I did not set out to build a Friends-inspired kitchen in my basement. That makes it sound like I had a plan, and I promise you, I did not. It happened one project at a time, mostly because I have absolutely zero ability to leave well enough alone.

The funny thing is, this little basement kitchen has actually been around for years. When we first moved into our house, all of my kids were still living at home. One was in elementary school, one was in middle school, and my oldest was in high school. He lived in the bedroom downstairs, and there was this big open space between the living area and the back door that leads out to the pool.

One day I said to my husband, “We should probably see if we can find some inexpensive cabinets and a little refrigerator down here so he doesn’t have to come upstairs every time he wants a drink or a midnight snack.” And because apparently I occasionally have practical ideas, that’s what we did. The wall where we put the cabinets happened to be on the other side of the bathroom, so we tied into the plumbing and made a little kitchenette. It was nothing fancy. It was just useful. And over the years, it got used.

My son eventually went off to college, my older daughter moved downstairs, and then my younger daughter took her turn down there. It has been handy when we’ve had people over for summer holidays or when my husband is grilling and needs a sink. There is a bathroom down there, a living area, a bedroom, and the little kitchen, so nobody has to run upstairs every five minutes for something.

During Covid, my younger daughter and I even quarantined ourselves downstairs while my husband had Covid and the upstairs to himself. So this little kitchen has been a part of our family for a long time. It just wasn’t a Friends kitchen. Yet. Because somewhere along the way, I started thinking that maybe it could be.

I’ve always loved Friends. I watched it when it originally aired, watched the reruns, watched it in syndication, and I still can’t walk past a television with an episode playing without stopping for at least a minute. Over the last decade especially, it has become one of those comfort shows for me. At my full-time job, my coworkers and I have it playing in the background basically all day. At this point, we can recite most episodes. Somebody will randomly blurt out a line. Someone will start singing one of Phoebe’s songs (usually me). We don’t even have to stop what we’re doing. It is just part of the background noise of our workday. And honestly, it feels like a big hug.

So when I started thinking about decorating the basement for Christmas a few years ago, naturally I thought, “I need a Friends tree.” Because apparently having several Christmas trees in my house was not enough. The first one was just a little tabletop tree that sat on the kitchen table downstairs. I made some ornaments, bought a few others, and called it good. Then the next year I decided it needed to be bigger. So I got a bigger tree, made a tree skirt, collected more Friends ornaments, and put it beside the coffee bar. And over time, I ended up with a very specific collection of Friends Christmas ornaments. Some are Hallmark ornaments. Some I made myself. Some were gifts. They are specifically for that tree.

And at Christmas last year, I had even more ornaments, and I started looking at the space around it a little differently. I thought I could probably do something with this. That was apparently all the permission my brain needed. I knew I wanted a little bit of Monica’s kitchen in there. Not an exact replica because, let’s be honest, I’m a little more coordinated than Monica was. But if you’re a Friends fan, you know Monica’s kitchen. And I wanted mine to feel like that. So I found some peel-and-stick brick wallpaper. It was inexpensive, it was temporary, and I figured if I hated it, I could heat it up and peel it off.

And then I put it up. And I loved it! That was the moment when I thought, “Oh. This could actually work.” And then the creative juices started flowing. I looked at the cabinets and thought, “I could take a couple of those doors off and make open shelves like Monica’s.” Then I started thinking about what I could put on those shelves. Then I started finding things. Then I started making things. Then I started looking at things I already owned that had been sitting around doing absolutely nothing and thinking, “Wait. I can use that.”

And suddenly I was covering cabinet doors and the cabinet frame in teal/turquoise contact vinyl. That took an entire weekend. There were bubbles. There were more bubbles. There was a point where I seriously considered giving up. But I didn’t. I smoothed out the bubbles and kept going. x

The colors were very intentional. Those are Friends colors. The whole kitchen is my version of Monica’s kitchen, and anyone who knows the show can walk into my basement and immediately know what I was going for. The teal/turquoise isn’t the exact color in the Friends kitchen, but I am happy with it. I made curtains. I made a table runner. And by “made,” I mean I sewed some relatively straight lines and decided that was good enough. I put together a little coffee bar. I made signs out of things I already had because buying craft supplies for signs seemed unnecessary when I have approximately three drawers full of paper and paint sitting around waiting for their moment.

