Room of the Week

Design inspiration from the world wide web. This week: the dining room:

*Photo from Elle Decor

The List

Since we've decided not to hire a general contractor to oversee our kitchen renovation, we're trying to line up and bid out all of our vendors on our own. We are making some progess, though. Here's the list of things we need to figure out before we start demoing:

Decide on our new kitchen layout--I think we're almost there. An IKEA kitchen designer came out this week and made a few suggestions about the plan we had created in the IKEA software.

Decide on the style/maker of our cabinets--We decided that we are going with the IKEA ADEL cabinets in medium brown. We're also going with a company that IKEA works with regularly for the installation.

Choose an electrician--We had a couple of electricians give us estimates over the past couple weeks and we're pretty sure we found the company we're going to work with. We're planning on rewiring the kitchen to fit our new layout, installing can lighting in the kitchen, and replacing the two breaker boxes for the house. Cause they're old. And a fire hazard. And they are some things in them that are way against code. Way to go, previous owners.

Choose someone to renovate the terrazzo flooring in the kitchen--We decided that, instead of putting down new flooring, we'd just shine the terrazzo that's already in the kitchen. I actually found someone to do this last summer when we were thinking about restoring all the terrazzo in the house. We're only going to do the kitchen right now, though--200 bucks to do the whole kitchen. Not bad.

Choose someone to drywall/reframe the parts of the kitchen wall we're taking out--Still trying to decided on this.

Choose a plumber--The plumbing we're doing isn't that major: we're moving the dishwasher and we need to install shut-off valves under the sink before we start taking the kitchen apart. Still trying to decide on this.

Those are the biggies. I'm hoping we can start demoing by the end of April. And we need to order our cabinets by May 1st--that's when the great 20% discount goes away at IKEA!

Room of the Week

Design inspiration from the world wide web. This week: the bedroom.

*Photo from: Southern Living

Front Yard Facelift, Part II

I made some progress with my front yard project this weekend.

I put down some weed barrier and started planting the shrubs (one row of japanese boxwood and a smaller row of loropetalum) I still need to make another Lowe's run and get a few more plants, but it's lookin' pretty good, I think.

Front Yard Facelift

So the bed directly in front of our front porch had some roses in it that I desperately tried to maintain (they were here when we moved in). I pruned, I weeded, I gave 'em love but I guess I just didn't have the green touch 'cause they eventually just ended up looking spindly and kind of blah. I recently entered such a malaise with that part of the yard that I just kind of gave up on it--sorry, roses.

Then I got so tired of looking at it that I finally took action (grrrr). I figured it was time to start over. Hey, new owners, new greenery. So I gutted the bed over the last couple days.

I'm going to plant some nice, easy-to-maintain hedges this weekend. I'll post some more pictures when it's all done.

Room of the Week

A little design inspiration from the world wide web. This week: the living room.

 Love how they painted the backs of the built-ins.

* Photo from: Elle Decor.com

Ikea Fiedltrip

So the biggest structural thing we're planning on doing with the kitchen is opening up the wall between the kitchen and the living room. See the wall with the TV on it? Picture that as a half wall with a bar. We'd also be removing that white built-in bookcase to open up the corner between the kitchen and the dining room.

So, uh, got that? It's ok if you don't, because thanks to some handy-dandy Ikea kitchen planning software you can see it for yourself!

Ikea, you say? Well, we were actually supposed to have an appointment with a contractor on Saturday to get an estimate for the drywalling/reframing work, but the appointment fell through. Well, we thought, what other projects can we get done today? Enter the Ikea fieldtrip.

After we got one bid on cabinets a couple weeks ago, we came home and did more research. Turns out, according to Consumer Reports, the Diamond cabinets we were considering rate only a little better in quality than Ikea cabinets (out of 14 basic and premium cabinet brands they tested, Diamond came in at #3 and Ikea came in at #4). And Ikea cabinets are about half the price. And Ikea is running a 20%-off-your-entire-kitchen special right now (when you buy three appliances with them). It was starting to sound a little too good to pass up...

So we went on a little Ikea fieldtrip, played around with their model kitchens, and got some great ideas.

Those would be the cabinets we'd purchase if we go with Ikea. 

