Home Decorating

Showing posts with label Kitchen. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Acrylic Shelves

Celerie Kemble used pieces of acrylic as shelving in her Kips Bay Show House room and I loved how modern it made the built-ins feel.

It reminded me of this photo from Domino, where they used acrylic shelving in the kitchen. It's a great way to add storage without all the visual bulk.

PS I bet my friends at Plexi-Craft could help you if you'd like to do something similar in your home...

Friday, May 20, 2011

I got the pink and red Persian rug in my kitchen from eSale rugs a couple months ago. I bought it on sale for about $150 (with free shipping!), which I think is a steal.

It's Iranian, only about 60 years old and is in great condition. I love the hot pink and red with the navy!

I've used eSale Rugs a couple times now and I'm a big fan. I think their prices are very fair and the site is easy to navigate. And I love that they include tons of photos with each rug listing, so you really have a sense of what you're buying before it arrives.

Their inventory is VAST, but here are a few rugs that caught my eye today. I usually look for something with at least one pop of usual color. A bonus would be something with great contrast (both black/navy and white/cream):

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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Carrara Marble Countertop

Another reason I decided to use that old dresser as our kitchen island is the dimensions were just right for the marble slab I had.

Lots of readers emailed asking what quarry I used in the tri-state area to get my carrara slab. Sadly, I have no recommendations for quarries. My slab is (was) a $70 coffee table, just cleaned really well and resealed:

I got it at Canterbury Antiques in Delaware, but I've seen about a million versions of the same coffee table on craigslist. They're often under $200, which is an amazing savings, compared to getting a slab cut down or even using a remnant piece of marble.

Some of you asked in your emails how the carrara has held up for me. I haven't had any problems at all with staining. I forgot to mention that this slab is polished, but if I had carrara installed in future home's kitchen, I would definitely go with a honed finish. I've heard from friends and clients with honed marble counters that if you are diligent about sealing the marble every six months or so, there are no issues at all with staining.

P.S. I'm starting to do some projects for our master bedroom and I'm using the pretty table frame to make an upholstered bench for the foot of our bed!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Painted Detail on My Kitchen Island

Last weekend was perfect. Mother's Day was lovely - Michael and the girls surprised me with a necklace I've been eying for a while and a gorgeous bunch of peonies.

The arrangement was so pretty that I thought it was a good excuse to break out the camera and take some 'after shots' of my kitchen island that I've been meaning to share with you.

This old dresser was one of the very first things Michael and I bought as a married couple. We got it for almost nothing at a thrift store in Arizona. It's been about 20 different colors over the years and the hardware's changed a half dozen times. The top hutch piece was some I picked up a few years later at the Crate and Barrel outlet.

When we moved into our new apartment, I knew I wanted to add an island to our kitchen to provide more counter space and to separate the cooking/prep area from the dining, but I didn't think I wanted to use this dresser. I mean, look at the back of the thing. It was in bad shape. This is right after we moved in last September.

Call me sentimental (or cheap), but I thought I'd at least give the dresser a run as a possible island, so I pulled off the old back.

I got a piece of very inexpensive chipboard cut to size at Home Depot, and stapled and nailed it in place. Then I primed and painted the whole thing in BEHR's Night Shade (it looks navy in the picture, but it actually has a lot of green in it).

The new paint helped the situation a lot. I knew I wanted to add moulding or something though to make the flat back more exciting. It's one of the first things you see from our front door, so it was important for the detail to be sort of punchy and fun. I liked this paint treatment from House and Home and thought it would be a cinch to do something similar:

After doing a little sketch and planning out my measurements, I taped off all the straight lines.

Then I put down a base coat of the same Night Shade paint to seal the tape and prevent most of the paint bleeding.

Then on went the white paint for the detail.

I like to pull my tape off immediately, while the paint's still wet. You can see the lines still bled a little, but it was an easy fix with a detail brush.

To make curves in the corners, I just used a round glass as a template and then filled in the lines with the detail brush.

At first I was worried that the white and navy felt too nautical, but I love the relief the white paint provides against all the navy and black in the kitchen, and it also ties in the floors and the marble on the island.

I'm also really happy with how the navy works with the black cabinets. I love mixing black and blues.

And pink just looks good with anything.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Trash Bin

To the right of our kitchen island we keep a stainless trash can with a step mechanism. We use that garbage bin all of the time, so I'm okay with keeping it out in full view (we don't really have a place to tuck away the trash anyway). Our current bin is pretty standard and the look of it is not completely offensive, but the step mechanism is a little...labored, and also I feel like it doesn't hold bin liners very well.

I'm loving the industrial look of Martha's garbage bins, available here in white, stainless and red. I'm considering the standard 12 Gallon size in white. The best part is these are commercial-grade, so I'm the thinking they can really stand up to my cooking marathons and the clean up from my kids' art projects.

Any other suggestions for a great-looking, super functional trash bin? My friend has this SimpleHuman butterfly style bin and loves it.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Yellow Acrylic Tray

I need a tray just like this. Any ideas? I thought CB2 has something similar a while back, but no-go.

via NYSD

P.S. What do you think of the mirrored kitchen counter tops here? Gorgeous! But, I wonder how practical?

Monday, March 7, 2011

Kitchen Drawer Inspiration

This slide show is inspiring me to get going on my spring cleaning and organizing - even though it doesn't quite feel like spring yet around here. Isn't it fun to get a peek into someone's cabinets and drawers?

Martha sure loves her P Touch. It's hilarious to me that she labeled the label maker (with a sort of passive aggressive message?)

If you like to cook, you understand how essential it is to have good, sharp knives. I have a set of Wusthof Classics that work great (this knife is my favorite), but I'm really jealous of all of Martha's Japanese knives.

There's no such thing as too many vintage linen napkins!

I'm always drawn to Bakelite (pronounced bake-a-light), which you can find at flea markets and all over ebay and etsy. I love the vintage and warm feel of the resin.

What a pretty collection of rolling pins, and I especially love these salad servers.

I've used little dishes and bowls to organize small jewelry, but I think these jadeite dishes are so cute for organizing first aid supplies (as long as the drawer was out of reach of little hands. My kids like using bandaids a little too much).

Off to organize my kitchen drawers!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Wallpaper in the Kitchen

Wipeable wallpaper can be such a fun addition to a kitchen! I think this is an especially great solution if you don't love your kitchen, but a reno is not in the budget. Paint your cabinets (probably something more neutral - off-white/gray/black) and then wallpaper the walls - easy and much less expensive than a full renovation.

Ready for a round up?