Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Putting the kitchen in the hot seat


I have big dreams for our little kitchen. Please join me on a little free-form musing of what I think could work...

Don't get me wrong; it's a nice place with way more cabinet space than I've ever been used to (not dividing it among three roommates helps) and--gasp!--it even has a pantry!

(Pictures as it was with the previous owner)

There's a lot to love about it: hardwood floors, inoffensive black granite counter tops, decent appliances, enough room for a table. Nothing really to complain about at all.

And yet.

Ehh, I think it's sort of long on potential and short on character.

Here's what I'm thinking.

That's the table we have in place now. And that light fixture is not cutting it at all. Since I didn't win Atomic Indy's Rejuvenation contest (weep, weep), I don't think this fixture is in our future:It's gorgeous, but maybe a bit on the expensive side.

I'm looking for something like this...but I turned up NOTHING in my three-minute online search. Thanks for nothing, Internet.

Help, please! Anything awesome and mod and ORANGE would be perfecto.

Why orange? Well, because I'm in love with this wallpaper:

Matchsticks Circles by Graham and Brown. It's an official obsession, and I'd love to see it on the walls behind the table and quite possibly on the one behind the cabinets on the right side of the kitchen (feel free to lobby for this in the comments. While Marc is cool with the actual wallpaper, he isn't so sold on the actual purchasing and hanging that comes with picking it out).

On to the rest.

The cabinets are nice and all. Even if they're not exactly my cup of tea, there's really no way to justify replacing them. Maybe a face lift with these Hygge and West ceramic knobs would be nice:

In the mix we have our teal and walnut chairs. Will that work with all the orange, I'm wondering?

Here, I made this. Print it out and hang it on your fridge.

We actually have those orange chairs. Right now they're in the office, but I'm not averse to hustling them out into the kitchen.

But I don't know. Would they fight with the table? Would four chairs with arms be too much? Would old tealies need to take a hike into the office?

Ok, so now maybe that's orange overload? I don't know.

Would a black pendant be cooler?

Probably.

So that turned into a lot of musing. And more than a little anxiety. HELP!

Ok, kids. Here's a recap of my burning questions. They will be on the test.

1. Scrimp and save for Rejuvenation glory (which means that nasty white thing is there for probably a year)? Or hunt for mod orange? Or go sophisticated (and affordable) with black?

2. Are we ok with the wallpaper? If so, which walls?

3. Knobs? Actually, I don't really care what you say. I love them. So there. To tell the truth, the same kind of goes for the wallpaper. See? I have way fewer questions than it initially seems.

4. Chairs? Orange? Teal? Neither. This one is really getting to me.

6 comments:

Alison said...

Would it be totally insane to take something inexpensive like these and spray paint orange?

1. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30138416
or
2. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20124698

I think I like the teal chairs. Just to break up the orange and to be different!

Alison said...

Hey name twin!

I was actually looking at that first link last night and wondering if I should go with that in black or white....maybe black. Hmm, I like this painting idea. I wonder if you could paint just the inside for a hit of color.

my little apartment said...

I put that wallpaper in my neighbor's kitchen and it looks GREAT! it's a bit more purple-y that we'd imagined, but they were thrilled with it. and it'd look stunning with that black pendant lamp. go for it!

Baz Mcm said...

Alison,

The orange light you're hunting for is called a flower pot pendant designed by Verner Panton. Searches for "panton flower pot pendant" will put you on the right track.

Good luck.

Cheers,

-Baz

Javier said...

Baz, That's not the Verner Flowerpot. It's probably a knock off. The Verner would have the inside dome in orange I believe.

I got two of these from an estate sale at an Eichler house. They are identical in color etc. The inside is a bubble glass lamp. The Verner one is not glass inside. So I guess my question goes to Alison. Where did you get this picture from? I'm trying to find where these lamps come from. Anyone?

Alison said...

Hey Javier. Sorry I just saw this! The photo is from an old Craigslist listing from the summer of 2008. I found it by doing a google image search for vintage orange pendant lamp. Sorry, that's not much help at all, but if I find out what it is, I'll let you know.

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