Final touches on our new guest area
Alice Edwards
last year
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Alice Edwards
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After 8 years, the final touch on our kitchen/family room remodel
Comments (21)Thanks everyone for the compliments and good wishes! We can't believe how well it turned out either. We agonized a lot over which seating to order. Even though we played around with layouts on paper, I was worried that the theater seating group would be too big but I really wanted 3 seats there. The room feels much more spacious with the new seating then with the old couch - I think that's partly its a visual illusion because this one looks less bulky and partly the Space is less deep than on the old couch with its bulky cushions. mtnfever, the Couch Color pageant definitely helped us get clarity on the right color. For those who missed it, I highly recommend the approach of making large samples of a color to consider instead of trying to imagine with a tiny sample chip. I'll link the thread below for those who didn't see it. We knew we wanted to get rid of the hearth when we bought the house decades ago, but it took a long time to get around to it. On the other hand, I don't think we would have made as good decisions if we had replaced it back then. Bcafe, in the stores, they use the Stressless name and logo more than the Ekornes one so it would be easy to think that the company wasn't around. They still have the Ekornes non-reclining couches and chairs too. The website is www.ekornes.com/us. Enduring - yes it wasn't in scale and was way too dark. Even more, I hated it because it was fake stone. It always looked really fake to me though I've had others who were sure it was real stone. Gooster, yes all the front speakers are behind speaker cloth sections in the cabinets. The center is between the two drawers of the credenza; left and right on pull out shelves in the far left and right cabinets. The subwoofer is the black box on the floor and the rear speakers are white and mounted near the ceiling - you can see one in the first picture. Yes, we moved the fireplace to the right - doing so was only slightly more work than tearing out the hearth and installing a new one where the old one was. The hearth was fake stone on a metal mesh backing over a wood frame so that was much easier to remove than it looks like it would be. There wasn't a solid brick or stone chimney - just a flue pipe to remove and this is on an inside wall - the works were all in the empty space between the faux stone and an interior wall - so there was no external chimney to move to match except a little box on the roof. This is a one story which also makes moving things easier - the main work of moving it was patching the old hole in the roof and making a new one for the new flue to go through. We had moved it too far to be able to slant the flue to reach the old hole. When our GC took out the old hearth, there were some surprises. A joist had been cut for the old flue to go through the ceiling and it hadn't been sistered or anything - just two joist ends hanging in space in the ceiling. Our GC repaired that. There were electrical outlets on the bottom of the hearth and there were wire junctions just hanging in space inaccessible under the heart where the wiring was connected to wires from the wall. The fireplace was apparently a very early addition to the house poorly done. The TV is 65" - the size was chosen to be big enough that text viewed from the couch when using the screen for the media computer would be about equivalent to looking at text on a desktop computer screen. Also it works nicely for viewing while cooking and yet isn't overwhelming from the couch. The gap could accommodate a 73" screen, but I prefer having a little space around the screen. CEFreeman, the knobs took a lot of thought and work. He has made things like bowls and salt shakers before but never has made things that need to match as a large set. I came up with an initial design for the profile after seeing something similar in a magazine and then he made some initial variations so we could perfect the diameter, height and shape details. Then he made about twice as many as we would need since these are done freehand and the wood also varies. I sorted them into matched pairs and we used the best matches on the pairs of doors where the knobs are right next to each other in the wide cabinet and the credenza. We also put matched pairs on the left and right opening tall cabinets in case they are ever in a room where they are right next to each other. He also repairs furniture and is the only reason we still can use the rather fragile dining table chairs we have. But he does full time day care for our youngest grandchild so I only get so much project time from him. Bellsmom!! Yikes - so that's why we had to replace the hearth - to keep trolls from hiding there. I love your concept - so did my husband. (The eyes were elevations I made of our plans for the wall. When I asked about vertical blinds on the Home Decorating forum, there were a lot of people who were anti-vertical, but for the windows and style of this house, I think they are the best solution. Part of some peoples objections were based on cheap industrial metal verticals. These ones have fabric laminated to plastic for the vanes so they are quieter. We popped for the backstaker option so when partially open the stacked vanes are at the edge of the windows. We also like that the blinds can be tilted to block sun when needed while still letting us see the yard and monitor grandchildren on the patio. Marti8a, we chose to keep the same wood for the cabinets as in the kitchen - natural cherry - because we already have several woods in the area - maple floor, oak breakfast table and counter stools and some dark unidentified wood for some of the original built-ins and breakfast room doors. To differentiate them from the kitchen cabinets (because I didn't want the family room to look like the kitchen had extended into it), so we chose a different door style - a more sophisticated mitered corner raised panel instead of shaker, but still with simple lines and furniture style knobs instead of big kitchen ones. Here is a link that might be useful: Couch Color thread...See MoreWe're finally finished - a tour of our new kitchen!
Comments (31)What a wonderful playful looking space! Great green accents. I like how the added lights in the curved ceiling section really plays up the architectural lines. Really makes it a standout feature. Love all the drawers, the backsplash (of course!) and the improved layout. Thanks for sharing your LED color temperature solution. That drives me crazy too when they're not the same. It has been difficult to find the more neutral color temps (forget the exact kelvin temp at the moment), so your solution sounds great! I saw this really cool Lutron dimmer that reminds me of your space and would look really cool if it could work with your Insteon (I'm not familiar with this) dimming system, or if not, maybe something separate. In a single or a double switch plate, there is a thin vertical slot that has Green LEDs (also comes in Blue or White) that you can touch anywhere for the dimmer (all the way up is full On and any position lower is dimmed by seven levels I believe). And there is a small Amber light at the lowest point that softly glows when it is all off so you can find it in the dark. The wall plates are available in the 10 standard colors and 11 brushed metal colors so you could get a brushed aluminum or stainless steel looking one to match what looks like what you have (see the picture below). I'm going to use these in my bar in the Blue to coordinate with the granite countertops there, so just thought these would look cool in the Green for your great space. This is one of the most distinctive dimmers I have seen. The picture below is of the single in the Green with an aluminum plate (also comes in a double plate as well) and a link with the specifics. Just a thought for you if you haven't finished all of your switches. :-) (edited for a typo I didn't catch the first time) Here is a link that might be useful: Lutron Vierti dimmer switch This post was edited by cindallas on Mon, Sep 8, 14 at 16:56...See MoreFinally! Here is our new olde kitchen...
Comments (50)Beautiful choices, Mark. There is a local place near me comprised of historic, restored buildings (1900-ish rather than 1700-ish), and I am drawn every time we visit to the kitchens recreated in these houses. They are very similar to what you've put together (cruder, however, as these are simple prairie homes). Storage requirements were much less: they had no fancy implements, and food storage was limited to few basic ingredients. As for counter space - they didn't know they needed it :). I would lean more towards this direction, but DH thinks I'm cracked. The one thing that would drive me crazy is the lack of landing for dirty dishes/clean dishes around the sink. I have that problem now, except that I do have some space....See More(Almost) final images of our addition/new house
Comments (5)Pipdog - the door is on the right side off a courtyard. Eld6161 - this is thre only renovation/addition I've done in some time. The front of the house is neo-Georgian, perhaps you are thinking of it? It still looks the same at the front of the house on the street. This image shows an addition on an existing two car garage. This side of the house is off a lane. daisychain I wondered if it might not be an issue irl, you may be right. We will make the call in a couple of weeks when we start really getting into budget matters. Thanks Rocky!...See MoreAlice Edwards
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Alice EdwardsOriginal Author