I have finally looked at every kitchen on Pinterest.
Lots of you have wondered why our kitchen progress stopped… It might bear explaining eventually, but hasn’t yet felt like blog-fodder. In the meantime, it can be summed up as: life.
I have no idea how other bloggers manage to have their house/projects/progress all proceed in a way that is so perfectly linear and sensible.
The forced hiatus helped me work through a lot of my existential kitchen angst… Not to mention the dubious gift of time to look at every kitchen on Pinterest.
It took a while.
As of today, my kitchen board is filled with 800 designs of extraordinary proportion… which I cannot afford… do not have the space for… but will look fantastic when I inherit an estate in the Hamptons. (Hopefully that happens soon.)
After all of this extensive research – I am now able to report for sure, that my only kitchen-design options are:
1. monument to ostentation.
2. faux-IKEA-hack-monument to ostentation.
3. DIY budget-minded makeover that looks good in the text-annotated pin… But when you actually click through, looks like crap.
There may be a small community of outliers who have broken with this mold, but I believe the kitchen-design-police have prohibited them from having a strong presence online.
Aside from wasting my life on Pinterest, another benefit of the design-suspension was the time it gave me to break Paul’s spirit get Paul on board.
On board with what, specifically? Remains to be seen. (It also remains to be seen whom I will rob in order to procure funding.) But the common elements seem to be – white, white, white, some dark wood for contrast, glass-front cabinets, vast amounts of marble, a ridiculously large island, monster-sized crown molding, and possibly some open shelving.
All that needs to happen now is for these elements to arrange themselves into a yet-to-be-decided genre. I have narrowed it down to four:
1. Liberace meets Versailles.
2. THE THING
3. On-trend Christopher Peacock knockoff.
4. Vintage/retro/kitsch.
I thought I would really enjoy doing kitchen-inspiration posts… you know, collecting pretty pictures? How hard can that be? But it turns out to be a soul-sucking exercise. First, because finding the original source for anything is nearly impossible. Second, because looking through 800 kitchen photos is mind-numbing. Third, because trying to find kitchens we haven’t all seen 50,000 times is impossible.
I wanted to present some kind of working hypothesis. But instead I ended up spending all my free time revisiting my Pinterest kitchens. (Pin-hoarding, anyone?) And getting sucked into other people’s boards. And trying to track down the source for these planters…
It’s the problem with the internet – it’s so internet-y.
I am at a loss for how to wrap this up… (Seeing as how I never really got it to go anywhere.) So now it’s time for you to give back.
If you have a dream kitchen, a favorite pin, or are working on your own kitchen – share it with us and leave a link in the comments. *reminder – more than one link will likely get you eaten by the spam filter.
if you missed my own personal dream kitchen
all kitchen posts
May 22, 2014 @ 12:47 pm
Yeah, my kitchen is something that I definitely wanted to put off for a while, but the cabinets that came with the house were glued to poorly installed drywall. Glued. And they fell apart when I took them down. I’m now going to pieces because I decided a long time ago what general layout I wanted and had plumbing installed, and an interior designer friend is questioning everything I did! I think maybe he’s going it just to mess with me, but that’s another story.
And for your kitchen, I think the faux monument to ostentation IKEA hack is totally the way to go, unless you can have that awesome wardrobe somehow reconfigured to fit.
And… I’m jealous of anyone who can talk about islands. I have a teensy little peninsula planned for mine, and I’m questioning if it should exist or not. But the bigger questions for me are in my 9 1/2 foot square space, which appliance door do I want to block access to the back yard?
Here’s a view of what mine might someday look kinda like. I know you liked my “spring cleaning” title about moving the bathroom, but I made it through that. This patio door that I must have will finish off the bank account once and for all. http://chadscrookedhouse.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/frustration-forensics-and-future-kitchen/
May 22, 2014 @ 12:50 pm
Victoria, I think it’s time you meet Karen over at The Art of Doing Stuff. She has just finished a kitchen remodel and is revealing it slowly. You could just copy what she’s done because that’s what I would do if I had a famous blog and manufacturers giving me stuff. Check out her project, with bits of it linked from this page: http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/stuff/kitchen/
May 22, 2014 @ 5:12 pm
Karen I was just thinking about the current kitchen reveal there! Victoria would be perfect to be featured in a magazine. Her style would be a nice change from the usual kitchen renos. I want to see Liberace meets Versailles!!!
