My kitchen makeover-before and after

Blog what blog? Huh? I have been so overwhelmed with work and house reno and life that I can't see straight but I have been dying to show this off. This was a major part of the upgrades that have to happen before we sell but it doesn't hurt that I like too.

We all love a good before and after so here is my partial kitchen reno. We left the cabinets in place and chose a quartz counter with white subway tile backsplash. There is also a new sink and faucet. I should add that marble was a no go since we are selling.

 I am purposefully keeping the shots tight here. We still have the floors to do.

Here is the before.

Can you say fugly Formica?

 We added this light several years ago. I recommend it if

you like to clean glass while standing on a ladder once a week. uh huh.

Let me start with the counters. I will do my best not too swear here but it was a trying process. I started my shopping at Lowe's and Home Depot for a baseline price thinking they would be the cheapest. *sigh* Nope just the dumbest. *sigh* You see, everyone in this area has brown granite (or some form of brown/beige/black) in their kitchen. The guy at Lowe's made such a weird face when I mentioned a white marble-like counter with my brown cabinets. He asked why on Earth I would want such a thing. *sigh* My tongue still hurts from biting it so many times with so many stone people. I mean, really, if you are wearing brown pants do you reach for a brown shirt? Duh! And hasn't anyone opened a freakin' shelter magazine in the last 5 years? Ugh!

I did find a lovely white and gray veined granite that I could have loved and loved hard but the dealer was an asshole and kept changing the price. I ended up with Cambria quartz Torquay. My goes pitter patter each time I look at it.

The best part is that Mr. Designdumonde has got some mad skills and he installed our gorgeous backsplash. Check it out.

He insisted I call this "design on a dime". They were the perfect spacer

The mosaic insert took the better part of a day...hunched over. My poor guy. It was truly on a dime because the materials were about $225 for a backsplash that would have been at least $1000 installed by someone else. It took a bit longer than we estimated. The next bit was the caulking and I found a tip on Pinterest that saved the day.

Caulk is so difficult to get right. Taping with painter's tape did take 3 hours but the result is perfection.

We have a running joke that we are making our house so much nicer that I won't want to leave. We are adding hardwood floors and still have painting to complete in the kitchen but we are this much closer to moving.

Room of the week

This week I chose what appears to be a darling kitchen. It seems to have everything pretty, artwork, white cabinets, some glass fronts, diamond patterned floor with a Persian rug atop, antiques add up to a big dose of charm. The one thing it does not have is square footage.

Personally, it would take one holiday meal in a tiny kitchen to put me over the edge. I would be in a rubber room or jail cell.

Does size matter?

The worst client in the world

" You can get wit this or you can get wit that"

That song is stuck in my head as I try conquer my indecisiveness on chairs for my kitchen table.

The time as come to change out the chairs and I am torn.

 Let's recap. Several months ago, I came up with this as my favorite option. The farm table stays but I will be using a different light fixture. The curtain fabric is the same and  I now have a faux bamboo sideboard.

I was pretty set on black Louis chairs.

I had a few other ideas that I think I have nixed.

 

Last week I was sure that I wanted some Danish modern chairs that I could recover in hot pink on the seat.

 Now I am thinking Louis chairs in a fun color.

As I talk the worst client in the world (me) through this, I discover the crazy lady's main goals are #1 not to be boring #2 not to be so risky style-wise that the the chairs in question are hated in a year or so.

So basically, I want a safe choice that is not boring. WTF Kerry!!?

The Louis chairs are on sale now so I think I should jump. I am not in love with the turquoise color. I was thinking hot pink is more relevant to my house but that would involve reupholstery.

Lime green doesn't really make sense in my house either.

 Which leads me back to black...yawn.

My thought is to get the Louis chairs and recover them in a few months.

What do you think?

I am a huge pain as my own client.

Using Pinterest to plan decorating projects

Hi friends, I have a guest post today that my kick your Pinterest boards into some organized shape! Its a great tutorial on taking the random images you have and putting them together in clear way to help a designer help you. Oh, and Rob is a hometown boy.  I went to High School in Springfield, Virginia.




