Archive for October, 2011
The Dunphy Kitchen from ABC’s Modern Family I’m not really a sitcom person, per se, but Modern Family totally cracks me up. My kids love it too, and I like watching it with them—some of the more adult themes sail right over their heads, but others bring up important questions, in a natural, organic way. [...]
Refinishing your existing cabinets is one great way to refresh without replacing. A couple weekends of work and about a hundred dollars in paint will net a dramatic new look. Even faster and cheaper? Just swap out your old cabinet knobs and pulls. The results may not be quite as jaw-droppingly-different, but updating your cabinet [...]
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a dishwasher built before 1994 wastes more than 10 gallons of water per cycle. Upgrading to a new Energy Star-qualified dishwasher will save, on average, 1,300 gallons of water over its lifetime. That’s a big deal, environmentally speaking. And it’s a good reason to replace your older [...]
I’ve had a hard time getting into a suitably spooky mood this year. I think it’s because October has felt more like early September here in New York. I need a little chill in the air to shiver, you know? But we finally got the Halloween decorations up this weekend, and I went pumpkin [...]
Choosing pendant lighting to hang above the kitchen dining table isn’t quite the same as choosing a fixture to illuminate the island, or a countertop. Style is important everywhere, of course, but here the look of the light is really key: Because it hangs at eye level, in a (usually) small space, the fixture is [...]
We spent last weekend visiting friends in the country. They have a gorgeous old farmhouse that needs work pretty much everywhere, including (conveniently) the kitchen. They’ve just stripped the floral wallpaper from the kitchen walls, and now they’re picking paint colors and browsing fabrics for the triple windows over the sink. Because they’re keeping the [...]
The other day when I wrote about my beloved breakfast nook, it dawned on me that, really, the most important element in the space is the table. Our breakfast table isn’t anything particularly special in looks—it’s a simple round oak pedestal-style—but it means a lot to us. Like most of our “meaningful” furniture, the table’s [...]
Our kitchen has several strikes against it: It’s small, it’s a galley, and it has doorways on each end of the prep space (so there’s always at least one kid tramping through the kitchen while we’re scrambling to get dinner together). Fortunately, It also has one saving grace: a sunny breakfast nook. The nook isn’t [...]
For a long time, I only wore silver-colored metals. A stainless steel watch, platinum wedding rings, silver earrings. Gold felt fusty and old to me, like something my mother would wear. Then, suddenly, I reversed myself: Now, I almost always wear jewelry in gold finishes (except the wedding rings: those are constant). Gold feels fresh [...]
I enjoy organizing. Sure, it’s hard work, and when I’m knee-deep in whatever I’m sorting and rearranging I can feel overwhelmed and bitter. But at the end, when the drawer or the shelf or the room is neat and orderly, I get that rush of accomplishment: satisfaction in a job well done. Cleaning doesn’t [...]
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