Kitchen Layout 101

I just did a twenty minute mean clean today and I’m back in business after a quick four day vacation to a beach house just north of San Diego, in Encinitas, with my mom and dad (and hubby!).

Wins: Early morning walks and jogs on the beach, modern architecture, and going to Lucha Libre with my brother and his girlfriend.

Losses: Rain on Sunday afternoon, and the layout of the rental kitchen.

The kitchen of the vacation rental we stayed in totally sucked. Here’s some advice to not make your (rental) kitchen suck, with a basic lesson in kitchen layout 101:

• Use real flooring. Lines in laminate halfway across the kitchen do not make for good feng shui.
• Work triangle! Make sure you have a working triangle between your sink, refrigerator, and stove, so you can easily go from one place to another, since these are the kitchen hotspots.  This kitchen did not come close. See below, and how I would fix it, if it were my kitchen. And please bear with my Paint skillz for the layouts.



Kitchen As-Is

Work Triangle As-Is

In the above diagram, the work triangle goes through a wall. So unless you’re Superman, or a ghost, this is not going to work well. And it didn’t. Whoever was cooking at the stove felt cut off from the rest of the room, especially since the area below the diagram opened up to the living and eating area.

 

How I would lay out the kitchen, with an effective work triangle

In this layout, there is an efficient work triangle, and it allows the kitchen to feel fuller and more functional. There is plenty of counter space still, and now a bit of extra space where the stove used to be. What would I do with that abandoned hallway where the stove used to be? I’d make a walk in pantry or bar area. It’s not necessary for a rental, but would add a bit to an otherwise useless space in the kitchen.

-Liz

A Home for a Gnome

We have jumped ship from the snowy north and are enjoying a visit to CA. We are moseying from San Francisco down the coast all the way to San Diego. There are so many places to explore. Each one of our 3 kids lives in CA so we get to visit them too.  We love hiking under the majestic redwood forests and exploring the towns and beaches along the coast. Yesterday we decided to take a hike on the Monterey Peninsula up into some hills overlooking the ocean. We went through the most magical redwood forest with a little stream running through as it rambled its way down to the Pacific Ocean. We sat on a big smooth rock next to the little stream to eat our lunch. When we were finished, we looked up and noticed this little HOUSE tucked just off the trail. Someone had made a tiny gnome house in the hollow of a redwood stump. They lashed together a ladder from twigs and made a tiny bed from leaves and braided a rope for the occupants to swing from. Of course, we had to add our stamp to the cottage. Jay, my husband built a second floor addition with a twig pergola covering the front porch; I decorated with a few pine cones and sorrel leaves to make it inviting for the next teeny inhabitant and the next lucky hiker to stumble upon. What a fun way to whittle away an afternoon!   -Peg

Jay playing gnome house under the redwoods

The sorrel lined path under the redwoods

The redwood forest where the gnomes live

Cottages of Monterey Peninsula

My mom toured the Monterey Peninsula by bike the other day, and put this video together on Animoto of the cutest cottages: Cottages of Monterey Peninsula

I think I’d pick the second, very modern house, right now. Though, some of those craftsman ones are cute!

-Liz

Brewery Inspiration

I spent last weekend in Monterey and Pacific Grove, and spent a lovely time with my husband, parents, and dogs! My dog, Daphne, got to hang with my parents’ dog, Sathi, along with all the other dogs in that area!

Sathi at the Beach

Daphne at the Beach

We all went (minus the dogs) to the Monterey Brewing Company for drinks one evening, and had a nice time sitting on their patio with a fire going. The decor of the place was quite surprising and unique. I liked it! (Sorry for the dark photos)

First, you walk in and there’s a real penny tile floor in the alcove. Cool.

Penny Tile

Then, an amazing salvaged bottle chandelier. You could totally make one. I would if I had a more industrial space.

Bottle Chandelier

Then, these neat old found vocab cards framed in the waiting area and bathroom. I am totally doing this next time I go to the flea market. I see these there all the time.

Vocab Card Art

Just a generally nice environment. The beer was ok. The decor was much better.

Additionally, on my trip I scored some nice medium sized copper bottom Revere Ware pots at a garage sale, that now complete a set. I use my small one all the time to cook rice and pasta, and now I can make bigger batches!

Did you score any cool things or see any unique decor inspiration recently?

-Liz

What’s the deal with Nate?

