If I...were coming up with yet another idea for my kitchen

I haven't really done anything with my kitchen.  Except for my new stove, it's basically exactly the same as the day I moved in.  I haven't even bothered taking a real set of pictures since it looks just like these from the MLS listing.  Except a heck of a lot more cluttered because, well, I have a lot of stuff.

Of course it's easy to dream about what I'd do if I were to gut the place, but what if I were just giving it a facelift?  Something I could do by myself (or with Shelly's help and/or with minimal help from a handyman/contractor type)?

Now, what I'd REALLY like to do is swap the long cabinet and the dishwasher so the latter will be by the window and out of the way when open.  Right now it blocks movement between the sink and the doorway and is super annoying.  Plus with this switch, then I'd have an even long expanse of counter right where I like to work.  But that's a bigger project, what with taking the cabinets all down and moving them around, moving the plumbing, blah blah blah. 

But I can live with the current layout if I could get rid of the orange cabinets and the depressing floor and the so-not-me counters.  And add a little more storage space.  Here's my latest design plan:

Centsational Girl recently redid her guest studio's cabinets with Rust-Oleum's Cabinet Transformations and they came out great.  She didn't even take the doors down!  Love that.  I decided to go with a more gray-based scheme because it just felt more me (even though I've been all about the brown in my living room).  So I picked Winter Fog and then I'll use their Counter Transfomations kit in Onyx to switch up my counters just as quickly.  I'll add this sideboard piece from Ikea (think I may buy it IRL!) and paint in the same Winter Fog.

I might be most excited about the floors.  My house was built in 1942 and linoleum was all the rage.  It went out of favor, but is coming back with Marmoleum!  I picked out a warm gray and then will add a black Greek key rectangle in the middle as a sort of rug.  Fun, right?  And linoleum is a green product and a lot softer on your feet than tile.  I also like the lack of grout lines (and thus cleaning grout lines).  'Course, I don't know how much it would cost, but let's worry about that later.

Currently, the space above my cabinets is chock full of stuff.  Platters, bowls, cupcake carrier.  I did reorganize my kitchen that one weekend, but it's still full of stuff.  All those bulky kitchen items that don't fit anywhere else.  In an ideal world, I'd put in new cabinets that go all the way up to the ceiling.  In this world, I'll get some nice baskets in different sizes to hide everything.  I also like the way the natural color and texture downplays the could-be-too-stark pink/black/gray color scheme.

I debated the color of the walls.  It'd be safer to go with another shade of blue or maybe yellow or maybe the same grass green as the powder room.  But in my heart, I want pink.  When I first moved in, I thought I'd do them in magenta, but now I'm thinking more honeysuckle.  It's such a bright and happy color.  Combining Rust-Oleum's and Behr's sites, i was able to do a mock-up of my kitchen.

Pretty, but perhaps a bit too bright?  What if I go to Deep Bloom, the next color down? And fill in the floor with gray and pop a few of the baskets up top?

sorry for the lack of photoshop skills

I kinda like it!

Dear Debbie,

Please keep this Apartment Therapy post in mind if you ever do decide to buy a vacuum and get some rugs. You think it's a fantastic idea and will probably have forgotten about it. That would not be a good thing.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/how-to-make-a-block-print-rug-using-a-rubber-mat-138526

Kisses,

Debbie

pretty pantries!

Not for me, but for my friend, Shelly.  She's the one who helped (read: did basically by herself) wallpaper my powder room.  She's planning on turning an extra closet in her dining room into a pantry, which I think is a fabulous idea - mainly because I would LOVE to have a pantry of my own!

In my shelter blog browsing today, I saw two different pantries that I wanted to pass along to Shelly.  And since I haven't posted here in a while, I decided to make a blog post instead of just emailing them to her.

First up was the pantry of House of Smiths that I found by way of her guest post at Centsational Girl.  How great is this gray and white pattern?  And it's not wallpaper or even stencil - it's vinyl cut-outs.  So clever!

