Outdoor Kitchens and Reality TV

I finally got home early one day. It was five o'clock and that meant I would get to watch my favorite show, The People's Court. Since I started working again, I've missed getting my half-assed TV law degree, unaccredited, of course, and wanted to see if there were any new precedents I was missing. So I watched the show, keep your dog on a leash, verbal agreements count, and don't sell a car to a minor, and then after did what most lazy people do, I stayed in bed and channel surfed. I haven't watched live TV in awhile so I was just looking to see if I was missing out. I found something called "Unusually Thicke" starring Alan Thicke and the rest of his guh-ross clan. It was so off-putting, it gave me PTSD's. Why is he so mean to his wife? You can tell even she is like, "Wait-what?!" I watched, like, five minutes and then flipped over to anything else. Which happened to be HGTV. HGTV and The Food Network both have a tendency to lull me into complacency. Their programming is so benign, I can sit and stare and not move for hours. And that is how I ended up watching House Hunters International: Nicaragua.

Thanks to Rick Bayless's brilliant show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, I have decided to retire in Baja California, Mexico. Because gorgeous. But if you have a show with ANY Latin American country, I stop and watch like I'm gettin' paid. And here's the thing I love about Nicaragua, and more specifically Granada, they have outdoor kitchens and it's the norm! Like no one said, in a whiney American accent, "Ugh, why is the kitchen outside?!" She was all, yep, gorgeous, love the space. And I was all, Nicaragua, ehhh?

The pic above and the one below are from homes in Nicaragua. I think I found them on home rental sites. It was hard to find photos of real outdoor kitchens, mostly I found new builds, which are way boring.

Also, that episode inspired me to work on designing my outdoor kitchen. We have no air conditioning in our kitchen and in the summer it's silly to turn on the oven to heat up a pizza for 12 minutes.

Finding smaller, interesting kitchens was hard. Most of them were giant stone monstrosities with the same square footage as my house. I like this one because of the warm wood that was used.

Another tiny one with brick and a fireplace. I will always be attracted to the ones with the string lights.

Traditional Patio by Englewood Architects & Designers Godden Sudik Architects Inc

A small cement grill area with pergola. Simple and small enough for my yard.

Traditional Patio by Novato Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Derviss Design

More wood! And a tiny deck. And string lights!

Contemporary Deck by Brooklyn Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers New Eco Landscapes

This one was very much my style. Lots of color and found furniture and materials.

Modern Patio by Other Metro Photographers Marco Antunio

This outdoor kitchen is stunning! I almost didn't post it because it's quite large and requires an architects eye. But the kitchen is actually small and the mirror above the prep area is genius!

Contemporary Patio by San Francisco Architects & Designers SB Architects

So here's where we veer off course. This kitchen is so lovely, but waaaaay out of my budget. The sliding window and door would probably not be cheap. But its so incredibly creative and bright!

Contemporary Porch by Sydney Architects & Designers Danny Broe Architect

Aaaaand we're back! Purple wabi-sabi house with a tiny kitchen. This would make me so happy!

This outdoor kitchen is actually pretty close to what I want. Grill, sink, pizza oven and all in a small amount of space. And who wouldn't want that bright yellow oven?!

This one is so simple and chic, I am in love!

Another space with the sliding doors. But how amazing would that be?! To wake up on a Sunday morning and open the doors and make pancakes?!

I think this outdoor kitchen is in Spain. But I also think it's from a rental. So it's inspiring both design and travel-wise! Also, I love white appliances.

Here's another little guy, no cooking surface, but still, lovely and small and adds a lot of fancy to a backyard.

Now, one more, before I go. More sliding doors, but is that a hot tub? I love the color scheme in this one, wood and black and white, and the tiny pool. I would love something like that, small and kind of shallow for my boys to play in.

I think searching for all these pretty spaces has nearly wiped my memory of any type of gross reality show that may have tried to infiltrate my brain. And, hopefully, moving to Nicaragua will keep them away from me forever!

Pics are either from Houzz and clickable or on my Outdoor pinboard on Pinterest.

Also available in white...

My kids were home sick yesterday. I was also somewhat under the weather, but somehow my Nespresso kicked in and I wanted to paint this wall in my kitchen.

I keep seeing Pins of glorious white loft kitchens that are filled with light and that one modern chair and I wish I could have that. But a tiny bungalow in Altadena is the exact opposite. So I just pine and watch old episodes of The Office. And then suddenly hop off my bed and start painting.

Here's the before:

I originally painted the panelling a coral that I thought contrasted nicely with the blue in the rest of the kitchen. And while I love that coral color, it really limits the colors you can put in front of it. Everything has to be white or it kind of disappears.

