All 36 Deco 3B Blocks Completed! Woo Hoo!

Hello and happy Monday!  I am delighted to share that I finished all fourteen of the remaining 3B (in Kona Solid Indigo and Willow green) for my Deco quilt last night!  I am especially proud of how much I got done because I got called in for jury duty on Wednesday and didn't get any sewing done on Thursday, either.

Deco Bed Quilt Blocks 1, 2, and 3B Completed

Those two blank rows near the center of the quilt need eighteen of Block 3A, which is nearly identical to Block 3A except that there is one more 1" square patch and, in my version of the quilt, Block 3A will combine the Indigo (dark navy) background fabric with Kona Solid Thistle, the lighter of the two purple fabrics used in my log cabin blocks for this quilt.  Sensible quilters will have followed the faster strip piecing instructions in the Deco pattern instructions from Lo & Behold, but I have cut out individual patches for all of my blocks for reasons I've rehashed in previous blog posts.

Nine 3A Blocks Ready for Chain Piecing

My method for staying organized while chain piecing those last 14 3B blocks worked well for me, so that's how I'll be piecing the 3A blocks.  In the photo above, I've laid out the 3A block with nine  fabric patches in each stack.  Once I've completed the first nine blocks, I'll lay out the last nine blocks in the same way.

Studio Tour: Let There Be Light! And Also, Thread! Upgrades From My Sweetie

You guys, I am SO EXCITED about the wire cable track lighting that my husband installed above my new Bernina long arm last night!  I LOVE IT! 💕💕💕

Wire Cable Track Lighting Installed Above My New Q24

The Bernina Q24 has plenty of bright LED lighting along the throat of the machine head itself, but I wanted the entire length of the frame lit up from one side to the other so I can inspect each section of a quilt as I'm advancing it on the frame.  Bright task lighting enables me to find and remove any pet fur or stray threads before they get quilted in, and makes it easier to notice things like open seams that my hopping foot could catch in if I didn't see them ahead of time.

Bright Lighting Helps Me Spot Problems Like This Open Seam

That photo above with an open seam was my own kaleidoscope quilt, by the way -- I am not a perfect piecer, either!  (When I see something like that as I'm quilting, I like to mark it with a hand stitched tailor tack in contrasting thread so it's easier to find it later when I want to hand stitch that spot closed).

Free-Motion Quilting with My New, Snazzy Quilt Beast: Meet the Bernina Q24!

Now that the vintage Corn & Beans quilt has been repaired and returned to its owner, I finally had a chance to start playing with my new Bernina Q24 long arm machine yesterday.  I am in Quilting Heaven!

First Free-Motion Stitches on my New Q24

This is a preprinted practice panel that I bought from Lisa Calle when I took her long arm quilting workshop in Paducah in 2019.  My Q24 was delivered with a full bobbin's worth of orange thread, so I threaded her up with a cone of So Fine thread, color Orange Julius in the needle for the maiden voyage.  I haven't done any free motion quilting at all for nearly a year, having been so focused on learning that IntelliQuilter computerized quilting system, so I'm a bit rusty -- but I just love how  this machine handles for free motion work.

DIY Longarm Machine Overhead Lighting, So I Don't Sew Through My Fingers!

Ta da!  Look what my handy husband made for me this weekend!

DIY Long Arm Lighting, Courtesy of Bernie

After I horrified Bernie with the tale of a quilter who was quilting in poor lighting and stitched THROUGH HER THUMBNAIL with her longarm machine, my darling husband decided to move this project up to the top of his Honey Do list.  I took this photo before dawn this morning, right after I shooed my teenagers out the door for school, and the picture does not do justice to how my new lights illuminate this whole end of the studio.

APQS does sell an overhead lighting system that I could have purchased for my Millenium machine, but it costs $795 (which my husband thought was outrageous) and I'm pretty sure it uses incandescent lightbulbs that run hot and give off a yellow cast.  I wanted white lights so I wouldn't have to color-correct all of my project photos, and either fluorescent or LED bulbs that don't radiate heat.