Now, Shelly is a wiz at all things crafty and I can see her doing the stencil version of this, but maybe she wants something a little cheaper and easier. 

And then, browsing through Brooklyn Limestone, I saw The Stories of A to Z's reorganized pantry (and she was inspired by House of Smith's pantry, too!):

Love the bright color in the back. What a fun place for a color that really makes you smile but would be too intense somewhere else! Something bright and happy to greet you when you go to grab a box of pasta.

Shelly - getting any good ideas?  You know I'm up for helping you with this!

I love guest blog posts because they lead me in such fun directions!

weekend projects, part 2

So with the spice racks nicely hung, I moved on to my next project - art for the powder room.

Almost as soon as the wallpaper was on the ceiling, I had an image of the walls covered in vintage postcards, pretty plates, little mirrors and random crap in shadow boxes.  Kind of a gallery wall on crack.

I knew my mom had old postcards so I asked her if I could use them, promising to not ruin them.  She agreed and we had a great time going through all of them.  Not only does she have postcards sent to our immediate family, but also ones to her aunts, uncles and parents.  The oldest one that I took with me (I left gobs back at her house) was from 1924.

Then there was this one my uncle sent to my dad:

Best part was the message on the back:

"Can you picture me doing this? Well I'm not."

How hysterical is that?  I almost wanted to frame it message-out, but then the embroidered (!) front is pretty darn awesome as well.

My mom sent her parents tons of postcards in college and afterwards.  My favorite was a HUGE one of the UN with basically a book on the back.  And it was just this rambling, meandering message full of a lot of nothing.  Think about the emails you send your parents.  Now think of your kids reading them 40 years later.  Part of me is glad that postcards and letters aren't as common now, but part of me is sad for the missed opportunities of hilarity!  My mom and I laughed so hard over this card that we cried.

I found the postcard I sent home while in Iowa for Odyssey of the Mind.  I love seeing my 6th grade handwriting! 

My dad didn't travel much for work after my sister and I were born, but he went to New York and Paris in 1982 and sent home lots of postcards.  I love that he would send separate cards to my mom and to us girls.  Just so cute.  This is one he sent to both me and my sister, but he would also send us our own.

And you know how you marry your father?  Well, my grandfather also sent my mom postcards.  I wonder which painting he was talking about here?  Maybe it's one that I have hanging on my walls.

I spread out all of the cards, picked my favorites and started arranging.  I had to replace some faves for others that fit better, but that's okay - I have so many that I could easily do a second collage.  Finally I came to an arrangement I really liked.

There were a few gaps and my 5th grade math teacher taught me that one should never, ever have blank space in a collage, so I filled in those gaps with leftover wallpaper.

what, you didn't do art projects in math class?

I decided to put it up above the toilet.  I thought about putting it next to the mirror - and still might  move it there later - but for now, this gives the most impact.  I just love it with both the rug and the wallpaper!

I still think the gallery-wall-on-crack idea would be better, but I already owned this frame and I like free!  And now I'm thinking about the idea of mini-collages instead of individual pictures.  I love a project that makes me think of other, better ones!

weekend projects, part 1

My goal this weekend was to fully clean my first floor.  I'm throwing myself a birthday party this coming weekend and need to get my Christmas decorations back in the attic.  But then my sister invited me over for brunch.  And then my best friend got some weird infection and had to go to the hospital (seems like she should just have to be there for a few days but will be fine) so I went to hang out with her.  And so nothing was cleaned.  At all.

But I wanted to feel like I was at least a bit productive around the house.  I had a bit of time yesterday morning before visiting Amy so I decided to do a couple projects I've been putting off.

First up was hanging my spice racks.  An ex-boyfriend of mine gave my mom this spinning spice rack for Christmas once-upon-a-time.  I thought it was a stupid gift, but apparently he knew better because she loves it.  And retired her old, straight racks to the basement.  I rescued them because I was sick of hunting for a spice on the too-high-to-see shelf where I was keeping them.  First she could only find one and that was great, but it was a little too small for all of my jars.  Then she found the other one, whose racks are a little more narrow and short do don't fit everything, but they're great for food dyes and boxes of toothpicks and such.  I'm so excited to have more storage space!

