Cottage Kitchens

It's no secret that I love kitchens.  I spend a good chunk of every day in my kitchen, and though I may be a bit tight fisted, I opened up the wallet to completely renovate our kitchen.  Here's a sort of after pic.  I really need to take some new kitchen pictures.  This was taken before building the DIY Cookbook Shelves.

Over the years, even after my kitchen reno, I've spent a lot of time over on the GardenWeb Kitchen Forum and there is no better moment of relaxation than flipping through a Kitchen Trends magazine while sipping on a venti coffee.  The official term is TKO - totally kitchen obsessed.  Though I love my cherry cabinets, lately I've been obsessing over the details of white-painted cottage kitchens.  I adore the exposed hinges on these and used similar ones when we built our wine & liquor hutch.

My in-laws have started the ball rolling on their future retirement cottage.  They'll be adding onto the current cottage for a year round home, and the possibilities have gotten this TKO daughter-in-law really excited.  I may or may not have inundated their e-mail inbox with 1001 layouts and elevations of possible future kitchens.

I love the mantel hood and the butcherblock island countertops as well as the soapstone counters in this pic.

Image via here.

 Stacked glass front cabs say cottage to me, and I love the practicality of the solid upper stack for the not so pretty utilitarian stuff.  Does anyone need to see your Halloween bowls in April?  Love the thumblatch hardware, too, though they may not be the most practical hardware for an aging in place situation.

Stacked cabs can add up moneywise, and here's a nice solution for a softer hit on the wallet.  A wider stile at the top emulates that stacked cab look without the hefty price tag.

I'm not loving the proportions of these stacked cabs, but I adore the bleached wood enveloping the island.  You'll notice that I wrapped the island in my CAD rendering above in knotty pine.  Part of the cottage will be demo-ed to make way for the addition, and they'll be saving as much of the knotty pine as possible to be reused.

I love the look of a farmhouse apron sink, especially in a cottage.  This Ikea Domsjo sink is an affordable option for those on a budget.

I love the natural touches with the rattan baskets, and the pops of fun color with the yellow and turquoise in this kitchen reno found at The Handmade Home blog.  My in-laws are experienced DIYers with 2 kitchens under their belts, and I can see them putting in fun personal touches like in this kitchen.



Love the open shelves, blue island, and industrial lights in this pic.  In fact I love the juxtaposition of modern with vintage in a cottage kitchen whether it's lighting, stools, or a fab turbochef oven.

Love the casual feel of this kitchen, even with the great big hulking stainless steel range and hood.  There are no plans for a kitchen table, but don't you love how this table looks with it's flirty skirted chairs surrounding it?  Love the homey feel of the pleated shades, too.

 Love the classic blue and white of this Smallbone kitchen, but with a creamy white Aga range, this kitchen could do no wrong.  I love the large format floor tiles, too.

And finally here's a gorgeous Lauren Rubenstein kitchen that I'm loving for future cottage inspiration.  The architect's plans have the kitchen opening up to the dining room much like in this pic.  I love the wing back chairs and benches used here.  The future cottage's dining room will be much longer and rectangular as will it's table, and there will be a large 7' aisle way between, but I love the way the rooms relate to each other in this pic.  Again, the lamps and pleated shades make this space so warm and homey.

Thanks for popping in and checking out my current kitchen obsession.

Things I'm Liking & a Quick Question

I thought I'd share a couple of things that I'm liking right now.  Plus please, please, please answer the question at the end, even if you don't normally leave comments.  I need help deciding.

I was at Lowe's the other day, and  I saw this allen + roth drum shade ceiling fan.

This looks like it could help to solve the divisive ceiling fan or not question.  Every time the subject of ceiling fans come up on the GardenWeb Home Dec forums, the sides are vocal and mostly divided along north/south lines.  Northeners tend to be adamant that ceiling fans are ugly and must be taken out at every opportunity, and southerners tend to say - it's hot down here, ugly be darned.  Now this pretty little ceiling fan isn't going to solve every fan dilemma, because of it's size.  It's probably only suited for bedrooms, but I'm liking it.

Another thing I'm really digging on right now are the fun, flirty dresses at Shabby Apple.  I know they've been everywhere in blogland lately with giveaways, but this isn't a giveaway, and they're not sponsoring this plug.  I just like them.

I love the cool breeziness of a dress for spring & summer, and they're buttoned up and ladylike enough to not embarass Whirling Dervish.  WD is a teenager who doesn't want his mom to be seen in shorty shorts, no matter how good my legs are or how hot it is out.

