Cooking Up A Project

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Danielle

My grandmother was a recipe collector. I don’t have memories of her spending hours in the kitchen, but she was always collecting recipes. Don’t get me wrong, she had some stellar “go-to” dishes that I can’t imagine life without. Most of them were made during the holidays… Tom & Jerry’s, Divinity, Depression Fruitcake… but some of them were just every day things like Open Face Salad. The truth is she worked outside the home and when I spent my summers at my grandparents, she was always quick to play Yahtzee or cards with me instead of being in the kitchen when she got home from work. I liked that about my summers with her.

However, when she passed away several years ago, my mom came across all of her recipes. Many of them were torn from newspapers and magazines, but my favorites were those that she took time to write out in her beautiful handwriting. I made sure to get copies of those for my own little collection.

Speaking of my own collection… frankly, it’s a hot mess.

I keep my cookbooks to a minimum, but I continually find myself collecting recipes that girlfriends have emailed me or items from Food Magazine that look SO amazing. But these clippings don’t really fit in a traditional recipe box. They are starting to take on a life of their own and it’s time to wrangle them in.

Last week, I made a trip to IKEA to pick up a set of their KNUFF boxes. I searched several craft stores and container supply and there’s nothing truly like the KNUFF containers. They come in sets of two for $9.99. They are sturdy and (my favorite) customizable.

Before I could prime the box, I taped off the interior. I like the natural wood finish for the inside, but I have something unique planned for the exterior.

In my prep, I was sure to cover the holes too.

Once everything was taped up, it was time to prime.

Then came a few light coats of black spray paint.

For the next part of this project, I color copied one of my grandmother’s recipes. My plan is to create a decorative border from the antiqued cards that are in my grandmother’s handwriting. Of course, I didn’t want to destroy any of her original recipe cards and they copied beautifully onto a heavy card stock. I also picked up Washi Tape and these decorative frames.

Before applying my copied recipe cards, I marked a 1.25 inch guideline around the bottom of the KNUFF box.

I then applied the copied recipe cards with Mod Podge and sealed the whole box off with a top coat.

Using leftover chalkboard labels and my chalk marker, I was able to make a title card for the inside of the wood frame.

I love having a larger box to put all me random recipes in… one that can stand up easily next to my cookbooks. Tyson loves that life is a little more organized in our home.

Do you have a special memory of your grandparents that makes you smile? What about a family recipe that has been passed down through the years? How do you contain recipe clutter?

This project was made with love and is being included in Victoria Elizabeth Barnes‘ link-up party. To check out all the other well loved projects or to share your own, you can visit Victoria’s site here.

Modern Conveniences

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Danielle

It’s been a while since I’ve shared an update about our kitchen remodel. But if you follow me on Instagram, you know that we recently had a little addition to the space. This baby arrived a few weeks ago and has been a pretty big deal in our lives.

The reason for the fanfare is that we didn’t have a microwave…. for four and half years.

It’s not for any noble or environmentally conscious reason; we just didn’t have one.

We used to have one. When we moved into our home, there was no built-in and so we purchased a cheap counter top microwave. Our intention was that “someday” we would install one above the stove.

Sometimes that “someday” can take awhile. Eight years later, we were still living with our “temporary solution” when there was a small fire in it. Thankfully no one was hurt and the fire was contained to the oven itself. At the time, money was tight and replacing it wasn’t high on the priority list. So I learned to cook without a microwave.

And we got used to not having a one. Honestly, it really wasn’t that difficult since I’ve never been a big microwave user. We mainly used it to heat water and make popcorn. So we bought a kettle and an air popper and we were content. The only time we even noticed it’s absence was when we would have friends or family over and they needed to warm something. Well…. then and when we went out of town and I realized I was leaving our housesitters without a modern convenience.

However, someday has finally arrived. After lots of research, we picked out a microhood and have begun demolition of our kitchen cabinets.

**This is probably a great place to note that while ALL of this was going down, I was at a conference. This install was actually a three day process with numerous trips to Home Depot that I was in no way involved in. This is going to look surprisingly easy because for me, it was. Tyson would tell you otherwise.**

Part of the delay in tackling this project was that we knew installing a built-in microwave meant that we would have to customize the cabinets. The upper cabinets that hide the vent tubing for the stove hood are the perfect height for the hood, but too low for a microwave. We would need to cut and raise the cabinets by five inches. We didn’t want to do that until we knew we were ready to actually paint the cabinets.

The process included moving the power source up a few inches as well.

**I’m suddenly realizing that with the big hole above my stove, there is no turning back, is there? Yikes!**

Once the hood was removed and the cabinet cut to the size we needed, Tyson added a support bar across the back.

He also custom cut a new shelf for the cabinet.

To allow for all of the vent tubing, Tyson cut out spaces in the support bar and the shelf for the duct to feed through. He made sure there was a hole for the power cable to feed up through too.

Then it was just a matter of following the manufacturer’s installation directions.

Once the microwave was installed, he changed out the vent with a transition piece and used duct tape to seal the exhaust system.