I'm toying with the idea of painting them.  The more usefully-sized one I have no qualms about.  It's kind of country-ish and not in a good way.  But the other one is a little more tricky.  It's this old, beat-up wood and has great vintage charm.  And it has an eagle at the top and two little stars at the bottom. 

They'd be super fun highlighted in another color or just made shiny again, but would it then be too generic?  Or would it be like those Federal mirrors that are even cooler when painted all white? 

source

Ahhhh - I'm probably overthinking it all.  But for now, both are staying brown, even though they do take up a lot of visual space that way.

Next up - postcard collage

this weekend...

This weekend I will reorganize my kitchen.  This may or may not involve a trip to Home Depot to buy slide-out shelves for my lower cabinets that tend to be The Place Where Things Go To Die.  Seriously - I thought I lost a potholder, bought a new one, then found the lost one when I pulled out a pitcher for my holiday happy hour.  Not to mention that I had my big stainless steel mixing bowl perched precariously on top of said pitcher and somehow the potholder ended up underneath it.  Huh? 

And this is just the tiny cabinet next to the stove.  The one over on the right (where I store my fry pans, saucepans, muffin tins, cake pans, stock pots and collanders), well, lately I've just tossed items in there and hope the doors will stay shut.  It's a mess and makes me cranky.  Luckily I can remember what's in there because just opening the doors wouldn't help out a stranger in my kitchen. 

And then above my cabinets is very useful for storing even more crap, but it's incredibly unattractive.  Lately I've been dreaming about rigging a curtain up there to hide everything.  And I'm definitely not ruling that out, though I think it might look goofy.

I feel the need to just pull everything out and reorganize. Maybe I should keep useful items in the little cabinet above the oven and put those once-a-year items in the scary cabinet on the right. Maybe it's time to take down the white board and put up more shelves. Or hang a pot rack. Or a real cabinet so things won't get dusty. Though that last one might be beyond what I can accomplish this weekend.

But I can at least reorganize and get things in tidy piles again.

Note to my sister: the quesadilla maker will be moing on.  I loved it so much when you gave it to me and got a lot of use out of it, but haven't used it in several years.  George Foreman and the cocktail shaker I've never used are also hitting the bricks so it's nothing personal.

don't be jealous, but my ceiling is cooler than yours

See?  I don't lie.

I'm so excited that this project was able to be done.  My friend, Shelly, volunteered to help me paper my powder room ceiling and I was super excited.  The paper was waiting for me when I got home from work on Wednesday so Shelly and I made plans to get started right after lunch today.  Fab.

But then I was clearing off the top of the dryer and realized that getting to that far corner would be difficult.  Hmmm - how much room is left when I wiggle it all the way next to the toilet?

Yeah, not that much.  But the washer/dryer seems pretty sturdy, maybe we could climb on top?  Shelly was game and also said that she had a skinny 2-step ladder that might work.  So I headed over to Home Depot to pick up supplies.

Note: wallpaper was bought through Will's Decorating, not HD

Shelly arrived and we cut strips of paper.  Originally we thought that we would only need three strips, but then we overlapped the edges pretty significantly to be able to match the pattern so ended up needing a fourth piece.  And each piece needed to be extra long as well.  Even so, I ended up with plenty of leftover paper so look for that in future projects!

I decided to hang it widthwise because the room is a bit of a rectangle.  This should help widen the room a little and make it seem like more of a square.

Shelly came up with an ingenious plan for fitting into that sliver of space between the washer and the wall - put the step stool on the "thin" setting and then prop it up with a couple of books.  Maybe not the sturdiest thing in the world, but as she said, just as sturdy as climbing on top.  And it was jammed in between the wall and the very heavy washer/dryer combo.  Well, it worked and that's all that matters!

