More Anthropologie love

I don't do ornamental kitchen accessories.

My kitchen is naked of bits of wrought iron. There are no ceramic roosters or pigs or cows roaming my counters. (And why is it always farm animals? Not just farm animals. Farm animals on the people food chain. A ceramic kitchen donkey, for example, is pretty rare. A kitchen rooster...not so much. Is it easier to eat bacon if a cute, winking pig sits by your sink?)

Sorry. I'm digressing. And this isn't a sermon on becoming vegetarian. That would be hypocritical. And it isn't a rant about farm animals used as decor. (One of my favorite decorative pieces...a remnant from a French Country obsession I had years ago...is an iron rooster that sits in my music room.)

Don't get me wrong. My countertops are cluttered. Always. (Which may be why I don't want to add to the chaos with copper this or china that.) I do love useful kitchen items though. The graceful curves of utensil canisters or mixing bowls or pitchers make me swoon. So I'm always keeping an eye out for something utilitarian and colorful and lovely to add to my kitchen.

So of course I fell in love with these.

These little spice jars from Anthropologie are perfection. They come in four soft, beautifully retro  colors, perfect for a vintage kitchen. Each lid has a rubber ring to make the container airtight. Their size is perfect for spices (or sugar cubes or paper clips or tiny dog treats). I keep salt and pepper and a combination of sugar/cinnamon in mine. I think I'll put sugar cubes in the fourth. Each is numbered and says, "Plein de Bonnes Choses" along the bottom (which frankly veers a bit Martha Stewart for me...although cutely Francophone. Still that doesn't detract too much from this jar's overall adorableness).

Best of all, each spice jar is only $4. Four dollars! Come on. What can you buy for $4? Another dish towel? This is like the perfect little treat for your house.

Just picture these in your Cooking Apple White (or white or cream or yellow) kitchen.

Adorable!

Everything's bigger in Texas...even the Whole Foods

Ahhh...the Whole Foods flagship store in downtown Austin. How I miss thee. Thy rooftop deck with dining tables and playscape for the kiddos. Thy mouthwatering, awe-inspiring bulk foods section.

"How can a bulk foods section be awe-inspiring?" you ask. After all, bulk foods sound sensible, economical, but hardly jaw-dropping. You haven't seen nuthin' yet, my friends.

(I had to get special dispensation from the very nice Whole Foods higher-ups to take these photos. I wore a special badge sticker and felt quite special.)

Behold...

...the mighty wall of spices and dried peppers...This wall reminds me of an incredible pantry. Vintage and organized and inviting...all at the same time.

Flours, grains, beans...oh my!

I'm absolutely in love with these specialty sugars. So much that little bags of the green chili cane sugar and lime cane sugar came home with me. The green chili sugar is amazing. Redolent of green chili. Spicy and sweet. I think it would pair beautifully with shrimp. And the lime sugar just speaks to me. "Perfect for rimming margarita glasses," it says. 

Whoever thought dried beans could be inspirational? Here, they are. Their subtle, varied colors and textures displayed in these old-fashioned bins remind me of artisan-made beads. Art in legume form.

Thanks to the Whole Foods folks for allowing me to share these photos with you. There's lots to think about here. Ways to use stored foods decoratively. Chalkboards with hand-written quotes and info. Fabulous flavored sugars. Definite food for thought.

Kitchen shelf love

This may be a classic case of a picture is worth a thousand words.

I love open shelves in kitchens. Whether they're elegantly decorative or eclectic and functional, open shelves have a certain warm, inviting charm. So you can imagine my happy dance when Will put up my wall shelves. It's the perfect place to stash the girls' art supplies.

And a place to showcase my favorite Mason Cash bowl. I smile every time I walk into my kitchen.

The new display space inspired me to research white ironstone. Did you know that white ironstone is trendy? I had no idea. Is there some odd Jungian collective kitchen decorating unconscious at work here? I've been spending many happy hours puttering around etsy looking at white ironstone.

