Renovate Brooklyn: Now We're Cracking!

Mummy arrived in New York a couple of days ago, and after many merry festivities, we're now officially underway, working to get my office set up. Let the slave-labor commence!

Where We Stand Now: Last weekend, John got the shelves and danish modern cabinet leveled and bolted to the wall (so they won't tip over and schmoosh my intern) and then we installed a ceiling fan, so she won't bake to death in this summer heat (or at least she will bake more slowly...) Julia and I finished painting the walls a bright and airy coat of Decorator's White, and now we're moving into the "Lug-Boxes-From-Grand-Street" phase of this project, which is always my favorite part!

This is not true.

However, once we get everything up there, this is where The Mother Figure will really shine, as she is an organizational wizard--- and this small space is going to require an extra-magical dose of wizardry to get everything in!

Presto-Chango Mummy!

Check back later this week to see our leaps and bounds of progress... Never under estimate the determination of The Mother Figure! 

The Hunt Continues... Most Beautiful Things On Earth.

Okay, maybe not ON EARTH, but I think I have found the kitchen counter of my dreams. The counter of OUR DREAMS. I haven't showed it to John yet, but I promise he's totally going to love it too. This is so our style. 

O-Ma-Gawd. I think it is magnificent. Perfect. Urban-chic. Functional. Good size. Good storage. Roll-y. I mean, seriously. Does it get any better? No. But, it's $650.00, and is currently sitting in somebody's work space in Chelsea. Which is where it will stay, since it would be a b-*%# to get back to Brooklyn, and $650.00 is a pretty penny. This is so not our budget.

The island pictured at left is another Craig's List find front-runner, though let's be honest, it's no rad stainless steel cart-o-my-dreams... However, I think we could paint the base cabinet the same marvelous blue that we painted the rest of our kitchen cabinets and really make it work. (The blue is Martha Stewart's Darkening Sky. Thank you Martha.)

Now would be a perfectly good time for someone to comment about how the closed-door storage of this cabinet will also make for better, more flexible, tidy-looking storage, and the butcher-block top will be nicer to use when preparing food. Is it urban-chic? Is it scandinavian efficiency at its best? Quite possibly.

More compelling is that this counter cabinet is only $300.00, and will be disassembled for pick up so I don't have to roll it all the way from Chelsea and over the Williamsburg Bridge in order to get it back to Brooklyn. Plus-- I must remind myself-- how would I get that stainless steel jobby up my stairs? Boat loads of swearing would definitely ensue. 

I can't wait until I have a Martha-Stewart-sized-D-I-Y-empire, so I can afford stainless steel carts and other people to bring them into my apartment. And maybe an apartment with an elevator. Man-- that day feels a long way away...

Onwards & Upwards, right?

House Beautiful's 2011 Kitchen Event? Check!

Julia and I attended House Beautiful's 2011 Kitchen of the Year event on Thursday, and emerged victorious. 1.) I saw a Caesar Stone counter top material, pictured at left, that I loved (and am hoping to use on a work project, once I show the client how lovely it was...) and 2.) We got to have a relaxing drink on a beautiful terrace in the heart of Rockefeller Center.

It was like we'd gone on vacation in New York. Is that a stay-cation?Awesome. 

Julia is drinking their signature drink of the evening in this photo: A Belgian Moon-tini. I think it consisted of prosecco, some pureed fresh blackberry, and maybe a splash of chambord... It looked like a oversized hang-over in a champagne flute to me, but Julia seemed happy with it!



Other highlights included this double-faucet-kitchen-sink-action. One is a commercial style sprayer, the other: a mod-looking two-handled faucet. Very sleek indeed.

We were also taken with this gigantic pot rack, hanging from some serious hardware above the kitchen island and below a massive skylight. Very cool and unexpected. And then there's me: Evidently posing like I'm Martha Stewart. Convincing? Not really.

Big thanks again to Julia for keeping me company on this expedition! And haz-ahh for a stay-cation. 

Seeking Inspiration... In All the Right Places!

I was cordially invited to attend House Beautiful's Kitchen Of The Year event, which kicks off tonight at Rockefeller Center! My dear friend Julia has begrudgingly agreed to attend with me (though I suspect promises of free wine and snacks may have helped smooth the path to acquiescence...)

We'll take lots of photos and report back on what we saw, what we tasted, and whether Julia can ever be coerced again.

Cross your fingers! 

Renovate Brooklyn! Back to the Task at Hand... Oy.

In the midst of working my more-than-full-time job, prepping my new office, doing secret missions for  The Nate Show, and remembering to breathe deeply and calmly*, I've also been slowly dragging bits and pieces of my Grand Street office out of the apartment and into the new space a dozen blocks away (with the help of my incredibly patient and loving husband John, to whom I owe everything and am eternally indebted. Big smile.)