So Shelly squeezed in the tiny space on the left and then I perched on a one-step stool on the other side of the toilet and we got the first piece up, Shelly cutting around the light/fan thingamajig.  That sucker was tricky.

Then it was on to the second strip.  Lining this one up wasn't hard, but there were just a ton of wrinkles and bubbles.  Here's Shelly trimming the second strip.  Did I mention that she basically did everything?  I smoothed a bit and that was okay, but I just couldn't get the hang of trimming.  I kept scoring the wall and not getting any of the paper.  Shelly rocked at it.  She also lined up each new piece PERFECTLY with the previous one.  You can see the seams a bit where the paper is solid, but it's wallpaper.  It has seams.  Blow up any of these pictures and you would not be able to find the seam.
My very-important job was to keep the supply of clean rags coming, to hand off tools and to clean up the excess glue on the ceiling and walls.  I was also pretty good at prepping the paper - pasting and booking.  But the queen of the day was definitely Shelly.

The third piece, though, almost made Shelly give up.  Lining it up was nearly impossible and then when letting the paste set, we got distracted by the internet and so it wouldn't stick to the ceiling.  Then wrinkles and more wrinkles followed by bubbles and more bubbles.  Getting rid of one just caused another.  More paste and some deep breaths helped all around and then it was time for trimming!

The fourth piece was easier because we cut it nearly in half lengthwise before putting the paste on.  We knew we'd only need about a foot instead of the full 27" and it also made it easier to manage.

And then, about 4 hours later, we were done!  I love it so much - I keep going back in to check it out.

It was hard to get a good picture of the ceiling - the entry is a little cramped.  But lying down on the floor let me get a shot of the whole thing!

I love my ceiling.  Love love love love love.  It's definitely the coolest thing in my house!

wallpaper on the ceiling: step 2

Step 1 was deciding to do this crazy thing.

Step 2 was buying the paper.  I did that yesterday.

I went to my local decorating store - Will's Decorating.  I had been in here before and was a bit overwhelmed.   So much to look at and most of the in-stock product was very early 90's.  Not really inspiring.  But I remembered that they had TONS of wallpaper books so I figured I could order something even if I couldn't find what I wanted in stock.  Plus I wanted to see the colors in person - colors on your computer screen aren't necessarily accurate.  And it just seemed cozier than ordering online.

I was originally going to go Thursday as they're open until 8pm, but traffic was not on my side.  Then I was going to go Saturday, but The Lost Symbol had me captivated all morning and I had to get out to Annapolis to sit with a newborn in my arms all day long.  Couldn't miss that for wallpaper shopping! 

So I made sure to get over there as soon as they opened on Sunday.  I went to the wallpaper section and looked at the books on display.  One was promising - it was from York, Antonina Vella's La Dolce Vita collection and was open to this page:

Hmmm - that seems pretty modern, not frumpy early 90's ditsy floral.  Let's see what else is in there!

Yes, I think this might be THE book!  And totally a sign that it's the first one I came to.  Even better was their selection of green patterns.  I had pretty much decided that green was the direction to go with - I don't own the rug yet so I can't match any of the colors exactly, but I feel like green is one of those shades that don't have to match so much.

Anyway, here were my green possibilities:

Yeah, that second one?  Totally Imperial Trellis.  But it would so be wrong on my ceiling.  Too much white space.  The third one was a close second, but I thought it might be TOO grid-like, you know?  The first one would normally be my first choice, but the background (which isn't clear on my computer - glad I went in!) was cream and kind of looked like wrinkled paper - in a good way, but not MY way.

My final decision was the Edda in the green colorway:

How pretty is this!  The elongated paisley, the grassy green color combined with white, making it very crisp.  And it's busy without being cluttered.  So very me.

I thought about the yellow colorway:

But while I love yellow, I'm green.  And then I'm planning on hanging blue antique lusterware dishes and I don't really like blue with yellow unless there's a good dose of green or pink somewhere in there.  So green it is!  And I think it looks really nice with the rug.

