Teal Room Tour

I know it sounds like I think I'm a rock star or something, but I am pretty excited about this tour. I mean, I only finished this room seven months ago, but back then I was carrying a 700 lb baby in my belly and couldn't muster the strength to really show you around the place. I also couldn't tie my own shoes, however that's another story.

Fast forward half a year and I'm down to my pre pregnancy weight, we just did sleep training and the dude is not keeping me up all night (don't judge -- he's still keeping me up most of the night), and occasionally I even leave the house to do photoshoots and decorating consults. Like a regular person. By myself. I'd say I pretty much own the world. Let's celebrate in living color.

This teeny tiny room was used as the formal dining room by the previous owners. Behold:

Yes, it is the same room. Scary indeed. As you can see a full size oval dining table doesn't even fit lengthwise, so we decided to repurpose this room and use the dinette as our primary dining space. That space is fraught with its own issues, but we'll deal with them another time since I promised no kitchen talk today... (but look, you can see the kitchen from here).

Ultimately we would like this room to function as an office, but for now it's actually a playroom. I moved the big wheels out of the picture just for you.

I was kind of going for an old school library look, so Sanders helped me choose some mega dark paint (Benjamin Moore Dark Harbor). Then I added flanking shelves in matching glossy paint, swing arm sconces, and of course my crazy lady painting.

I love her.

Somehow this room has become the repository for all the weird antique things I own. Grab a drink and get cozy, because for some reason I thought you might want to see every single item on my shelves.

On the other side of the room you can maybe kinda almost see my new hall wallpaper...

The styling looks like a dirt sandwich because I'm too afraid to hang anything on the paper. Maybe my new print?

My cat is obsessed with that chair, therefore it is always littered with leaves. I would love to reupholster our vintage rosewood couch and chair someday, but I will probably let the kids and pets totally destroy it first.

This room is great grandmother approved. I hope you enjoyed it, too.

What do you say: should I post more tours?

They take a long time to work up so pretty please leave a comment if you want to see more of this kind of stuff.

Or maybe you just want to talk kitchens?

I just want you to love me. Let me make you happy.

[all images copyright ERIN WILLIAMSON]

These Kitchens Give Me a Woody

It's almost Valentine's Day, the most stupidly expensive overhyped day of the year. Well just between you and me, I don't need roses or fancy chocolates or build-a-bears in pink tutus to get me all hot and bothered. I need wood. Big strong wood. And I'm not talking cherry cabinets and glossy glazed finishes, here. I'm talking 'bout this:

Shut your mouth!

Or actually, please don't. Because we need to discuss the viagrability of kitchen wood.

Everything about this kitchen says elegant, thoughtful, and practical. Probably those aren't the precise words that come to mind when you want to get the sex on, but maybe "tactile" moves us closer to that end. These kitchens just seem like they would feel good.

To cook in.

I'm kind of obsessed. I like wood with white counters, I like wood with black counters. I even like wood with wood counters. I would like wood in my kitchen.

But I'm more than a little afraid it cannot be. I investigated the gel stain some of you suggested and it appears to kind of sit on the surface of wood, sort of like transparent paint. I don't know how I feel about that. Maybe I'm totally delusional about the quality/style of my cabinets, but what I reallllly want is a bare, matte finish -- something that looks more like old wood and less like plastic impregnated woodishness.

This is super gorge. Someday our floors might even look like this. Of course those cabinets are repurposed from an Edwardian era storefront so it's not like this can ever happen in our kitchen. Except maybe the hardware.

Sorry about the dumb picture, but I think this cabinet situation is about the best we could hope for.

What I need to know is, should I even go down this road? Is it worth it? Is gel stain the only viable option or should I actually take on the possibly sissyphean strip/stain/wax triumvirate?

I love the idea of durable, touchable, delicious wood, but am I headed for heartbreak? Is this going to triple our work load only to look crappy with our dumb cabinets?

Ermahgerd.

No cheesy iphone filter can disguise that horror, so I didn't even bother. They really are that orange.

Would I just be better off stealing Bailey McCarthy's kitchen?

And the rest of her house while I'm at it?

Help me out, people. Lower cabinet finish/color is the last decision to make before we tear this mother down.

I promise no more kitchen posts until we actually do stuff.

Also I am hoping to put up some house tour action next week.

Please don't leave me in my time of need.

[pinterest kitchens]

Kitchen Plan Progress

Hi friends, thanks for all the fab tv suggestions to get me through the plague that has decimated our house... Luther? Yes. Sherlock? Up next. Also, have you watched the first episode of The Americans yet? It's all perestroika and high waist jeans with an awesome 80s soundtrack. Can't miss.

So notice my title suggests that the kitchen PLANS have progressed... alas, the actual kitchen is as barfy as ever. We've yet to take a sledgehammer to anything, but we're getting closer. I've all but convinced Ben to knock the soffit completely out and see what happens, largely thanks to your comments. It helps to show that I'm not completely nuts when I embark on these grand projects. Also, I have started speaking about the soffit demo as if it were fait accompli, e.g., "after we knock the soffit out..." I think the power of suggestion is working.

So the next step is to figure out what to do with the cabinets once the ceiling is (hopefully) raised. The lovely Naomi at Design Manifest sent over this picture a few weeks ago:

Raise existing cabinets and add shelf below to fill in the space. Brazilliant. But then, Miss Naomi is a professional kitchen designer so she is smart like that.

You know who else is smart like that? Lisa, who commented on my white kitchen post. Behold her horrifying before picture:

And her glorious after:

Let's discuss how much shuffling those uppers around opened up this kitchen. A whole big lot, that's how much.

Here's another reader redo from Justine, who transformed the most hideous ranch oak cabinets into this oasis of soffitless delight, replete with new Ikea cabinet fronts. Oh how I wish! One thing I'm eyeing is the space over the pantry where the soffit used to be. I had planned on building the cases up to the ceiling and ordering new doors, but maybe I don't have to?

Let's review the situation:

Oy. My eyes!

Ok, now for the plans:

1. Remove soffit and drywall in beam. Maybe add simple molding.

2. Raise upper cabinets and add shelves below. New glass doors for the uppers. Like this:

What the hell, just give me the entire kitchen.

3. Decide what to do with the floor to ceiling cabinets... build cases up and add new doors? Or maybe something like this?

But I think this is way more than the 12" soffit removal will give me. This part is confusing ... not sure what to do yet.

4. Paint.

And this is where things get really nutty. I'm pretty set on white/cream uppers, but the lowers... well. First of all, I believe the floor to ceiling cabinets should be the same colors as the lowers, right?

Except what about the free standing pantry/fridge cabinet? White, or lower color?

As for the paint scheme, I know I could pull off something like this -- even with my bung counters:

This is kinda what our floors look like now.

Here's the two tone white/gray look again...

The Inspired Room did a real super good reno that pretty much matches exactly what I had originally planned.

Now, I know this is going to make me sound like an asshole, but the fact that this look has been done (and done beautifully), makes me not want to do it anymore.

Don't get me wrong, this is still my awesome backup plan.

But now I am hatching a new crazy plan...

Namely, I am considering replacing the wood lowers with... wood lowers. Wait -- not even replacing, because we're keeping the old cabinets. The old SOLID WOOD cabinets.

But what if we stripped them, and stained them darker to tame the grain, and then we waxed or oil finished so they wouldn't be 80s lacquer perestroika shiny, and then we added some awesome brass hardware?

What if?

I know you probably think I'm crazy, and maybe I am. But just wait until I unleash a torrent of super dope wood kitchens on you. A tiny taste:

Now, how hard will this be to execute???

Remember that I'm sick. Please be gentle.