My Biggest Design (or renovation) Mistake So Far

Happy 2010 everyone. Since everyone seems to be looking back at the past year or so, I'm wondering if there's anything you did to your house, either decor or reno related, that you'd change if you had the time and money to do over again. I ask because there are choices that I made that were super duper dumb, and I thought I'd share just in case people were considering making similar decisions. Please email me yours - the criteria is super loose. Just share your "what I know now" knowledge with your fellow homie bloggers. Feel free to create your own post and send me a link, or email me the description and photos and I'll post it for you.


Here's mine: picking wood flooring with a beveled edge for the kitchen floor. Sure, a painted floor DOES look historically accurate. and sure, the beveled edge adds tons of interest. But it also ads a gross ditch to collect dirt and dropped food etc. This ditch always looks dirty despite mopping and vacuuming. To remedy it we will be caulking the ditch to lessen the depression somewhat, and painting the floor a much darker color than the cream it currently is. But if I had it to do over again, I'd chose a smooth surface. This was such a bad choice - and it's funny because I was so adamant about it. I just had to have this floor! So embarrassing.

Here it is unpainted:

And here it is primed:

I have made lots of other silly choices (which I'll post as the week goes on), but this one was the most flat-out frustrating. Please tell me I'm not alone and that you, too have screwed up here and there.
Please?

UPDATE: Here's a great, totally helpful response post from Decorno - one of my very favorite blogers. Thank you so much for this lady!

Kitchen Floor Part Dos

So then over the weekend, Joe and finessed that sum bitch.
This delightful photo shows the Zinzer shellac that I hit all the knots with so they wont bleed through the paint - and the puttying that Joe did to fill all the obvious machine made dings and staple marks.


If I had a dollar for every meal this guy eats sitting down I would have like three dollars a month. Ka-ching!

Yeah, the Kid still has a lot to learn about how to relax. It's true.
But it's on his five year plan, swear to God.
Yep there it is, #127, learn to relax more.
Right after #126 - finish the book Guns Germs and Steel.
(Side note: goals 1 through 100 are pretty much all house related)
So anyway, yeah - then we primered the whole shebang.

More delectable views. Now that it's primered we really see that it needs some distressing and face nailing because it's way way too pristine. But it looks nice, no?

Here it is put back together so we can use it this week.
Bad kitty!

We didn't primer under the stove and the fridge, we have so many other little things to do to the floor before we start the epic paint job - so we kind of want to put off moving everything out of the kitchen until the last possible minute.
I still have camping memories from October when I moved up here and lived off microwavable nastiness for months.
Good times. Good high sodium times.

Ooh that's a bad kitty!
Dunno if you noticed, but I knocked the middle moulding bits off the cabinets. Not only was it very satisfying - it's one less unnecessary dust-collecting ledge in house full of dust collecting crevices. So there's that.

Kitchen Floor Part Uno

So here's what we were up to late last week slash last weekend.
OK the me part of we didn't get super involved until Saturday.
This was really Joe's baby.
That's him and his friend Ryan who came up from Brooklyn to help him lay that mofo.


They started Thursday and Joe finished it by himself the next day. It's white pine, which yes we know is super soft. But what we are going for is an old looking kitchen floor that will blend well with the house around it. We plan to beat it up a little, add some face nails and paint it. If we do it right, it should look fairly authentic.

The obligatory Bernie shot. Please do not call child protective services on us just because he is oh so close to a pneumatic staple gun. Bernie knows his way around power tools. Mkay?

There's Ryan taking a moment to admire his own workmanship. Like they like to do.


Is this not gorgeous? We decided to go with a few different widths to give it some more texture. We will be quieting it all down with paint - so I thought the varying widths would be just enough.

Joe and Bernie taking a nice long look. Like they like to do.
With appliances moved back in. Hey, this is what construction looks like when you are living and working in it. You pretty much have to put the house back together at the end of every night. It's bliss. I'll tell you that right now.
Anyway - there's more to come. Stay tuned.
Oh wait - just for old times sake...

