Tag: Kitchen

White Walls? Paint the Cabinets?

I’ve been thinking more about the kitchen and bathroom. All of you seem to be leaning toward dark or mid-gray walls, where I’m looking at it and thinking I want to go with white. So I was trying to figure out why I’m so drawn to the idea, when I’ve never been known to paint a room white before. Would it look cold? Sterile?

I’ve been toying with the idea of painting the cabinets a color for a long time now, but I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it other than on Twitter.

I think my kitchen cabinets want to be painted. They’re just sitting there, all plain and vanilla. They want to be colorful! I can tell.

— Nicole Balch (@makingitlovely) August 29, 2011

So here’s what I’m thinking. The kitchen is keeping its stainless steel appliances (though how I wish for a colorful fridge!), white subway tile, white trim, wood floors, and upper white cabinets. The walls would be painted white (or almost white), and the bottom cabinets would be painted a color pulled from the new curtain fabric. The bathroom keeps its hundred-year-old hex tile (damaged as it may be) for now. The sink is unchanged, the toilet seat gets swapped out for a black one, and the pedestal tub probably goes black too. The new black and white polka dot shower curtain is a cutie and makes me happy, so that’s staying, and I think the metallic stool stays as well. The walls get painted the same color as the lower cabinets in the kitchen for continuity, or maybe a shade that is similar but not exactly matching. I need to finish painting the wooden doors to the kitchen and bathroom white too, and put a coat of colorful paint on the wooden step stool. Make sense?

You know, like this.

photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

What do you think — can you see it? Still see dark walls as the better way to go?

January 3, 2013
Playing with Paint Colors

I write for My Colortopia, and they’ve just launched a new online tool: Color My Room. You can upload your own photo, or choose from one of theirs, and play around with paint colors.

There are palettes, suggested by me and my fellow bloggers, but you can also create your own. It amused me to be getting color advice from myself (hello, self!), so of course I selected one of mine. I chose my neutral bedroom Glidden palette of Silver Birch, Wild Truffle, Shaded Ice, Ground Nutmeg, and Driftwood Gray, but decided to try them in a kitchen. Because I’m still stuck on a color for the kitchen.

I chose one of their gallery photos instead of my own because it was the easier, faster option, and it was a good match for my white trim, cabinets, and tile. Let’s be honest — it was also a much prettier picture than mine. I like the lightness of Silver Birch, but Wild Truffle and Driftwood Gray are appealing too. I’m leaning toward a neutral paint color? What is this world coming to?

I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

January 3, 2013
Put the Kitchen Door to Work
This post is sponsored by Method.

Here’s a little storage trick that works for us. I added hooks to the back of our kitchen door to keep all of our bibs, reusable shopping bags, and a couple of aprons. We also keep one tote there to act as a laundry bag for the bibs and dish towels that need to be washed. We almost always keep the door to the kitchen open, which means the side with the hooks is up against the wall. Everything is accessible, but we don’t have to see it all the time.
1. Series One Peg Rail
  So minimal and lovely! So not like the hooks I actually have!
2. Cotton Canvas Tote
  We keep one large tote to store dirty bibs and dish towels until laundry day. Ours is a grocery store bag that’s not nearly as pretty as this one.
3. Reusable Shopping Bag
  I keep a few reusable bags in my purse at all times, and store the extras in a pouch on a hook. I like the ones from Envirosax and Baggu.
4. Woodland Tumble Embroidered Bib
  Bibs are still handy for the kids when we’re having a messy meal.
5. Dryer-Activated Fabric Softener
  We used to use dryer sheets, but I was pretty excited when Method sent over some of their new softener. It’s good stuff (but we do keep this in the laundry room, not the kitchen!).
6. Kitchen Apron
  I’m kind of over cutesy aprons, but I love this simple one. Works for men and women.
Of course, that was the magazine-perfect fantasy version. Since owning a single beautiful bib isn’t actually practical, our door really looks like this.

(Trivia: That shabby chic bird hook was the first thing I ever bought from eBay.)
September 27, 2012
Show Your Colors

My latest post for My Colortopia was all about my kitchen. It has been yellow for five years, and I’m thinking it’s about time for a change. I mean, I don’t stand on the countertops and take weird photos for nothing!

The room does look ages better than it did when we first moved in; I’ll give it that. Behold the before shot.

Right. So then Brandon and I redid the whole thing, and it looked like this.

And it still looks like that today, except with white trim. So now that I have new fabric in mind for the curtains, I’m trying to choose a new wall color.

I (like you, I’m guessing) love before and after shots. Over at My Colortopia, there’s a new Show Your Colors section featuring tons of them from their readers. I like seeing what real people have done to their homes (and imagining what I would do if I was the person that lived there).

If you have any painting projects that you’re proud of, you can share your before and after photos too. You can get a feel for how it works with the widget in this post.

Now, as for my kitchen? I’m thinking green. But that could change tomorrow.

I have been sponsored by Glidden® brand paint to write this post but the thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

September 26, 2012
Deciding on New Kitchen Curtains

I now present to you a series of awkward photos in which I stand on my countertops, holding up fabric to the window in approximation of curtains. Ready?

(the photo backdrop)

(the tablecloth)

That’s a photo backdrop and a tablecloth, both by Rifle Paper Co. for BHLDN. I bought them to use in a baby shower theme photo shoot, and as I was falling asleep the other night, I realized they would make awesome kitchen curtains.

The backdrop’s pattern is larger and I thought it might be too overwhelming, but now I think I like it better. Which is good, because the tablecloth is no longer available and it was going to break my heart a little to cut the fabric up. (I’d been searching eBay for another, but no luck.) Which one do you prefer? Wait, don’t answer yet… there’s more.
(more…)

September 19, 2012
It’s Alive!

Huzzah, I’ve managed to check off another of my Lovely Life List items.

The dinosaur planter in the windowsill is new, but the rest of the succulents had been hanging out for a while. I thought, ‘hmmm, these have maybe been alive for a year now, right?’ I scrolled back through the archives to check. A year and a half! Boom.

So I’ve replanted them, and they’ll probably die now because I don’t know what I’m doing and didn’t look up instructions. Armed with the vague knowledge that succulents will reroot, I snipped them all down and plunked them in some citrus/cactus soil. If they don’t make it, I’m not too worried. They were getting overgrown and gangly, and they’ll cost all of $3 to replace if need be. For now, they look cute and I had a project to work on with the kids.

And hey, I no longer think of myself as someone with a black thumb! Maybe it’s not fully green, but I can at least remember to water some plants and put them in the right lighting conditions.

September 18, 2012