I normally have tons of cooking adventures to write about, but this week the most adventurous thing that happened to me was burning my arm quite badly while making Rice Krispie squares - and the irony was that I was making them because I didn't want to make anything more complicated. Oh ha ha, me!
It's a pretty dandy burn, actually, and has been great for freaking out my kids, but it also has been reminding me that there are lots of bad things that can happen in the kitchen. Knives! Boiling water! Broken glass! Falling off of the chair that you've pushed up to the cupboards to get the stupid trifle dish down! And since I cook A LOT and I'm accident-prone to begin with, you may gather that I also have more than my share of exciting kitchen incidents. The funniest - in retrospect, although NOT SO MUCH AT THE TIME - was the time I blew up an entire sink full of dishes by first heating them up on the stove and then throwing a bottle of frozen water on top (ta da!), and the scariest BY FAR was the time The Boy (who was only 2 at the time) pulled AN ENTIRE DISHWASHER on top of himself. And just the memory of that - ACK. He was okay, but STILL.
There are the safety rules that we all know (at least, I hope we all know them): keep pot handles turned in towards the stove, for example. And then there are things that SHOULD be well known kitchen rules, like "always make sure you close your upper cupboards so that when you reach down to get something, you don't brain yourself as soon as you stand up." If I had this nicely embroidered on a sampler, maybe, I would have far fewer kitchen accidents, but alas, it's hard to find an olde time vintage sampler with "Close Your Cupboard Doors, You Moron." embroidered on it by some gentle hand.
Here's how our kitchen renovations are going along so far:
Oh yeah. That's my bedroom AGAIN. We haven't been able to start our kitchen renovations yet, which means that my husband has been doing tons of smaller renos around the house, and that we FINALLY have the beginnings of a nice bedroom! When he started painting yesterday, we weren't sure if the ceiling was pink or if it only LOOKED pink because of the walls. The answer is kind of obvious now, isn't it? So we're going to have that all finished by mid-week, which will be nice - especially nice, since we're camping out with the kids right now. And having a nice bedroom will be our tenth anniversary - ten years this Friday! - gift to ourselves.
The kitchen renovations should start - I HOPE - in August. What should we make sure to include in our plans? Is there anything in your kitchen that makes your life much easier? Open cupboards or not-open cupboards? And most importantly, what colour should we paint it? Our theoretical kitchen renovation thanks you.
Lovely shade for a bedroom! (I loved the pink gingham too.)
If I were able to design my kitchen I'd be sure to include pull-outs in my cabinets! There's nothing quite like simplicity and ease when trying to reach for a stubborn pot in the back of a cabinet. As for color, anything but yellow in a kitchen or bath. I'm wierd, I know, but yellow in those areas where cleanliness is vital reminds me of, well, something that belongs in the toilet. :)
Enjoy your renovations!! What fun.
What a lovely colour - especially with the great roof line!
In my kitchen I built (yes, ME - unlike yours, my husband is not handy) a large (3.5 x 5.5 ft) tiled island that serves as table, a computer station, a place to put hot pans and dishes and a storage unit for bigger appliances. It really makes the kitchen.
I am all over the pull out cabinets Kristen mentioned. I think they are a must. In my last house I had white cabinets with sunny yellow walls. It was a century home and it was such a cheery room. I loved it, and miss it.
I love the new colors, missing my own in fact now that we have gone neutral.
(Taupe everywhere. Blah.)
Happy anniversary to you both.
Pretty! What colors are you going to paint the ceiling and floor?
Hey! Great post. I have oven mitts up to my elbows, gifts from my boys who know that I have burn scars up and down my arms. Something to do with being 5 feet tall and reaching into the cavern of the oven.
Kitchen ... I always go with neutral colors for the major items, like counter top color, floor color, etc. That way, if you LOVE olive green this year but hate it next, you are only buying new kitchen towels to offset your style flip-flops.
I LOVE a large pantry. I have few cabinets, but the pantry saves my life. You can never have too much storage. And for storage, they make a lot of inexpensive things you can add on to the inside doors of the cabinets, or stacking inside to fit more plates ... stuff like that.
Have fun. A new bedroom sounds wonderful. Every couple needs a bit of an escape don't you think??
I'm sticking with redecorating my daughter's bedroom whilst she's away at camp - we compromised - she wanted red walls! Pillar box red! [what is that in American I wonder?]
