T H E E D G E

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we had our countertop guys from galactic tile come by and redo the edging on our counters. apparently, if caesarstone has too square an edge it will chip. it was especially bad around the sink and dishwasher...the lightest bump from a plate chipped the edge. yes they are tiny, but it made our only 2 year old countertop look pretty beat. looks like new....hope it stays this way!

before

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L A S T Y E A R

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this time last year our plumber and electrician were puttin' on the finishing touches. our plumber was putting in finishing fixtures and faucets in both the bathroom and kitchen...and our electrician was installing these gorgeous pedants. They really are a statement!

Titan1 pendant from Design Within Reach

hello hot stuff

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K I T C H E N A R T

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we've been looking for a little something to put up on the wall next to the table...it just looked so empty. chris found this great 'green eggs and ham' print while in DC on business. looking good!

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L A S T Y E A R

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this time last year we had just insulated during the break after christmas and the crew had just gotten sheetrock up by new years.

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H O T S T U F F

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our architects abruzzo/bodziak were over at our place taking some amazing shots of the kitchen with their new tilt-shift lens. omg...gorgeous photos! be sure to cruise over to their site to see more of our project and all the other beautiful spaces and projects they've been working on!

 
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S W E E T !

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got this cute birdy sugar bowl and cake stand on etsy...made by whitney smith pottery. aren't the little rounded birds the sweetest?

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G O I N G F O R 4

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it's time to think about hardware! actually that time was like 3 weeks ago ;-)
i think we'll go all knobs...both on doors and drawers...i'm not sure why i just feel like it'll be right. i want to avoid that 'ikea cabinet' look where it seems so many people are using those long handles. just trying to keep things simple...which has gotten away form me already since i'm on my 4th knob choice. they're basically the same style but different diameters or lengths. i'm hoping that a longer length will keep everyone's grubby hands off the cabinet paint...but i'm sure that's wishful thinking. here's the first 3 go- rounds...waiting for my 4th batch to arrive which are the ones our architects recommended in the first place...but now they're on sale!

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H E L L O G O R G E O U S

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all the plumbing fixtures have been pouring in via ups and fedex. the kitchen faucet is

particularly gorgeous...nice and weighty.

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A B E A U T I F U L M E S S

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demolition started at 9 am on the dot monday morning. our contractor and his guys are doing a fast and furious job pulling everything done and or course discovering bizarro things along the way...like some the worst plumbing in history and entire sections of support beams chopped out to accommodate the worst plumbing in history. looking around on the internet i've found this is quite common for plumbers (aka: butchers) to just chop away at peoples homes for their own convenience...because hey...who's gonna notice?

oh and that big column in the middle of the room is a jack that had to put in to hold up the second floor til a new support wall is put in.

the good news...that we have someone else doing this! other good news is that the joists at the ceiling haven't been touched by termites like downstairs. that was the moment of truth for me since the downstairs joists were pretty much a vegas buffet for termites.

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D E C I S I O N S , D E C I S I O N S

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after our lengthy discussion with the Em&Ger architecture team, our homework this

week is to make some freaking decisions already! actually i don't think we've been

that bad...we always had a pretty clear idea of the look we were going for: warm,

somewhat modern, a bit of clean scandinavian, bright but not too bright, lots of

neutral grays.

mmmmm yummy!

after thinking that we absolutely knew the backsplash tile and feeling so good that at

least that was one decision completed, we completely changed our mind on it because of

the countertop. We just couldn't find one that matched it perfectly. We're looking into

doing Caesarstone for it 'indestructability'. Only problem with it is the color choices.

Alot of them we just didn't really like and very few are available in a honed finish. So

right now we're thinking we like a color called 'Misty Carrera', which sounds like an

adult film star, but is actually a Caesarstone that looks alot like carrera marble without

being such a pain in the ass to maintain. So stay tuned. Many more exciting updates to come!!

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L O V I N G O U R A R C H I T E C T S

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ok...our architects are our cousin Em & her hubby Ger so it goes without saying that we love them. But we also love them for helping us with this huge and often overwhelming project of a kitchen and bathroom renovation. We're in the home stretch though and they spent a few hours this weekend getting some final measurements.

Our task this week is to make some final decisions and order some cabinets!

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T H E C U T E S T

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even though we haven't renovated our kitchen yet, i'm already shopping for accessories.

i've kind of had it in my head that i would make my own simple little cafe curtains, like

the photo below, with a modern and graphic print fabric.

wouldn't this fabric be so cute? maybe too cute?

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T H E L A T E S T P L A N

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here's the latest in kitchen cabinet news. we've decided to ditch the ikea

cabinet idea because C just doesn't believe in the material they're made of,

and I just dont like any of the colors & finishes they come in. After lots of

research it looks like we're going with 'custom ready to assemble' cabinets

from Scherr's in N.Dakota. Fun!

I heard about them because alot of people who don't like ikea doors use doors

from Scherr's instead. Which got us to thinking, let's throw a drawing at them

and see how much the whole enchilada would cost. This enchilada's very affordable!

Plus, they can paint them any color, they're amazingly well made, the customer

service is awesome, and they're custom! We just put them together...which is easy

if you're somewhat handy. So we're working with them on drawings and

configurations. This is very exciting. Really. Here's my plan that was sent over to

them. Whatcha think?

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M O R E G R A Y L O V E

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i just cant get enough of my favorite gray kitchens! from chelseaatelier.

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P H O T O S H O P K I T C H E N F E S T

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ok...here's one better by C. this is much more accurate to the layout of this

side of the room...and it shows a bit of the hall/back door area.

diggin' it!

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C O L O R P A L E T T E C O N T I N U E D

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with the last post regarding color palettes in mind, i thought i'd have a little

photoshop fun with a photo from the ikea catalog to see what this

gray/brown/white combo might look like. free ikea model included.

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C O L O R P A L E T T E T H O U G H T S

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i'm still on this gray cabinet kick. i'm also still on this brown cork flooring

kick. i think these 2 materials can work quite nicely together. since we're thinking

about ikea cabinets which only come in certain colors and the boxes only come in

white and birch, i think we need to think about really working that to our advantage.

if i want gray doors, they will have to be painted since gray isn't an ikea color option (hello?).

the doors cover the entire front of the box so it's only the side panels that would show.

so maybe we use white boxes and do a white/light countertop for a more seamless look.

trolling the internet brought up some nice examples of the gray cabinet/white countertop/

brown floor color combo. i'm diggin' it.

images from hgtv and anabelsinteriors

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K I T C H E N P O R N V O L 2

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gorgeous modular kitchens from ViolaPark the "affordably priced at around $15,000"

line from Henry Built Kitchens. good inspiration!

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F A B T O L I X C H A I R S

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These french chairs and stool have been around the design blog world alot

lately...maybe because they're perfect? Great lines, excellent colors, comfortable,

stackable, indoors or outdoors, rubber feet...if only they weren't so expensive.

Made in france since 1934 though. A bold, bright color would be fun in the

neutral kitchen.

via stephmodo, deisgnwatcher, tolix.com

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G R A Y K I T C H E N S 3

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we're contemplating doing gray in some way. i've never seen any gray kitchens in person, it's interesting to see what's been done. (some if these are def not our style)

this first one is ina garten's kitchen in nyc (not her tv show kitchen)

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