Creating a mini paint palettes will help connect the color scheme decorating dots. The next time you repaint the house, think about portable paint palettes -- shorthand fan decks of your color choices. Sure, many of us have used the notebook method or (worse) the toss-it-all-in-a-tote where it all becomes a jumbled mess. There is something satisfying about holding a color … [Read more...]
Mustard Yellow Kitchen
Taking a chance on an unusual color combination creates a dreamy mustard yellow kitchen. Canadian House & Home designed a five-star mustard yellow kitchen space in their 2011 Princess Margaret Showhome. Bold and beautiful, the upper cabinets -- which provide the theme for the kitchen are painted No 7 Octagon yellow from Farrow & Ball. Their double-decker … [Read more...]
Powder Room – Act Three
The mirror falling down led me to find a more neutral look for my tiny powder room. After three paint colors and a Powder Room Mirror Fail -- due to a screw that rusted because the mirror hung in various bathrooms for many years -- my powder room is finally settled. There's a color change from Farrow & Ball's green ground (above) which is an acid green to Farrow & … [Read more...]
7 Kitchen Upgrades that Work
Key kitchen upgrades in our apartment and the difference each one made. In the summer of 2009 we made some kitchen upgrades. Our apartment kitchen is small (14’ x 8’) and our building was built in 1924, so the walls are lath and plaster. Nothing had been changed since 1986 when Mr. AM moved in and installed new appliances. The previous tenant had combined the kitchen and … [Read more...]
Alabama Stone Cottage Details
A closer look at stone cottage details in the Alabama home of home our blogging partner Allison. Our two-part virtual walk-through of Allison’s house was designed to highlight highly original living spaces she has worked so hard to create. This one will focus on her stone cottage details. If you haven’t yet toured the main rooms in part one, or explored her elegant French Gray … [Read more...]
Alabama Stone Cottage II
Our room-by-room walk through of Allison's Alabama stone cottage continues. Our tour of Allison’s lovely stone house on a lake in Alabama continues with a walk through some of the private spaces in the 5-bedroom home that our blogging partner and her husband built on 4-1/2 acres. If you missed part one of the tour, you might want to start there — a good deal of background is … [Read more...]
Alabama Stone Cottage
Tour our Allison's idyllic Alabama stone cottage lakeside home. Calling a five bedroom four-and-a-half bathroom home sitting on 4-1/2 acres an Alabama stone cottage is a way of describing the style of the house our Allison and her husband lovingly built on an Alabama lakefront lot. Designed by Tulsa architect Jack Arnold – who the couple has never actually met – the house … [Read more...]
Hollywood Legend Kitchen
Even a long-dead movie star like Hollywood legend Errol Flynn can distinguish a house. At some point, Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, the star of film classics like 1935's "Captain Blood" and 1938's "Robin Hood," lived in this 4500-square foot, 1926 Mediterranean style, hillside home in the Hollywood Hills. The house has an 18 x 21-foot kitchen plus a panoramic city view from … [Read more...]
My Old New Kitchen
Our twelve-week apartment face lift is finished and the new kitchen is complete. I love it! The contractors have left and my new kitchen is ready. The 110 packing boxes plus assorted furniture came back to freshly plastered and painted walls, well-lit rooms, and a budget-remodel that gave us a more comfortable apartment with a new color palette, additional closets and better … [Read more...]
My New Kitchen
By the end of next month, my new apartment kitchen should be finished. We are now midway through the renovation of my new apartment kitchen. A month ago, we put 110 boxes and most of our furniture in storage and moved out. It had been Mr. AM's apartment before we met and nothing had been done since he moved in as a single guy 23 years ago. This rendering by our friend Anne … [Read more...]
Ivette’s Cherry Counter Kitchen
Our pal Ivette's English style, cherry counter kitchen has it all. And, it's a DIY too! Cherry has just enough color to warm up this elegant white cherry counter kitchen, which was a DIY labor of love by a talented couple, my friends Ivette and Joel. The counters were stained, sanded and repeatedly oiled by Ivette to give them a satiny sheen, then set off by big … [Read more...]
