Gift-wrap your kitchen!

Here’s how you can give your family kitchen a cheerful  and ‘crafty’ make-over!

Have you ever wondered about giving a room in your house a make-over? No, you do not need to be an interior designer. Nor do you need to withdraw large sums of money from the bank. Not if you do what I suggest, which is to first try out your skills in the kitchen!

Forget about carpenters and painters. All you need is a few rolls of bright wrapping paper, preferably not the flimsy variety, a pair of scissors, a measuring tape or foot ruler and a large roll of cello tape.

Just to make sure that you unveil your handiwork in the most dramatic way possible, you could get to work when your mother is not around. That way, when she does arrive, she’ll be totally bowled over by your revamping the kitchen.

As shown in Fig 1, measure the size of each kitchen cabinet door. Then cut out your bright coloured wrapping paper in such a way so that it is at least 1½ inches longer and wider than the actual measurements. For instance, since the kitchen cabinet door shown here is 14” x 16” , you need to cut out paper of size 15½” x 17½”.

This allows you to fold the extra paper over the edge of the door and use cello tape to stick it firmly in place on the inside of the door as shown in Fig. 2. Also measure the exact spot of the door handle and mark it on the wrapping paper (A). Use a blade and cut out a cross as shown on the right of Fig. 1. This will allow you to slip the paper neatly over the door knob.

After securing the sheet on the back of the door as shown, use tape to stick together the slits cut around A.

If you run out of wrapping paper (or out of patience), you can also choose to do just alternate doors, as shown below the kitchen counter in Fig. 3.

The best part of this cheap and cheerful kitchen make-over is that, just in case your mom is not impressed, all you need to do is peel off the cello tape and hey, you’re back to your old kitchen. Also, like any gift-wrapping; this too will not last for-ever. After a few weeks when it starts peeling off or tearing, you can neatly rip off your handiwork and start all over again! With a completely different colour scheme!

If this has put your mom in a good mood, maybe you could have some more ‘crafty’ fun in the kitchen. Make interesting labels for all the ingredient dabbas and paste them on with cello tape. Add funny faces, doodles or even a ‘brand name’ like ‘Chef Mom’…so all the labels will read as follows: ‘CHEF MOM’S Jeera powder’, or ‘CHEF MOM’S Chilli powder’.

Here’s a little trick. So that the writing on the labels does not smudge when someone handles it with wet hands, make sure that the entire label is covered with cello tape – somewhat like lamination.

Get to work; you now know how to turn a dull old kitchen into a cheerful room that you would love to spend time in –preferably with platefuls of just-fried snacks!