Victorian House Renovation in Bloomingdale, DC
My beautiful black shiny counters were a bit of a causality in the whole ‘move kitchen cabinets 4″ down‘ exercise. I wasn’t really looking for a solution – I figured that just as well, it was bound to happen eventually, with use. But then I came across this post on Apartment Therapy, suggesting that it was possible to get dings out of wood counters. Intrigued, I decided to give it a whirl last night.… Read the rest
I have been trying to take care of the small things as we go along in the renovation – like touch ups and finishing touches – because I figure once we declare Phase II renovation done, its going to be really difficult to get around to small fixes and touch ups. This quick fix – adding a touch of brass to our faucets – one was super quick. In 20 minutes and with minimum materials and effort in the kitchen and half bath, I made a big difference in the finished look of our space.… Read the rest
Well we have survived the frankenstorm that was Sandy, without flooding or loosing electricity. That was the best part of the hurricane. Another neat bit of freak weather events –all public transport typically shuts down in DC, which means that the offices are closed as well, and we get to telework from home. Which means that I got to oil, wax, and buff our beautiful island top during my lunch break.… Read the rest
So apparently my choice of colors for the house is a) monochromatic and b) goes in phases. I am in what Sergey calls a “black phase” which follows a “white phase.”
When the kitchen renovation started, Sergey was shocked and appalled at the idea of everything being white: cabinets? white, tin ceiling? – white!, what even the floor?? – yep, white (though featuring black rosettes and black grout.) Oh and yea about the exposed brick…also white.… Read the rest
This past weekend was all about house time for us, in large part because we have plans for every single weekend in October save for one. Life – it gets in a way of house stuff (or is it the other way around?) The big accomplishment was leveling out and putting the finishing touches on our reclaimed wood island counter.
Over the two prior weekends we had selected, prepped and put together the reclaimed wood for our island counter top.… Read the rest
Awhile back – actually way before any concrete plans for this renovation materialized – I came across these pictures of penny-tile floors and thought – that might be cool thing to do at some point somewhere in the house. Sergey was totally on board. In fact, I think he actually sent me a picture of the penny time floor for inspiration. It’s not that often that we agree on a particular project or look from the very beginning so this idea was definitely filed in the “for sure, maybe” file.… Read the rest
A little update on our cabinets and island piece. Past weekend, we had some help from our friend Zach (thank you!) which was essential to putting together our Ikea pantry unit, since Sergey’s only got one useful hand as of two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, I played around with various finishes for our kitchen island counter top. I don’t think that we will be using it as a butcher block. I prefer using cutting boards for ease of clean up, and plus the joists are probably pine, which is a soft wood that wouldn’t take that well to constant cutting and chopping.… Read the rest
When we took the house apart, our friends had suggested that we keep the old wood joists for all sorts of salvage projects. Such as a table.Or a kitchen island top. Brilliant, thank you friends! Reclaimed wood has become rather fashionable as of late, which gives me a bit of a pause in using it on such a focal piece in the kitchen. Reclaimed wood is definitely a trend, and maybe even a fad, that won’t stay.… Read the rest
Early on I decided on whitewashed brick for the kitchen, because key operation word here is light. I though about keeping the original color, particularly because our brick was in a beautiful condition when we cleaned off the plaster but decided in the end that it would just be too dark. I feel that exposed brick is almost always heavy left as is.
This was my inspiration:
Source: AT; Norm Architects; Dana Barnes; CoCoCozy;
I liked how the texture and the color of the bricks still came through the white.… Read the rest
We have made quite a bit of progress on our built in shelving unit this weekend. The first word that comes to mind to describe is HUGE! I mean we knew the dimensions (obviously) before starting but to see it in person, is really awe inspiring. Anyway, back to the actual progress report.
We are following directions from This Old House on how to make built in shelves, and so far with very good results.… Read the rest