You can really see the wall color here...Farrow & Ball Farrow's Cream. A gently sunny color...perfect for our many gray New England days. Only a few more items to finish before my kitchen is 100% done. (Or maybe it will always be a work lovingly in progress...)

Vintage + Etsy = love

From tentpitcher design at Etsy:

A vintage enamel-covered metal breadbox. Isn't she a beauty? With a bit of rust and a slightly imperfect finish (I refer to this as "patina"). Exactly as described by Lise at tentpitcher. Large enough for multiple loaves of bread. I love having the bread on the countertop, close at hand.

These vintage enamel-covered bread boxes appear from time to time on eBay and Etsy. They also sometimes show up at antique shows or vintage shops. Modern bread boxes with retro styling are still in production as well.

Polder makes this white toolbox-style bread box. It's also available in black.

And for those craving a bit more color, Wesco makes a line of bread boxes (or bread bins as they're called in the UK) in a spectrum of saturated, playful colors. Based on the original 1940s Wesco design, these bins are made in Germany.

The Breadboy from Wesco offers a slight variant on the toolbox shape. Absolutely beautiful.

My green beauty will definitely not be showing up on regretsy. If you've decided that a vintage (or modern) enamel-coated bread box is in your kitchen's future, happy hunting! It may take a little while, but I know you'll find just the right one.

Ringing in the new (IKEA Ramsjö butler's pantry)

We said goodbye to 2010 quietly. The past two days were not soaked in auld lang syne and champagne. Instead, bleary-eyed after an intense two days of IKEA cabinet building, we paused for a quick prosecco toast, surrounded by stray screws and a massive cardboard mountain.

This morning, we awoke to 2011 and our new butler's pantry.

Like the kitchen proper, the butler's pantry needs more finish work, but for now, it functions. You can see a peek of the Farrow & Ball Farrow's Cream (the wall color for both pantry and kitchen). Below is the pull-out pantry. Fantastic for organizing pantry staples and canned goods.

Can I confess something?

I'm tired of making design decisions. Between refreshing our old house for sale and renovating this one, I'm on my third straight year of renovations. I'm crispy. Many of you have been renovating your older homes for years. I don't know how you do it. Many, many kudos to you.

So. I just wanted the butler's pantry done. No angsting over details. I did have a few requirements. 1. I wanted wood. My butler's pantry is at a junction between kitchen, dining room, mudroom, and back hall. It's high traffic, and I thought wood would hold up better (and be easier to paint or redo if dinged). 2. I wanted to complement the already existing finishes in the house. 3. I needed for it to be done relatively inexpensively.

The black-brown Ramsjö is more transitional than my eclectic, vintage-looking kitchen. The color echoes the black Aga, the dark soapstone, my black dining and breakfast room chairs, and the black painted paneling in the powder room. It's also a beautiful kitchen cabinet door and finish. To boost the vintage factor, I'll add a Vermont Danby marble counter (we're using a butcher block remnant for now). I'm also on the hunt for an antique mirror to use as a backsplash, and maybe...if I'm feeling ambitious, I'll wallpaper the interior back.

Of course...I put mixed pulls on the cabinetry.

The pull toward the rear is the polished nickel Bistro from Restoration Hardware. The knobs are all from Anthropologie (from left to right, the Ceramic Melon Knob in linen,  the Chronograph Knob, and Mercury Glass Melon Knob). Whew! I love having fun with hardware.

I hope that you all had a wonderful 2010. Here's to many adventures (and only a few misadventures) in 2011!

Life with Danby marble

I was cleaning up today after breakfast and realized that our kitchen has been a working one for about a month now. Has it been that long? And the walls still aren't painted?!? Sorry. I'm getting off-track...

Forget the lemon, wine, et. al. tests I did with our marble samples. How is the Danby marble holding up after some real life use and abuse? I actually had to think about this. And go hunting for etch marks. Because the marble has been so functional and easy to take care of that I'd started taking it for granted.