So on to the question that you can hopefully give me some guidance on.  I'm a fairly new blogger, and I know a lot of my readers are, too.  I've been DIYing, crafting, and creating forever as I'm sure you all have been, too.  So I was thinking about holding a linkup party called Flashback Fridays or Throwback Thursdays or something like that where we could post an old project with a description, and link up to see some of the projects that we're proud of that haven't seen the light of day on our blogs.  What do you think?  I'd love to hear if it's something you'd be interested in linking up to.  And what about the name?  Frequency? Once a month, or twice a month?  Preferred linkup service?  I wanted to make this a poll so you could just click on the answers, but I don't know how to do that and Computer Genius is still sleeping.

Thanks for popping in and checking out what I'm liking.  And a super big thanks in advance to anyone who answers the call for help deciding.

Let There Be Light

I'd been searching for the perfect light fixture for my foyer closet for quite some time.  Everything that struck my fancy cost way too much for me to stomach.  So I decided to DIY a fixture.  I looked around for inspiration, and saw this adorable lamp used in Simone's girl's room on Episode 6 of this season's Sarah 101.

It was perfect.  Whimsical & fun & completely practical, because letting light through trumps any other consideration in a closet.  Here's how I set about making my own.  Remember this sneak peek I gave you a couple of weeks ago?

Marianne at Vintage Gal guessed right.  These were supplies for a light.  I think the electrical tape gave it away.  You won't see any closeups of the actual wiring, because I'm not an electrician and I don't want to be liable if you burn your house down.

I've had this wire basket for ages.  It's been sitting in the back of one of my closets for at least a few years.  This project was the perfect way to give it new life.  I brushed on some turquoise paint.  I wasn't real careful with it, because I wanted it to look a bit weathered.

I used heavy wire cutters to cut out the bottom of the basket for the light fixture.

I pulled down the existing bare bulb light fixture, and primed and painted it as well as a 6 1/2 inch wood plaque that I picked up at A.C. Moore for $1.25.  I then marked where to drill holes for the screws,

and drilled through where I marked.

I used a 2 1/4" hole saw to cut a hole in the middle for the wiring.  Disclaimer:  I'm not an electrician, and wood should probably be lined with metal or not used at all this close to wiring.

Here's proof that I'm not a professional.  I accidentally let go of the wood while pulling the hole saw out and the wood spinning at a gazillion rpm slammed into my bare legs and gashed both of them.  It's a good thing Whirling Dervish was taking pictures, not video, because there was some swearing(from him) as I reassured him that everything was fine.  He said I was crazy and he was done taking pics.

Ignore the unshaven alligatory state of my legs.  Everything really was fine, and it didn't hurt at all, although this morning when the hot water hit my legs, they were on fiyah.

I used a 2 part epoxy to attach the basket to the wood plaque.  Epoxy will hold stronger than any glue so there's no risk of this basket falling off and clocking an unsuspecting guest.  If you've never used epoxy, you squeeze out the same amt of each part, and mix it together.  Mixing the 2 parts together creates a thermogenic chemical reaction which will quickly harden to a nearly unbreakable bond.  So you should only mix up small amounts and work fast.  No pictures of the mixing or applying, because I had to work fast, and my picture taker decided hanging around me was to risky.

Before it was just a bare bulb.  I had to run out and get longer screws to make up for the added depth of the base, but here's the after.  Not bad for less than $3.

And just keeping it real, here's the scary before of the closet.  You couldn't even step in without stepping on shoes.

And the pretty after.  Check out the fabric wallpaper, and covered shoe boxes here.

Underneath all those shoe racks are my boots.  I love my wellies.  Could there be any better boots for me than Pink ones covered in shoes?  If you're wondering how the tall ones stand up, I roll old magazines and tuck them inside.

Thanks for popping in and DIYing with me.  I'm linking this up to Nester's Risk Day Party, Just a Girl's Show & Share Day, and Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Party and the parties below.

Updating with Pillows

It's official - it's a snow day from school.  They started with a 2 hr delay, but the mix of sleet and snow is just too much and they've canceled school for the day.  I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating:  This has been a ridiculously long winter.  Long winters have me looking for spring, which means updating the inside of the house for a bit of flowers and sunshine.  Remember the lemon fabric I used to make that fun, girly apron?  I used some of it to make a pillow cover to dress up our living room sofa.

I just made a simple pillow cover like I showed you with this reindeer pillow tutorial.  I like making pillow covers vs pillows, because they store easier flat and can be rotated while keeping the pillow inserts out.  Plus you only have the expense of one set of inserts and I'm cheap frugal.

That wasn't quite enough spring for my sofa, so I looked around for some inspiration.  I've been seeing floral embellished cushions everywhere like this one from Pier 1.

Not one to spend $39.95 on a pillow, I made one from some satin in my fabric stash.  I made a whole bunch of the fabric roses that I showed you how to make here and attached them to another pillow cover with the tails left from stitching the roses together.

Here's the sofa before.

And After.

Thanks for popping in and sewing with me.  I'm linking this up with Just a Girl's Show and Share Day, and Domestically Speaking's Countdown to Spring Party.