textiles's Profile

Oh, and unless you want to close off your closet desk, don't. It will make the room look smaller. Just make it look interesting too look at, and leave that longer view open.

I'm guessing the furniture company delivery people moved in it, and were thus responsible for it. hard to reverse that.

I think there may be places in the world where open kitchen shelving works...but how would I know, I've always been a city creature. But I can say for sure that Soho isn't one of them..and I know from living nearby in the Village. The truck exhaust particulate alone is enough to turn stuff on shelves black with grit.

There are things about this Reno that I really don't get...it's kind of putting lipstick on a pig. Maybe it is the way I was raised, but I don't like to waste things. And it seems to me that spending for the countertops and faucet makes absolutely no sense when put over what look like crappy old cupboards and not really fixing the floor situation (like putting down quality flooring over the entire floor would have done, whether first removing the tile or laying it well over the old tile, but most likely by removing the old tile, unless it contained asbestos, in which case just covering it could be a sensible option...but either way, over the WHOLE floor, not just the part in front of the old cupboards.) Would have made more sense to me to lay a great floor and replace the cupboards (even Ikea ones would look better, and their cupboard boxes are really sturdy, even if the doors aren't great, the doors are easily replaced now or later with something sturdier.) It would have made more sense to me to do this first, base part of the renovation, even if that meant using a cheaper but nice countertop material, which could always be easily upgraded later. Here, when someone wants to replace the crappy cupboards and lay a great floor, all this countertop will be wasted. And I can't see just ignoring the cupboards under that marble.

Opening the pass-through wall was a good idea (given by readers here on an earlier post, I believe), but I agree with whoever said above that stainless shelves don't play nicely with the marble counter.

Another who couldn't see ripping out that kitchen, even if I would't have chosen the trim. What I could see is getting rid of the island to put in a table instead.

Isn't slate rock that comes from outside, or am I missing something here? It likely spend millions of hears out there already.

If you really are salvaging stuff, though, have you thought about selling your current kitchen, if you are ripping it out, to a place that sells used kitchens to those wanting to repurpose other people's nice discards in their own frugal kitchen renovations? Look into it. And, if so, you might be advised that selling that slate island top wtih the rest of the countertop and cupboards might make it all more useful to others.

Which isn't to say you couldn't keep it for an outdoor table for yourself if you still wanted to. Only that if your desire to use it outdoors is not to waste it, there may be other ways others can put it to good use with the rest of your kitchen discards. I can't tell if you really want to use it outdoors, or just don't want to waste it.

The only difficulty I can see with using it outdoors is that it would be very heavy to move. I wouldn't even attempt to attach legs - just rest it on a sturdy base.

Yes, I see the problem with this kitchen. This is what I'd do: Remove the valance over the sink and the shelves over the table. Leave the cabinets alone for now - painting them is too much work if you think you will be doing a renovation later, and they are unoffensive. But change the hardware - I can't see the drawer handles very well, but what I can see makes me think I don't like them. Don't replace the two doors above the stove with a flip up door - the hinges on those tend to fail. Just change what is around the cupboards, and you won't notice them as much - promise.

I think you don't like the floor - easiest fix for that is to cover it. Get a cotton rag rug (they are washable in up to 6'X9' size in triple washers at the laundromat - and you need something washable in the kitchen), or a vinyl or rubber mat, or an indoor-outdoor flat mat-like poly-whatever "rug" (the kind made for outdoor patios - not one with fabric pile) - whatever you like best - that covers up most of the floor. You will change that surface immediately. Start with finding what you want for that floor surface first, as that is what will be hardest to find - paint comes in all shades. Do paint that dark grey soffit another color - the same color you go with on the other walls, whatever shade that ends up being to go with your new floor cover.

Also cover up that busy-looking backsplash with something - there are many suggestions on the site here in ideas for renters. Don't make it permanent, and don't spend a ton on it - as you will be removing the tile and whatever covers it when you renovate. Pick your wall paint color and backsplash cover together, to go with your floor cover and each other.

Can't really tell what the counter material is - if you still can't stand it after picking out the other changes now, change it out for a wood one now. The ones from Ikea look great, and are about the cheapest countertop you can buy, really cheap, but gorgeous. Get the wood countertop in something a bit darker so as to not clash with your cupboard color by being too similar.

Then, ignore your cabinets, and plan to redo the entire kitchen - floor, cupboards, sink, counter, smash that soffit, perhaps change even the layout, appliances, window size, doors, etc., when you do a wholesale renovation. Don't do a piecemeal one - don't do just floors and counters and backsplash - just get the kitchen you have perfectly liveable for you until you do the whole thing, even if it is years away. It can be done to something you like well enough cheaply and easily for now - I know this from experience.