The Murderscene Kitchen. OK so the cabinets still hurt your heart? Mine too, mine too.
Just wait. I swear we will put a salve upon your wound soon enough.
Just be thankful that the frilly curtain complete with rust (ahem blood) spatter is gone.
Not to mention the icky back splash. Baby steps people. Baby steps.

Floor Samples From Hell

So here's the new kitchen floor waiting to be laid.
what is it waiting on you ask?
Well a certain lady is obsessed with acheiving a certain shade of gray floor and has been trying all manner of crazy concoctions.
I, I mean a certain lady, tried ready made stains, home-made stains that involve steel wool and vinegar, rit die (actually got the best results believe it or not)

But many of the grays were baby blue, or lavender, or sea foam... ugh. Anyway, I may be over it. I may just beat the crap out of the wood to age it and then do this whole swedish treatment which involves lye and then this other stuff called white soap... but more on that later.

Joe has never been super into the gray idea so he made me, I mean a certain lady, do some other samples.
If you did your floors in any of these colors please forgive my disses - they just arent what I'm looking for you dig?


ICK (Joe's sample - ok I'll admit it's not really ick, but not what I'm going for)
Yuck (refer to disclaimer above)

Yikes! Feel free to enlarge and shudder.
Why another picture of this one? Barf.

Poop. I had high hopes for this one. no thanks baby blue floor.

These ones were more like paint, and oh ps: still not the ideal shade.
Arg!

Pipes Froze

I wonder if we get a stamp in our upstate passport now or something.
Three huge holes in the already gnarly kitchen floor later and some serious time manning the heat gun and all is well.
Arg.

More Kitchen Inspiration

I'm kind of over wall cabinets, and thinking I won't rehang the ones I took down from our scary ass kitchen. The issue is, all the kitchens with open shelving that look dreamy belong to squeaky clean people who favor monochromatic kitchenware and or food.
That is not moi.
I am very messy (in a cluttery kind of way, not a germy kind of way so calm down). I also tend to purchase colored food. (shrug)
So mine would probably not look so pristine.
Although I will say that I have some gorgeous china which I use every day (yes even in my current construction site slash hovel) which will look nice out in the open.
This picture is of my friend's country house. I know, its redic.
But how great are these simple wooden shelves and brackets?

Here's another one from Apartment therapy. Nice.

Here's another with the same clean wooden brackets that I'm diggin.

Here are a couple nice pass-throughs that like.
here's the super simple clean version...
Three cutting boards? Aye aye aye.

And this one is in another friend's house (sorry red eyed party goers). This is the funky, architectural salvage pass through. I love love love it.
But you know, I can't have EVERYTHING be a feature...
So ultimately, I'll most likely keep it simple with casings that semi-match the doors and windows in the living room.
More soon!

Farrow and Ball...Eh.

Member the pulls that I found that match the stove perfectly? I still don't know if I'll end up using them. Might be too kitschy and take away the classic quality I want. But time will tell.


So in my search for the best color(s) in the universe for my kitchen, I took a little field trip to the Farrow and Ball showroom in Soho. I picked out a few fabulous looking grays.
First let me say that I am one of those people who can tell which item costs even ten dollars more than the others, I can always tell the difference between top of the line and mid and I annoyingly find myself drawn to insanely expensive things.
But I must admit that I don't see the difference in quality between Farrow and Ball paint and good ole Benjamin Moore. I know apartment therapy types would bludgeon me to death with a Design Within Reach bookshelf just for blaspheming this way, but sorry.
I'm not saying ithe samples weren't nice, it just that they weren't particularly amazing.
And none of the shades ended up knocking my socks off.
These are the three samples, I painted them on canvases so I could move them around the house in case I wanted to use them elsewhere, which I probably don't.
All of these colors were sort of too strong when placed next to the stove, and none of them look cool with the red pulls (which I may end up ditching anyway but whatever)
So, while I think it's a nice product I won't be spending more than double the price of Mr. Moore to paint F&B, even in the kitchen.

Kitchen Inspiration

I don't have a scanner up here so forgive the weirdness of my photos of photos.
The top one is a tear from a magazine that I already forgot. Sorry editor/photographer wherever you are! what I like is the combination of gray with red accents. I have the groovy red stove handles to contend with now - so I'm looking for a way to incorporate them with the rest of my taste which is gray gray gray. I have a total aversion to color when it comes to this house. I find my life is stimulating enough - I don't want to be stimulated by my house. Know what I'm sayin?


