Moving rooms around and one day make-overs

The first visit to my sister's house a few months ago was to see how we could refresh her kitchen (without completely overhauling it) and update the living room a bit (you can see the almost finished living room here), and do something about the garage. We set up a plan, ordered furniture and appliances and did some organizing in the garage. Oh, and we went shopping. Lots of shopping. We hit our usual stores (West Elm, Crate and Barrel, HomeGoods and Ikea...) and came home with a couple of lamps and vases and lots of stuff to brighten up the kitchen area.

The old office space that is now the living room

My sister is a children's book illustrator and she works from home. Years ago we made a studio for her where her current living room is now (I wrote about it here) but now she works mostly in her upstairs office. She has a small desk in her kitchen where she can sketch as well. The space where she has her desk used to be the dining room ... which has been relocated to the previous living room (are you following this?!).

The new desk area in the kitchen

The first thing we did was go to Ikea to order some closets to line her garage. We used bedroom closets that slide with shelves and pull out drawers inside (another post / another day!). We also came home with a dresser to keep her tools and dog leashes, etc. in. Here is an "in-progress" shot showing the new Ikea cabinets and the almost finished dresser (sans drawers):

She liked the dresser (Ikea Hemnes) so much that we went back and got a second one to put in her kitchen / desk area. It is the same one that I have in my kitchen... you can never have too much storage I think. At $299 it is a bargain; we changed the knobs to match the kitchen handles.

The tall glass cabinet (it is actually three pieces sitting on top of each other) was purchased years ago from Crate and Barrel and had been in her upstairs office. I like that it is in this space now - it adds necessary storage but even more shows my sister's personality. Some of the items were gifts, some from travels and, do you see the stuffed lion? That was from her childhood. 

I love all the whimsical tchotchkes (ˈchäch-kə: knickknack, trinket) she has ... so much inspiration for her books!

Our first accessory purchase was this lamp from West Elm. My sister found it and it was on clearance:

I used it on the built-in desk area that is really just a place to drop keys and glasses...

The cabinets did not have any hardware and we purchased some pulls and knobs from Ikea and Deb installed them herself!

My sister is an avid golfer and the photo is of our father when he was a young man.

The lamp set the direction for the rest of the accessories ... green! We went back later and picked up this one too:

 green glass jug lamp | West Elm

The new faucet works well with its clean lines and it ties in with the new cabinet hardware. The green bottles help bring the outdoors in.

The baking soda in the Ikea bottle is something I have in my kitchen too... add a little dishwashing soap and it makes the best (and natural) cleaner. Just so you can really appreciate the new look, here is what we started with:

 BEFORE

AFTER

The new counter depth French door refrigerator is a much better fit than the previous one that stuck out too far beyond the cabinets (and door) ...

And we added a Dash and Albert Diamond Black & Ivory indoor/outdoor runner to finish it off the kitchen and keep the water from Mack's dog dish from dripping all over the floor.

Mack got a little crate makeover too ... we got the blanket (so he feels cozy) and the pad cover at HomeGoods. Mack is the fourth Airedale Deb has owned and her favorite assistant.

Could you use a prep kitchen?

I played hooky yesterday and a friend and I went to walk around a few model homes in the Huntington Beach area just for fun. I love looking at model homes. They are always so pulled together with everything new and coordinating. I especially love looking at the bedrooms because since it is not "real life" they are always so perfect with no clutter or messes anywhere - crisp white bedding with just the right amount of pillows (with the mandatory chop). I always get a few new ideas too.

Top 3 images via

I can be brutal when I am walking through, picking the different ideas apart (it is always easy to be critical, isn't it?) but most of the time I am super impressed. Yesterday, there was one house that I could have just moved right in to. It was the kitchen that sold me. 

I would have changed the counters and the backsplash (Carrara marble for sure) but otherwise this kitchen was perfection (it looked much better than in my photos).

I really loved the clear canisters too!

Did you notice the single burner cook top? Yes, this is just the PREP KITCHEN! 