For years homeowners have filled 3-ring binders, accordion file boxes and scrapbooks full of ideas collected from the pages of House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens and many other home design magazines. Designers – like Select Kitchen & Bath – would then be showered with the resulting mass of glossy photos – one that has the cornice she likes, a half-dozen unique backsplash ideas, a few faucets, layout ideas, a dozen cabinet colors and styles – and be expected to turn the patchwork quilt of ideas into the perfect room for their client. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.

Technology has come to the rescue with Pinterest!

 

If you’re already using Pinterest, you know what a great tool it is for gathering and organizing your ideas. You can set up individual ‘boards’ to collect images to. You can ‘pin’ images from anywhere on the web using the ‘pin it’ browser tool. You can also ‘repin’ images you find on Pinterest itself.

No more ripping out magazine pages and filing them with hopes of remembering in the future which part of the photo caught your attention. Collecting and sorting digital images on Pinterest has taken the gathering of design ideas to the level of near perfection. 

Here are 5 ways to use Pinterest to create the perfect kitchen:

1. Divide and Conquer
Organization is the key to making sense of the kitchen ideas you collect. If you pin everything into one board called ‘kitchen ideas,’ for example, you can easily end up with an overwhelming collection of images that might actually confuse the process more than help. A better approach is to create separate boards for each aspect of your kitchen. You could consider these labels for your group of kitchen boards: countertops, sinks & faucets, appliances, lighting, islands, layout, eating bars, cabinet doors & styles, cabinet storage, pantries, hardware.

2. Search
Spend some time searching Pinterest for images that you like and repinning them to your boards. Pay close attention when you repin to make sure each image gets pinned to the appropriate board. If the image fits more than one category, simple! Just repin the image from one to another. Following our kitchen example, you might begin by simply searching ‘kitchen ideas’ and then become more specific such as a search for kitchen sinks or cabinet lighting to gain ideas for certain boards. Don’t forget to use the ‘pin it’ tool on your web browser for pinning ideas you find outside of Pinterest too.

3. Follow
When you do find an idea you particularly like, you may want to look at the Pinterest account it was originally pinned in for more ideas. If the image comes from a certain designer or brand you like, you may want to ‘follow’ their boards so that new pins from their boards come into your Pinterest feed automatically.

4. Add Notes
As you are pinning and repinning to your different boards, don’t forget to type in descriptions or short notes to remind yourself later what it was you liked about this image. Was it the faucet or the sink? Was it the stain color or the style of the cabinet doors? Having them sorted into different boards will help eliminate most of the confusion, but a little description will define things even more.

5. Create a Master Board
Once you feel you are ready to talk to a designer about putting all these ideas together and creating that perfect room, it’s time to create a new board that will capture only the best of all the images you collected. Go through each board and look through the images. Repin your favorites from each individual board into, for example, your ‘Perfect Kitchen’ board. Once you have that board filled with images from all your other boards, you’re ready to make your appointment with your designer. Take your laptop or iPad with you to provide the visuals from Pinterest as you discuss your ideas with the designer.

Technology has made so many things easier in our lives. When it comes to collecting and sorting home design ideas, Pinterest is the designer’s dream come true.

- Rob, Select Kitchen & Bath

Follow Select Kitchen & Bath on Pinterest!

Chair envy

I feel I must tell you that I want to divorce my kitchen table chairs.

I began the whole affair 10 years ago, when cash was slim. They were heavy, vintage cherry chairs from a church probably. The yard sale had 10, I bought 4 but quickly regretted my slim purchase and they were gone when I went back for more.

I painted them, had cushions made and they are so 10 years ago.

Enough about them.

I think about new chairs more often than I should. My table is a farm table and it stays, for sentimental reasons.

The idea of mixing it up with something modern is very tempting.

Here are a few choices that I have considered.

The toile is the linen fabric on the large curtain covering a sliding glass door in the breakfast area.

If I had to choose today, I would choose the Eames chair although not in pink.

The trouble is that five years ago I would have said, "Over my dead body" to those chairs. As a child of the '70s I have a love/hate thing with mid-century pieces and my fear is that I would tire of them.

I have thought of taking a cue from the toile.

 

 I love, love, love Chinese Chippendale chairs.

 The thing is that the scale could be a problem. 

Have you ever been seated at a table where there was barely an inch between the chairs and even though they fit were just too tight? I don't want that.

I think my best choice at the moment is something from Louis land.

The oval backed Louis XV chairs are my first choice at the moment.

