elephony's Profile

It's funny, I approached #1 from the opposite angle, much like a previous poster with #4. If I have closed cabinets, I feel no compunction to keep the insides tidy. If I can't see it, I don't worry about it. I transitioned to open shelving because I love seeing my dishes, but also because if I see it, I have to keep it organized. My kitchen shelves are much better organized with open shelving, though it's still a different story with the jars, appliances, et al. beneath the counters.

I was impressed with how well Stephen left. He as much as said he was outclassed and didn't make excuses.

Did you see Bourdain's blog post at Bravo's site about Dale? He said that Dale was the bravest chef in his choices this season, but that the risk of that is when you miss, which he did this week. I'm going to miss Dale, who was fun, but I'm really enjoying Bourdain more than I thought I would as a judge. He's not as cool as he thinks he is, but he so far has done a great job of criticizing when warranted but also fighting for dishes he thinks deserve it.

It looks pleasantly functional, but I'm going to have to echo the footstool comment. The design itself is pretty boring.

If either way would fit with your decor, I would vote for stripping the wood. I am admittedly a bit of a wood fetishist, and think a lot of the furniture redecorations that involve painting over perfectly nice wood do the furniture a bit of a disservice. Either way, nice chair, and I'm sure it'll look even better when you're done with it.

Not that this is bad advice, as it is very solid, but I would like to point out that it is quite possible to rent tools for jobs. I tiled my bathroom floor last year by renting a wetsaw for two days, which was really cheap. If the only obstacle is not having the right tool, renting may be a good solution.

I'm going to echo littlebrownbird here. I have a couple flensted mobiles I love. Part of what I love is the motion of the mobiles. These may be nice and "grown-up", but when you hang everything from the same bar, you lose most of the magic of the mobile. They're quite pretty, but I imagine they'd be pretty boring as far as mobiles go.