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Archive for the ‘Kitchen’ Category

A few days ago, while doing my grocery shopping at Kroger, I saw this.

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Insert me stopping mid-aisle and backing up

I was at the Green Hills Kroger so I wasn’t at a Kroger Marketplace. I’ve only been to a Marketplace on the road but know some outlying areas have them. I haven’t seen Kroger sell dishes before and I was real excited about them being Blue Willow. Plus, there sale signs.

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Here is the only picture of pricing that is readable.

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After scrutinizing photos, here are the prices I’ve confirmed:

  • Dinner plate $5.24
  • Salad plate $3.75
  • Cereal bowl $3.75
  • Soup bowl $3.75
  • Large serving bowl $14.99
  • 14″ Oval Platter $20.24
  • Covered casserole $44.99

I think a grouping of Blue Willow can be really pretty on a wall.

blue willow hanging from michaelpennystyle

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blue willow wall hanging plates with yellow chairs via house beautiful

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However, I don’t think it looks great on your back.

blue willow back tatoo

here

 

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Lovelies, we had a big weekend washing all the dishes and kitchen accoutrements to put them in their new cabinet homes. The floor is being put in this week. I’m excited to finally show you what it looks like and how we got to the end. We had some unexpected expenses and we’re thinking of putting off the backsplash for a little bit. Plus, I’m anxious to move on and our “right away” for the backsplash would still be a month or so away. So, once the floor is down, we’re done with reno (the backsplash shouldn’t be that big of a deal when we do it) and onto decorating.

Our kitchen rug is currently a 3×5′ West Elm Jute Boucle rug in Flax.

 It’s a very hardworking rug but it doesn’t hide the inevitable stains you get in a kitchen. So, I’ve entertained the idea of replacing it or layering another rug ontop of it.

This thought began when I first saw the Rainbow Rag Rug from Urban Outfitters.

Recently, I noticed Urban Outfitters’ Tufted Jungle Cat rug.

I like it a lot. It’s different in general, but definitly different for a kitchen. I’ve thought about an oriental or Turkish rug, like the one below.

here

I’m watching this ebay seller from Little Green Notebook for a Turkish rug. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled at the flea market, Southeastern Salvage and around before I make a purchase. Wether I replace our rug or layer a smaller rug on top of it, the new rug needs to be patterned. Do you have any suggestions of where I should look?

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First, I apologize for originally saying the title was a reference to TLC. I’m embarrassed. Second, we went to Lowe’s to purchase this hardware this past weekend but The Mister was not feeling it. The “pointy” knobs bothered him.

Therefore, we took another look at a Kraft Maid knob and pull set and ended up ordering them. They are $7 something for a knob and $8 something for a pull.

Do you like my phone cover? It’s from J. Crew.

I agree with The Mister that the flat face knob does not have the potential to inquire like the one above. However, I can’t say I’m jazzed about them. Of course, that could be attributed to the fact that I just want a kitchen to put the hardware in at this point. What hardware does get me jazzed? 

This hardware is fantastical!

It’s major.

I asked Jessica about the brass and glass pull and the faceted brass knob because they make my heart leap. They are not in production for another month or so and she hopes to get pricing to me within the next few days. All I know thus far is that she’s considering a change from glass to acrylic/lucite and the pull’s hole to hole dimensions is 4.25.” I’m a mixture of excited, nervous and anxious to get her pricing. Also, saying “hole to hole” makes me feel weird.

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Our kitchen cabinets will be installed on Thursday and Friday of this week. We have a lot of posts to write to let you know how we decided on what and what we did. One of the last things for us will be the backsplash. Since Monday was a holiday, I gave you a post on Saturday containing marble backsplash inspiration. We’re still doing a marble backsplash, but we haven’t finalized what size of tile or when we’ll do it. Of course, I’m using this time to try to convince The Mister that we should install tile all round the window of our kitchen. This is after I was already turned down for my idea of tiling all the walls.

Does that sound crazy to you? It sounded odd to me too, in the beginning. Then, I kept finding photos to support my additional tile work. Here are some of them.

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Now, the image that is most like what I’m trying to convince The Mister of now.

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What do you think?

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We’re in the midst of making kitchen decision and still have our backsplash to worry about. We’ve looked at a number of options and plan to do something we can DIY. Should it be DIO (do-it-ourselves) opposed to DIY (do-it-yourself)? Get back to me on that after you look at this eye candy. I tried to focus the photos on just white counters (as that is what we’ve decided to do) and marble backsplashes or vice versa. However, some are all marble.

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Here is the backsplash tile we plan on using.

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Here are photos of a marble subway tile. 

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This is the Elle Decor showhouse’s kitchen designed by Palmer Weiss.

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Though I could not find it, I’m pretty sure today’s title is not my first Salt-n-Pepa reference.

We decided to use knobs on the kitchen doors and pulls on the drawer faces. The pulls are going on the middle of drawer faces. As you may know, I’m on the road a lot right now. It’s been hard to make decisions and feel confident in them without being home. Since I cannot be home to show The Mister what I’m trying to convey, I’ve resulted to computer drawings. They’re not great, but they get the point across. Of course, I’d prefer to draw them on graph paper. Here are the drawings for “where to tell the installer to put the hardware.”

What hardware? This hardware:

Next week, is when big things start to happen and the pretty starts.