If you do all I suggested above and still hate it, then, and only then, paint the cabinets. And maybe replace the sink and faucet when you do the counters if they bug you (can't really see them). Then start saving for the whole thing. You won't be in any huge rush if you make this one look good to you, and you can easily.

There are some applications, such as here, where white-painted wood gives a much brighter and less dark look to a space, moreso than unpainted and stained wood.

I do however, totally agree with the above poster who said that wood is much easier to maintain than white painted wood.

One way to split the baby, and which I would do to something that looks blindingly white like the above, is to paint some of the white in paint colors that don't show every scuff like white does. Were I to move in here, I'd paint the risers one color, and the wall molding going up the wall with the stairs another color, and I might paint the newel post as well. I'd probably leave white (or, more to my taste, paint in off-white or some other color that coordinates well with both the colors in the adjacent room and the colors I used on the staircase) the beadboard in the room on the exterior of the staircase.

My only surprise is that you had to give him a hint...kids figure this stuff out all by themselves often.

One shouldn't have to say "I'm a renter, but..." I get the impluse. But renters have homes, too. Where you live is your home, whether you own or rent. Most buyers don't own their homes anyway, the bank does if you have loan - you basically rent it from the bank.

I think it is even more important to love a rental, as you can often make significant changes to a home you own to make it feel more like home, even enough to come to love it, but you usually can't do much to a rental (exceptions exist, I know.)

I pretty much have loved all my homes, all but one were rentals. Even the crappy first college rental, as it was my first home on my own. One glaring goof I didn't - learned a lesson - many lessons, actually. Having a lot of space matters more to me that to most of my friends. Having good air quality from the outside matters, too. Layout matters. Renting a place quickly when under time pressure is not a good idea - better to find a place to stay temporarily while you look for something you like. Because moving is disruptive and expensive, and it is hard to just move on quickly when you have a place you don't like (at least for me it is.)

Light, and good air, lack of bad smells from outside - these are not emotional things, but rather physical. Even having a style and/or layout similar to an old home is physical - it generally means your furniture will fit in OK...important, I find. As is neighbors who don't disturb you - with noise that keeps you awake at night, smoke that gives you ill health, personalities that give you anxiety - all physical, not emotional.

I'm a total fan of top floor apartment living. Have been disturbed repeatedly at night from people above in most places I've lived in, even had to move once due to such noise (24-hour drug dealers moved in above us in my first apartment in college.) Have never had noise above me when on top floor (except drug dealers on roof breaking open the hatch in our building to run down out stairs to get away from whomever was chasing them.)

I have heard noise from below when on the top floor (usually occasional loud music causing floors to vibrate), but luckily never at night, so it didn't keep me up. One top floor place was great, once I got used to the loud sirens outside. Then there was construction outside for months (jackhammers breaking up concrete), but the foam earplugs I finally tried worked wonders to let me sleep past their very early morning start up time.

Now I've got traffic noise. I don't seem to mind it, but then again, I've been waking up way too early since I moved. I haven't thought that it might be morning traffic sounds (it is kind of like white noise in the winter with the windows closed). Maybe it is time to try some earplugs again and see if that is what is waking me ... should take care of it if it is and let me sleep later.

I love the idea of doing layered window treatments for noise - I'd start with honeycomb blinds (adding the blackout layer to keep out ambient light as well), and add floor-length curtains made from heavy cotton, lined, with the heavy interlining inside, but have been reluctant to spend the hundreds needed to do up each window this way (old buildings tend to need both blinds and windows custom-sized) in the many rentals I've lived in (or even in the one place I owned, which made blinds and curtains hard to fit due to radiator placement and window gate on the fire escape window). Someday, when I feel like I'm staying for the long term, I'll indulge.

My favorite bedroom was a city top floor room that looked out into the backyards that were so heavy with trees I that I needed no window treatments at all - no sound, no light, no neighbors could see in through the trees. So maybe my long-term place will end up being my ideal, in which I'll need no window treatments, but look out on trees.

Oh yeah, not to mention pet dander - stays in carpeting years after the pet has moved out, even when cleaned, as I found out the hard way staying with friends once. A lot of people are allergic - to pets, as well as to dust, mold and mildew, and others are phobic about dirt - so an apartment you can thoroughly clean is definitely more valuable than one you cannot.