I think, what this decision boils down to is that now I can buy more stuff from Anthropologie without worrying it's gonna clash. If I'm being honest.

Look at all the pretty colors, Murky!

One more before and after! I can't help but be proud, because I did it all myself!

This is the kitchen when it still had the darling little kitchen nook that actually took up a lot of space! And the old stove with no oven window. John worked on a TV show episode where one of the characters had a scene in a ghetto apartment. The ghetto stove in the ghetto apartment was nicer than our stove.

Which is why it's delightful to gaze upon it now:

Now all the light that was in the nook is in the whole kitchen. And if you need any tongs, they're right there!

This is a view going the other direction; what you see when you sit in the nook.

We still have to get a new apron front sink and new wood counter tops. If you could see the tiles up close you would be appalled! So gross! I will never have tile counter tops again! I will be that annoying woman on House Hunters who says, "But the tile counter tops in the second house are a deal breaker..." While you scream,"You can get new counter tops, nutball!"

Who am I kidding? Like we can move anytime soon...

Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday

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Yellow chair, yellow chair, what are they feeding you...

I spent the day painting that chair yellow! And believe me, it took all day. Yellow is not an easy paint color to work with. This little chair took 3 cans of paint! And if I had one more can, it probably wouldn't hurt!

The before is in this pic:

Oh, sad chair, it's not your fault...

Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday

DIY Home Sweet Home The More the Merrier Monday

ModVintage Life Mod Mix Monday

The Southern Institute Creative Me Monday

Ask Anna Weekend Warrior

be colorful motivated monday

Skip to My Lou Made By You Monday

Crafty Confessions Tuesday Confessional

My Uncommon Slice of Surburbia Tuesday's Treasures

Home Stories A to Z 

Thrifty Home Penny Pinching Party!

Someday Crafts Whatever Goes Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday

The Shabby Creek Cottage Transformation Thursday

Thrifty Decorating Thrifty Thursday

No Minimalist Here Open House Party Thursday

Fireflies and Jellybeans Show Off Your Stuff

The Shabby Nest

Fingerprints on the Fridge Feature Yourself Friday

Chic on a Shoestring Flaunt it Friday

Fridays on Remodelaholic 

My Romantic Home Show and Tell Friday

Lights. Camera. Spray Paint.

 

After pinning several spray painted light fixtures, I found this little guy in a vintage store. It was only $25! (Which in everywhere else money is around $5!) Very exciting.

So I spray painted it navy blue. And it looks good against the coral wall and the white of my hood. But it looks kinda lonely from the other direction...

Maybe when I change the window coverings it'll be more excited to be there...

 

I have big plans to change the window covering and make a cord sleeve...but I have a billion other things I should be sewing...I'll keep you posted...

Little Pink Cabinets

 

I spent a good part of yesterday scrubbing the muck off of my blue dishes.  They used to reside on a shelf above a ventless stove. So all that grease collected on their exteriors. I used 3.5 Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, turning them black in the process. But, look! Lovely!

I also got to give Buddha a bath and then have this conversation:

Hartwell: Mom, who's that guy?

Me: What guy?

Hartwell: THAT guy!

Me: Buddha.

Hartwell: Where did you get him?

Me: Gramma Janice got him for me in Thailand

Hartwell: PIE-land??!!

Me (laughing): What's Pieland?

Hartwell: It's a place with pies and NO restaurants.

Here's a pic with all the colors together:

P.S. I like you just fine, but I'm not cleaning my kitchen for one photo.

And here's the before:

Showin' the Pink

Ahhhhhh...pink. Delicious. I finally covered up the yellow that was starting to crawl under my skin and lay eggs. I think I made a good choice. I decided to go a few tints lighter than the coral on the north wall. Since I'm filling the open cabinetry with a mix of dishes, the coral would be too dark. But the pink is light enough to complement the dishware with out taking over in a bloodless coup. And I really needed something warm over there to bring the room together.

This weekend we have big plans to finish the trim and the painting. And then I can breathe for awhile. As my computer station is facing all the rooms I've just finished. Except I can see a sliver of hallway. Oh, hallway, you have no idea what I'm planning.

Pendant-ic

 

I posted that amazing daisy lamp and then stopped by the Habitat for Humanity Restore on my way home via Starbucks. And they had this awesome industrial enameled pendant for $8! 

Which is why I'm posting this:

I'm sure these are in my future.

Boot from piperlime.

Daisies are a girls best friend.

I really want this pendant for the kitchen. It's 23" in diameter, so maybe a touch big. Or glamourously unexpected.

Well begun is half done.