On one side of the kitchen it had a beautiful glass front cabinet for storage, and plenty of counter space ... but when I first saw it I thought, "nice but kind of small"... until I saw this:

A full-sized kitchen right around the corner.

I have seen older homes with butler pantries and kitchens but this was a new one for me in a new home.  At first I was not sure about the idea, but the more I started thinking about the possibilities I could not get it out of my mind.  

And don't get me wrong ... I love my new kitchen. But it made me start to think. Maybe I should turn my dining room into a prep kitchen. Apparently another new trend is eliminating the formal dining room!

What do you think? Would you like to have a separate prep kitchen?

My Kitchen Reveal

My kitchen remodel is finally done. 

It has been done for a while now but I need to find time to figure out my new camera (oh boy... I still need help) and then the time to photograph. Someone asked me the other day if I "love" my new kitchen and I will have to say that I "like" it very much. If you remember, it started out with us just needing to replace the twenty three year old oven that had been broken for over a year and the cooktop that I had been lighting with a match for many, many years. I had dreamed about the day that the oven would go out (see my post about that here) because I really wanted to get a free-standing range and I knew that I would finally have to be able to replace the old outdated countertop (12"x12" granite squares) and make some other changes. But when it happened, it was no longer in the budget.

I didn't plan the kitchen the way that I would for a client ... it kind of just happened. We played with the idea of cutting the old countertop and making some modifications to the cabinets to fit in the new range but in the end that just seemed like a temporary fix. I decided abruptly one afternoon to replace the old counters. I made my selections really quickly. I knew all along that I wanted to use Carrara subway tiles so I quickly ordered those and drove down to my fabricator's warehouse and selected a white quartz that would go with the marble (LG "snowstorm"). I called my plumbing fixture supplier and had them duplicate a sink and faucet order I had placed for a client a few months before. It was all done in a few hours.

In hindsight, I wish I would have put a bit more effort into a few of the details. I would have selected a different sink (less rounded on the edges) and if I had realized (before we put the new counter on) that I was going to change the cabinet fronts, I would have changed a few of my cabinets to drawers and moved the trashcan to the other side of the sink while I was at it. But that is hindsight.

We changed all the cabinet fronts to a cleaner shaker style which was a decision I also hadn't planned on but once the counters were installed it just made the old cabinets look worse and I couldn't justify paying someone to paint the old ones (it had been 23 years) especially since I had already changed out the refrigerator and dishwasher panels years ago.  In the middle of everything, the refrigerator leaked and damaged our wood floors and we had to refinish them (I posted about that here) ... the job just kept growing.

It is wonderful to be able to cook on such a nice range - it took a while to get used to not having to light the burners with a match!

I love the new quartz counters and although I would have loved the look of Carrara marble counters, I did not want to worry about them (just the thought of Easter egg food coloring all over made me realize they were not the best choice for me). My fabricator was very generous to give me a beautiful piece of marble he had in his yard and fabricated a top for the inexpensive Ikea dresser that I had brought into the kitchen last summer from our guest bedroom. I love having that little bit of a marble "counter" and I like how it ties in the Carrara backsplash.

Wall color - Benjamin Moore's Kendall Charcoal

Ready for the before photo (taken in 2011)?

Before

Not terrible for being 23 years old ... but I sure like the new look better!

After

You all know how much I love white ... it feels clean, seems bigger and is definitely a lot more fun to cook in!

I purchased the cabinet pulls from Ikea; the paint color on the cabinets is Benjamin Moore's Super White.

The rug is from Dash and Albert and is one of my favorite rugs. It is an outdoor rug and very durable and easy to clean.  The stool I picked up from One King's Lane for a fraction of the price of the one I wanted from Restoration Hardware. It turned out to be not such a bargain; the top came with a very "orangey" finish that was awful. I tried to fix it myself and then gave up and took it to my furniture refinisher. I still paid less than what I could have ... but it was not quite the bargain I had hoped for!

  

I am loving the lighter wood floors. 

When I get back from my road trip I will show you the two rooms on either side of the kitchen - the family room and the mud room. 

Happy Monday everyone ... I hope to be posting from "the road" soon!