Kitchen: Subway Title

Saturday morning we ordered the subway tile for the kitchen back splash. We decided on white, no beveled edge. I have been doing research and think the beveled looks better in a bathroom than the kitchen. We went with a higher grade since we only needed 40 sq feet and Nick receives contractor cost.

Below are some photos of kitchens using white subway title. It looks great with any color scheme and never goes out of style. Hopefully in a few weeks I will be able to show photos of our blacksplash.

Kitchen: No Wall (part 2)

This weekend the studs have been removed from the wall separating the kitchen from the dinning room. It turns out the wall was load bearing, so Nick and my father have spent the weekend supporting the ceiling up in the attic. We are finally starting to see how the room will feel once all the walls are removed. Tomorrow the French doors will be framed in on the sun porch. Once that is complete the remaining interior walls will be able to be torn down. That will make a huge difference.

Purchase: Good Find

I got off early today from work so I went to our local antique mall. I had wonderful luck and found this light fixture in the very first row. For $45 I could not pass it up. I am going to give it a good cleaning, paint it bright white and have it rewired. You never know what good deals you will find.

Let the renovation begin

Saturday I was nagging Nick on when we would start the kitchen renovation. His response was to put a large hole in the wall between the dinning room and the kitchen. Tonight we finished the hole by removing all the dry wall. We can start to see what the space will look like once all the walls are removed. Tomorrow (fingers crossed) we start to install the French doors. The goal is to be finished for Thanksgiving so we can have the whole family over.

Mystery Solved

A few weeks back I went to a local auction to bid on a pair of modern chairs and was completely out bid. I assumed the other bidder knew more about the chairs' real value than I did, but they were still out of my price range. I found them on 1st Dibs tonight at Visiona in Florida. They are Milo Baughman chairs from the 1970s. The pair I saw were in equally good condition. At $3,200 for the pair, the $275 per chair price I passed up does not seem that extravagant.


Auction Chairs

Expensive Chairs

Retail Store Design

I am not a fan of the Abercrombie & Fitch lifestyle, but I do like the interior design of their stores. I like the high gloss white trim, the grey color of the walls and the warmth from walnut fixtures. I admit I often look at retail stores for design ideas, even the large retail chains. Restoration Hardware has wonderful soapstone counter tops at their wrapdesk, J.Crew always has great focal wall colors and currently I admire the mix of color and black/white photos in the uppers at Banana Republic.

Inspiration: Jackie Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy is my primary style inspiration and I have decorated my office with photos and items that remind me of her. The image above is of a poster from the Field Museum’s exhibit of her clothing and artifacts with images from a calendar I had framed. The dress on the mannequin is my favorite dress from my (small) vintage clothing collection. I don’t think Jackie would have ever worn a dress like it, but I still like it. On my other wall I have a large poster of the Andy Warhol Jackie print. It is a bit much, but since it's my office I don't really care.