About.com - April Recap

Well, my first month as the Kitchens Expert for About.com is complete and I survived!! Hallelujah! 8 articles is a lot, but I really enjoyed writing the content and then watching as a few of my articles make it to the AboutHome Home Page! I've been sharing the posts on Twitter, but have held off on posting to my personal Facebook page. 8 articles + 4 blog posts a month would make my Facebook page a little busy with "HEY LOOK WHAT I DID" content so I figured I would just post here once a month to fill you guys in on what all I've been covering over at About.com.

So, for my first month I posted on a slew of different topics starting with....

1.

How to Pick the Perfect White Paint for your Cabinetry
This was the article that made it to the Home Page on AboutHome! 

In this article I wrote about some tips and tricks for picking the best shade of white for your kitchen cabinets. The color white can be tricky, so I thought this was a topic a lot of people could relate to and hopefully use on their white kitchen endeavors! 

2.

Highs & Lows of Dish Storage

One of the biggest design trends I've been seeing lately is the idea of storing everyday dishes down low. In this article I talk about the advantages to this approach in addition to some different ways to incorporate this concept into your own kitchen. 

3.

Plants: A Cheap and Easy Way to Add Pizazz to your Kitchen

Plants are an easy and affordable way to add some personality to your space. In this article I show you various ways to pop a plant or two into your kitchen regardless of the size!

4. 

Custom vs. Semi-Custom vs. Stock Cabinetry

The world of cabinetry can be C O M P L I C A T E D. So many choices, so much to know. In this article I'm breaking down the differences between custom, semi-custom and stock cabinetry. 

5. 

How to Draw Less Attention to Outlets on Your Kitchen Island

Outlets are necessary in a kitchen, no doubt, but more often than not they are slapped right on the side of an island or peninsula with very little thought to the design they may be disrupting. This article is full of ideas that allow outlets to blend in or maybe even disappear into the kitchen. 

6.

How to Integrate the Lucite Trend into Your Kitchen

Lucite is everywhere in interior design,  and I'm all about the trend; I even used lucite hardware in my Luxury Living Show Kitchen. In this article I talk about a few ways to integrate a little lucite in your kitchen!

7. 

Why Quartz?

Quartz, is worth looking into if you are in the countertops market. I'm giving you all of the reasons why in this post!

8.

Junk Drawer Be Gone

Now here's a topic we can all relate to....the dreaded junk drawer. We all have one, so check out these tips for getting your life in order starting with a few tricks for organizing your kitchen drawers!

Well, there you have it - my life on About.com this month! Let me know if you can think of any topics you'd like to see me cover. Anything and everything kitchen is fair game. Just don't ask me to talk about actually cooking in the kitchen because that would be a very very short and sad post and there is a 600 word minimum, folks. :)

New Stair Runner + Grandma's Art

As most of you know Brent and I live in a little bungalow built in 1944 that has charm coming out the ying-yang. HOWEVER, there are some features that were added during a renovation in the early 2000's by previous owners that are simply not our style, and one of those features was the stair runner.

It's not that it was completely horrible, the colors and vibe just didn't really go with our decor. With every new element we added to the house, the rug became more and more random and out of place. The idea of replacing the runner had been in my mind from the beginning, but other, more pressing projects kept us from really focusing on it. Of course that all changed as the days ticked closer and closer to the Junior League Tour of Kitchens. Like I said a few weeks ago, this tour, while focused primarily on the kitchen, pretty much involved the majority of the first floor, so getting this runner fixed up was a must. 

For about .4343 seconds we considered DIY'ing a new runner, but then we came to our senses and did what anyone drowning in half done projects would do and Googled: Stair Runners Atlanta. The first thing that popped up was "The Carpet Lady." I read some reviews, sent her an email and she was at my house the next day with swatches and an estimate. We knew we wanted something neutral and durable and landed pretty quickly on a pretty sisal. She took measurements, I paid a deposit and she ordered the carpet. Literally less than two weeks later her crew was out to remove the existing runner and get the new one up and running. Ha, no pun intended. Ok, never mind it was totally intended. 

The one element I did always love about the existing stairs was the gold stair rods. So, we had the guys put them back on atop the new sisal runner.

So. Much. Better.

I love how the sisal adds a quiet texture to the space without being too busy. However, once everything was installed, the stairwell quickly felt very beige/white. I instantly thought of a giant piece of art from my Grandma's house. I'd had this piece for a while now, but could never figure out where to hang it. As soon as we held it up against the wall, I knew it was perfect!

