My 70s Split Redo Part III: The Kitchen

(Click for Part I: The Living Room/ Dining Room , Part II: The Family Room) warning: I use the word "love" a lot in this post because I'm just so happy with the space.

Well, I finally took some photos of our finished kitchen. You've probably seen lots of of midstage pics, but I have to say, I've never been happier with the kitchen than I am now. If you remember back in April/ May, here's what it looked like before: maple arched cabinet doors, yummy flourescent light fixture, dirty linoleum...

And here's what it looks like now:

We ripped down all of the uppers the first weekend we moved in & Dave put up beadboard & shelving. The whole thing was under $150 or so. We replaced the kitchen floors with click & lock Elm from Home Depot (read details here) at the same time we did the rest of the house. The cabinets are painted in Behr's "Witch Hazel" in semigloss. (For prep, I sanded them down with a hand sander, cleaned them & then just painted them with the semi-gloss.)

We added inexpensive nickel drawers pulls and knobs from Home Depot:

Now remember my appliance disasters??!! Well, the dishwasher from the Stone Age is back to being painted the same color as the cabinets. I used the exact same seim-gloss paint and did no prep for it. (I really recommend this if you have no money for new appliances... it just sort of recedes & your eyes doesn't really catch it at all..) It's nothing pretty to look at for sure, but it's better than the beige it was originally.

And thanks to you all I LOVE my fridge painted in chalkboard paint!!! I never would have thought of that on my own & after so many of you suggested it to me during the appliance diaster, I gave it a shot & I just love it!!!

It's a great spot for "to do" lists & pictures and the black works with the counters & shelf hardware. And, as you can see, Christian really loves it too:

I found the chandelier on the first flea market tour we took with Eddie & Jaithan. I debated & debated about buying it but walked away & Eddie offered to pick it up for me & mail it if I changed my mind. Well, a week or so later, I decided to go for it & Eddie & Jaithan were sweet enough to go back & buy it & mail it to us. Originally it was going to be for my dad's house but when we moved into our new place I knew the kitchen would be perfect for it! (I still have intentions of adding pretty wax drips on it but that's another day.)

As I've said before, I love having my shelves open: it makes my life easier. I can see everything at a glance & things are so easy to put away & grab.

People have asked me about dust and we use almost everything up there all the time so it's not an issue, but for the occassional cake stand or seldom-used bowl, I simply rinse them out before using & it's honestly no big deal. And I love all of the things that I have up on the shelves that I've been given & have collected over the past few years. This way I get to see them all:

Everything on the shelves is either white, cream or silver. (usually aluminum or stainless) and I love the combination.

I've shown you this before but it's my Grandma Maestranzi's colander:

thrift-store bust I painted white:

And I had to take a pic of the cakestand full of gorgeous cupcakes that my friends made for our Halloween party this weekend: yum yum!!

And you know how much soup we eat in this house so I just hung the silver ladle right on the wall between two nails next to the stove for easy-access:

And I also wanted to explain my decision on the black $3 Home Depot shelf brackets I chose for the shleving. I had received a comment or 2-- my dad being one of them :)--- in a previous post suggesting switching out my cheapie Home Depot brackets with pretty wooden brackets. And also to add moulding to the shelves & walls. And I do think that would be a beautiful kitchen, but my house is very simple & contemporary & clean-lined. As much as I love ornate woodwork, there's not really a place for it in my home. Antiques work, but I tend to go for clean-lined ones such as Gustavian or Shaker... I want to stay true to the architecture of the house & while we've made lots of changes, simple & straight is where I want things to be in this kitchen, so I'm actually really happy with them:

Below are a couple of other views of the kitchen 'before':

We turned the little lost counter into a bar area by adding these wine racks from Pottery Barn and stocking the cabinets below with drinkware & drinks:

The pic below makes me laugh because there's so much empty space in our wine racks. ahhahaha With me being pregnant, we're not really buying much wine so it'll be empty a bit longer:

Here's a bunch of our pretty wedding gifts that I love seeing displayed. People (the moms) used to be paranoid about us having our Waterford crystal out and bumpable & breakable, but to me it's one of those things that you just have to use & so what if some break?

We covered the doorway to our pantry with dropcloth curtains & it's great for hiding the organized mess that lives in there:

I found the plates at Lucketts! shocker. (but they work so well with my wallpaper!! :)

Here's our little breakfast nook before:

And here is is now: wallpapered with a vintage saarinen reproduction table, thrift-store found Swedish chairs, smith + noble bamboo shades, and a chalkboard (oh yeah & Target booster seat! ;)--

We really love it & eat most meals here. I used a pair of Murray Feiss crystal sconces from our old house & painted them black so they'd work here... We so needed them to add some light to the space for nighttime meals. I got the wallpaper for a steal but unfortunately it's been discontinued. :( (I wanted more but oh well.)

