Inspiration
Small Kitchens: Solutions for Renters & Homeowners
Note from Jane: Welcome back to Julia, who’s going to be blogging here at The Borrowed Abode more regularly! Take it away . . .
Kitchens are a blight to many a renter. Scroll past the first picture for lots of useful eye candy.
Behold.
Before you look, 1) Have mercy for this is an old photo and I had a young infant (clearly) with me. That is also not my light fixture. I put it up there to be silly and see how it would look. But the cabinets are orangey-pink, my table was too big (we have a new one now) and the baby stuff has for the moment been removed. Oh and the mess has been picked up. 2) Please don’t pin this. That would be…embarrassing.
Now that I’ve stated and shown the obvious reasons rental kitchens can suck, let me go over a few more reasons why they frequently do:
- Too small
- Not enough storage OR
- Lots of cabinet storage that isn’t useful/makes no sense
- Dead wall space
- Narrow walking space (oven and fridge can’t be open at the same time, etc.)
Feel free to add more gripes and solutions in the comments.
That being said, I’d love to point out the number one way to fix a rental kitchen: just learn to live with it. While we may dream of granite counter tops and non-linoleum flooring I always find it best to focus on what I can do.
#1 I can COOK in my kitchen despite the fact that ___________. (Fill in the blank with your preferred reason)
The most amazing example I can think of regarding utility in small kitchens is Deb @ Smitten Kitchen. She is my go to for delicious recipes and gorgeous photography. Her kitchen happens to be just 42 sq. ft. (if you can believe it once you check out her site.) She has a great post with small kitchen maximizing tips that’s worth a read.
#2 I can maximize storage in my wee kitchen.
The nice thing about ugly old kitchens is that they are often already jacked up enough for me to continue the tradition of jacking them up. Behold, great kitchen ideas:
- Hooks under cabinets
- Use cabinet fronts for additional storage
- New uses of space and items: Tension rods as cabinet dividers, cake stands as counter storage, and tiny shelves wherever there’s room for them
- When in doubt, go vertical and use up your wall space – I add this point out of love. Between a huge window and a galley kitchen with cabinets in every inch of it, I have no room to go vertical.
Yeah, that last kitchen is pretty and the microwave is unrealistically small. And it has marble. But it has vertical storage that is likely affordable, so we can forgive the pretty I hope.
So, any amazing kitchen ideas that ya’ll have implemented in your rentals and homes? My kitchen needs help for sure (as we have witnessed), but with so much web inspiration out there I’m sure I can figure something out.
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Choosing Colors For the Guest Bedroom
After I lugged home my new-to-me bed frames for the guest room and shared them with you on the blog, I became seriously obsessed with the guest room decor plan. I’ve had most of the room figured out for a while, but the one thing I hadn’t settled on was a color scheme and textile choices. The easiest way to create a color scheme is to pic an inspiration piece or two – whether it’s something as small as a beautiful painting or colored vase, or as large as a phenomenal patterned rug.
The guest room will be a great place to experiment with Tempaper, a supposedly renter-friendly temporary and removable wallpaper. And because they offer limited colors and patterns, I decided to choose a roll of Tempaper for the accent wall and take the color scheme from there. (Bonus: Tempaper is Made in the USA!)
My favorite design of all is the Marrakesh patten, but I felt that it was too dark and bold and big for the small, low-ceilinged room.
The still dark and bold Read the rest of this entry »
Practical Tattoos: Gallery Wall Art
Hi all. I’m Julia, Jane’s virtual assistant. I hijacked the blog today because back when Jane posted on gallery walls I got excited thinking about art. I love art, and studied art history in order to be a curator (long story for another time, I am not a curator). Anyhow, this is the image that drove me to new levels of inspiration:
My brain started whirring on how practical but beautiful this small gallery is. I pitched the idea to Jane for a post on gallery art.
She said: “Heck yeah! You write it. It’ll be great.”
Cue nervousness – I blogged back in the day and quickly realized I’m a behind the scenes kind of gal. I likes me some spreadsheets, data entry, and email writing.
Enough about me, come take a walk through my virtual gallery of gallery wall art where we’ll look at gallery walls from the perspective of 1) usefulness and 2) Tattoo potential.
Decorate Book Signing & Blogger Meetup
One of the highlights – ok, the biggest highlight – of my mostly-work trip to SoCal was meeting up with several bloggers at the Decorate book signing & mood board event with Holly Becker!
Do you know about Holly? Her blog Decor8 is full of beautiful inspiration, fabulous home tours, and peeks at unique businesses and artists. I also love Holly’s sense of style, so I knew when she published a book that I had to check it out. The spaces on her blog, I think of them as more “real,” yet still beautiful and almost perfect.
But even better than her blog is her e-course Blogging Your Way. I took the course last fall, and it exceeded my expectations. I learned a lot but was also just inspired so much by Holly’s stories and approach. Her weekly podcasts were definitely a highlight. The course is actually open for registration again, and I highly recommend it. There were hundreds of people in the course, but somehow I connected with a few, primarily Kelly of the blog EverKelly. Read the rest of this entry »
Reader Q: Jenn’s living room decor dilemma(s)
I was emailing with one of my fave blog buddies, Jenn at Peas and Crayons, when she popped a question. No, not that question! A question about home decor!