This ocean picture hung over the couch in her living room for as long as I can remember. I knew her living room well, as many a days of my childhood were spent in that room practicing piano, playing with my sister and cousins and opening Christmas gifts around the holidays. I always loved the colors of the ocean against that gold frame. This piece is big and beautiful and fit perfectly on the wall of the stairwell. I know it's not the most conventional place to hang a piece of art, but I love how grand it feels and how happy it makes not only the stairwell, but me when I walk past it every day. My Grandma was so special to me and I'm so glad that pieces from her home, where so many of my childhood memories took place, can integrate so seamlessly into our decor. I like to be reminded of her as much as possible and now each and every time I walk down the stairs I am.


All photos are my own. 

Office Chair Makeover

Just wanted to pop into your Sunday to show you OUR NEW OFFICE CHAIRS!!

Looking at these bright and happy chairs, you would never know what problem children they have been! We found the little beasts at Scott's Antique Market last year and paid $100 each for them. They were in a sad and ugly state, but they had good bones, and their petite size was just what we needed for our home office.




































Brent was on the fence from the get-go, not that he didn't like the chairs, but he feared they would end up costing us an arm and a leg before it was all said and done. Well, let's just say he wasn't  exactly wrong. Luckily it took us over a year to actually get to the part of the project where we picked out fabric and got the chairs upholstered. So, while the cost was the same,  having it stretched out over a year helps, right? Hey, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

As the office started coming together we began the hunt for the fabric. We made multiple trips to various fabric stores and came home with tons of samples. After much deliberation we decided on a bright and happy floral and a white vinyl.

Because of the way the chairs are constructed we had the opportunity to do two fabrics; A white vinyl for the part of the chairs that we would actually sit on and a floral for the back. We decided to go with two different fabrics for two reasons. One, we plan to really utilize this space, so we figured the vinyl was our best bet for fabric that we would sit on everyday.  It's easy to care for as it can be easily wiped down if it gets dirty or spilled on. And two, because of the orientation of the room, the back of the chairs will be visible at all times, so we thought the bright, happy, floral would be cool here to infuse some additional color and interest into the room.

The floral fabric was not cheap at $35 per yard, but the vinyl, which we needed more of was only $9.95 a yard at a great local fabric store called Fabric & Fringe Warehouse. It was literally $15 dollars cheaper PER YARD at this place than an in town shop and was virtually the same thing!

 I marked up this photo as a road map for the upholsterer.  

Once we finally got around to selecting the fabric(s) and delivered the chairs to the upholsterer we were only about a month a way from the Junior League Tour of Kitchens. The plan was to get the chairs back right before the tour, but unfortunately the upholsterer got sick and I think the vinyl was a little more problematic than anticipated, so we didn't get them in time for the show. We were really bummed at first, but we ended up getting some fill in chairs for the tour, which worked fine.

We finally got the call that the chairs were ready and headed off to pick them up from the upholsterer yesterday. As soon as we saw them we were SO excited with the final results.

A little front and back perspective for you....

And another shot from the back....

These chairs were the last piece of our office remodel puzzle and we are SO pleased with how they turned out. This room is easily one of the happiest in our whole house. The natural lighting is SO good and these chairs were the icing on the cake for an already cheerful space. Full office reveal coming to a blog near you VERY SOON!

All photos are my own. 

About.com

Well, the exciting/great/crazy news train just keeps chuggin' along...

I am super excited to share that I am the new Kitchen Expert for About.com!!

When I was initially approached by About.com earlier this year, I definitely recognized the name, but when I visited the site I realized I had been there many times. Like so many people I 'Google' pretty much everything and over the years my random Google searches have led me to About.com. About.com is a great resource for any and all topics. With categories ranging from food and travel (About Food, About Travel) to tech and style (About Tech, About Style), I bet a lot of you have happened upon the site too!

As the Kitchen Expert, I will be under the About Home umbrella and I will be writing weekly articles associated with all things kitchen. I officially began posting my articles on April 1st. To date I have two articles(here and here) but I will be writing a lot more. 8 articles per month to be exact. This is my first go at freelance writing, but I'm really excited for the opportunity and ready for a new challenge!

Photography by Galina Coada Photography

My new gig will not affect The Cow Spot as I still plan to post weekly. But every now and then I will integrate the two outlets and do a blog post listing my recent About.com articles in case any of you all want to check them out. 

New endeavors can be scary, and I just signed up for a whole ton of writing on top of a full time job and an existing blog, but I love kitchen design and I enjoy sharing my advice, mistakes, triumphs and experiences, so I'm thinking this whole thing might just be a great idea! Fingers crossed!

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own.