Posts tagged ‘Kitchen’

October 15th, 2009

Major winter project: Kitchen!

After discussing it a bit, I think Kevin and I have decided that we’re going to try to tackle as much of the kitchen redesign/renovation over the winter as we can.

I know what you’re thinking.

“Wait wait wait, the kitchen? It’s usable! What about finishing the bathroom? What about working on the lounge area in the basement? What about what about what about?!”

We’re both pretty sick of the kitchen, and if we’re going to be trapped inside over the winter, the season during which we do our most labor-intensive and creative work at the stove, we’d might as well be in a room that we like to look at and use, am I right? I think I am.

Anyway, before I get to a few inspirational photos that I’ve collected lately, I want to ask you readers a couple of questions:

  1. What is your favorite thing about your kitchen?
  2. What do you wish you had in your kitchen?

On with the pictures:

From Retro Renovation

From Retro Renovation

Pam's Kitchen from Retro Renovation

Pam's Kitchen from Retro Renovation

From Design*Sponge

From Design*Sponge

From Design*Sponge, I love the FermLiving wallpaper and black countertops

From Design*Sponge, I love the FermLiving wallpaper and black countertops

From Decor8

From Decor8

Alice's kitchen from bread&honey, I love the green cabinet interiors

Alice's kitchen from bread&honey, I love the green cabinet interiors

From Apartment Therapy, I love the shelves around the window

From Apartment Therapy, I love the shelves around the window

From Apartment Therapy, I think I want a tile backsplash

From Apartment Therapy, I think I want a tile backsplash

From Apartment Therapy

From Apartment Therapy

From Apartment Therapy

From Apartment Therapy

From Apartment Therapy, we're definitely doing black and white checkered floor tiles

From Apartment Therapy, we're definitely doing black and white checkered floor tiles

CategoryInspiration, Kitchen | Comment1 Comment »

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December 11th, 2008

Poop

Poop pipe

Poo!

I think Kevin took some pictures last night, but I didn’t have the energy last night to worry about uploading them, so here’s a picture of the sewer pipe coming out of the old toilet, rimmed with a glorious coating of poop. I know it’s going to make your day.

Last night, there was some sort of snafu with the screws not being long enough to hang the sheets of concreteboard on the walls for the tub surround, along with issues with the wall layers not being the same depth, so I think Kevin and Mark did a lot of standing around and scratching their heads, until they finally decided to call off work for the evening until the next day when longer screws could be purchased. Thank goodness Mark is willing to work on it during the day while we’re at work.

While they were mid-scratch, I set about completing the cleaning of the kitchen. I scrubbed out the fridge with some sort of orange cleaner, finished wiping out the cabinets, gave it a thorough sweeping, and even managed to clean up the filthy window sashes over the sink. It’s ready for move-in! Tonight, I’ll probably spend most of my time running carloads of dishes, pots and pans, and food between the houses to fully transfer the room from our rental to the new place. Actually having some of our belongings in the new place will further solidify that it’s really ours.

I had already scheduled to take tomorrow (Friday) off in order to be there while the duct and carpet cleaners do their thing, and through a happy coincidence, Kevin may be able to take the day off as well. Last night after Mark left, we spent over an hour cleaning everything up upstairs, gathering up the last of the trash, and moving Kevin’s “keep” pile down to the basement. We were able to swing a 10% discount on the carpet cleaning because I told them we wouldn’t have anything for them to have to move when they did it, so cleaning last night meant that once work is done tonight, we can just shove the few items left in the living room into the basement or bathroom to keep my promise. The living room looks so much bigger when it’s empty! Let’s hope we don’t fall into the old habit of filling it with crap.

CategoryBathroom, Kitchen, Renovation | Comment1 Comment »

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November 20th, 2008

Naughty Kitchen Daydreams

I know I’m not supposed to be thinking about the new kitchen yet. I KNOW I’m not. I just can’t help it. I’ve got so many ideas floating around in my brain about everything that some off-limits things are going to sneak in.

The kitchen in the house was “remodeled” less than 10 years ago, which means it’s new enough that it simply cannot be a priority compared to all of the other glaring issues. I put remodeled in quotes because: 1. it was never finished; and 2. it is entirely NOT my cup of tea. We’re talking forest green laminate countertops, medium oak cabinets, flowery wallpaper, missing trim, and shiny gold hardware. In other words, eww.

As far as cabinets go, I’m dreaming of the standard white metal of most 1950s kitchens, with interesting chrome chevron or lip hardware on the doors/drawers. Something like these:

Our kitchen colors are black and white, so a checkerboard tile floor will work nicely, and can easily be done ourselves. Wallpaper comes down, of course. The big ticket item in this room is going to be the countertops, and I think I’ve narrowed it down to two options, both of which come in black: soapstone and silestone.

This is the silestone, which is made of quartz (a plus, since I love quartz and am a rockhound). This photo is in black and white, so it doesn’t showcase the actual awesome highlight of this particular material (Silestone in “stellar night”): those white specks are actually sparkly metal flake, like on a car. Glorious! Kevin spotted it at Lowe’s and was drawn to it immediately. It’s man made, ultra-hygenic, doesn’t need to be sealed, and is very resistant to heat and stains. Unfortunately, it’d cost about $90 a square foot to be installed, and we can’t do it ourselves.

The other option I’m looking at is soapstone. This is the flat black counters that they use in science labs, which makes me a little giddy with nerdy glee. I love that this material was actually used by early New England settlers for their countertops. It basically has all of the same pros as silestone, except it more resistant to heat. However, it does need to be rubbed down with mineral oil regularly to keep it looking awesome. I can handle that. Also, we can install it ourselves! That’s a big pro, because if we can skip paying for labor, that’ll cut the budget down by quite a bit. The DIY slabs run about $45 a square foot, just about half of the cost of the sparkly Silestone.

CategoryInspiration, Kitchen | Comment2 Comments »

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