Here's a less flashy one. the colors are good. I could care less about the stainless. Seriously.


This is a kitchen Ive been holding onto for like ever. it's from Domino june/july '07. This is a gray paint covered with a cream-ish emulsion. It's a little elmers gue-y. But I find it super calming and homey. It doesnt hurt that it's in Africa. If I do upper cabinets I want some chicken-wire doors like this. We are uding all existing cabinetry but these doors would be easy to make and swap out with the fuglies we have. I know it's very cottage but I love it.

Here's a winder shot. I love the idea of using a big dresser or sideboard rather than lower cabinets.

Another view. I also want something like this dish rack thingy. What do you call these? I find it impossible to find one without all manner of barfy country-swirly-crap all over it. If you know here I can get one that is nice and simple let me know please.


These are a few of my faves. Kitchen porn... gotta love it.

Check Out What I Scored

OK, here's the a shot I took of one of the handles on the antique stove I bought a few weeks ago. It's shrink wrapped and covered with moving blankets at the moment - so it wasn't super easy to photograph. Then there was the matter of a certain little fat man that kept getting in the way.
Anyway - in this shot you can see that there's a thin, metallic stripe down the center.
Hey, is this helpful - what I'm doing? Cause I can like stand here, or like get closer to the camera lens... whichever you prefer lady.
The handles have little ridges.
so the other day I was looking at vintage pulls and handles on Ebay -and I ended up winning these bakelite puppies for like 10 bucks total. I think I got 16 of them. They all need cleaning - they have a little paint and you know - your basic vintage crusties. But seriously - could they be a better match?

They have the little metal stripe, the ridges and the color is identical. There's a chance I might not use them - because it could end up looking too matchy matchy and precious. I don't want to be one of those girls with a kitchy kitchen. I'm just not that darling if you must know. But wouldn't these look cool with gray cabinets?
but that's the beauty of buying vintage - if you change your mind, you can always resell and get every last cent back.

Oh PS: I also got this pendant (the large nickel one). It was on massive sale and I had a left over gift certificate from way back (thanks aunt Betsy!) so it only cost me $50. I've wanted one of these forever - so I was psyched. This will go in the center of the kitchen. I don't know yet if we are going to have an island or not - but the adjustability will make it work either way.

Next up - I'll post a little kitchen inspiration so you can see where I'm coming from dream-wise.

I Aint Gone Lie People...

Mudding ceilings sux. Don't let anybody tell you different. I actually thought I had done a pretty awesome job, till I talked to Joe on the phone and he told me that I needed to go over all the walls and ceiling with a florescent light, looking for imperfections. Damn it! So of course, under florescent light it looked like complete ass (as do ALL things under florescent light now that I think about it). So anyway, I worked on it for a lon glong time. The whole point was to finish so I could get the kitchen and living room primed and therefore stuck down so that I might walk through the house without getting filthy from the plaster dust that penetrates everything. Hope springs eternal right? I'm so demanding!

(note the plaster "chaps," hot look no?)
Anyway, I did succeed in priming the kitchen at least. And guess what? It kinda looks like crap. Such a drag - but hey, it's my first time and Joe can help me perfect it later. For now at least it's clean. And the fact that I did a great job on the walls and corners is some consolation.

Later, I was talking to my neighbor, and I told him what Joe had made me do with the florescent light. He prety much did a spit take. He was laughing his ass off. Apparently, outsiders quickly identify my husband as an insane perfectionist. I appreciate this trait when HE'S doing the work... but when I am? Not so much.

Check Out What I Just Bought

Ok, these are the pictures from the Craig'slist posting and trust me, they don't do the stove justice. It has all the original bakelite nobs and is in imaculate condition - I mean this lady must have used it once in the whole 60+ years of it's life. YAY! It's going to make the whole kitchen far less dreary. And way way less murder scene -y.



Let's review what I affectionally termed the murdercscene kitchen (note the arc of rust on the lovely, frily curtain that looks eversomuch like blood splatter. Yum!
Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Maybe we should have?