Kristen Loves Design

So, we’re re-doing our kitchen on a very small budget. I love our kitchen because it’s so nice and bright and when we built the house in 2005 we picked out all the finishes and the appliances and the paint color. However after 7 years of cooking many, many meals for our kids and their friends and our other family members our kitchen really needs some help!

Here’s a few pictures of what the kitchen looks like now (note that I forgot to take a true before picture – clearly work had already begun!). Not too exciting, I know (although the wall to the left and below the [what was once a] bar top was painted by us 2 years ago [Pismo Beach by Benjamin Moore] and we love, love the color!) The room looks so “builder basic” to me now and I promise it isn’t quite as “blah” in person, but it really doesn’t feel like “us” anymore.

Picture taken while standing in the kitchen.
Image by Kristen for Kristen Loves Design

Picture taken while standing in the living room; shows the “window” that used to have a bar top.
Image by Kristen for Kristen Loves Design

Originally the wall went all the way to the ceiling, but it made the kitchen feel very closed off from the rest of the house, which was ironic since it’s mostly an open floor plan! So we had that changed (I’ll discuss our decision to remove the bar top at a later point). On the left wall are sliding glass doors that open out onto our back patio.

What we want to change/add:

Countertops
Sink
Bar top
Backsplash
Under cabinet lighting
Outlet covers
Cabinet in the far left corner/open shelves
Paint
Faucet
Garbage disposal
Shade on window
Curtains/double rod on sliding glass doors
Cabinet organizers
Picture frames and pictures
Floor (maybe)

Whew! That’s a long list. And our budget? Let’s say about $5,000.00. I should say I initially thought we could do all this for $3,500.00, but that was before I really researched how much individual items cost (plus services)! So, Lesson #1 is – research potential options before you really set the budget otherwise you’ll be setting yourself up with a budget this is completely unrealistic before you even start!

Stay tuned for how we decided on our countertops!

So did you see this Google search image the other day? Normally I don’t always go to this page, but – oh my! I was fascinated by this image, and I wondered what other almost-daily Google images I have been missing all this time. Well it turns out, these Google images are actually called “doodles” and the concept was originally created in 1998. In 2000, they were created more regularly and you can read the story here. There is also an image library for every image they ever created! I looked back at some momentous dates in my life and sadly there wasn’t a cool doodle for that day, but maybe you’ll get lucky. Oh and I should mention that there is even an online store where you can buy different items with the doodle of your choice. I don’t know about you, but Paddington Bear’s 50th birthday is one of my favorite, for highly sentimental reasons. Now of course I will be making Google search the first thing I check every day (just to see the cool image and read the history behind it)!

Image courtesy of Google.

So back to what captivated my interest in this particular image – the 166th birthday of the creator of the Fabergé Eggs. The doodle is such a beautiful design and I think it really captures the essence of the eggs and their intricate, unique beauty. What do you think? Some of the “doodlers” post a little history and examples of other designs they tried, which I find completely fascinating because sometimes I think the back story is often more interesting than the final design! I don’t know a whole lot about the eggs, but I have a very distinct memory of being a little girl in New York City with my parents (maybe at Christmas?) and one of the famous window displays was inspired by the eggs and it was magical! You can read more about the creator of the eggs here (note his cool middle name!) and did you know that there are many books written about the Fabergé legacy (and even a PBS special, that sadly seems to be no longer available)? And even better, one of the eggs is in a museum less than 4 hours away – so I think a road trip is in order!