Then we made an appointment for an Ikea kitchen planner to come out to our house to make sure the options we chose will work in our space. Robert rocks the Ikea planning software, by the way. We'll keep you posted on all the cabinet selection fun.

Kitchen Inspiration

Since it might be a little while before we see the kitchen in its full, completed glory, I thought I'd give you at least an idea of the look we're going for. So here's a little mood board that shows the colors and materials that are speaking to us (that pendant light is particularly speaking to me, by the way):

We're thinking shaker style cabinets in medium brown, gray Corian countertops, and a subway tile backsplash (maybe in white). I'd also like to add a pop of green somewhere, perhaps by incorporating a green tile border into the backsplash. Some modern accessories--like this pendant light and barstool--would finish off the look. The overall effect would be something like this:

Those cabinets in the mood board, by the way, are Ikea's ADEL cabinets. You know how I said earlier that we had kind of written off using Ikea cabinets? Well, we've been reconsidering...more on that later.


* That last photo is from here: Modern-Decors.com

Lost and Found

We've found a number of random things while cleaning out the crevices of our house. While cleaning out the attic we found boxes and boxes of old utility bills, an entire metal bed frame, window blinds, spools of ratty yarn--it was kind of a mess. But Robert found the coolest thing by far when he was demoing some shelves in the laundry room off the carport. These:

They're clip art books from the 60s and 70s. There were dozens of them sitting back up on a shelf. I thought they were so cool, I decided to use them as art around the house. I just cut out some pages I liked and framed them in black Ikea RIBBA frames. Here they are framed in the hall bathroom:

What's the coolest (or most random) thing you've found at your house from previous owners?

Cabinets, Booya!

When we first bought the house, we knew we'd do something with the kitchen cabinets--we just didn't know what. We initially thought we'd just sand, repaint, and put new hardware on them. It was definitely the cheapest option and I liked the idea of staying true to the era of the house (the cabinets are straight out of 1957--I'm a sucker for anything midcentury). But as we've lived in the house a little longer, we've realized the kitchen isn't as functional as it could be, e.g., cavernous cabinets that you have to climb through to find stuff, a weird row of super high cabinets that we can't even reach, doors that swing close by themselves because they've settled with the house, no convenient place to put a trash can, etc. We eventually decided to completely start over and put in all new cabinetry (well, Robert really made the decision a while ago and I came around in agreement). That way, we could  implement a new, more functional layout and maximize storage space in our small kitchen.

So we started saving up and shopping around. We considered going the Ikea route at first. The price was definitely right and we liked the clean, modern look of the cabinetry. But we also started thinking about how long we're going to be in the house (we project a very, very long time) and worried that perhaps Ikea particle board wouldn't hold up over the next 30 years. So on to the next plan: finding all-wood cabinets that looked stylish and wouldn't break the bank.

We had kind of put the whole cabinetry thing on hold when we were out one day with my mom looking at tile at a local flooring/tile wholesaler (mom was trying to find tile for a bathroom remodel she's in the middle of and we thought we'd go along for some ideas/inspiration). And, wouldn't you know it, we found out they also carry lines of cabinetry and have a kitchen designer on staff who will sit down with you for a free consultation. Sweet. So we made an appointment with the kitchen designer and went home to take detailed measurements of our kitchen.

We sat down with Lori, the kitchen designer, a couple weekends later and hashed out a layout. She used this neat computer program that brings up the "new" kitchen on a computer screen as you design it. So existing kitchen looks like this:

But magic-happy-kitchen-of-the-future looks like this:

We thought it was pretty sexy. Then Lori added the whole thing up (Robert was so nervous about the big number that he literally held my hand as she did it). It wasn't insane but we kind of hemmed and hawed over it. Then Lori remembered another style of cabinetry by the same maker that had a slightly different look but was a bit lower in cost. She reworked the numbers and it came out to: $6800 (which also includes home delivery). That's probably about 3K more than Ikea would have cost, but we decided, hey, do it once, do it right, and have it last a lifetime.

So this is the style we decided on (not quite in that color--it would be a little darker brown):

We're still playing around with the kitchen layout and trying to decide on some things, but we think these may just be the cabinets for us.