I have to admit that we babied the marble the first several days. It was reserved for sandwich prep and other clean tasks. I wiped up spills right away. Then slowly, slowly, we slipped back into our old, sloppy ways. Last weekend, I used our marble counter to make a really messy pumpkin puree and left pumpkin splats on the counter for...gasp...hours!

And here's the counter...still unstained after all that abuse. It has etched. A few etch marks. The circular etches show up very clearly in the photo, but only because I took the photo at an acute angle. If you stood over the counter, you really couldn't see them at all.

Here's an etch mark in the dark veining of our Mountain White Danby marble. I know it's there, but I still had to hunt to find it for this shot.

What do you think? Remember that the photos were deliberately taken to highlight the etch marks. They're nowhere near as visible in real life. If just knowing that these marks existed would make you reach for your Brillo pad, then perhaps marble isn't the right surface for you. If you can shrug off these etches, Danby marble can be a wonderful countertop. Classic. Beautiful with such a subtle shimmer. Durable.

Now if only my soapstone counter were as problem-free...

Kitchen pulls and knobs in action

You've seen the pieces in their not-yet-installed state. Here they are in their functional glory. In total, I mixed three finishes (antiqued brass, painted, clear glass) and five shapes (bin pulls, drawer pulls, and three slightly different round knobs). I'd worried that the results would be haphazard. Instead, the casual mix adds to the relaxed, collected over time look.

I love these vintage library bin pulls from eBay. They're installed on the Cooking Apple Green top drawers and down the drawer stack by the dishwasher. Six in total. I've found some bin pulls to be a bit shallow and frustrating when in a hurry. (I'm always in a hurry.) However, these bin pulls have lots of finger room and even more patinated charm.

Later, I'd love to create some cards to slip into the pulls. "Pots" and "spices" and so on. It would be really fun to type them up on an old typewriter. You know, the kind with slightly broken type. I could go totally over the top and create some Dewey Decimal numbers. Remember them?

These glass knobs from Anthropologie add a little sparkle to the glass-fronted cabinets. These are the only inset cabinets in the kitchen, and these knobs add the perfect vintage touch. You do have to be careful if you go with Anthropologie glass knobs. I noticed that quite a few of them had little nicks or chips. Once installed, these knobs haven't been dinged yet though so I don't think they're super fragile.

These antique brass knobs and pulls from Horton Brasses are beautiful to look at and to use. See those gorgeous, subtle curves? Yum. They fit my hand comfortably. So important because they're installed in the much used pots-and-pans drawers. (Ignore the gaping hole. That's for the trash pullout that hasn't been installed yet. Beware taking a DIY break. I've noticed that it tends to grow into a DIY extended vacation.) I'd worried about using two small pulls instead of one, but I've had no problems. It's probably important in that case to use good drawer glides (Blum in our case).

Finally, why don't people use painted knobs more? I have to admit that these Farrow & Ball Old White painted knobs were borne out of desperation. I'd wanted dark stained wood knobs, but couldn't decide on exactly the right color. Now? I'm so glad that I went this route. I'm not sure how durable they'll, but so far, so good. And it's a very nice, subdued look.

If you're in the throes of kitchen hardware obsession, well, I was once in your shoes. In those shoes for such a very long time that my feet ached. I scoured the internet for endless hours, poring over every hardware website I could find. Don't worry. Your choices will be beautiful. No worries.

Step on a crack, break your mother's back

If a broken mirror brings seven years of bad luck, how many years does a cracked soapstone countertop bring?

When our countertop was first installed, I noticed fine white lines through the slab. Will told me it was nothing. Just the way soapstone is made.

A couple of weeks later, I noticed this.

Nothing, right? Just a vein?

Sadly, no. It's a crack. From the front of the slab all the way to the back. You can feel it with a nail. At its worst point, it opens up like a little chasm.

The Grand Canyon was not in my design scheme.