I found a jukebox cookie jar at an antique store while we were on vacation. Did I need a jukebox cookie jar? Absolutely not. Did I buy it anyway? Obviously. There is actually a Friends cookie jar called Cookie Time that was used on the set, and if you’ve ever looked for one, you know they can get ridiculously expensive. I’m not spending that kind of money on a cookie jar for a fun basement project. But this little jukebox one was a couple of bucks, and it reminded me of the diner episodes when Monica worked at the 1950s-style diner. Good enough for me.

And that’s kind of how this whole thing has gone. Almost none of it was bought new. Maybe five things were actually purchased at full price. Most of it was gifted to me, thrifted, found at antique stores, made from things I already had, or repurposed from something that probably would have been donated anyway. That’s one of my favorite parts. I see something that isn’t really serving a purpose anymore and suddenly think, “Oh, I know what I can do with that.” And then it gets a second life. I’ve done that with so many things in this kitchen.

I’ll walk into a thrift store or antique store and immediately see something in my head sitting on a shelf downstairs. I don’t always buy it. I’ll walk around the store. I’ll think about it. I’ll leave and still think about it. And if it won’t leave me alone, then I know I probably need to figure out if it belongs in the kitchen. The price matters, too. This is a fun project. I’m not spending a crap ton of money on it. That’s part of the challenge. Can I make this look like something without actually spending like I’m remodeling a kitchen? Apparently, yes.

The French doors were the latest big project. I covered the doors in textured purple vinyl because I wanted the color without permanently painting the doors. The trim around the glass panels, though, was another story. If you know Friends, you know that trim needed to be yellow. I had yellow vinyl. The vinyl had other ideas. It would not lay right. It would not stick properly. And because that trim is so decorative, it was just not going to cooperate. So I finally bit the bullet and painted it. That part is not quite as easy to undo, but my husband is perfectly fine with it. If we ever sell the house, I’ll either strip it and paint it white again or we’ll replace the trim. For now, it’s yellow. And I love it.

At this point, if somebody who didn’t know me walked downstairs, they would probably assume this was a finished kitchen. And technically, it is. I’m just not finished messing with it. I have more ideas. I always have more ideas. Every time I go into an antique store or thrift shop, I find something else that makes me think, “Oh, that would be perfect down there.” Which either means I have great instincts or I have a mild problem. I’m choosing not to examine that too closely. 

My family probably thinks I’m a little crazy. But they’re used to me. They tease me about it, but I think they secretly like that this is just something I do. And honestly, a lot of the things in the kitchen have been gifts because friends and family know about this little project now. They may think I’m silly. But they keep finding Friends things for me anyway. So I’ll take that as support. And maybe that’s another reason I love it so much. It isn’t really just a kitchen anymore. It’s a collection of little pieces of things I love. It’s the Friends show I’ve loved for years. It’s the coworkers who can quote episodes with me while we’re working. It’s the trip to Los Angeles with my son when we went to the Warner Bros. lot during Friends’ 30th anniversary year and got to see all of that stuff in person. It’s the random gifts from people who know me well enough to know that something will make me smile. It’s the things I already had. It’s the things I found for a couple of dollars. It’s the things I made because I thought I could. And it’s a little escape in the basement that makes me happy every time I walk into it.

I don’t think I’m ever going to be completely finished. I’m not sure I want to be. Because half the fun has been watching it become something I never actually sat down and planned. It just started with a little Friends Christmas tree. Then came the brick wallpaper. Then the cabinets. Then the colors. Then the signs and the shelves and the thrifted finds and the cookie jar and the French doors. One little project turned into another. And now I have a Friends kitchen in my basement. Not an exact replica. Not an expensive remodel. Just my version. And honestly, I think that’s even better.

With love,

Mindy

Psst: Stay tuned because I have a few new projects to add to this up my sleeve!