A pink kitchen island? Yes, please!

I never in a million years thought that I'd paint my kitchen island pink! But yet that's exactly what I did last month... and I adore it!

We bought our 1850s home in the historic district in Thomasville in 2020 after a two-year stint in a really fun loft downtown.

Over these past five years, our kitchen has been a work in progress. If you've been around a while, you probably remember me painting (yes, painting!) our ceramic floor tiles before we even moved furniture in.

This large, lovely square room has one wall of cabinets and countertops, with the range, sink, dishwasher, and fridge in a row.

Besides that and the fireplace (one of seven in our home) there are no other permanent fixtures in the room. It's a blank canvas!

Perplexed when we first moved in as to what to do to create more counter and storage space, we took inspiration from English cottage kitchens and decided to make use of freestanding furniture. I scoured my favorite English magazines, Pinterest, and my own discovery journals for ideas.

As luck would have it, the previous owners of our home had some dining room pieces that they no longer wanted, so I made them an offer. And we started painting.

So now, we have two armoires that hold several sets of dishes and glassware in easy reach, along with a pie safe that I originally bought for the shop serving as our pantry.

As added fortune, my parents had just moved to Thomasville, and their home's previous owner had left a HUGE farmhouse style table that they could not use.

We needed an island, and they needed somewhere for it to go! So we loaded it on a truck (not an easy task; it is SOLID!), drilled some giant caster wheels onto the legs, and moved it to its new home.

{It was a win-win-win all around. As we all know, there were supply chain issues happening in 2020, and we now did not have to wait to kit out our kitchen.}

Not only was it convenient, but we believe in the concept of "upcycling": finding new uses for beautiful old pieces to keep them out of the landfill and in people's homes!

As you know, Annie Sloan herself visited us in July and was a guest in our home for a few nights. When she was here, she and her brand ambassador Tristan Merriam joined us for several meals around our farmhouse table kitchen island.

As we cradled cups in our hands (ginger tea for her, coffee for me) I asked Annie for suggestions as to what color to paint the island --eek - advice from the DIY queen herself! -- and I also carefully listened as she demonstrated color theory on her color triangle to our guests in the shop.

Combining Annie's creative inspiration with the gorgeous rosy shades in that showstopper painting above the fireplace, we decided to be bold and go with Jaipur Pink (which is one of Annie's five new colors in honor of Chalk Paint's 35th anniversary).