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. :)

Our New Toy & 10 Succulents

Lord knows we've painted all over our house. The walls, some furniture, the floor, heck even the ceiling! A few months ago we finally broke down and decided to buy a paint gun. The idea that with the simple pull of a trigger, paint could be evenly and effortlessly applied to our desired palette was VERY intriguing and exciting.

We went with the Husky Gravity Feed Spray Gun from Home Depot. It was around $80 and worth every penny.

We had a couple of projects in mind we'd like to tackle with our new toy, like painting the white picket fence and our outdoor shutters. But before jumping head first into those bigger undertakings, we thought we would do a little test run on a smaller, more manageable project to get our bearings.

You may remember last year I added four corbels to our dining room wall to hold succulents.

Ever since I've had this reoccurring thought - if four corbels are good, wouldn't 10 be better!? Once I convinced Brent the answer was YES, I got busy collecting cool, inexpensive corbels at antique stores and got them prepped for the big spray.

The whole prep was pretty straight forward. Brent thinned the paint with 10% water and then poured the paint through a strainer into the reservoir.  It's a gravity fed pneumatic spray gun which is basically a confusing way to say it uses compressed air to spray the paint.

With the gun full of paint I went to town and sprayed my little heart out. 

In the blink of an eye the corbels were painted and we were so happy with how surprisingly easy, fast and relatively mess free the whole process was.

Brent got busy hanging the corbels, which was also a pretty quick process, as we just eye-balled the placement. There is definitely a time and place for major contemplation, but this wasn't it. For this project, the more random, the better. With the corbels hung we purchased new succulents, got them all situated in their pots and before we knew it, the wall was feeling more and more like the entrance into a secret garden.

I mean really, who doesn't want to walk through a doorway dripping with beautiful, leafy plants everyday? It's like a fabulous jungle and I'm very much enjoying it! I might just need to add even more......Stay tuned..... And don't worry, the news of more corbels won't frighten Brent too much... Thanks to our new toy, projects like this are easy-peasy.

All photos are my own. 

Dining Room Details

You may have noticed that I kind of went MIA regarding my kitchen remodel. Oh, that's right, I have two kitchens now, let me clarify, I'm talking about my INSIDE kitchen...:). Earlier this summer I realized I had to pump the breaks on posting the reveal of the kitchen because some contest opportunities came up and I entered my space! To be eligible to win, the project can't be published. So, until I hear the results I have to keep the kitchen reveal under wraps. Fingers crossed!!

Since the kitchen is off the table I thought I could show the dining room some love. In getting ready for the kitchen space to be photographed we completed several projects in the dining room, just in case it came into play. If you remember, the dining room sits right off the kitchen. The only thing separating the kitchen and the dining room is the peninsula, because we tore the wall down during the kitchen renovation.

Below is a shot of the dining room standing in the kitchen.

Let's dig into some details starting with the chandelier. Back in June I posted about transforming our brass chandelier to blue. I ended that post  kind of on the fence about the results. While I loved the color and the concept, the chandelier just didn't fit the vibe of the space. In July, we were in Highlands and found the chandelier you see above. The colors and proportions were perfect and we knew it was "the one." Lucky for us my Mother-in-law Cindy gave it to us as an early birthday present! The whole room changed the moment it was installed.

The next big improvement was the curtains. My mom, sister and I went fabric shopping one day and came across this fabric.

The material and pattern really spoke to me in an elegant-meets-light-and-airy and sophisticated-but-still-fun kind of way. It took a little convincing Brent to go with a floral pattern, but I knew the space could use the pop of color and once the panels were made it wouldn't read girly, it would just read awesome. He agreed and again, Cindy helped us out by sewing the curtains herself! I swear this blood line has it going on in the crafty department! 

The moment these panels were installed the whole room, heck, the whole house felt more pulled together. It's our first window treatment we've added to the house and this one packed a lot of punch. The antique brass rod was hung just under the crown moulding and the panels pool ever so slightly at the floor. Not only do the curtains make the room feel taller, but the added color these curtains bring to the space really makes the room feel warm and happy. 

As you can see, only one wall has wall decor. We plan to take our time and not rush into any decisions regarding art, especially because we have plaster walls. Plaster walls = devil to patch. But, I'm so glad we took the leap and completed this corbel/succulant idea of mine. 

For awhile now I've been collecting cool corbels I would find at antique stores. I wanted all of the corbels to be different in shape and size and I didn't want to spend very much on them (I believe the most expensive one was $22.) Below are the corbels I ended up with:

I painted each corbel the same color as the walls - Benjamin Moore's White Dove OC-17.

I realized one thing present in every well designed space is plant life. It adds such depth and texture to the space not to mention color.  So I went out in search of some succulents. I ended up finding my succulents at IKEA of all places.  Who would have thought???   They actually have a pretty good selection of both large and small live plants and you can't beat the price! 

One by one the corbels were installed. 

Because there wasn't as much open wall next to the curtain we put the biggest corbel there and the other three went on the perpendicular wall installed at varying heights. I wanted the corbel locations to be random, so we just eye-balled the locations and went with what felt right. Next, we potted the succulents in little white pots (also from IKEA) and put the succulents atop the corbels. Again, we played around with which succulent goes where, until we felt like everything looked balanced. 

What a happy little corner! Notice the little antique brass dangle hanging from the highest corbel? The corbel had this piece when I bought it and I decided to let it stay gold. It's my favorite part!

As far as the furniture pieces go - the round table was from my house growing up. My parents got a new kitchen table a few years ago and let me have this one. We sanded it down to lighten the color and then moved it right in. It's as if this table was made for this small dining room - it fits perfectly. The chairs are from World Market and were a wedding present from my Grandmother & PapaJack. The hutch piece is from Crate & Barrel and was the first piece of furniture Brent and I bought as a couple. We weren't even engaged yet and had decided if we broke up I would get the top of the hutch and he would get the bottom - haha. 

Well, there you have it, you're all filled in on the recent dining room happenings. The dining room/kitchen area is definitely one of the most finished spaces in our house. We really like how everything is coming together - hope you do too!

P.S. I'll keep you posted on the contest....wish me luck!

P.P.S.... yes that is a horse head made out of drift wood in the middle of the table. Brent is still learning to love this one.......... :)

All photos are my own.