I've been through panic. And anger. And anxiety. Now I'm stuck in wait mode for our installer to come back and deliver his verdict. I don't want a brittle countertop that needs to be babied. I don't want a countertop that will crumble in a year or so. I chose soapstone after lots of research because it was considered almost impervious to damage. Yes, it was softer than granite and could be dinged, but I thought I avoided that by choosing a harder variety.

So this is a warning for those of you who're considering soapstone. Our soapstone distributor (now) tells us that harder varieties of soapstone (like Beleza) are particularly prone to cracking. Something about a thin rivulets of softer stone running throughout. A kind soul on the Gardenweb kitchen forum had this advice. When considering a slab, have it pulled. Wet it entirely with water and squeegee it. Watch it as it dries. If the cracks remain wet, there may be a problem. It's too late for me, but I hope this helps someone still in the planning stage.

Cabinet love

Recently, a blog reader emailed me to ask who'd built my cabinets. It hit me then. I'd forgotten to mention my cabinetmakers! The wonderful folks responsible for my custom Cooking Apple Green and Old White cabinets are Country Craftsmen in Uxbridge, MA.

Patty and Billy executed a detailed plan flawlessly from inset uppers to custom-height drawers. Their prices were very reasonable. They measured carefully and correctly. (Those of you who've heard horror stories of too big or too small cabinets know how important this is.) They completed the cabinets exactly on schedule. Billy even came back to adjust the inset hinges after our general contractor installed the cabinets.

We chose their dovetailed wood drawers with Blum full-extension, soft-close hardware. The insides of these drawers feel like lustrous silk. Country Craftsmen also offers Blum tandembox.

For our blind corner cabinet, they installed Hafele's Magic Corner I. The blind corner was the only cabinet configuration that gave us both the large sink and the trash pullout that we wanted.

Furniture feet detail gave the Farrow & Ball Old White cabinets an unfitted look. Yes, you can put furniture feet on frameless cabinets. Their sprayed paint finish was exquisite. Silken smooth. Their wood finishes that we saw were equally well done.

I couldn't decide what color our hood should be so I'm waiting until all the other elements are in place. We asked that the hood be primed only, not painted. Billy used reclaimed white oak that matches our flooring to trim out the hood.

Many thanks to you, Patty and Billy, for my beautiful cabinetry. I smile every single day when I use my kitchen. It still feels like a dream to be in a functional kitchen with smoothly gliding drawers and tons of storage. A very happy dream.

A few of my favorite things

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels;
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles;
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings,
These are a few of my favorite things."

Large Franke Orca in beautiful stainless,
Wide and so deep as to hold all of my mess.
"Ledge grid for drying, oh yes," my heart sings.
This is but one of my favorite things.

Dishwasher near to the drawer that holds
Plates, large and small, and our cereal bowls.
Ease of unloading proximity brings.
This is but one of my favorite things.

A grilled cheese sandwich that's evenly done;
Speed and control, they both make cooking fun;
All of this joy that my new kitchen brings;
These are a few of my favorite things.

(Sorry, my friends. I had a heavy-water-bottle-meets-big-toe incident this afternoon. Apparently, I burst into rhyme in my post-painkiller delirium. Good night from the girl with the vivid blue toe.)

Agatha cooks

Ahhhh...Two pots of gnocchi and sauteed chicken in garlic. At the same time.

How I'd missed cooking with gas. That fine, instant control. No waiting for the electric burner to heat up. Then scorching the food because the burner becomes too hot and doesn't back off quickly enough. The two outside 15K burners are hot. Maybe not the 22K of Bluestar, but they boiled water quickly enough.

Sorry. No recipes to share. We're still getting back into the cooking swing. Most of our pantry items are still in boxes. When Agatha was connected, we gathered around her and gaped. What do you do with a range? How do you cook? Amazing how rusty you can get in two months.

Gack! I think I goofed.

The electrician put up the lighting today. This time, I think I took eclecticism a step too far. Each light is beautiful on its own. Together, they don't look like they belong in the same kitchen. The overhead lights are too big, and the pendants are too small. I'm channeling Goldilocks and the three renovating bears. The old breakfast room light's size is just right, but it adds yet a third discordant element.

