Hi everyone!
I can’t believe it’s February already– has anyone decorated for Valentine’s Day this year? In the past, we’ve always had lots of little homemade heart banners and garlands out but this year I’ve totally forgotten! I figured it was too late to bother for this year, but then Bennett (age 9) asked if she could be in charge of decorating. Here’s the faux fireplace in our dining room:
We are getting so close to our showroom/design center being open. I am a couple weeks overdue on finalizing the sample kitchens that are going in, as we will officially be in March 1 but the cabinets will take longer than that to be made. Starting March 1, we will be painting the walls plus removing the blue carpet and refinishing the concrete floor. Then, it’ll be time for the cabinets and everything else to go in. The delay in ordering cabinets actually ended up being a good thing, because we’re adding a more budget-friendly cabinet line (to add to the high-end ones) as well as some gorgeous tile that will show up in the display kitchens.
My job lately has been to plan all the sample kitchens in our new space. In case you want to be impressed, here’s what I’m working with:
Stunning, huh? Looks like I have my work cut out for me. Most the time I just put it off, but every now and then the reality sets in (in the middle of the night) of how beautiful/original/functional/inspiring/timeless/trendy/exciting I have to make this space in such a short amount of time and on a limited budget and it becomes a nightmare. But that was last week. Now I have a pretty good space plan and am just choosing finishes. While my kids are doing their school work, I’m doing some design research to find my favorite kitchen ideas:
It’s kind of a mess, huh. But this is how I’m getting everything done (homeschooling, kitchen showroom planning, and design projects), PLUS, our vintage typewriters are getting used for more than just decor.
I can also fit in some kitchen design research while taking each kid out individually:
I have pulled together some ideas and am trying to decide which designs will go in which cabinet lines. I will make some design boards with my selections so you can have a sneak preview soon!
One final note! I’m sure some of you are wondering what’s up with the orange mohair chairs in our dining room! If you noticed they were something special, you get ten points! I am a fan of chairs (like a chair fan club) so we have a revolving dining room set up. My favorite look were these rustic pine ones:
If I had a big enough house, I would use all the chairs at one time in different rooms. Comfy chairs are by far our favorite since we spend a lot of time doing school and other work at this table, so hence the orange chairs. They aren’t just any weird orange chairs, fyi. These are original midcentury Knoll chairs. Knoll is one of the original companies that made iconic midcentury chairs, and all the others are knock-offs (not to say that all knock-offs are bad). These are the comfiest boardroom chairs you could ever sit in, and the mohair feels oh-so-good on bare feet. So these are our dining room chairs of the moment.
Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!
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