John H's Profile

An important improvement to any kitchen is task lighting. Install halogen or LED lighting beneath your upper cabinets to increase the light levels on your countertops. Most kits can be plugged into a nearby outlet or wired into your wall switches. To make the lighting more accessible you can plug the lighting runs into a radio controlled module, controlled by a battery powered wall switch locatable anywhere in the room. The same can be done with accent lighting such as rope lighting. Stringing runs of it on top of the cabinets against the walls will give the room more visual height. Running it on the underside of the lower cabinet toekicks visually expands the room and provides dramatic night lighting.

If the kitchen’s overall light levels make spotting items in your upper cabinets difficult, consider installing track or cable lighting in the ceiling aimed so that it “washes” the front of your upper cabinets.

Add mouldings to the tops and bottoms of your cabinets to provide a finished look and to hide undercabinet lighting modules and other devices. The mouldings may be available from the original manufacturer of your cabinets or you may choose from a selection at your local lumber supply.

Consider using aluminum or stainless steel sheet as a backsplash. It is inexpensive and easy to install.

Top down-bottom up window coverings or a window shade hung upside down will provide privacy while maximizing light levels in the window.

Change out your cabinet door/drawer pulls.

Change out your sink faucet and/or sink. Acquire a faucet with built in sink sprayer, great for sink cleaning and large pot/pitcher filling.

Make your kitchen more functional and efficient by adding storage devices like pull-out shelves in your lower cabinets. The hardware may be reinstalled in any future new kitchen.

Consider replacing your black range hood with a stainless steel model. Simple range hoods are very inexpensive. If you don’t have space for a microwave oven, raise the cabinet over the range and install an undercabinet microwave oven with range hood.

Since you like color, consider brightening the floor by adding a kitchen rug. The rugs are washable and frequently rubber-backed, for slip prevention and cushioning.

Good Luck!

As much as I advocate consumer safety and prudence, especially since it happens to be my professional job, I think it’s also important not to overreact when someone expresses interest in an item you’re selling and they happen to be a little far away. Whenever I travel, I always peruse the area’s Craigslist for items I’m seeking and I am currently shopping for items that I would have no problem driving up to 600 miles from home to buy, fortunately, I’ve not yet had to travel that far for something.

I have been fortunate to have bought several items via Craigslist where the seller was well over 200 miles away from my home. Of course there are risks, I could drive all the way to the seller for them to decide they have me over a barrel and raise the price, put me in a bidding war with another buyer, or simply sell the item prior to my arrival. Fortunately, the vast majority of sellers are honest people and this has never happened. What did happen once was an ignorant Craigslist seller with a mahogany chest I wanted refused to communicate with me because she decided I was a scammer simply because my cell number wasn’t “local” enough for her. Her offensive responses included e-mailing me a copy of Craigslist’s seller warnings. She simply succeeded in cheating herself out of selling her furniture.

My point is, if you have an item you’re seriously interested in selling, (casual posters should stay off of EBay and Craigslist), and you think it might generate interest from outside your locality, be prepared for the not-so-local buyer to arrive. We may occasionally send our friend or parent in our stead, but we always pay in cash or the payment terms specified.

I'm a little late with this comment, but I was on vacation the week your question was posted. Hopefully, if you chose to paint procrastination got the best of you.

I just spent the last three years searching for the very mahogany bow-front chest you own. I am now the proud owner of two, one made by Baker and the other a Stickley piece. They are unusual chests which are/were designed to be both ornamental and practical, apparently difficult to fabricate, and for their size, very expensive. Their design is so precious, that two identical chests sit in the Oval Office of the White House.

Why did I buy two? Because of its front curvature, the bow-front chest design allows itself to be squeezed into tight or awkward spaces like foyers, hallways and alcoves where a square chest would make the space feel smaller or result in the user bumping into the chest's corners.

As has been noted by many responders, have your chest appraised. But more importantly, if the chest is showing damage or other blemishes that you would prefer concealed, take the chest to a furniture specialist and have it restored. Do not however paint your chest. And finally, if in the end you dislike the chest, let someone who appreciates the design own it.

I partially agree with Amarie. Since the space is only 28" wide, you can hang the shelves from strips of wood mounted on the nook's sides, rather than its entire perimeter. (Additional support across the back of the nook will likely not be needed).

Given the apparent dimensions of the nook, mounting strips of wood on its sides, dimensioned about 2" x 2" x shelf depth, at appropriate heights should work well. Either 3/4" plywood cut to the desired shelf depth or prefabricated pine book shelving cut 1/4" shorter than the nook width will create strong shelves. You can hide the wood strips by attaching a 2" wide moulding or wood strip across the front of your shelves. The moulding will give your shelves the visual "heft" you desire.

Before starting this project, decide what you would like to store in the shelves, then lay out their vertical spacing. Make sure your layout accounts for the thickness of your shelf mouldings or you could have difficulty storing tall items.

Good Luck!

Your changes are nice. And having your desk at a window is a good idea, nobody wants to look at a wall while working. My own desk is built around and under a large window.

In addition, there are other tubular skylight manufacturers or you may have simply seen a very well engineered conventional skylight.

I agree with acrat. Unless you loose your keys, you cannot lock yourself out of your home with a deadbolt lock, as the key must be used to lock the door from the outside.

If you still have issues, get a combination door lock.

Will Ikea do the same resizing with the Lack shelves and storage units? I recall the shelves are also 11" deep.

I've both hired movers and asked friends to help move me. I think most people ask their friends for moving help when they can't afford professionals or are afraid of experiencing a moving nightmare. Today, If I had to move, I would likely hire movers and ask friends to help me with the packing.

The best move I made with friends involved basically an all day moving party where people helped out for a few hours at a time throughout the day. If you have enough friends to do this it's an excellent approach to moving.

In my first apartment I sanded and painted my cheap, cheezy plywood kitchen cabinets high gloss black and installed chrome door pulls. Because the kitchen was miniscule, the black cabinets set the room's color and tone. The window treatments were also high gloss black 1" blinds. The countertops and appliances were white, and the floor was a light brown vinyl tile whose bland ugliness was suppressed with a light grey kitchen rug. A light bluish-greyish speckled random pattern wallpaper on the walls and backsplash helped mute the white/black contrast. Though I might not do this today if I found myself in a similar apartment, the changes worked incredibly well at the time.