May 22, 2014 @ 12:52 pm
I feel your pain. All of it. We completed this kitchen remodel (which I still love) about a year and a half ago but I’m already planning what I’ll do next. http://creatingthislife.com/kitchen-remodel-before-after/
May 22, 2014 @ 1:05 pm
We gave ours a facelift year before last, as opposed to an actual renovation. The previous homeowner had done that, but her choice of colors and finishes (and her craftsmanship – or craft-woman-ship) left much to be desired. We did the best we could with what was here. Some of the appliances have already had to be replaced, and we repurposed the family breakfast area into a lounge-type of space because there are only the two of us, and besides this is more fun for cocktail hour than a hard kitchen chair. I did what you have done, buy every kitchen book, camp on Pinterest and Houzz, and drove myself crazy with envy. Liberace meets Versailles seems to be the gold standard, but my spending limit was incompatible with that concept. Eventually, we came up with a workable plan which has made the kitchen work for us, instead of the other way round. Make a plan, but be prepared to be flexible, and then roll up your sleeves and go to it. It took us 7 long months.
Good Luck!
Ellen
May 22, 2014 @ 1:21 pm
This is our kitchen when the cabinets were installed in February. http://oceanstatehome.blogspot.com/2014/02/kitchen-granite.html
Fortunately for me, being a guy, I was banned from any input what so ever. The concession was I would butt out as long as I got my drawer microwave. I tried to offer help on the handles and knobs but was told to get lost. Ahhh, the advantages of being a guy…
May 22, 2014 @ 1:26 pm
This is tough. I feel your pain because I just re-modeled my kitchen a few months ago. I’m not sure Pinterest helped me at all in the end except for overwhelming me. Everything I loved wouldn’t have been right in my space, for my budget, or for my house.
The fancy kitchens are fantastic but would have looked odd in my middle-class, ranch-style home. Not to mention my bad housekeeping resulting in big ‘ole cobwebs all over the pretty chandelier.
In the end, I had to cut myself off from Pinterest for a while and just stare at my kitchen and try to visualize what was going to be handiest and matched the style and decor of the house.
This is going to be hard VEB, stop looking at Pinterest and decide on your one must-have and design around that. Do you have to have a certain style of cabinet? Let that form the rest of your kitchen. You can do this. You have impeccable taste!
May 22, 2014 @ 1:51 pm
Go get the A&E “Nero Wolfe Mysteries” series and bask in the gorgeous set design (including amazing kitchen). Ditto costumes. I wasn’t able to find any good images of the kitchen, but it’s worth looking at – including the wing chair in the corner for the great man himself to supervise meal creation.
May 22, 2014 @ 1:51 pm
This is very nearly my dream kitchen, although maybe more aqua than mint:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/49469295880605300/
May 22, 2014 @ 2:15 pm
Love all the kitchens and have to pin some to my virtual kitchen board too.
May 22, 2014 @ 2:33 pm
[email protected] <—email for info. on the gorgeous blue and white topiary planters 🙂
May 22, 2014 @ 3:03 pm
Oh Victoria…. I dare to ask if you have found HOUZ Zyet? I don’t know if you know about it or if anyone has told you… HOUZZ is worse than PINTREST.
When you go in at HOUZZ.COM, click on kitchens across the top…. the return today is – drumroll please…. 588,795… yep. You can then click through pictures or even narrow down the serch by type of kitchen etc…
Have fun!
May 22, 2014 @ 3:42 pm
Victoria,
Please let me begin with saying that I’ve been following you for quite a while and love, love, love your blog! Your home is just gorgeous and I’ve drooled over your purchases and finds!
We built/contracted our home ourselves a year ago and the kitchen was indeed a top priority. I too researched Pinterest, Houzz, and blogs trying to find exactly the look I was going for. As it has turned out, we are quite happy with our choices. If you’d like to see our “white” kitchen, you can check it out at this link: http://mssharlottessouthernreflections.blogspot.com/search/label/Home%20Tour%20-%20Kitchen
May 22, 2014 @ 3:48 pm
I have an all-white kitchen now and other than it being DIY so the plywood cabinets are painted and not powder coated (or whatever pro cabinet people do), I really like it. Our next house has a different color scheme though and white won’t work so this is my vision 🙂 I love Houzz
http://www.houzz.com/photos/5044795/Kitchen-Cabinetry-traditional-kitchen-other-metro
May 22, 2014 @ 4:24 pm
Um… I’m thinking you need to get some graph paper, set the gutted room dimensions, locate the plumbing, electrical, & gas [?]. Then draw to size.. what cabinets you think you need.. I suggest you do this with additional graph paper so you can cut them out and move them around. As much as a kitchen can cost, I’d really recommend you hire a licensed kitchen. There are quite a few as I searched ‘licensed kitchen designers in Philadelphia, Pa’ Some are through HOUZZ.COM… But paying a designer to show what is and, more importantly, what isn’t possible is worth the money. Pay for a design consult, not necessarily contract them for the actual job….
