Archive for October, 2011
Reader Redesign: Lovely Loveseat
Having wrestled for an unnaturally long time with our own chair upholstery project (well, I was more a bystander while my wife played the role of the wrestler), we’re that much more impressed with Erin’s redo of her great aunt’s loveseat. Here’s her letter:
A few months ago I set out to reupholster my great aunt’s old loveseat. I actually planned on hiring someone to reupholster it, as I have never done anything like this before (not even close!). But then I got to thinking “Why not try my hand at it first?” So Project Loveseat was born!
It was definitely a challenge. And one that I just sort of winged. I couldn’t even write up a whole tutorial because I still have no idea what I did. But it goes to show you that projects like this one are doable for the average person (the average person with A LOT of staples). It’s not perfect but it is faaaar better than what I imagined I could do. -Erin
Three cheers for Erin for the great pictures and the encouragement to take on another upholstery project at some point! You can see more photos of the process on her blog Olive Our House. Has anyone else taken on any upholstery projects lately? Or any other furniture, paint, fabric, or full room makeovers for that matter? You know we’re nosy and we love to check that stuff out. Just send any and all projects to submission@younghouselove.com.
Psst- We shared a little “Fair Fun” over on Young House Life yesterday. Check it out here.
Apples, Spiders, and Snakes – Oh My!
Clara likes little creatures (seriously, the girl thinks snakes and spiders are cute), and is currently in the midst of an apple/pumpkin obsession (which is very fall-appropriate). So we decided this year’s loose Halloween theme could be “nature” (said a la Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet on SNL). That way it encompasses things like pumpkins, gourds, and apples along with creepy things like spiders and black crows and snakes. Here’s Clara showing you just how not-afraid she is of crawly (and slithery) critters:
But let’s go back to the beginning. I had some fun with Halloween stuff. First, I grabbed some $1.99 spiders and $2-3 snakes at Michael’s (the snakes were in the wood toy aisle and definitely not meant for Halloween but you know I’m weird…).
When it came to adapting the spiders, I just used a black sharpie to color over the orange bands on their legs (all black spiders = much more real/scary looking). As for the wooden snake toys I immediately pictured them flat white as soon as I saw them. There’s just something haunting about ceramic-ish snakes, right? For some reason I thought glossy white might be too sleek looking, and flat would be sort of ghostly and chalky so I went for it:
And… I love them. Who is surprised? No one? Cool. Anyway, it’s always a tradition to do the console table (see it here and here from years past), so that was the first surface I spooked (spookified?):
I used a few faux apples that I got a while back on super clearance from Pottery Barn for some color along with some old spiderweb stuff I had leftover from a few years back in my Halloween tupperware bin (yes I have one, and yes it’s labeled… I’ll pause while you mutter “dork” under your breath).
Other than that it was just my new snakes and a creepy black spider among things that are usually on the console table, like my oversized vase from ZGallerie, my faux tray from Target (the green tray-looking-thing is actually a box that a wedding photo album came in), my antler candlestick from West Elm, my yard sale greenhouse, and the faux plant inside of it from Ikea.
Oh and miraculously, Clara has yet to mess with stuff on the console (she can’t quite reach up there yet). Of course typing that has probably jinxed us. But anyway, I thought it was cute to snap a picture from her POV. Of course we’ve held her up so she can look at the spiders and snakes, so now she walks by and says adorable things like “bye bye spider” and “hi apples!”
Next came the mantel in the kitchen (which I realize I never took a straight-on shot of, so forgive me).
You’ll also notice some green and white gourds/pumpkins, a bunch of mismatched candlesticks, and my gory little blood-dripping candles (which I made here).
I also used some books I love dragging out every year (yes, also from my Halloween bin) like Midnight In The Garden of Good & Evil, and Everything Bad Is Good For You along with my faux crow (from Michael’s a few years back).
Don’t mind the crooked candle in this pic. Ooh, spooky.