Originally this was "the" chalkboard in our kitchen. (below) We probably seem chalkboard-crazed because now the fridge is also a chalkboard, but my originally intentions were to have one place for menus. I got these topiaries & am adding lots more rosemary into my meals lately because it's right there for the picking. One of the topiaries is fake.. (hee hee hee I know how bad fake plants are but it's a pretty good fake & seems to fool people since two of them are real.) So far the topiaries are still alive and I am so proud of myself!!!

As you can see, there are still a few things that will need to be upgraded some day, but for now I have the look & the feeling I wanted in my kitchen: it's both light & airy & a little cozy... It's a mix of old & new, food prep & clean-up are a breeze, and it's one of my favorite places to be in our house. (It also makes me want to add wallpaper to other rooms now!! :) Hope you enjoyed my too-many-photos-and-words tour!! ;)

xoxo,

lauren

The Ghosts of Halloween Past: Advertising Mascots

Every year we have a crazy adult (if you can call us "adults") Halloween party with a theme. We usually start at our house & then get a limo out into Georgetown where the streets are mobbed with costumed-people. I just LOVE IT!!!! (This year, being pregnant, I just wasn't up for the crazy night out, so we had a fun kiddie one instead.) But, I thought I'd share with you one of our past themes: advertising mascots. The first one up is the Sunmaid Raisin Girl:

The box of raisins inspired the whole party. I've always thought my friend Lindsey looks like the Sunmaid Raisin girl & would always suggest she dress up as her for Halloween. Then, I thought of all the other advertising logos & how my other friends could dress up as them. Here's Lindsey, aka "The Sunmaid Raisin" girl in her costume I made from Goodwill finds. (The bonnet is the sleeve of a red button-down shirt and her corsette is from a suit.)



And next is Chiquita Banana:Marcela's costume is AMAZING. She paper mache'd the basket on her head & meticulously glued all the fruit down. She was such a trooper & it stayed on all night!!!! I made her dress out of cheap t-shirts from Michael's:



And here's our Chiquita's husband, Juan Valdez:



Billy, AKA "Juan Valdez" actually made his entrance to the party by knocking on the window and handing in a cup of coffee... It was perfect!!! The mustache got a bit crooked as the night went on & Billy is just hysterical:

And who can forget the Land O Lakes Butter Girl?
Mo was adorable!!!

And even though she's underage, we decided to let the Morton salt Girl join the party.

Erin was perfect! Check out that little mary-jane-clad foot kicked up just like the real Morton Salt Girl:

And we can't have a party without the beer! (ok, we totally can, but let's just pretend! ;)

Here I am as the St.Paulie Girl with a costume made from Goodwill finds:

(I'd originally tried making a "Chicken of the Sea" costume but it was just way too hard to walk around in!) And of course my husband, Sam Adams, was there to help host:

Here he is posing with his friend The Quaker Oats Guy (married to the Morton Salt Girl- what an age gap!! shocking!! ;):

There were a few more gusts I don't have pictures of .. argggg.. Anyway, we've had lots more of these crazy parties & I'll share some more next year. I can't tell you enough how much fun I have on Halloween. We usually start planning in September and my best friends & their husbands come in from out of state. Everyone stresses like crazy about not "having a costume" and in the end they always look awesome. I'm so lucky to have friends who will go along with my silly plans & I love them for it.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

xoxo,

lauren

ps- the hanging scarecrow wasn't visible at night so no one noticed it (phew! ;) and the kids loved the ghost & taking pictures with him.

I hope it's not Too Creepy...

I still haven't set up all the indoor & food pretties & don't know if I'll have the time to take pics so I thought I'd post a quick peek of our outdoor "spookies" as Christian calls them. We have a big tall ghost (made from those plastic cheapie table cloths) who isn't so scary and a hanging scarecrow who looks pretty real & has been freaking me out all day in our back yard. (He's in the background of the pic above too.):

My poor next door neighbor called me this morning asking if I was trying to give her a heart attack!!! oops!! Anyway, hope the toddler moms aren't too weirded out.
Have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!! :)

mu-hu-hahahahahahaha,

lauren

A Crazy Lady on Halloween

So it's around 5 am and I've been up not being able to sleep for a couple of hours--- not sure if it's the pregnancy, the cold, or the fact that sometimes I just can't shut my brain off. But anyway, here I am up & thinking about all that needs to be done realizing it just can't happen!