“I have to design the living room, and my stuff doesn’t match. Our furniture is the same color as the floor. It doesn’t come with blinds either! Should I just get curtains now and blinds later? Or blinds first, then curtains as I can afford them? ”
Because the house is being built, Jenn doesn’t have any photos of the space yet. However, she knows the flooring will be dark, and the walls will be a cool light gray, like in this gorgeous Pin-spiration photo:
Talk about starting off with an awesome blank slate. She’ll have white molding and a white chair rail running through the living room, with several large windows and a sliding glass door.
Hangin’ Out? I wish.
If money were no object, I’d spend lazy summer days hangin’ out in this:
Er, I’d actually want two. Or three. To hang in my backyard. Like this:
It’s called the NestRest and it’s from Dedon. I’ve had trouble finding details on the prices, though two sets of comments on two separate blogs said that it retails for about $15,000.
FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?
FOR A CHAIR?
You’ve gotta be kidding me. Guess I’d better find a way to DIY or build this.
Social Graces Shop & DIY Decor Ideas
Every once in a while I happen upon a local shop that is so beautifully and invitingly decorated, that I find myself wandering around and wanting to buy things I know I don’t need. If that isn’t expert merchandising, then I don’t know what is.
Such was the case on a solitary Sunday, when I wandered into Social Graces, a store offering stationery, gifts, and invitations in the Hillsboro neighborhood of Nashville.
One display in the middle of the shop immediately caught my eye: This elegantly rough old cabinet, the merchandise nestled in straw . . .
. . . and what is that over-sized garland I spy?
It’s a new twist on the coffee filter wreath/garland look. Circles of what appear to be unbleached muslin, white cotton, and brown and white coffee filters sandwiched together, and strung out on a strand of twine. I never loved the plain coffee filter wreaths, but this I am dying to try at home.
But the inspiration didn’t stop there. Every way I turned I spied beautiful arrangements of even more beautiful candles and paper goods.
These Voluspa Candles kept catching my attention, and one probably would have come home with me if I hadn’t had an already-overflowing suitcase.
Ok, I’ll admit it: Besides the luscious scents, I really just wanted the candles for their containers.
When I was convinced I couldn’t absorb one more ounce of decor awesomeness, I turned to leave, and noticed the amazing paper flower display adorning the window.
It’s totally DIY-able . . . if you’ve got a seriously patient, detail-oriented personality. Look how intricate the different types of flowers are. Wouldn’t it make a gorgeous accent, arching across a bare wall in your home – perhaps for a wedding or baby shower?
In addition to all the eye candy, the shop offers custom wedding invitations, letterpress stationery, and has friendly and helpful staff.
Have you discovered any good locally-owned shops lately?
Psst: Note to shop-loving bloggers: Just for the sake of politeness, it’s always a good idea to ask for permission before whipping out the camera and photographing parts of a shop. I’ve yet to have a shop owner say no, and it offers a great way to get a conversation going.
{Recap} Holiday party & Vera Wang
Friday night found me and Ryan racing home from work, then getting all dolled up for our company’s holiday party – held at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space museum. Not the one in downtown DC, but the one by the airport. It’s quite an experience to attend a formal party held in a vast airplane-hangar-turned-museum, with space shuttles and vintage spy planes all around you. In addition to the fun of decking black tie attire and eating amazing food, I love checking out the party decor and tablescapes each year. Last year I shared a few photos from my camera – like this crazy pink feather centerpiece:
This year all I had handy was Ryan’s phone, which had a bit of trouble with the lighting. But here we go:
First, it’s amazing to be selecting desserts from a table directly at the nose of the Enterprise. But from a decor & DIY perspective, what I loved was these simple iridescent cone trees that were on each of the tables by the space shuttle.
These two arrangements both made the use of huge birch branches, which I think is totally over the top and totally awesome. I’m guessing since Ryan likes to leave the branches outside, though, this would never fly in the borrowed abode.
I liked this arrangement because of its simplicity, and use of natural elements. The two tall vases are filled with water and a single floating candle, then skinny sticks (taller than the vases) are placed against them and held in place with a wrapping of birch bark. I love it!!
Another one of those floating candles, this time with another vase full of huuuuuuge birch branches.
All in all, I think these are some great ideas for simple, mostly-natural table decor. Airplanes optional, of course.
And now let’s talk fashion. I was so stoked to be able to borrow this beautiful Vera Wang gown from my friend Carolynn. She’s always finding the most awesome unique designer items on eBay and other sites.
I. Love. It.
(Note to the ladies: it’s really convenient if you can arrange for your man’s best friend to get engaged to a woman your size, with an eye for designer duds.) She didn’t buy a new dress either, wearing instead a simple black satin (silk?) dress from a previous year, and rocked it – going for a 1940′s glamour look, with simple upswept hair and sparkling antique family jewelry.
And here I am with my handsome man . . . when we got home from the party, and I finally took my shoes off. He may have been crossing his eyes in this . . . I set the camera to take 6 shots automatically, and he screwed most of them up with his goofball antics. :)
The end.