Still have a few more spots I want to spook up, but that’s where we are for now. Oh and just for kicks I thought I’d toss in a few photos – and even a video – from Halloweens gone by (find more info on the pics/vid below here and here):
How are you guys gearing up for October 31st? Any candy-corn-induced stomach aches yet?
The Kitchen Shuffle
In Monday’s appliance post we mentioned a couple switches (like wall oven out, stove in) but that was just the beginning. And then yesterday we shared that we were contemplating a new spot for the fridge. Well, it has all been settled. And we’re excited about it. But before I lay out the new layout for you, let’s talk demo again.
This past weekend we found ourselves poised to purchase a slightly smaller yet not counter-depth fridge at the Sears Outlet (aka Scratch & Dent) – which was basically short and narrow enough to fit into the existing fridge spot but a bit deeper (so it actually would have stuck out into the room more since they don’t generally make fridges as small as they did 30 years ago).
But at the last second, something stopped us.
On one hand we were so proud for finally locating a fridge that fit our tight space, but on the other hand it felt like we were compromising on a few things (size and finish – we really wanted fingerprint-proof stainless). So we revisited a seemed-weird-at-the-time idea: moving the fridge to a new spot (which we had been thinking about on and off since embarking on this crazy kitchen adventure). Where might we put it? Why here, of course:
By coincidence, the big pantry cabinet on the opposite side of our kitchen was exactly the same width (36″) as the spot where the fridge currently resided on the other side of the room (this doesn’t include the cabinet that houses the wall oven – which is a gonner now that we’re switching the wall oven out for a range). So if the pantry could be moved, then the fridge could come over to this wall. That would not only allow us to get a taller fridge, but also a wider one. Meaning we could get the awesomely counter-depth-yet-spacious Frigidaire Gallery that we had our eye on (and eventually purchased, as mentioned on Monday).
Plus it would mean the fridge isn’t the first thing you see from the front door (after we add the big kitchen/dining room doorway). This move was actually suggested by a few friends of ours about a month ago in that “if-you-could-ever-move-the-fridge-to-the-other-side-of-the-room-it-might-be-nice-not-to-see-it-from-the-door-but-it-might-be-too-complicated-so-in-that-case-never-mind” way.
Taking those measurements was all we needed to run down to Lowe’s and buy all of our appliances at a deep discount – including the wider and taller but still counter-depth fridge that we wanted all along.
Which was kind of a bold move considering that we hadn’t actually moved the pantry into the old fridge spot to confirm that they were interchangeable. So true to “we’re paranoid” form, we couldn’t let a week or even a few days go by without making sure we could actually make the switch. So after removing the side wall and cabinet over the fridge on Monday night, it was time to move the pantry across the room last night. First we emptied out the pantry onto the counter… giving us momenatry flashbacks to our last kitchen makeover / disaster zone.
Then we used a hammer and flathead screwdriver to remove the trim on both the top and bottom of the pantry.
Then we had to remove this little triangle o’ granite that we use as a drop spot for keys and such. As functional as it was, we never liked the look of it. So we weren’t exactly distraught to see it go.
Having already removed some granite in our bathroom and on the other side of this pantry cabinet, we knew taking it out would be pretty straightforward. We just sliced some of the clear caulk adhesive and then pried it loose with a screwdriver and crowbar.
Ooooh, lucky us! More weird unpainted paneling sections to stare at.
See that heat/air register above? That will stay put (the fridge goes where the pantry is, so it’ll be to the right of that vent- not in front of it). Anyway, with trim and triangle gone, I unscrewed the cabinet where it was attached at the back (to the wall) and on the side (to the wall oven cabinet).
Then with a little bit of shimmying back and forth, we were able to walk the pantry cabinet out of its little hole in the floor. I pushed while Sherry pulled (and paused to snap photos).
