First off, I’ll give you a little background on the name of my blog, The Cartoon Kitchen.  This goes back over 20 years, to when my husband and I bought a house in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. To call this house a “fixer-upper” would be an understatement.  Let’s just say that my introduction in design and renovation were born from complete necessity!

One of my favorite projects was completely remodeling the kitchen. I decided to take a completely original approach and hand paint everything–the checkerboard walls, the wallpaper border (though there was no actual wallpaper), all the way down to decorating the tiled backsplash with hand-painted flowers.  Everything was original, colorful, and 100% original.  My three children would have their friends over and they all made the same comment, “It looks like a cartoon!” I suppose that’s a compliment, right?

And the rest, they say, is history!

Fast-forward to 2014, and our children have left the coop and my husband and I are comfortable in our own little slice of heaven in Columbia, Missouri.  In December of 2012, we purchased a lake house in Kirksville, Missouri which was in desperate need of some help.  Just consider that house my work of art, my Sistine Chapel! I’m determined to make that house just as undoubtedly original as our cartoon kitchen so many years ago.

What I really want out of this blog is some feedback (good or bad!) and advice from anyone who shares my love of remodeling and creative projects. I visit so many web sites daily and get so much inspiration from like-minded people who are able to put their work online and make it available for everyone to see. To all of you bloggers out there, I envy your bravery!

So here goes nothing!

-Susan