I have gone over and over different sassy color choices in my head but keep returning to this idea.

I really want to use my silhouette fabric with impact (i.e. not another pillow) in my house.

I can't stop thinking about this combination of classic chair with unique fabric.

Now I just need a money tree to make it happen.

Let there be light...sort of

One blessed day about a month ago, the horrible florescent light fixture in my kitchen stopped working. It was funny because my husband had just talked me out of replacing it two weeks prior when a bulb went out and I shopped online for a new fixture.

We had to have some sort of light while I looked for what I wanted. so this is the klassy set up I had for a few weeks.

Just one light bulb hanging from a few wires. *sigh*

Running extra wiring and tearing up the ceiling to do it was not high on our list so a multi-bulb fixture was a must. The kitchen has 9 foot ceilings but the height was also a consideration. We toyed with a mix of can lights and pendant but ended up settling on the Eldridge from Ballard designs.

The idea of spending hundreds just before the holiday did not sit well with me  but I could not deal with the "Shantytown special" light hanging from a wire.

The light from Ballard was back ordered and it took about three weeks to get the refrigerator sized box.

I was excited. "Can I play with it?! Huh, huh? will you put it together? C'mon! I wanna play!!!!"

We have replaced several of the ugly builder light fixtures but it has been some time since I had the excitement of a new fixture.

Huge and heavy, I needed my husband and two teenaged sons to put it up. It turned out to be a very balmy December day and I had my little girl outside playing with some neighborhood kids while the light went up.

Grrr. Errant pane of glass held in place with electrical tape.

I came in to look at it in all its fingerprinted glory and noticed that a pane of glass was teetering and out of its clips. My question, "How in the heck did you get the thing up without noticing?"

 Teenager.

It turns out that the glass could not be easily put back in place so the whole thing had to come down and go back to Ballard.

Back to the "Shantytown special".

Ballard was good with the return, sending a new one and sending the UPS man to pickup the old one. They did not, however, realize that we still had the thing hanging up and it would take some time to get packed up. so when the UPS guy arrived five minutes later I had to explain.

New light arrived and a few days passed. Finally, up it went and with much greater ease. I hear.

I have several final thoughts.

 I thought I would be OK without the Edison bulbs and now I think I need them. Secondly, the quality of the fixture is second rate. I have other things from Ballard that I liked but have heard a few complaints about their upholstered pieces.

The glass on mine has a few small scratches and the directions that come with it are laughable in their error. 

At $400 it is not insanely expensive but it is still $400. If I was going to do it over I would not buy this.

Keeping it real

This is only my kitchen in my dreams

I am about to be very stupid  brave and make it difficult for you to say something kind.

I am going to show you my kitchen and ask you for suggestions. HA!

It is like getting into a freezing cold pool, I have to ease into the ugly. 

That right there is the window above the sink. I have the fabric and lining cut in a linen toile for a valance where the silly hardware is now. Its been cut for at least six months. Tisk, tisk, I know.

I don't dare show you the faucet. Lets just say it is decidedly "low rent" looking.

Yes, folks I have black appliances. sniffle

I have dark cabinets, laminate counter tops, and no bulkhead or crown molding. Just boxes on the wall.

The oven/microwave is a mile from the cooktop and that annoys me.

At the very bottom of this photo you can see the edge of the thing I hate most... the peninsula with a bar height thingy. Yuck!

I suppose it would be easier to visualize with a floor plan.

My lazy drawing

 Between the wall oven and the end of the peninsula is a pinch point. It drives me crazy.

Behind that "bar thingy" is clutter central. I did not take a picture.

This last photo brings me to my question for you. I need ideas.

These antique, French canisters are the only thing I have on top of my cabinets. They are there simply because it was the only place to display them. I do not like ladders and I don't want to have to dust a bunch of stuff up there.

I am not redoing my kitchen anytime soon unless you buy a lot of paintings (hint) but I really want to make it look better. 

Ideas?

One thing, please do not say paint the cabinets. My husband painted the cabinets in our last house to sell it and used an entire week's vacation to do it. He will leave me for sure if I so much as mention it.

I am also not likely to put things on the counters. This is a hard working kitchen. My husband is a butcher, formerly a fishmonger. Food is important. 

But so are looks.

 I just want a little zhush.

So lay it on me. I am stumped.