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We’ve been busy choosing things for the kitchen like countertops, flooring, etc. that we put hardware on the back burner. We received our sample door last week and have been on the search for pulls and knobs. Our new kitchen cabinet doors and faces are paneled – somewhat Shaker styled. Many say that your cabinet hardware is the jewelry for your kitchen. We’ve considered that but did not consider the placement of such jewelry. Do the pulls go in the middle of the drawer or at the top? This seems to have mixed opinions, especially if you have flat paneled doors. 

Below are some examples of hardware in the middle of the drawer face/within the flat panel. If you click on the photo, you can find out where the photo is credited.

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Rest in hell

That’s right – hell. We’re telling our kitchen to rest in hell, not in peace. Our new kitchen cabinets are being installed the week of February 20. Unfortunately, I’m on the road every week until then. So, I’ve helped The Mister on the weekends and we prepped it some when I was in the week of January 16. I have mixed feelings about him doing “the demo.” Part of me really wants in on it while another part of me is concerned about getting a splinter. Here is a photo he sent me last night after he took down the crown molding.

He’s having to remove the molding as our new custom cabinets are going to the ceiling. Of course, we’ll share more photos of the kitchen. What it looked like, what the demo looked like, what we did and how we did it. First, I’m telling you why we’re so enthusiastic about killing replacing it.

1. I called it “The Kitchen of Many Colors.” The counters were blue laminate. The cabinets were light oak that I painted – twice. The dishwasher was black, the oven was white and the fridge was stainless (we bought it). The walls were a mix of browns and beige -as seen above. The vinyl was white with a light blue pattern that had multiple stains.

2. It was groddy. There is a reason you haven’t seen many photos of our kitchen. I believe this is it. I was fearful that y’all would call the Humane Society for The Colonel. The counters had mystery stains and cuts/chunks. The paint on the walls was peeling off. We’ve had to scrape the walls for months. They’ve been partially since 2009. Our kitchen has looked like/has been a Work Zone for years. It’s been clean, but it has definitly looked dirty.

3. The Magic Chef oven lost his magic. We were left with two burners and one of the remaining two was temperamental. Plus, with all the different finishes on our appliances it was a little odd-looking.

4.  Cabinets were falling off the wall. Seriously. Two came off the wall. One was the large pantry that was a single floor to ceiling unit. We were prepared for it and basically “put it down.” Every time we walked through the kitchen it would wobble, even after The Mister and my father had worked on it. Finally, we decided it falling down was too much to risk. So, down it came about two years ago. Under the cabinet we found a different patch of vinyl. You’ll see photos the next few weeks of what I’m talking about. Then, one night a few months ago the cabinet containing our dishes came down. The cabinets falling down didn’t surprise us after taking them down.

This photo has been our inspiration:

here

Mark Challen’s Handsome Bistro Kitchen
Photographer Donna Griffith
House & Home September 2011 issue

 

The pretty is on its way!

The pretty is on its way!

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The Mister and I have met with some kitchen cabinet people. We’re getting serious about updating our cabinets. However, I’m stuck. The kitchen cabinets in my kitchen inspiration photos are painted. Yet, I feel we should have “wood” cabinets for future resale. I have this feeling that wood cabinets say, “Look at me! I’m shiny and new!” more so than painted cabinets. However, we have a small kitchen and I’m fearful that wood cabinets will make it feel dark and we prefer dark wood. Decisions…decisions…

This is hard. Let’s take a break and look at some of my favorite spaces in the “Kitchen” inspiration folder.

From House and Home via The Decorista

By Katie Ridder via Shoebox Decor

Via Catlin Wilson

via House and Honey

via House Beautiful (Love the mirrored doors and drawer fronts)

From Melissa Rufty

via Noting Hill

via Sarah Richardson’s Sarah’s House

via Sarah Richardson’s Sarah’s House

via More Design via Knight Moves (love the mirrored backs to the cabinets)

Now, do you think wood or painted is better? Help a girl out.

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During our days off for Thanksgiving, we decided to work on the kitchen a bit. We took down the awful blue laminate backsplash by our sink. Though I know it looks terrible right now, I prefer it. It now looks like we’re doing something instead of just being ugly. Then, we scraped the paint off the walls. Yes, we scraped it off.

The previous owners put oil-based paint over latex. (We muttered some ugly words about the previous owners during this process.) We had a few places where paint had peeled off and I was sure it appeared that we picked at our walls when nervous. Therefore, I think it looks better too.

Yes, I think that looks better than a randomly peeling wall. Additionally, The Mister ripped up the floor molding, we tested the kitchen floor for future removal and chose our new floor. More of that to come.

At the beginning of The Lovely Lifestyle, which was also the beginning of 2010, I blogged about painting our kitchen cabinets. We painted them a dark brown with a slight purple undertone.

The photo is from the blog post and is me celebrating the paint sticking. Yay for oil-based paint!  (RIP blue backsplash) The color was The Mister’s choice. After my shenanigans of testing coral colored paint on the cabinets, it was his turn. Turns out they are too dark for our little, galley kitchen. So, we’ll be repainting and will need new hardware.

Here is the hardware I would like to have.

Clear glass pulls with polished nickel 3 inch for $16.50

I want to use the pulls for our drawers.

Clear glass knob pulls with polished nickel with 1 inch for $6.95

I want to use the knobs on our doors.

We are using beadboard in the kitchen, but I don’t want it to be to “cottagey.” Therefore, I want hardware that is different and a nod to glamour over cottage. What do you think?

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