As for the microwave itself, we went with the LG LMV1683ST. It’s brushed stainless steel like our other appliances and we came across a killer deal for it online. It was the most bang for our buck, it’s pretty and it will cook things… all this girl could ever hope for.

We still have plans to add a decorative panel across the front where the two cabinet doors were. The panel will still open to access the exhaust tubing and power source, but for all intensive purposes it will look like decorative molding above the microwave. That’s the next step and I can’t wait!

Are you working on any big projects that are steadily coming along? Have you ever gotten comfortable living without something that’s pretty common place? Is there an appliance in your home that you could never live without?

Scope Creep

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Danielle

Our home is very open and you can see many of the rooms from different angles. It’s one of the features we absolutely loved about the place when we first saw it and we have had tons of fun playing with color and accent walls within the space. In fact, I recently realized we have 15 different paint colors throughout our home. Saying we aren’t afraid of color is maybe an understatement.

However, I’ve noticed the trend of having multi-colored walls within a room is getting… dare I say it… a bit dated. I don’t know… I still like the idea, but I’m just not seeing the trend of accent walls as much as I once did. And there are spots in our home that could use some freshening up. So since we had the paint, tarps and ladders out, our little kitchen project crept into a few other areas too.

In our dining room we had an accent wall that we both were kinda done with.

Accent Wall

Tyson was feeling like the red was played out so he wanted to update that. For me, I wanted to say goodbye to the accent wall all together. We killed two birds and continued the taupe that was in the rest of the room and kitchen across that wall.

Dining Room Wall

This wall also bends down the stairs, around into the family room.

Old Paint Meets New Paint

We decided to cover the lower wall (which is a part of the family room) with Chocolate Sparkle to shift that room from having three colored walls to two.

Lower Family Room Wall

Tyson’s not super excited about the stark contrast where the two colors meet, but I like that the new paint balances and streamlines the colors that you see when you are in a particular room.

New New Paint

We also needed to paint this cut-out on our stairs. This house has more pot shelves and niches than I know what to do with. But that is a discussion for another post.

Cut-out Before

We will eventually frame in the shelf with molding (and possibly lighting) to accent this spot.

Painted Shelf

I also came home from picking up more paint and Tyson was ready to tackle this small hall off the family room.

Hall Before

More neutral paint… yes, please.

Hall After

The doors getting a coat of paint and some trim are also on our “to-do” list. Someday… someday… For now, the painting is complete and I’m happy to be living without tarps and tools everywhere.

Do your projects creep into other areas? How have trends and/or your tastes changed over the last few years? And since I have kitchens on the brain, I thought I’d share this article on Hot Kitchen Trends for 2013. Lots of things that we are considering which is always encouraging. See any new ideas that inspire you?

Chocolate Sparkle

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Danielle

Phase one of our kitchen plan is complete! Admittedly, this is probably going to be the easiest step, but it’s the first step in the right direction and I am crazy excited. The walls are painted and already breathing new life into our kitchen. Life that I had no idea it was lacking.

We brought the dark brown that was already in the family room all the way into the kitchen. It’s one massive wall that is finally finished in Chocolate Sparkle by Behr.

Chocolate Sparkle by Behr

It looks like chocolate pudding. It is not.

Because the wall runs the width of our home, it is impossible to accurately photograph the entire area. For funsies, Evan helped me snap a few pics with my iPhone Panorama feature. We live in a split level so here is the wall from the kitchen… weird lighting and all.

Kitchen Panoramic

And here is the same wall from the family room.

Family Room Panoramic

We also brought the taupe in from the formal living room and dining room. It’s Pronghorn by Behr and we had it color matched since it’s from an old line. How about a little “before & after” action, shall we?

Kitchen Corner 1-Before Kitchen Corner 1-After

Hmmm… that’s not looking super-dramatic. Maybe from the other corner of the kitchen?

Kitchen Corner 2-Before Kitchen Corner 2-After

Yeah… not so much. In fact, that sound you hear is the air escaping my excitement over having this step accomplished. Bummer.

In real life, you can definitely see a difference. Painting the room has married the colors from the two main living areas that are connected by the kitchen.

The good news: Even with just paint, the space is already feeling more like “us”. I’m not sure I know exactly what that means, but I know it when I see it.

All of the high spaces are complete and look fresh and clean. This required a lot of time for Tyson on a very high ladder and me below loading the brushes and rollers with paint to pass back up to him.

Paint in High Places

The bad news: We are living with A LOT of brown. We are so happy with the paint, but it screams to have the cabinets and molding updated in white to balance out all the brown and orange tones.

More Contrast to Come

The two arrows point to the same paint color in two different areas of our home. Once the cabinets are painted white, there will be a lot more contrast and a lot less brown/orange. I just have to remember the transition has begun and none of this is permanent.

How do you stay inspired when a big project is in progress? What color have you painted that has created the most drama in your home? Could your friends see a difference when you showed them what you’ve been working on? Well, the next set of pictures will have a little more contrast. Promise.

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Stories About Life & Home

Category Archives: kitchen

Cooking Up A Project

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Modern Conveniences

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Scope Creep

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Chocolate Sparkle

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