Last post I talked about our switch from (closed) vintage metal cabinets to an all-open shelving look for our kitchen lowers.
I’m wanting a really simple and straightforward look, like these in the Gaines’ laundry room. We particularly like the slats on the bottom of the shelves and will probably do that.
I have this theory that you’re wandering into dangerous DIY design territory when you can’t find any pictures on Pinterest to show what you’re thinking about doing.
This happened to me twice this weekend: once in regards to window trim (I’ll talk about that in a different post) and again concerning our lower kitchen cabinets, the design for which has been scrapped, swapped, and re-hashed this weekend in what Jeremy called a Come-To -Jesus-Meeting but was actually very reserved and pleasant and exciting.
[Read more…]I had made a list of must-haves for our new kitchen to help me with the planning phase.
My list, really, was not exhaustive. I maybe should have edited it for these posts. But it was my gut-reaction, first-impulse list; the things that came to my mind first and immediately. So, in the interest of honesty, I’ve left it as-is.
What I neglected to add to the must-haves was for the workspace to be navigable by more than one or even two people simultaneously. We have five children (and counting) and the older ones do like to help in the kitchen. Plus I will never turn down the offer of help cooking or cleaning up from whomever happens to be visiting (it is my personal belief that accepting help is an essential part of being in a community, but that is another post for another day) and it is very difficult to manage help in a space where you can’t quite even pass another person without bumping into them into the stove where they’re cooking. (This is especially precarious if the stove is gas and you’re bumping them into an open flame.)
I could talk about all the steps and processes and incarnations of the layout, but to be honest, I don’t recall all of them and it was a frustrating process, so I will skip all of that and go straight to the end result, hm?
Because we plan to turn the current kitchen into a second bathroom, the new, blended space we call The Colloquium would have to be part kitchen in addition to a living, dining, and music room.
I’ve saved this process for its own post to make sure I have ample space to ramble about all of my neuroses surrounding this new kitchen. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Most of the day, really. Three meals to make, three meals to clean up after, plus whatever extra time I may spend for baking or whatnot. Because I’m in there a lot, I think about kitchen stuff a lot.
Last Saturday I was watching a movie with Ephraim when I had a moronic thought. Well, not moronic, exactly, but definitely mindless. One of the characters in the film owned a cafe–a little homey place with coffee and pastries and things–and a brief scene showed her interacting with her customers who were there for breakfast. And before I thought about what I was about to say, it spilled out of my mouth: Oh, I’d love to have a cafe like that.
I meant it sincerely. I enjoy hospitality. I generally like serving people. I like the atmosphere of a cafe and the comfort of a cup of coffee and something sweet to eat. I like the thought of being the person that provides it.
Of course, the moronic thing about this is that I do this multiple times EVERY DAY and I don’t relish it. I don’t love it. In fact, it’s probably my biggest struggle about homemaking. All that cooking! All that standing in the kitchen! All that meal planning! All that dishwashing! If I’m going to complain about anything related to the home, it’s probably going to be related to cooking and how much I don’t really like it.