So it's white walls [red carpet] and red curtains.
cheers
"always make sure you close your upper cupboards so that when you reach down to get something, you don't brain yourself as soon as you stand up."
WHAT? This happens? Who does this? Tall people, I suppose. Score one for us small people -- we seldom hit our head on things.
Good luck with the renovations.
Ooo I love the slanted ceiling!!!
Beck, I love the roofline in your bedroom.
As for the kitchen, here's a list of things I'd do in my own if I had the chance:
*top-quality countertop (like granite, or something similar)
*euro hinges on the cupboard doors (so you don't have ugly hinges on the outside)
*white cabinets (sure you have to clean them lots, but in 10 more years you won't be lamenting the honey oak)
*oversized fridge (ours is always overflowing...especially the freezer!)
That's my wish list...maybe it'll help you with yours.
What a lovely color!
Well I can't live without my garburator. And like the other's said those pull out drawer cabinets are the most wonderful things. And I always wish I had a walk in pantry like all the new houses have. Although, I would know for sure, because well I don't get a kitchen reno. I'm just dreamin'.
As you know, I love a yellow kitchen. But I was also very tempted by red and brown. Sherwin Williams Plantation Brown would be lovely in a kitchen (though perhaps a bit dark - it depends on the amount of light and the cabinetry). Benjamin Moore Bonaparte is a nice cheery red for a kitchen - not too tomato-y or pink-y.
I'm most excited about the desk in my kitchen. My mom has one and I've always wanted one.
I think you'll need a special little book rack for all the handy dandy cookbooks you have. Or are going to write. ???? :)
We ripped out our entire kitchen last summer. It took about 6 weeks. The longest six weeks of my life. But I would do it all again looking back on it. I love my kitchen. :)
Good luck!
Like Bea, I like yellow kitchens.
My only advice is a negative one: do not be tempted by those inexpensive peel-and-stick linoleum tiles. They look good only briefly, then they shrink or shift slightly, leaving sticky lines between them that collect dirt and look absolutely awful. Yes, we put them down on our kitchen floor and that is how I know.
I LOVE your bedroom. The color too, but I love bedrooms with the cool architectural angles. Very neat. We completely redid our kitchen last year. We went with Kraftmaid cabinetry because we have a wall of cabinets that is not standard depth, and because of a soffet issue we wanted to keep the depth where they are. Kraftmaid allows you to customize such details for no additional charge. My pantry cabinets all have the deluxe pullout drawers, and I LOVE them. Super easy to use. We also put the automatic stops so the kids can't slam them. I like that too. Beside my stove I have what they call a pull-out cabinet. I keep my oils, vinegars, some spices, etc. in that cabinet. Very handy. We have a double cabinet that I absolutely love. It has a drawer that holds the silverware, a built-in knife block w/cutting board, a bread cabinet, and pots and pans storage with a pull-out drawer. I love that cabinet. On our counters, to save money, we went with granite tile, and I love that too. All the convenience of granite, without the big cost. Good luck and have fun. When we were all done, I wished we could do it again with what we had learned. Of course, we WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!
That's sort of the color of my bedroom (at least it looks similar from the lighting in the picture), and I LOVE it--it is so soothing to wake up in the morning to that color or sit and read in there in the late afternoon. Enjoy it!
I don't have any kitchen color ideas, but I love my island (if you have room)--I do all my food prep/serving on it.
Your bedroom looks lovely. As for the kitchen remodel-- another vote for the pull-out drawers next to the stove. I use them for my spices. Also, a pull-out for a trash can is nice.
Oh, and I need that sampler for my kitchen. I am a moron who bangs her head a lot.
We painted our bedroom a similar color a few weeks ago! It's so restful to the eyes.
We're in the middle of a kitchen mini-reno now. We just added an under-mounted sink, and I think it's great! No more water puddles & grime to clean out with a toothpick.
I am with ADM yeah for short people, I can pass under all my cupboards open or not. As for other stuff, I have tons of accidents. My new saving grace have been my Crocs, even when I drop something on my foot it never hurts and all my toe-stubbing too. My Crocs save my feet everyday.
Can't wait to see your new kitchen...I have always liked a creamy yellow for a kitchen even though mine is a light taupe-ish colour.
We just last year painted our cabinets white. I am pleasantly surprise at how clean they have stayed! So, whereas, a year ago, I would have said, no white cabinets, now, I would say, go for it. Our kitchen is a Behr shade called "latte". It is neutral and warm. Now that we have the Pergo flooring in, I love my kitchen.
