Displaying posts from October, 2008

My younger sister’s boyfriend Dave sent me a link to this video today, with the subject “Maybe this should have been your kitchen :)”. My kitchen is pretty small, but not this small. Thanks Dave, but I think I’ll stick to my Greentea kitchen. 😉 (video via Gizmodo)

I was pretty much rendered verklempt when I discovered the portfolio of Rachel Whiting, a photographer based in London. The light and composition are so perfect for these relatively simple spaces. There seems to be a little something special and noteworthy in each photograph.

This blog chronicles my entire kitchen renovation from start to finish. Greentea Design has provided me with their kitchen cabinets, and I’m taking care of the rest.

If you’d like to be brought up to date, check out my kitchen remodel blog for an archive of previous posts. I’ve described my cabinets in detail, so now I thought I’d start in on all the fun purchases that goes along with a kitchen renovation. These next few posts I will cover things like the appliances, sink, faucet, countertop, backsplash and lighting.

I thought I’d start with lighting, one of my favourite items to dress up a space. I have always been drawn to lamps and pendant lights, so when I was planning the lighting for the kitchen, I wanted to make it a focal point. But once I decided on making lighting a feature, I started to panic a bit. There aren’t many decent lighting stores in this city, but I did check out a few. I started looking online as well but got a bit concerned about some of the shipping prices. One online store was quoting 20% of the purchase for shipping and other related costs. This renovation is going to have me in debt as it is, and my house needs a TON of other work, so I have a really hard time spending my hard earned money on high shipping costs. So I really wanted to try and find items locally.

Since my kitchen will be long and narrow, I will need a long and narrow dining table to be placed down the center of it (I have no dining room). I made a pretty simple decision to hang pendants over it. My first thought was a Nelson bubble lamp. I’ve always wanted one. But I really like the look of the saucer lamp, and I think that one would work better over a round table. I started looking locally and found something at a large lighting store called Multi Luminaire:

I liked the industrial look of it and it was similar to ones I had considered ordering online. They had 2 sizes, one for $80 and one for $120, and I figured I would get maybe 3 to hang in a row over the table. But then….

More of this post HERE

It’s hard to put a label on London based interior designer Clare Williams’ style. Her portfolio shows she can turn her hand to most but still with a contemporary twist. Her extensive travels especially to South Africa have led to a love of ethnic design which is evident in her work. Beautiful open spaces with well curated accessories revealing the owner’s loves.

Architect Kristine Woolsey launched Arizona-based Woolsey Studio in 1994, and has since designed hundreds of homes, restaurants, museums, community centers and other building types. They also have interior and landscape designers on staff. Talk about one-stop shopping! Love their spacious modern designs. Check out the second photo – it’s a custom front door that swings 180 degrees! And those kitchens! (But what’s up with the harness above the bed?? Interesting…)