Barbara Bestor put together one of my all-time favorite house books… Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake. Love. It. The thing about it is all the houses look lived in… I hate looking at magazines or books with images of homes that look too perfect or too pristine to ever be anyone’s real home. This one pictured is my favorite house in the book.
We watched the documentary Helvetica last night, and it was pretty interesting. If you aren’t interested in design or fonts, I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you are, it was well done. I enjoyed hearing people talk about how wonderful it is, and then hearing people talk about how overused it is (everywhere)… and yes, I realize this classifies me as a huge nerd. I’m comfortable with that. :)
Back stairs are finished (thanks Buck (and Stephen and Paul)!), with the exception of the quarter-round and varnish… to no longer see insulation hanging out the sides of the stairs is amazing. Amazing. Before picture here. Semi-done picture here.
Also picked up a tiny shelf for the kitchen, but still need to put it up.
I love, love Amy Butler’s studio. White walls, old wooden floors, well-worn objects, what’s not to love. I’m interested to check out her new book Midwest Modern, both because I love her studio space and her fabrics (me being in the Midwest is just a bonus… I’m not sure how, but I feel somehow it is). :)
I was really excited when I visited 101cookbooks on Friday and found my two worlds had collided! My favorite cooking blog (with the most beautiful pictures!) featured Grace Bonney from Design*Sponge. Sa-weet! I was equally excited to see Jamie’s Dinners as one of Grace’s selections… it is really, really my mostly used cookbook and I would also recommend it to anyone.
For dinner, there are two recipes I cook religiously… one is Working Girl’s Pasta from Jamie’s Dinners, and the other is Heidi’s Ultimate Chickpea Noodle Soup. It is amazing! BUT, you have to use the Repunzel brand like she suggests. It is hands down the best I’ve ever tried. Just wanted to share. :)
Some pretty, cozy kitchens to keep me motivated… I can officially say I am partial to spaces that feel well-worn and lived in.
We are in need of ways to increase the lighting in our kitchen… we have four can lights and one other small light, but with 10 foot ceilings, that’s not much light. One of our ideas that we are really, really not sure about, is track lighting [gasp]. I found some interesting things on Apartment Therapy, here and here, but I’m still not convinced. Are there any other options or is that it? If it was all white, would that help blend it into the ceiling better?
We hung our kitchen cabinets two nights ago, and it has taken me until now to decide if I like them or not. Every time I glance up at them I can’t help but think of the Jetsons and cringe a bit. But now, now I’m starting to get used to it. I’m hoping that once we put up the tile, shelves, and lighting it’ll all come together. If not, we’ll just move. Ha!
A while ago I was sent an email with a quote on the signature…
“Give up the idea of what life should be, and just celebrate what life is.” James Arthur Ray
I am this quote. I’m not sure who James Arthur Ray is, but we must have met, at which time I must have inspired him to write it. This is what comes to mind whenever I get frustrated with the state of the house, or especially when decisions we made four years ago come into play now and they are not exactly what I envisioned (i.e., kitchen).
But anyway, here are some kitchens with two different types of cabinets working nicely together. I’m hoping ours will do the same.
The photo on the right came from my inspiration folder which is a catch-all for house ideas, so unfortunately I have no idea where it came from. The image on the left is from Elle Decor.
(driving through the Midwest, this is really all you see)
This weekend we decided last minute to travel up to Chicago and pick up come upper cabinets at Ikea. We knew exactly which ones we were going to purchase and the goal was to be in and out in a matter of an hour or two. Five hours later we left with completely different cabinets. This is par for us.
Seeing as our floors are old growth pine, our lower cabinets are refurbished 1950’s cabinets painted Hynda blue-gray, and our counter-tops are tractor trailer flooring, I was a bit leery (still am) about adding another color and surface, so we’ll see how it goes [insert crossed fingers here]. Worst-case-scenario, we scrap them and use them as storage somewhere else.
I do have to say that I was really, really excited to pick up some fabric from there as well. I just haven’t found fabric in St. Louis that I’m excited about, so I stocked up. :)