Oh well.

At least we have lighting. We can do things in the room after dark without rigging up work lights!

And it's fairly easily changed. Just expensive. And/or time-consuming. And I feel stupid for goofing up.

At least it's not the cabinets, counters, or backsplash, right?

Do you want to see my goofs? Here they are. Be kind.

Restoration Hardware's Optic semi-flushmount in polished nickle. I have two of these down the center of the room. I love the prism glass, and it throws fantastic light. But they're just so darn big. It seems to compete with the hood. It's not quite the right look either. Too vintage American and not vintage English?

Here's the verdigris pendant light from Sundance Catalog. I have two of these as well, one in front of each window. Love its shape and beautiful industrial vibe. But too small for the space. And weirdly at odds with the RH light.

So keep what? Change which? We're keeping everything for now. There's still so much work to be done. Waterlox the floors (again). Prime and paint the rooms and trim. Prime and paint the exterior new shingles.

Speaking of work, I had four different trades in my house today at the same time. It was a madhouse. But look. Grout! More photos tomorrow.

The kitchen sink

They had me worried. They really did. No plumbers by school drop-off. No plumbers by mid-morning. But arrive they did. They used odd-smelling stuff and made loud noises, and here are the results of their day's labor.

This afternoon, I washed grapes for the girls with my new faucet, and I felt like a queen.

(And for you sharp-eyed folks, yes, that's Agatha you see just in frame in the middle photo. She's awaiting a new gas line and installation. Who knows when that will be, but heck. I have running water and a deep sink! I'm one content gal.)

So there's good news and bad news...

The bad news is that I came home this afternoon to find only the short wall of tile up. The back story. The tiler said he would come yesterday. He did not. He declared that he could do the entire job Friday. This morning, it was amended to installation today, grouting tomorrow. And this afternoon...well...you know the story.

This seems to be a recurring reno pattern. A really, really annoying recurring pattern.

The tiler, plumber, and electrician were all scheduled to get their work done this week. One-third out of three isn't the greatest batting average. You'd get sent down to the minors for sure.

I'd been telling my friends that we should have a working kitchen sometime next week. Was I crazy? Tempting fate? Not knocking on wood? Counting my chickens? Ugh.

Good news? Well, I think the backsplash looks good.

Creating a custom blend

yourself is c-r-a-z-y. Gibbering, hair-standing-on-end insanity, I tell you. Making the design look random (but not too random) while making sure that the colors are balanced throughout. I'm seriously thinking about fleeing to Home Depot and grabbing up some crackled cream subway tile.

We are not trained professionals. Do not try this at home.

To make matters more fun, it looks like we're just short on tiles. Last-minute road trip to New Hampshire with little kids! Because of the long weekend, we have to wait until Tuesday to find out if tiles are even available. Deep, even breaths. Whooo.

Counter dance

Like a table dance, only much more expensive and performed fully clothed.

Countertops were installed yesterday. BFR did a beautiful job with the fabrication and installation. The slabs were Beleza soapstone from Dorado on the Cooking Apple Green cabinets. Honed Mountain White Danby marble (a great deal if you're looking, by the way) on the Old White cabinets.

I don't think this photo captures the color of the marble. It is white with gorgeous charcoal veining. The veining has a very slight green cast that marries it perfectly with the soapstone. This Beleza slab has an unusual tone-on-tone movement. I was worried it was too wild, but in the space, I don't think so.

On a side note, our Rohl faucet is still on a truck somewhere so Yale Appliance gave us a loaner faucet to site the countertop holes. When I ordered the faucet, I was very specific about when it was needed. Obviously it didn't arrive on time. However, the mark of a service-oriented company is how it responds to issues that inevitably crop up. We're relieved that Yale agreed to a loaner. It was so helpful, especially because both our sink (the Franke Orca) and our faucet (we call it the "Dalek") are unusually shaped.