The paper will be sent directly to my house and should arrive on Wednesday or Friday.  And then the plan is to put it up on Friday (assuming it arrives in time) and maybe I'll get the plates from my mom at Thanksgiving and have an almost-finished powder room by my holiday party!

a productive day off

My office was closed yesterday for Veteran's Day and I managed to pack it full of personal stuff.  I really love having productive holidays.  It's so easy for me to be lazy on a weekend that being lazy on a holiday seems like a waste.

My sister made me wake up earlier than I do for work to go with her to the press opening of Neiman Marcus's Last Call Studio in Rockville.  This store is great.  I feel like rather than it being an outlet for Neiman Marcus, it's more an outlet for their cool little sister, Cusp.  Everything was on trend and at fabulous prices.  As an added bonus, we got $100 gift cards.  I spent mine on a fab pair of Jimmy Choo sunglasses. 

My current sunglasses are cheapo ones from Target with butterflies at the temples.  I bought them for Bonnaroo and continued to wear them all summer, though my niece had dropped them and scratched the lenses.  But I loved the shape and while it was a bit goofy, I loved the butterflies.  But once September rolled around, they just didn't seem appropriate, you know?

Unfortunately, one of the arms fell off this morning.  So weird.  I wore them on my way into work and didn't take them off until I was in the elevator.  Took them off and went to put in the case, but they were a bit smudged so I wiped them and then put them in the case.  Once in the office, I pulled them out to show to my colleagues and one of the arms was missing!  I called Jimmy Choo who said they would either have a local store (there's one in Chevy Chase) fix them or I could send the glasses off to be exchanged.  Will keep you updated.

After shopping, Alison and I met her husband and daughter for brunch at the Silver Diner.  Love this place and love getting extra Emerson time.  We bonded over my jewelry and while I showed her my sunglasses, I didn't let her try them on :) 

Next up was the One Day Meat Sale at the Co-Op.  I had actually forgotten about this sale and at first wondered why the parking lot was so full, even though it was a holiday.  I actually had to park in the last row!  But I bought a whole chicken, some lovely strip steaks, ground beef and pork chops.  Came home and separated it all out into single portions and filled my freezer.  Now that my work schedule is back to normal, it will be nice to cook real dinners again.

The plan was to then go straight outside and tackle my front yard, but the Nate Berkus Show was on.  I love this show - it's like a moving design blog.  And can Nate's handyman please come to my house and switch out the crazy light switches in my kitchen and bedroom?  Would be nice for guests to be able to turn on these lights without a 15 minute lesson.

I did have self-control and turned off the TV before Ellen came on.  Otherwise she would have sucked me in as well, but my yard was calling!  It's been a wild wonderland all summer and I kind of loved its mess.  Overgrown and wild, it had its own beauty.  But by the end of the summer, I was sick of it.  All of the winding vines and overgrown mint made it impossible (for me, at least) to do any constructive gardening.  I knew I needed to clear it out now so it would be ready for me in the spring. 

So I spent about two hours filling three of those tall paper yard bags...

and ended up with a cleared out yard!  You can actually see the parking lot!  Light!  Air!  It's a good thing.

I pulled out all of the vines and mint, trimmed down the rest of the weeds and the wild parts of the bush/tree things and cut away the dead parts of one bush that was almost completely flattened by the snow this winter.  I pulled out the faux stone edgers that were randomly placed in the yard and pulled up some of the randomly placed paving stones.

Next up is to fully remove all the weeds and random green stuff, relocate the hostas and brown flower-things to better places, remove the rest of the paving stones, put the saint the previous owner left on Freecycle and lay down some mulch.  In Greenbelt, you have to have something covering the dirt in your yard and I don't want to deal with grass.  It's hard enough getting bits of it to grow in my backyard.  Then I'll be all ready to make it pretty next year!