I've had my can of green paint sitting on the counter for two months. At the end, to the left of the toaster. It started becoming part of my kitchen landscape. So I finally decided to paint the hallway. If you'll remember I originally painted it yellow, but it looked too "The Facts of Life" for me. So I kept the hallway papered and went to get the spring green paint. Which is when John stepped in Barkley poop in the backyard and tracked it in onto the paper. I can't clean the paper, so I removed it and just never put any back down. And then two months later...

Below is the yellow hallway. The difference is subtle, but I think the colors are actually decades apart.

Now I need to decide about whether or not I should paint the yellow cabinets. The only thing holding me back is that I have to clean them first. And cleaning is the worst.

Can I help you find anything?

 

I had been waiting patiently for my upper cabinet. It was $200 and I was waiting until I could use cash. Or change from my change jar. Luckily, at my last IKEA jaunt, I found this in the AS-IS section. Someone had purchased it, put it on legs and then returned it. And it didn't close properly. And I wanted white instead of birch. But 50% off?! How could I pass it up?

I brought it home and it took John and I about two hours of slowly disassembling each part, then reassembling it to see where the trouble was. IKEA has all of their instructions online, so we finally just looked at all the pictures and compared each and every drawing. Voila! The spring mechanism was installed in the wrong spot! We removed it and installed the mechanism correctly and it's good as new.

 

In this photo, you can see how it opens. Why on earth would anyone put legs on it and try to use it as a floor cabinet? As soon as you opened it, you'd have to crawl underneath the door to see anything. I'm so glad I know the IKEA catalog inside-out and upside-down. Especially the Varde series. The employees tried to tell me it comes with legs. No. No. Never. No. 

Can't wait 'til both boys are in school. I am totally working there. Come by and ask me questions. In fact, do that now.

Boys don't make passes at girls who save glasses.

I'm kind of obsessed with our glasses lately. They are all recycled jars from some food product we have consumed. There's an olive jar, a tartar sauce jar and at least four jam jars. It started when we were rinsing the jam jars out to recycle. There's only one kind of jam that doesn't use high fructose corn syrup. And it happens to be packaged in a pretty jar. So we pretty much have three jars in different flavors in the fridge all the time. John noticed that it would be a good milk glass for the boys and they started filling my cabinet.

Then I started buying items in pretty jars and anticipating their emptiness. "Hartwell, don't you want jam on your potatoes?"

Trader Joe's has an organic strawberry preserves with no HFCS and no giant chunks of fruit, chunks Hartwell no likey, and I heard John say, when he saw it in the cart, "That is a nice jar."

The other amazing thing about them is that if they break, I didn't just spend $15 on a set of matching glasses. And they break, a lot.

Why don't you just use plastic for the boys?

Because it stinks! Literally. If milk sits in plastic for one day and curdles, there isn't enough mommy in the world to get the stink out. And then, you know, plastics. There is not a great future in it.

So, sort of free glassware that works in my crazy faux country kitchen.

Also? Here's a wide shot of the glass photo shoot. A pic I LOVED until I realized that Hartwell was pantsless. As usual. Don't worry, I fixed it.

 

 

Shady Pines, Ma.

My kitchen faces south and at about 11am, I hang this towel up to keep out the sun. We have no vents in the kitchen, so unless I point a fan in there, it's hotter than H-E-double hockey sticks.

I had plans to make a roman shade, but the thought of sewing rings and measuring and all that kept me away. I found a book at the library, Curtain Bible by Katrin Cargill, that had pretty simple explanations of curtain styles and how to make them myself. It inspired me to create and sew my own faux roman shade.

I have shade like this in the boys room. My mom made me actual working roman shades but I took the cords out, safety and all that, and now I just tuck the fabric over the rod when I want to let in light. I call them Lazy Curtains(TM).

Basically I just measured and sewed two fabrics together inside out, left an opening, turned it and got these:

I added jumbo rick-rack because, why not? And then cursed my way through the sewing process. Not one corner is the same. I resolved to only use rick rack on things with straight lines.

 

Then I folded the excess over and added buttons. (My window measured 14-1/2x46, I ended up cutting out 15x50 inch panels).

I love how the backing fabric shows through to the front! That was pure luck. Thanks, sunshine!

One of my favorite parts of the Lazy Curtains(TM) is that the buttons aren't matched. They're the same button, but there are six buttons in four different colors. I kept going back and forth on attaching them. But since I had to sew it together anyway, why not add some flair! 

I think they are a little twee. But, whatever.

 

One more pic of my Lazy Curtains(TM) tucked over themselves.

As with all my projects, it didn't turn out as perfect as I had hoped, but from a distance, they look good. 

Sorry, I had to add this photo. I cleaned off the counter and cleaned out the sink in order to take it.

Between Naps on the Porch!