So far, I have absconded with the tall danish cabinet that used to be in the living room, which I know some of you will be happy to see go. (Yes! Some of my readers have dissenting opinions about my furniture placement. The gall!) In the photo below, the cabinet used to sit to the right of the sofa, now replaced by my 1960's giantess lamp (literally 42" tall! Yow-zah!) and a lithograph by Ralph Steadman. Sweet.

As I mentioned before, the plan is to commandeer what was once the office-area and turn it into a dining room, and then make the kitchen into a more fully functioning kitchen (sans dining table) by building/buying a big counter top and adding some counter stools. I've been scouring Craig's List and local antique shops for a possible candidate, but no winners yet...

The hunt is my favorite phase of the D-I-Y game, except when we get to the part where we actually exchange goods for currency. I like that bit less.

I'm waiting to hear back from someone from Craig's List who is selling the kitchen island pictured at left... Maybe a little too antique-y for our apartment, but very cool looking none the less. And if the price is right, I think I'm feeling fairly flexible aesthetically. And I suspect I'll be even more flexible once there is a big void in our kitchen when I've moved the table into the living room... 

What I really want is something like the shop-style counter pictured below-- which is truly a bargain at only $199.00! Sadly, it is located somewhere deep in Illinois, which would make the price of acquiring this counter SKYROCKET! So, alas... the search continues.

*My friend Mary just taught me about "Square Breathing". Apparently this is going to revolutionize my late-night/early-morning work-related-to-do-list-anxiety... Can't wait to put this into action, as counting down from 100 in french is getting old. I'll report back.  

Renovate New Jersey? Done and Done!

Okay. Back in action! My stint working on the project for The Nate Show was a terrific success and a great pleasure, but unfortunately, I've been sworn to top-secret-super-sonic-secrecy until the web-isode airs later this summer, so I can't fill you in on the details any more than that. OOOoohhh... Keeping secrets is HARD and totally not my strong suit. Just ask John.

Maybe I could just mention that we used these two beautiful colors from Valspar in the project, and then your imaginations can run wild, wondering how we used them... Hopefully that won't get me in big trouble with the folks over at The Nate Show, but if I go missing, you know where to look!

Now that I'm finished working on that project, it's back to the task at hand: Getting my own office up and running, and looking like a place suitable for an interior designer to work. It sort of sets the bar high, being that I design other people's offices-- mine better look good too!

Check back soon to see my progress...

Renovate Brooklyn! Moving Right Along at the Office!

We keep on chipping away at our offices, and this is my latest step in the right direction. Working with what I've got-- a great way to keep my budget in check-- I decided to paint my office floor with the Valspar Taupe from our living room floor project and Martha Stewart's Darkening Sky, which we used to paint the kitchen cabinets a few weeks ago. 

I mapped out these wide stripes on an angle, taped them out with blue tape, and then rolled them out, back and forth until I got to the door. As they say, "Don't paint yourself into a corner." Ha. I also like the other paint-based cliche "Have an exit strategy." My exit strategy was walk. A reliable bet.

I'm pretty thrilled with the results so far-- still so much left to do-- but I did put up those brilliant orange sheer drapes that Julia picked up from West Elm: $12.99/each! Talk about keeping your budget in check! Yow-za!

So that's where we stand today--

 I'll keep you posted on my progress with The Nate Show and their crew...


Very exciting!!

Renovate Brooklyn: Gone, but not forgotten! I swear!

Whoa! This has been a serious After-Dinner Design hiatus! But you wouldn't believe how busy I've been for the past two weeks... We've been prepping our little office co-op in Williamsburg, and it has been a whole lotta work, to say the least. For some unfortunate reason, the previous tenant had used one of every color to paint the entire apartment, so we're slowly nursing it back to health, one coat of white paint at a time. So far, my room has been primed from top to bottom (even the floors!) and I've done the first coat of ceiling paint.

In a surprising twist, I think I might paint all of the walls and ceiling in matte white-- not something I usually do (I love color!) but the room gets so much great light and is pretty small, so I think I may embrace the bright white expanses as much as possible. We'll see... It's hard to resist a benjamin moore custom color, let's be honest. 

This weekend, we've been diligently gang-priming the rest of the apartment-- check out these inspirational photos from Friday night... We were there until after midnight painting, which was especially remarkable considering two of our fellow painters aren't even renting space there, they're just really good friends (or husbands, in John's case.) 

Julia in action! We've got our work cut out for us! 

Champion Painter, Michael White! 

I will try hard to keep everybody up-to-date on our progress at the office, but I'm also filming a web-isode (that's like TV, on a website, fyi!) with The Nate Berkus Show this week, so I'm one seriously busy bee. Hopefully I can get my room finished before this coming weekend, when we're meant to be moving all of the furniture into the building. Yikes! One thing at a time, right? Ha.

Stay tuned for photos from my Nate Berkus adventures, 

and look forward to many more office updates! 

Let the games begin!!!