Sauveteur's Profile

I like your new kitchen. I really like your window over the sink! If I had that height on my kitchen cabinets I just know that my old vintage pitcher collection would steal the show! I hope you enjoy your kitchen for years to come. Congradulations!

In answer to your questions: Yes

When I was 25 my then-husband and I moved into an apartment with a postage sized kitchen. My then-inlaws had a larger kitchen in their moderately sized RV. There was one over the sink and 3-burner stove cabinet and the under the sink cabinet was a single door. The counter top space was given over to what was suppose to be a breakfast bar, so there was no storage nor was there any prep space. The refrigerator was not self-defrosting and, even worse, it was impossible to open the door more than 2/3 of the way but it had a small cabinet above it. I placed a small shelving unit on the breakfast bar for storage, thereby closing in the kitchen. I stored more seldom used pots in the cabinet above the refrigerator. Surely, this entire arrangement was an accident waiting to happen and it did. I was 26 and 6 months pregnant when I climbed onto a ladder to get a pot from over the frig. Predictably, I fell and in falling I tried to arrange myself so that the fall wouldn't injure the baby and in that I was successful. However my head hit the shelving unit causing it to tumble and I hit my elbow on the stove before landing on the floor with one foot wedged in the second rung of the ladder. My neighbor downstairs heard the commotion and came to my rescue. Ended up with an ambulance ride to the hospital and 3 day hospital stay. I had a concussion, broken elbow, dislocated shoulder, sprained ankle and a black eye with scattered bruises. Had there been anything cooking on the stove I would have been burned too. Lesson Learned: larger kitchen with adequent storage at my height or I do not cook, period.

"Embrace the junk drawer"

I hate the junk drawer and didn't know how to get rid of it for decades. Perhaps it is because I have such a small kitchen now but I finally found a way to get rid of it. Here is what I did:
Using double sided carpet tape I adhered two plastic page protectors to the interior of the long cabinet near the phone. In those I have stored all of the menus of all the restaurants near by. Remember to take a pair of sissors and cut the front flap of the plastic page protector about 1/2 way down before taping it to the cabinet so that menus can be taken out without any trouble. I bought an over the door shoe bag made of clear vinyl and hung it on the back of the kitchen door. I use the pockets for anything that is larger than my hand. Several years ago I bought a small Mead organizer, just a little larger than my passport. I use it now for phone numbers and have replaced the rest of the tabs with recipes cards or instructions that I've gotten over the years. I tied a string to it so that now it hangs right along with the shoe bag.

I try to keep everything off the cabinets and counter tops because I don't like to clean. I have found the more stuff I have sitting around the less I notice it until I have to clean it.

Very nice! If you can paint the doors gray, to match the pillow in the chair, then you would have a marvelous piece there!

All of these suggestions are good and they should help anyone who is working in a limited space, regardless of your skill level as a cook. My cooking space is 18" x 22". I prepare entertaining meals for 6 adults, 5 -6 courses, in that space. I've been cooking a long long time. I would like a larger kitchen and when we move in 2 months that is on the list of things as is a walkin shower.

I highly recommend Mark Bittman's advice and his recipes. He has a common sense approach to food and joie de vivre. The only thing I would add is you don't need the most expensive knife you can buy. All knifes are equal with they are sharp. Just learn to sharpen your knife everytime you cook.

A walk-in shower. A very nice apartment with two south facing balconies with the view of the alps. I thought I would manage with the tub-shower. But we will be renovating the bathroom first because we have both discovered we want that walk-in shower. I never make use of the bath except to bath the dog, anyway.

1. Take the bed covers and dye them. The bottom should be a rich dark brown along with the bolster back pillow(s) cover. The top I would dye a lighter shade, probably light taupe. You will not be able to dye them towards the yellow orange spectrum because they will turn muddy. You won't like that resulting dye-color if you like orange.
2. Spray paint the frames of the black & white images orange.
3. Get another table to replace the floor lamp or get another similar floor lamp. Do some curb shopping. The tables don't have to be the same. One could even be a little dresser with a drawer.
4. Whatever, then paint them a darker shade of taupe. If the new table has a drawer, paint it orange and change the knobs to crystal balls.
5. Now about that tuquoise lamp. Do you absolutely love it? Well then paint the headboard the same taupe color as the tables. Wait don't get depressed yet.
6. Go buy some tiles, whatever strikes your fancy, different sizes and shapes, just make sure you are repeating turquoise (even number of tiles) (if you keep the lamp) and orange (odd number of tiles). Now take those tiles and all your images on the wall, lay them out on the floor and spread them further apart. Work on a grid and at every intersection place a tile. Keep changing it until you like it. You can use painters tape on both the floor and then the wall to get the effect you want. Remember, the framed images don't have to be in the center of each open grid. The tiles do have to be on crossing intersections though.
7. Oh, I forgot to tell you that you should dye some pillow cases orange if you can't find orange ones. They are for the pillows in the front row.
8. For those candle lights. Go to a yardage store and buy some wide (at least 1" wide) dark brown grosgrain ribbon, some 1/2" orange grosgrain ribbon, and some 1/8" turquoise ribbon. Use double sided tape or a hot glue gun. Measuse the 'candle and divide by 2. In the top of the measurement at the center, wrap the dark brown ribbon full circle. Next, in the center of the dark brown ribbon wrap the orange. Finally, in the center of the orange wrap the turquiose. Just make sure the cut ends are too the back.
9. While you were out curb shopping for another table did you also chance upon a lamp you had to have? Is it about the same size as the turquiose lamp? Good! If it is not turquiose then paint it turquoise unless it is clear glass. If it is clear glass, find something to put in, making sure that you repeat turquoise alot.
10. Spray paint, lightly, the shade of both lamps so that they are a lighter version of the 'candle' colors. Just don't go too much lighter. You goal is to make them look like you chose them to match one another and they just happen to pick up the tone of 'candles'. Now, one inch from the bottom of each shade, wrap the ribbons like you did on the candle sconces.
11. I hope you found some type of objet d'intérêt to place on the back of the headboard. A doll, a sculpture, found art, heck you could even have a hub cap there if it has orange or turquoise in it.

I believe that every home tells the story of the person or people who live there. All you need to do is open the door and wonder what the story is that your house is trying to tell the world and immediately you will see what you would rather keep a secret.

I had everything for my first child but by the time the 3rd one arrived I needed room and knew better. I kept the porta crib and the potty chair. I did buy a separate dirty clothing bin though.

Great job! I love it.