I read a lot of design blogs. Seriously, my Google reader has close to 100. And recently, a few of my favorite bloggers have been going on and on about Nate. Young House Love, Chic Little House, Centsational Girl, to name a few. He even has a TV show that they get to go on, like it’s no big deal and they are professional bloggers and do this all the time. I’m not jealous or anything, but why am I out of the loop and who’s Nate?

I decided to do some research to find out…

Well, Nate Berkus is a designer, an Oprah protégée, and has his own daytime home/talk show. Seening as I am not a full time blogger, and have a 9-5, I don’t watch much daytime TV. His show just started in September 2010, so I don’t feel too out of the loop! I have seen a few clips on youtube, and on his website. And my verdict is that he pretty much rocks as much as these other bloggers say he does. Tons and tons of videos on his show site, makes him like my new HGTV. I’m looking forward to some new inspiration. Oh, I’m still such a design noob.

-Liz

What 15 Minutes Can Do

I saw this amazing before and after from The Intertidal Years–which only uses a little staging and a better photographer, no new things–on a few blogs over the last few days. The results are pretty staggering:

Living Room Before

Living Room After

The blogger staged her house so she could sell it easier, and I thought, hey, why are we all living in so much crap? Why don’t we live in the “after” world all the time?

Well it’s hard to clean, and know what looks good. But I thought I could give it a try with my living room. I gave myself 15 minutes, as just an appetizer of what a good cleanup all over the house can do. And so, my room went from this:

Living room before

To this:

Living Room After

Living Room After

While my living room isn’t perfect, it looks so much better without clutter.

As a sidenote, I watched a few episodes of  Hoarders last night, and it just makes me feel good about how I live– always trying to make my house more homey (as well as sad and depressed about these people with a serious mental illness).

So how else can I make my room homey and welcoming? How would have you staged it? More accessories? Less? Better photography (that’s a given!)?

-Liz

Setting Priorities

Photo by Mark Olson, via House of Turquiose. Look at that awesome dental molding!

It looks like the bathroom remodel will have to wait. At least until this spring. Which is bad for you, because you’ll have to wait a bit for updates about it on the blog, but good for me!

Brentan and I decided that we’re going to take a few trips this winter and early spring, which means less cash to redo the bathroom. It will get done, I just want to make sure that we have the money saved up to do it. So anticipate more pretty inspiration and planning posts, and a little less DIY…

-Liz

Drool

I’m drooling. And husband, you better be glad that we don’t need new linens, because these would be mine so fast!

On sale now at Crate and Barrel:

(Also available in bold blue and lime green!)

Home Resolutions for 2011

For 2011 my goals for my home are:

• Clean out clothes closet and donate old clothes to Goodwill (done today!)
• Redo bathroom (started designing already!)
• Clean out office and make more beautiful. Too much clutter!
• Finish designing guest room. I gave it a start in the last year, but want to make it a bit more polished
• Keep the house clean! Namely: Steam clean carpets, clean grout, keep couches vacuumed, dishes out of sink etc.
• Start a vegetable garden again and maybe expand
• Update the garden in the front of the house, add more native plants and more structure
• Host a party or get together every month

Best wishes for your New Year’s resolutions, and wish me luck for mine!

-Liz

Bathroom Ideas

Like I said in a previous post, I’m planning on renovating my bathroom a bit from this:

to something like this:

From House Beautiful

 

From Cottage Living

 

From Sunset

I’m thinking that the main elements of the bathroom are, many from the pictures above:

• Subway tile
• Glass subway tile (like that gorgeous shower above)
• White and gray marble counter for the vanity
• Mirror along the whole wall
• Long shelf below the mirror
• Light aqua or green walls
• Wall mount sink fixture
• Tile along the bathtub

There will be a few new construction elements–namely a drop ceiling above the bath to allow for a fan and light, and a header above the sink and toilet with can lights. The floors will stay the same since they were recently redone, and I still like them a lot! Oh yeah, and I think my budget is around$2500–but I haven’t priced it all out yet.

Possible challenges:

• Where do I find a mirror that can cover my 69″ wall? Is a custom mirror going to be too expensive?
• Will all the white subway tile look dirty in a little while? How can I keep it all clean?
• Do I stay with the cute blue accent tiles on the floor or go for an accent of glass subway tiles, which I love love love!
• What to make the wall-length shelf out of?
• The design is very streamlined. Do I need to add in some texture or coziness?

So wish me luck–I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my decisions as the happen!

-Liz