Or in my fantasy world, The Kitchen Cousins would come and do mine!
May 22, 2014 @ 4:25 pm
Try Houzz
May 22, 2014 @ 4:31 pm
I used Pinterest ad nauseum when renovating my kitchen, it was so helpful. I had many pins very similar to yours. My main criteria was white cabinetry, wood floors and carrera marble. My kitchen ended up a tad more modern than I wanted when I set out. It was featured on Hooked On Houses which was pretty darn gratifying considering I had relatively small budget for such a major remodel. They call it gray and white but the tiles are actually an aqua-gray.
http://hookedonhouses.net/2013/04/11/heathers-gray-white-kitchen/
http://hookedonhouses.net/2013/06/04/kitchen-contest-vote-for-your-favorite-white-kitchen/
May 22, 2014 @ 4:38 pm
Do you know how much time you just saved me? I am now following your Pinterest boards-they were just about the same as mine-I will never have to pin again…183,568 craft pins-you don’t sleep do you!
May 22, 2014 @ 5:14 pm
First of all, I want to say that I was just thinking that very thing – namely, “I wonder what’s been going on with Victoria’s kitchen.”
Second, on the overwhelming-ness of the kitchen-specific internet, I can say only that I HEAR YOU. Heaven alone knows how many hours I have frittered away on looking at internet kitchens. The good news – if you see it that way – is that this is an obsession that can outlast your kitchen remodel.
And, of course, you raise an excellent point about the sorts of kitchens that are available on the internet. I think mine would be in the “DIY/kitsch” camp, but I feel comfortable predicting that yours will lean way more “Liberace.” So now you pose a fascinating challenge – out of all the kitchens on the internet, I have to find one that is not merely beautiful but the very MOST beautiful, and it has to be something that you haven’t seen. And I can have only one link.
My favorite kitchens are the ones that look like they are still being used in the late-19th century and that that is occurring right now. I watched a Miss Marple episode with a magnificent Irish pine sideboard that looked about 12 feet tall and an insane work table. That is my favorite kitchen. Followed by Edith Wharton’s kitchen from The Mount, which is acres of awesome. (There – you can google that, and I didn’t have to waste my one link!) So for my one link, I’m going to go with:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/56815/KitchenLab-transitional-kitchen-chicago
It’s not a museum piece; it is accessible. It has beautiful history. And it could be done in a more affordable version. The finishes make it, so it could conform to your layout. Assuming you liked it as much as I do.
Also, I will share my one and only secret of making a beautiful kitchen, which I think will work for you because in this particular respect I think we are quite similar. An inspiration photo will help you identify what you like – but you know that already. To truly fix the destiny of your kitchen, you need an inspiration OBJECT. I don’t mean a thought-provoking seashell. I mean something that’s going to be part of your kitchen. That is, in fact, how my kitchen came to be – I had a lot of ideas, but no concrete path. Then I bought a magnificent and enormous piece of antique cabinetry on Craigslist, and the rest of the kitchen obligingly designed itself.
I know you tried this once already with the Wardrobe to Narnia. But I think you got that much closer than you think. To design a kitchen, you need to unite fully your vision and Paul’s good sense. You have to find the Inspiration Object, but he has to have full veto power in light of the functional considerations – size, shape, how the plumbing and electrical work (and doors and windows) will work with it. He’s obviously not squeamish about hard work and retrofitting. Find the piece you think is beautiful and he thinks will work, and you will have your kitchen.
May 22, 2014 @ 5:36 pm
I suggest you check out Sarah Richardson Farmhouse in a pinterest search. The kitchen is in an old house and has similar challenges as yours.
May 22, 2014 @ 5:56 pm
I feel your pain. We just put 50% down with our kitchen designer today and ordered the new marble countertops. We’re not doing a complete gut but a facelift. Funny how a small “facelift” can cost thousands of dollars! Ugh. I have searched Pinterest and Houzz until my eyes rolled in to the back of my head and my skull spun round and round. It’s all so crazy. I mean, I can go back and forth on cabinet pulls for days. Ridiculous! In the end, you can’t please anyone but yourself and you’re not going to be able to copy an inspiration kitchen exactly…you have to do what suits you best.
Good luck on all of the DIY ahead of you…I am totally daunted by a project of such magnitude, but I know you’ll pull it off without a hitch!