The kitchen design, and the one cabinet decision that almost broke me.

We are getting closer and closer to go time… the kitchen cabinets should be shipping the first week of April and I have plenty of things I still need to do. Anyone know where to get a super sexy black kitchen faucet?? Given that we will have had at least a month of waiting while the cabinets were being fabricated, there are no excuses for not being ready when they actually get here! So what’s our kitchen actually going to look like?! I’ve shared my inspiration images for the kitchen, and now I’m finally sharing the actual finishes we’ve picked…

Inspiration images for our new place

You guys, I have so many things I want to talk about and share this year on the blog, but right now, all I can think about is our new place. I mean, is there really anything else worth doing?! It’s taking some serious willpower to not actually buy anything before we move in. . .   But, there is a lot of planning and coordinating to be done, and before I go pulling the trigger actually buying all the beautiful things, I want to be sure I have a clear vision of what I’m creating in our new space….

Kitchen renovations on a budget: painted cabinets, why that counter probably needs to go and what you need to know for a successful {and good looking} budget refresh

Painting kitchen cabinets has become the go-to quick {and cheap} fix for a dated kitchen. No matter what your kitchen looks like, just paint those cabinets white and ~ voila! ~ you can say the space is updated, and won’t everyone just be racing over? Maybe… not. Here are two kitchen renovations. Both painted existing cabinets, one stopped there, and the other made some additional updates. Personally I think the space on the right looks far better than the one on the left {and so should everyone else who isn’t blind}. The short cheap squatty ‘backsplash’, the stark contrast between…

Bye bye subway backsplash… a new trend is in town.

Subway tiles are classic, and ~ if done right ~ are timeless. But they’ve been so popular for enough years now that even these are starting to feel a little tired and overdone. I’ll always love them, but I will admit, there’s another approach to backsplashes that’s been a rare sighting for a long time, but is getting a little more attention these days, and I couldn’t be more excited. The slab as backsplash. Personally I’ve been head over heels in love with this look for a long time. It doesn’t really get more sophisticated than this. And if anything is more…

Rethinking {upper} kitchen cabinets

Would you ever go sans upper cabinets in your kitchen? Did you just think to yourself ~ what is this chick talking about?! But  really, think about it, it’s a string of boxes hanging on the wall, floating over that precious counter space… and those top shelves are always so hard to reach! You don’t see a lot of kitchens without upper cabinets, but I’m totally in love with this look and can’t wait to have a space that I can design this way. It might be a little tough to go this design route if you are tight on space, and using vertical…

Adding color to the kitchen

Remember a few decades ago when everyone was doing ‘themes’ in their kitchens? Chickens, cherries, gingham… you’d pick something you love and then fill up the room with dishes, kitchen towels, plates, a nice wallpaper border to top it all off. It was bad design heaven. Thankfully that trend is long gone… When I design a space I tend to gravitate toward more minimal, classic designs, and like to keep things clean and simple. When it comes to my kitchen I like to have as many things put away as possible. I don’t like to have lots of stuff on…

A soda pop factory gets a stunning makeover

I love Architecture, and I’m obsessed with renovations and bringing an outdated or neglected space back to life. Recently I came across an absolutely jaw dropping space that just sold that I’m excited to share today. I’m so sad I didn’t make it over to see the space before it sold {in a whiplash inducing three days at just over $1 million}, maybe I can make friends with the new owners and get an invite over for dinner, ha! Too often people think that updates have to be very neutral and safe so that their space is appealing to the…

Small Changes, Big Transformation

I love seeing the transformation of a space pre and post-renovation. And of course it’s always super fun to see a space that needs a major space lift and be able to go in and change everything. But you don’t always need to rip everything out and start over from scratch in order to have a big transformation within a space. Sometimes just some small adjustments  can make a huge difference, and lucky for you I just worked on this exact type of space! Here we started with an underwhelming condo, with a layout and size that worked, but bad real-estate beige…

Bringing color into the Kitchen

A few posts back was all about refreshing the white kitchen, but there are a few other trends happening on the horizon that are super fun… and colorful! More and more often you are seeing some really fun, and really beautiful different colors being used for kitchen millwork. I’m so excited to see more color in people’s spaces overall. Here are some amazing spaces, from more understated grays to pastels and playful mint green {it’s having a moment, yay!} to rich darker and bold colors, they are all beautiful. And none are all white, and I love that :) Light Grays & Pattern…

My favorite gold accents & accessories to brighten up your space

There are so many super fun and great looking gold accents and accessories right now, even if you don’t have gold hardware in your kitchen, you can still totally get in on ~ what I think is ~ the best trend in a long time. Here are some of my favorite gold accessories/accents that you can easily integrate into your space. Instant upgrade and refresh. Installing a new light fixture is actually pretty easy and will totally transform a room. These two from West Elm are really beautiful, totally affordable and you can use them in lots of different spaces…