I love our bedroom too, as I love the dreamy color your is now... our bedroom is a Martha Stewart Living color called "Not Quite Cocoa".... how can you go wrong with the connotation of chocolate in the color!
I brain myself on an open cupboard daily. When will I learn?? I need that sampler.
Those are really cool windows in your bedroom. (And Happy 10th in case I forget on Friday!!)
In the kitchen - I'd love me some of those drawers that have the pull-out shelves in them. I don't know how difficult they are, but it sounds as if your Husband man can do pretty much ANYTHING.
What a nice 10th anniversary gift!!
Every once in awhile I take it into my head to do some cross-stitching. If and when that urge strikes again, I promise to make you a sampler telling you to close your cabinet doors.
I don't anticipate that urge striking anytime soon, however. But if it does, that's the project I'll do!
I need that sampler. Oh how many times i have brained myself.....
Happy Anniversary. A freshly decorated room is a great gift.
Are you just painting your kitchen? Did I miss something? You have such great old cabinets.
I have these new fancy ones that are not even made out of wood because apparently wood is for idiots or people who have husbands who hand craft things or multimillionaires, not for anyone who buys a kitchen from a kitchen store.
sorry to hear about the burn on your arm - ouch! The bedroom looks like it's coming along nicely - and that's a better paint scheme for a married couple's bedroom then the pink from before LOL :)
The walls look GREAT!
Your exploding dishes story made me cringe, Beck. Good grief. The falling dishwasher gave me a little chill too.
Like you, I try to be mindful of all the things that can happen in a kitchen too. You make it sound like a war zone. LOL
Your poor arm. All for rice crispy treats.
Yeah, I'd say that ceiling is definitely pink. I love the new color. Can't wait to see the floor when you're done with it too.
My kitchen advice has already been mentioned, but I strongly recommend having cupboards with pullouts. We added them to our kitchen after a few years of never using any food in the backs of the cupboards because we could never get in that far. Such a waste of space really!!! Once we installed pullouts on all of them, everything is easily accessible. They are the best thing we did for our kitchen.
Have fun with all the renovations!!
Marta
i vote for cream-colored cupboards w glass inserts:)
I love the new bedroom color!
One thing that I learned about in architecture school (YES! Something useful!) was that you want your "work triangle" as small as possible. The work triangle consists of the distance between sink, stove and fridge. The larger any side of said triangle, the more time you will waste taking unnecessary steps, spilling more, cleaning up the spills, etc.
Colors? If I could re-do a kitchen (mine isn't even worth re-doing at this point), I would want the walls a happy color. Maybe a bright (but not neon) green or a happy blue. Since I spend a lot of time there as well, I would want something I wouldn't get sick of. Pink, for instance. :)
That is a funky-cool line for a bedroom ceiling. It reminds me, startling, of my own. I think we had the "twin houses" conversation once, right? Now I feel like I should paint my bedroom, which hasn't been done since before we had kids. You heard me.
My son put in a tiny bar sink in the corner of my butcher block island. This is the hand washing, dog waterbowl-filling, etc. station. Opposite the island, I have an antique porcelain double sink with a drainboard on each side-all one piece and I love it! No need for a dish drainer of any kind. If you get a really tall faucet, that helps a lot also, you can wash anything then.
I soooo know what you're going through with the home renovations. We did some pretty drastic things in our family and living rooms and still aren't quite done after many many months. (I truly hope you aren't cursed with a lengthy renovation too.)
As far as ideas for kitchen renovations...wow, I'm sure you have a ton of great suggestions. You could always take a feng shui approach and use a color that matches the chi of the room...just a thought. My personal favorite color for the kitchen is green. Our kitchen is kind of a sage green - I love how it looks. I'd prefer to not have doors on my cabinets or at least have glass inserts, but I don't have neat stacks in my cabinets. I've still got lots of plastic kids dishes and cups that tumble everywhere and look icky. Good luck with the remodel!!
Funny post--yes the kitchen is an exciting and dangerous place! Who says staying at home is dull?
I love your bluey-green room! The pink gingham was amazing though! How hard to move on but I totally understand...pink wouldn't do anything for my hubby!
Good luck on the kitchen renos...I wanted to get around to repainting my cabinets as they're looking quite dingy after ten years...speaking of which...Happy Anniversary! I've been married 15...the day before you--July 24. Hope yours was grand!