Speaking of hole in the floor, it again confirmed that we don’t have hardwood floors running under this half of the kitchen. Just some gross underlayment and subfloor. Pretty.
Anyways, back to the little do-si-do between the pantry and fridge. With the pantry out, we unplugged the fridge and rolled it to its new home. Look how intense Sherry looks as she pushes that baby around (speaking of babies, she wants me to say that she’s not pregnant – her sweater just bloused out ambiguously for this picture).
With the pantry in its new home, I screwed it back to the wall (and into the cabinet beside it) so that it could be restocked with all of our food. Oh and when it comes to dropping in a water line for the new fridge location, that’s actually pretty simple. We did it in our first house when we moved the fridge across the room too (home improvement stores sell little DIY kits).
Now let’s look at the room tidied up a bit. But remember that:
- the white fridge sticks out too much, but our new one is about 6″ less deep
- the shallower fridge will be shifting to the right (away from the door behind it) so it will feel a lot less cramped
- the tall cabinet next to the fridge will be switched out with a regular height bottom cabinet so that side of the room won’t feel like a giant overbearing armoire
We love the switch, and here’s why. It gives us an additional six inches of space between the corner of the planned-peninsula and former-fridge / now-pantry. Since it was already a comfortable walking space before, we’re gonna use the extra space to extend the peninsula by about three inches. So we get both a slightly bigger walkway and a slightly bigger peninsula.
Visually the pantry just feels less intrusive than the fridge did, since it now sits flush with the cabinets beside it. And once it’s painted white it’ll feel even lighter and more seamless.
On the other side of the kitchen, things are looking a bit worse (thanks to all of the now-exposed paneling) but that’s easy enough to fix with some primer and paint. Once the new shallower fridge is built in and shifted over a few inches to the right so it opens up that side of the room (once the wall oven cabinet is removed) it’s gonna look much better. Plus, it’s actually more convenient over here. I can get to it from the sink with one foot pivot, rather than a bunch of sidesteps. And the work triangle is actually a triangle now.
The best part? When we open up the wall to the dining room, you won’t see a big stainless fridge as soon as you walk in the front door. Of course the ceiling-height cabinet to the right of the pantry looks crazy but that’s going to get adapted too (as also mentioned here).
I know all of this furniture moving, cabinet demoing, and appliance purchasing probably has your head spinning, so we’ll try to clear things up. I’ve tapped my slowly-progressing Google SketchUp skills (mentioned here) to roughly render the kitchen as it was laid out when we moved in (with the exception of the peninsula and doorway to the dining room that we added in):
But here’s how it’s going to be after a few switches:
Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening:
- Pantry and refrigerator are switching places (in case you missed it)
- Cooktop and the base cabinet under it will be replaced with a range
- Wall oven and the wall oven cabinet will be switched out for the base cabinet under the cooktop (so it’s not big and heavy on that side of the room anymore)
- Over-the-range microwave is moving from over the cooktop to over the countertop next to the pantry & getting built-in (just like the one in our last kitchen)
- Exposed vent hood is going up in place of the current too-low microwave/cabinet combo (it’s not to code)
- Wall of cabinets is turning into open shelving (we know it’s not everyone’s jam but it’s ours, especially with all of the added concealed cabinetry thanks to the peninsula)
- We also have a pretty fun idea for the backsplash that we’ll share (with inspiration pics galore) soon
- Dishwasher is staying put – hip hip hooray!
Here’s another view to help you out. Once again, the before…
And the someday:
Here’s what we’ll gain:
- better work triangle
- less expensive appliances (buying a new wall oven and cooktop could have been 2K more than the range we got)
- a much more open feeling (instead of being surrounded by upper cabinets & giant armoires/pantries of wood on all sides)
- more space between the peninsula and the perimeter of the room
- more counter space (since we’ll remove the wall oven cabinet that frees up more usable surface area)
- more balance thanks to one tall object on each side of the room (the fridge on the right and the pantry on the left)
- no more view of the fridge from the front door
Is your brain hurting yet? Sorry ’bout that. Lots going on! We’ll keep ya posted. Next on the agenda is getting our appliances delivered and building in the shallower fridge in its new spot and installing the dishwasher, microwave, and range (which necessitates removing the counter and a base cabinet to make room for it). Should be interesting. Anyone else have any experience shifting around some cabinetry and appliances to make their kitchen more functional (and hopefully more beautiful)? Tell us all about it.
