A DIY project today

And a bit of history.

When we bought our house the main chimney breast in the kitchen had been backed in some rather fetching green linoleum stretched out between batons.

Of course we removed it as a matter of priority before installing the Rayburn into the chimney.

Because I am the one coat queen and have no patience whatsoever for decorating (you'd think a renovation project would be a baaaad thing for me to take on - and you'd be right), when I ripped the lino and its batons off, there were all these little wooden posts left sticking out of the wall.  They had obviously been concreted in place and really I should have cut them off with a saw flush against the wall, filled and plastered over them.

Instead I have stuck nails and hooks in them and am left with a random assortment of hanging things hanging up behind the Rayburn.

I call it kitchen kitsch, Brendan calls it clutter.

I like it - it stays!

Unfortunately it does seem to gather a lot of dust, a LOT of dust, particularly over winter with the fire going.

Today I gave it all a major clean, everything off, washed, dusted, wiped down, dried and now rehung.

In amongst all my lovely kitchenalia I have some vintage pieces, a moulinette, a chestnut pan, a potato ricer and a juice squeezer found at car boots here in France.

Anyway, when we ripped off the lino we discovered a niche in the wall, that, after asking the neighbours we discovered is for salt.  We had originally thought that these were proofing spaces for bread making, but they are acutally for keeping salt dry.  I  use the little convenient cubby hole for keeping the matches handy for lighting the fire, and also for a couple of candles for when the electric goes out in winter.

Today I cleaned it out, got a bit of plaster courtesy of my ever helpful hubby and set a piece of roof slate in there as a shelf.  The white gunk on it is the PVA glue I am using to seal it, not yet dry.