A tiny kitchen touch-up, seven years procrastinated

I am trying to wrap up those small projects that I have left lingering for oh-so-long. Projects that will honestly take less than an hour yet I still procrastinate doing for months. And stress out about doing for months. And I swear, if I could figure out why I continually do this, it would make my life so much less mentally taxing.

But it was a long holiday weekend for me so I decided to tackle one of the projects. The project I call "Covering Up the Useless Metal Plate Eyesore In My Kitchen."


Thank you kitchen designers for placing this thing in the most awkward place ever. I have no clue what it even does. Given its proximity to the light switch, it might be related to that. But I have to try not to think about it too much because I could easily go all "The episode of Friends where Monica loses her mind trying to figure out what the light switch did."

So instead, I chose to try and ignore it. And like a four-year-old, put a sticker on it. (This is why I never give stickers as birthday gifts to kids. Because if I were them, I would stick them all over places where they should not be.)

But when the kitchen was remodeled, I decided it was time to fix the eyesore. And I thought "Oh I have a ton of scrapbook paper! I will find a pretty print and cover it up with that."


Because life hates me sometimes, a 12x12 sheet of paper was about one-fourth of an inch too short to cover the plate.


And so for the past eight month, that tiny strip of silver has been there driving me crazy every time I am in the kitchen. So I decided that the large sheets of wrapping paper at Paper Source would be the answer to my problem. And I stopped in Paper Source approximately 73 times over the past eight months staring at the racks of paper in the store and not really loving any of them. And definitely not loving any of them enough to spend five dollars on a sheet of paper that I would only tolerate.

Last Sunday, I stopped in World Market to get a picture frame and to fight the urge to buy the five bound bag of Haribo gummi bears that they always have. The picture frame aisle backs up to the stationery section and there on the rack with a halo blinking above it was the solution to my problem!


A single sheet left of the perfect paper to cover The Useless Metal Plate Eyesore In My Kitchen. Perfect colors, perfect kitchen print, perfectly Orla Kiely without being Orla Kiely, perfectly two dollars.

And I dashed off to pay for it casting one last look of longing at the five pound bag of gummi bears. The cashier rang it up and then promptly began FOLDING it. WITH HEAVY CREASES. I nearly launched myself across the counter as I squealed "DON'T FOLD IT!!!" Of course the solution to my problem was going to be marred by creases. The cashier did NOT respond well to this and I am just lucky I did not leave the store with a wadded up ball of paper.

But it is up now. And visually it still makes no sense and just looks like I slapped a sheet of pear paper on the wall.


But I no longer have to stare at The Useless Metal Plate Eyesore In My Kitchen. And so I sleep a little better at night.

Seven and a half years of procrastinating fixed in about seven minutes.

(And yes that is a picture of my parent's wedding day with their parents on either side. I always keep it my kitchen because it is nice to keep a part of your family and your history in the kitchen. And because once upon a time I watched the Jessica Simpson reality show Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica and they had their wedding picture framed on their kitchen counter. And I thought it was cute. And that is the only connection to reality TV and/or Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey that I will ever allow to inspire a decor choice.)

(If you pay close enough attention, you will notice that the light switch plate gets cleaner from the first pictures to the last. Because I did not realize how disgusting it was and I actually cleaned it. Probably should do it more often. But I will just keep procrastinating doing it.)