Having successfully cleared out my yard, I treated myself to watching Lost in Austen on Netflix On Demand.  SUCH a cute little movie that I didn't even mind that it was 3 hours long (it was originally a miniseries) and cooked up one of the steaks I just bought with some heirloom cherry tomatoes.

It was a fabulous day!

not gonna be a hypocrite

So I'm having issues with my powder room.

It's exactly the same as when I moved in.

Oh, sure.  That aqua towel is now watermelon-red.  I don't have a matching rug around the toilet (I find them weird and a little gross) and I got a pretty new soap dispenser that matches the white-and-chrome hardware.  But otherwise - exactly the same as in this picture from the MLS listing.

Kinda embarrassing.

Not in the your-slip-is-showing way, but still. 

My original plan was to paint it navy. Dark navy.  All four walls AND the ceiling.  These were my inspiration photos:

yes, this last one is pink, but it's a good example of color on the ceiling with white molding.  work with me, people

Kinda freaking awesome, right?

But take a look at my powder room again:

Can you imagine what a pain it would be to paint behind the washer/dryer?  And you can't see it from this picture, but the left side of the sink top butts right up to the wall yet the cabinet is about an inch away.  How the heck does one get into that tiny space?  And even if I do conquer that, I don't think this is my Forever Home, which means I would probably want to paint it a neutral color before selling.  And even if that doesn't happen for 5 years, well, I'm not exactly the Home Improvement Queen.  More the Minimal Work Goddess.

The wall over to the right (behind the door) is solid.  No weird appliances or sinks.  Just a toilet paper holder and a square heating element.  Very easy to paint and repaint.  So I had the horrible thought of an accent wall.  How easy would it be to throw some navy paint up there?  I would know it was there, even if the short-term visitor doesn't (ie, the one who doesn't have to visit the loo).  I'd get my dramatic color without the pain of painting around the fixtures.

But if you know me, you know I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  If you don't know me - hi, my name is Debbie and I'm incredibly anti accent walls.  In a few applications, they're awesome.  As a substitute headboard.  Behind the couch in my friend Beth's old apartment (done by her decorator brother).  Beth's apartment was the first time I voluntarily said that an accent wall worked.  So things like that.  But in the average house, the average application, I think it looks like you like color but are scared of having impact.  Of showing your personality in your house.  I'm incredibly anti that.  Even though I'm no longer in love with my turquoise walls and the main reason they're still there is because repainting all 6 wall portions would be a bitch, I'm still very happy that I had the guts to paint all of them.  It makes a statement and that statement is good. 

It also reflects me. I wore large, chunky jewelry before it was in style.  I wear prints on a regular basis.  As hostess to my sister's baby shower, I wore a giraffe print dress.  My laugh can be heard 3 counties away.  I am not a shrinking violet and I like for my house to reflect that.

But back to my powder room.  The wall I would accent would be hidden from initial view.  One would only see it when one is inside with the door closed.  And that makes for a pretty small accent.  I'm not about the hidden view.  I want the big, panoramic view.  So while it would be nice to take the easy way out, to do the accentless accent wall, I'm not going to do it. 

I do still want to make an impact and I still want it to be relatively easy.  And then I remembered Camilia, from High Heeled Foot in the Door, and her grasspaper clothed kitchen ceiling:

source

And one of my favorite wallpaper-inspiration pictures:

Made me realize that I could totally do that in my powder room.  It might make the ceiling look even lower than it is, but it's such a small space, who cares?  It's not like it being white makes it feel expansive.  It just feels like a small, white box.  I'd rather a small, colorful box.  And I bet my friend Shelly would be happy to help me.  And since it's such a small room, I don't have to worry about the expense.  Very do-able.

Then I'll get a rug for the floor.  Paint (silver leaf?) the mirror.  Hang my great-aunt's hand-lustered plates (they weren't that well done, but they're still pretty) and some other art.  Just cover the walls so one doesn't notice that they're still, as Dorothy Draper would say, dead-white.  I'll just make it work for me.

Sounds kinda cool, right?