A Little Bonus House Crashing…
Remember when we house crashed Jaime’s colorful and cozy home last June (more on that here)?
Well, she redid her back deck and sweetly sent the eye candy our way. And we were instantly in love. It’s so welcoming and full of awesome DIY inspiration.
What do I mean by DIY inspiration? Let’s look a little closer at the daybed under that sweet breezy canopy (that Jaime made here).
When you get even closer you’ll notice that the daybed…
… is actually made from pallets! Check out a full tutorial on how Jaime built it (all by herself) here.
And just look at this cozy eating area. I love the mix of smooth and natural (textured light + shiny metal chairs = be still me beating heart). You know I’m a sucker for that graphic chevron bench cushion and the sweet hanging fabric garlands (that Jaime also made herself – deets here).
Is that not a delicious outdoor room? Yes I just channeled Martyn Lawrence-Bullard from Million Dollar Decorators and said delicious. What can I say, I’m excited. I love how it feels enclosed and private yet open and airy at the same time.
This table setting = yesssssss.
And John is obsessed with the bike-wheel-ish details at the bottom of this sideboard.
Let’s not overlook the ceramic animal party going on next to this awesome oversized jug of pink lemonade. Makes me giddy.
Check out Jaime’s blog for all the where-she-got-it-details (and even more amazing photos). But first let’s play the what’s-your-favorite-part game. I’m gonna go with the awesome woven light fixture and the gorgeous pallet daybed. Girl power.
Psst- Jaime’s friend Raya snapped these photos for her, so we wanted to give her credit over here too. Oh and click here to check out all of our other House Crashing adventures (or sort things by room or color here).
Psssst- Speaking of House Crashing, one of our favorite houses that we ever crashed is officially for sale. So if you’re looking for a gorgeous casa in Charlotte, click here for more info (and here and here to see two house crashing posts devoted to it).
Dabbling In Demo
We knew pretty early on in our appliance shopping that we’d need an oddly tiny fridge to fit into the existing fridge hole that we had going on in our kitchen (yes, fridge hole is a technical term).
And after some searching we realized we were probably more likely to discover the Loch Ness Monster than a perfectly sized fridge (preferably in stainless with side by side doors, since we loved that so much in our first kitchen – but we were flexible). So we slowly came around to the idea of removing the built-in box around the fridge to free things up a lot more when it came to dimensions. That way we could cut off the hollow unused top of the upper cabinet and rehang it higher to allow for a taller fridge – and then rebuild the sides at the new depth so the new fridge would look more flush/custom.
See, even if we kept the built-in side and cabinet exactly as they were and somehow found a small enough fridge to slide in, we’d have to rebuild the side panel for a more flush look (we didn’t like that the old fridge stuck out about 6″ beyond the side panel and the hinges on top were visible). Plus we always thought the beam looked funny jammed into the side of the cabinet like that – so we weren’t sure what we had planned, but it probably would require some minor beam surgery. We figured we’d just play it by ear and adapt our plan as we went. You know, the usual method around here.
So removing the side panel and cabinet above the fridge was our official dive into the pool of kitchen demo (although we’re planning to work with / adapt many of the existing cabinets so we won’t be gutting the place or anything). Step one of our side panel/fridge cabinet surgery? Removing everything from the cabinets. To be safe, we removed everything from the cabinet next to it as well (since we thought it might have to come down in the process). Clara was of little help, unless of course our project was “putting toy pigs on the step stool.”
