Articles with kitchen

Construction days 93-95: H to the O

We’ve got water in the kitchen, yo. That makes me very, very, VERY happy.

Neat. Actually, the majority of my happiness comes from the fact that the faucet works perfectly well. We picked it up at the same time when we got our ceiling tin tiles from the Brass Knob Warehouse going-out-of-business sale two years ago. (That place was such a gem, none of the other vintage house parts dealers ever quite have the selection of the artifacts that they did.)… Read the rest

Trying on colors and textures

For every renovation project there are really fun and exciting bits (typically involves day dreams of all sorts and potentially shopping – as long as you don’t think about the prices too hard) and the not-so-exciting, one might even say boring or challenging stuff (along the lines of stripping layers of paint). ‘Trying on’ different colors, textures, shapes and sizes definitely falls into the former category ( for the most part) though it has also proven to be a challenging undertaking.… Read the rest

Construction days 89-92

Well I guess since I let the cat out of the bag yesterday, its time to show off our bench.Here it is, in all its half finished glory. The bench box needs reinforcements for the seat – otherwise it has a slight u-shape to it, which I am sure will not be helped with actual sitting on it. It is visible ever so sightly in this picture.

The pillows are there for testing (not styling – though they do look good) purposes.… Read the rest

Color Decisions

This a single color at a time thing might be becoming a pattern. I never noticed that about myself. I have been thinking about the comment that my friend made about the color of the bathtub, which I have yet to finalize (thank you to everyone who voted!). I was thinking of mainly darker colors, but Adrienne suggested a soft baby blue. Hmm, with the dark ceiling in the bathroom and very masculine/ graphic feel of the space, that might be just the right touch.… Read the rest

Construction days 87-88

Think we will get to 100 days of construction? That’s very plausible. Anyway, we are moving right along, and its almost as exciting as the very beginning of this whole thing (we are just more tired, so emotions are dulled). But seriously, this thing is coming together and we likey!

I know, this looks like a mess – and no the counter is not staying on top the island. But to me, its a beautiful mess.… Read the rest

Construction days 83-86 – custom work edition

We are making progress on the west side of the kitchen, which will house our fridge ensconced in a frame with a cabinet on top – for uniform height purposes, custom built open shelves above a base cabinet, a custom built bench sitting area for the island, and finally a pantry unit – produced by IKEA, assembled by yours truly (with some help). Somewhat like so, although the fridge and shelf cabinet have since switched places, since we were able to move a duct that was taking up space in that back corner.… Read the rest

How to: Stain Butcher Block with Black Ink

So apparently my choice of colors for the house is a) monochromatic and b) goes in phases. I am in what Sergey calls a “black phase” which follows a “white phase.”

When the kitchen renovation started, Sergey was shocked and appalled at the idea of everything being white: cabinets? white, tin ceiling? – white!, what even the floor?? – yep, white (though featuring black rosettes and black grout.) Oh and yea about the exposed brick…also white.… Read the rest

How to: Reclaimed Wood Counter (part II)

This past weekend was all about house time for us, in large part because we have plans for every single weekend in October save for one. Life – it gets in a way of house stuff (or is it the other way around?) The big accomplishment was leveling out and putting the finishing touches on our reclaimed wood island counter.

Over the two prior weekends we had selected, prepped and put together the reclaimed wood for our island counter top.… Read the rest

Construction days: 77-82

And we are back to our normal pace. There’s lots of small (time consuming) things which are getting done around here. As you might have noticed we aren’t really putting time estimates on this thing anymore – it gets done when it gets done. the more important part – it looks good. Anywho – we officially have a kitchen counter:

There are two light boxes by the walls which are masking a little problem that we have — the brick surface is uneven, which means that there is a larg-ish crack between the wall and the counter.… Read the rest

Weekend Warriors

In between our awesome trips, hanging out and hosting- through the entire renovation process, really – friends and family, we continue working on our end of the renovation process. This entails mainly thankless tasks that are hard to get wrong – demolishing, stripping old paint, priming and painting, and of course endless of hours of research of how tos (plaster) and best products ( kitchen hardware has been the bane of my existence).… Read the rest