I finally gave up pretending I was going to go back to sleep and started some work but I had to drop a quick post in to say I won't be able to post my kitchen today. I'm sorry & don't mean to dangle a good "before & after," I just simply can't get it all done. I had so many plans for this Halloween too!! I'm returning the fabric I bought for Christian's Max (from Where the Wild Things Are) and he's now going as a store-bought "honey bear"- as he says. The package said "honey bear" on it and I guess one of us read it out loud and now he's not just a "bear" anymore.) I've bitten off more than I can chew lately and have decided that some things just won't get done. hahah like this: (Southern Living)

I also wanted to do the ghost ring that so many of you gave me ideas on.. but when I saw the price on the styrofoam balls ($13 each!!!) I gave up on that... We have one spooky ghost now in my woods and I will post photos of our Halloween party prep later today or tomrorow. (If we can get it all done..) We also hung a very scary man/ scarecrow guy in a tree back in our woods and he looks really life-like so I'm hoping the cops don't show up to investigate. (And that my mommy friends don't get too weirded out.)

I'll be back as soon as I can to post Halloween party pics. It's going to be one of those days where we will be simply giving up at some point because there's no possible way to get all that I have planned done in time. ah vell!! I will have a nice cold rootbeer to celebrate my favorite holiday:

THAT I can handle ;)

xoxo,

lauren

A Workspace to Love: Nate Berkus

I could spend hours on the Nate Berkus website. Hours. His spaces are incredible: natural and clean often with a hit of some great graphic pattern. Lots of great sculptural pieces. He's one of my FAVORITES & "DESIGN GREAT" to me!!



In this space I'm loving:


-The chrome Chippendale Chair. Found a pair here :

-The sawhorse glass top worktable: (Check out Copy Cat Chic for some great readily available options)

-The Rug: (haha how small is that image?! I'm no computer whiz!) Of course we know how great & affordable Dash & Abert's Rugs are:

-The raw concrete (I think?) walls. Check out Nelya's basement redo here and her concrete wall: (Photo taken by Nelya at Head Over Heels)

And in the end I'm also just crazy over the styling of the "messy" desk. (My desk never looks this good when it's messy.) The tulips are the bow on top of everything. I love what greenery or fresh flowers do for a space:

Have a great day & I'll be posting our finally-finished-kitchen today or tomorrow!!! (it's pretty gloomy out so pics might be rough! ;)

xoxo,

lauren

Pronunciation of Design Terms

Have you ever come to a point when you are about to say a word out loud & realize that you've never actually spoken it before & are unsure of the pronunciation? You've read it a thousand time & know its definintion but are now embarrassed to say it?

I think this happens a lot to book worms (myself included) who've been reading a word for years & have never looked up its pronunciation. Being mostly self-taught, when I first started out in this field a couple of years ago, I realized there were lots of design terms that fell into this category. (And I'm sure I'll run into more.) I thought I'd share a few that I hear pronouced differently all the time and others that rarely get spoken out loud. I looked them up to get non-biased pronunciations:

Damask: "damn-esk" (with the emphasis on the first syllable)

Jacquard: "Jack-ard" (with emphasis on the first syllable)

Ikat: "ee-kot"

Chinoiserie: "Sheen-waz-er-ee" (image from here)

Patina: "pa-tee-na" or "pa-tin-a"

Grisaille: "griz-ai" (pronounced just like "Versailles") Click here to read a previous post on them.

Etagere: "Ay-taj-eir" (with "taj" pronounced like the "taj" in "Taj Mahal") (image from here)

Klismos: "kliz-moss"

And finally, a name I hear pronounced every which way to Sunday is "Vicente Wolf." Now I'm not sure exactly how he pronounces his name himself, but looking up the pronunciation of "Vicente" you get "Vee-sent-ee"... we might have to "ask Vicente!"

I'm sure a lot of you have probably known these terms for years but maybe some of you, like me, are newer to the design world or had just never spoken the words out loud. (I mean honestly, how many times does the word "grisaille" come up in causal conversation?!) I think it's important for us all to be okay asking questions and to be okay admitting we don't know it all. You learn so much more once you've realized how much you have yet to learn.

xoxo,

lauren

ps- I know I've forgotten a bunch so if there are any more of these words that we hear pronouced lots of diffferent ways or anything you're just unsure of, be sure to mention it in the comments section! I'll post them below! :)

Matelasse: "Maht-luh-sey"