With cabinets emptied, it was time for the bean to go off to bed. As she snuggled up to her stuffed giraffe and drifted off to dreamland, we were having fun rolling the fridge out of its little cubby so we could steal a peek behind the scenes. Besides revealing a weird electrical cord to nowhere (already called the electrician, we’ll keep ya posted), by standing where the fridge usually sat and looking up we were able to determine that the cabinet was attached only at the sides and top – not the back. And that the weird beam actually appeared to go all the way through the cabinet. Who knew?
It also revealed an order form from back when the cabinet was installed… in November of 1982. So yeah, I’m only eight months older than this kitchen. The cabinet company is called QuakerMaid, which some research revealed is a pretty nice custom cabinet maker. So we’re glad we’re working with these cabinets since they’re a nice standard size and still in pretty good shape considering they’re almost thirty years old (our first kitchen‘s cabinets were original to our 50′s house, so they weren’t even big enough to house standard dinner plates). Note: That’s not our address below, it’s the old cabinet maker’s location, which is no longer in use.
But enough about our little kitchen artifact. Back to the whole cabinet removal thing.
Detaching it from the cabinet beside it was easy. We found some long screws drilled through the tall cabinet into the fridge cabinet. So we zzzzzzip zzzzzzip zzzzziped ‘em loose and half expected the cabinet to come crashing down on us (John was supporting it from beneath, just in case). But it wasn’t that easy. Nothing ever is, right? That’s ok, we love a challenge.
At that point it became clear that it was that one solitary floor-to-ceiling side panel on the left side of the fridge (as you face it) that was now keeping the entire cabinet afloat. And since it was built into the floor and ran all the way up to the ceiling, after a few attempts at salvaging it by popping it off (there were no exposed screws or places to really grasp it well since it was so flush on all sides) we decided to go the barbaric route and just slice right through the darn thing. This way we could keep as large of a panel as possible (instead of sledgehammering and splintering it to death) in case we need some extra matching cabinet wood down the line for future alterations. Thank you jig saw!
Oh but first we put the three long screws back in through the cabinet on the right to keep everything from falling down. Miraculously it worked. John and I took turns (power tools = our jam) each putting one long cut through the side panel… and it basically swung free.
Then it was as simple as re-removing those three screws from the cabinet next to the fridge that were solely supporting it (while John stood under the cabinet to make sure it didn’t come crashing down). The kicker? Clara slept through some of the loudest drilling and sawing of all time. Seriously, it was amazing. Love that girl.
And it revealed that the beam did in fact go all the way through (we always figured it was added after the cabinets and just stopped short where it hit the front of that cab).
Seeing the full beam basically confirmed our inclination to not make the altered cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. Don’t get us wrong, we love the visual height and extra storage gained by taking cabinets to the ceiling. But we just can’t bring ourselves to cut off the beam again (it looked so weird ramming into the cabinet – and it actually has to stay since it covers a marred ceiling where two old rooms used to meet). Plus the other built-ins like the pantry on the other side of the room aren’t ceiling height either – and we’re definitely keeping them. So we actually think that once we get everything painted and looking right again our decision will return some much needed balance to the entire room. Of course we’re planning to add some trim to the top of all the cabinets to polish everything off, sort of like this kitchen:
But ours currently looks like this:
A mystery wire, some unpainted ugliness, and – the best part – room for a taller fridge.
But just as our dream fridge was getting taller, we started wondering if that was enough. And when our wheels get spinning it can be a dangerous thing. See, we got to contemplating a more major fridge move (it still looks kind of crammed into that corner to us). But our new fridge location idea involves a lot more drilling/lifting/general labor. And we were way too tired. Maybe tomorrow. Pics and more details as soon as we (hopefully) get ‘er done!
Pssst- Check out one of the sweetest night-stand-to-play-kitchen conversions I’ve ever seen over on BabyCenter. So creative!
