1  Here's a vintage kitchen, oh, and look at that...white cupboards.

 

Example #2 White woodwork and cupboards with turquoise.  NICE!

Example #3  One of my ABSOLUTE favorites!

Example #4  Another Favorite.

And here are my kitchen cupboards.  Is anyone else singing, "One of these things is not like the others, which one is different, do you know?"   It just seems so dark.  Dark cupboards, dark blue walls, dark black countertops.

The other thing I enjoyed looking at in Miss Deluxeville's kitchen was her curtains!  Now, my curtains (see above picture) are dull and boring.  I made them out of kitchen towels and....well, I think I should stick to making tea towels, not curtains. So this week I've had curtains on the brain.  I can see the exact curtains I want in my head, but nothing seems to exist.  I want vintage looking curtains made out of the same material as vintage tablecloths.  The primary colors of the fruit should go with my dark blue walls.

This is EXACTLY what I am looking for!  It is on Etsy and I do hope my DH will buy it for me.  Oh the possibilities with this one!  Although, the more I look at it, the more faded it seems to look.  They are more pastel than primary colors.

I could add some fruity chalk ware to my walls...eh, maybe not.

I can just hear my mother saying, "oh yuck, not those ugly things."  This is a picture from I Love Collecting's Blog.  Nice collection!

But I do have my little fruit containers that would match fruity curtains.

These pretty, yellow bark cloth towels would make cute curtains.  But I can't seem to find anything like them for sale.

This is a perfect example of what I'd like to do.  But I have one medium sized window above my sink and a large sliding glass door that needs a matching valence.  I'd never be able to find enough matching tea towels!

Here is another cute example. I wish I could remember which blog I found these on.  By using the little gold clip rings, there is no damage done to the actual towels.

In the picture below, I moved my laundry room curtains into the kitchen.  I found that I don't care for bright white curtains in the kitchen.  That's a good thing to know as I move forward, I suppose.  These curtains quickly made their way back into the laundry room where they will stay.

It's tough to match my dark blue walls with any kind of blue fabric, so if I don't get a multicolored fruit mixture, I might have to go with something in more of a burgundy red.  But I've been collecting yellow vintage, not red.  sigh.  This will be a good lesson in creating what I want to see (a vintage kitchen) using what I have, the way it is.

Maybe I'm over thinking this.  After all they are just curtains, cupboards and walls. LOL.  But it has made for a good distraction throughout this long, winter week. 

Here's an afterthought...If we were to paint the cupboards an off white, we would also have to paint all of the trim, the doors, the wains coating, the trim on the ceiling...the list of woodwork in our kitchen is long.  Do we really want to do all that?
Here is someone who did and I love the transformation!
http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/08/finally-how-to-paint-cabinets-trim.html