APQS Overhead Lighting System, $795

I'm not sure exactly how much money Bernie spent on my overhead lighting, but I'm guessing somewhere in the neighborhood of $50-100.  He used PVC piping and attached the light bar to the same universal mounting brackets that the APQS overhead lighting kit uses.  The wires for my lights are run inside the PVC pipes for a clean look.  Instead of the track lighting that the APQS version uses, Bernie used LED shop lights for mine, the kind that are marketed for a woodworking shop.  They flood the entire work surface of my 12' frame with even, bright light.  The individual track lights ARE kind of cool looking, but I don't know whether it's necessary to move them around and point them differently as you work on a quilt.  Once I get a quilt up on my frame I'll be better able to tell if these lights create any undesirable shadows or anything, but I would think the lighting needs of a woodworker would be very similar to the lighting needs of a machine quilter.

Of course, the interior designer in me was thinking of sleek wire track lighting that would mount to the sloped ceiling above my machine, eliminating the need for a light bar attached to the quilting frame:

Wire Track Lighting In This Kitchen.  Cool, Right?

But Bernie didn't want to mess with those because he's never installed them before and suspects they would be a major hassle, but more importantly, he's confident that they would be MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE than his PVC and shop lights solution.  And I conceded because I know he's right, and in this situation functionality is way more important than aesthetics.  

My Cutie, Installing the PVC Light Bar

So, according to my calculations, this weekend warrior project saved me approximately $700 that I can now spend on fabric!  (JUST KIDDING, Bernie!!)  Hah!

Have a great week, everyone.

Studio Makeover Update: Warehouse Pendant Installed, Birdie Clock On the Way!

I must begin by telling you how unbelievably ticked off I am at Blogger right now.  Not only has it become a glorious PITA to upload photos to my blog recently, but yesterday I spent a good hour working on this post only to have it VANISH without a trace before I could publish it.  Attention, Blogger -- you're on probation!  There are other blog platforms out there, and I will flirt with other options if you don't get your kinks worked out soon!

Pendant Task Lighting Installed over Cutting Table

Okay.  So the 20" Ivanhoe Sky Chief pendant in Cherry Red from Barn Light Electric has now been installed over my cutting table, and I'm LOVING it.  Similarly styled fixtures are available from Restoration Hardware, Rejuvenation Hardware, and other trendy sources -- for a lot MORE money -- but what I love most about the Barn Light Electric fixture is that it takes up to a 200 watt bulb.  The pricier look-alikes typically take only a single 60 watt bulb, which is totally inadequate for task lighting at a cutting table.  I only have a 150 watt bulb in the pendant now because that's all I had in the house, but already I'm loving it.  I should also mention that we've installed the pendant so that it's centered over my table, with the bottom edge of the shade 24" above the table surface.  That puts the bottom of the shade roughly at eye level for me, so I have very concentrated task lighting on my work surface but I don't have the glare of a bare bulb shining in my eye.  The cherry red pendant shade is a bit darker than the red painted drawer base and sewing cabinet, but I can easily repaint them darker later.



Bernie sits in the folding chair where he wants his "real" chair to be

Right now, I'm only partially moved back into the space so I can "test-drive" my setup (and because I was DYING to start playing with the new Bernina 750 QE sewing machine that I got for Christmas).  I am currently taking up only about half the room for my studio, which is good because it leaves room for that seating area and flat screen TV that I wanted to add.  Now, before you start congratulating me on how clean and open my sewing studio is, I should confess that it only looks so good because 75% of my stuff is still piled in my master bedroom while I figure out where to put everything.  I counted FORTY-FOUR drapery and upholstery remnants on bolts, most of them less than a full yard, in addition to all of the folded scraps, cases of threads and notions, etc.  I sense a purge coming on...  I can't bear to clutter my room up again.

Actually, I'm finding storage to be a real challenge.  Despite the relatively large room with a vaulted ceiling, that ceiling is steeply sloped down to about 55" from the floor on two walls.  Of the two remaining "tall" walls, one of them is broken up with windows and I desperately need a design wall on the other wall because that's the only place it could possibly go and I've had it with laying out quilt blocks on the foyer floor and then running upstairs so I can look down from above and judge the layout.  I think we're going to enlarge both the cutting table and the sewing cabinet, so it can accommodate a serger and/or smaller secondary sewing machine work station, and we'll have to design as much creative storage into those two pieces as we possibly can.  Still working on that.

Meanwhile, I did find a cute birdie clock that I ordered for my studio the other day.  Isn't it adorable?  The finish will complement my oil rubbed bronze spooky chandelier and my sparkly cabinet knobs, and I had to have it because of the bird.  The clock is a VERY important feature of my studio, since it will help me remember to pick my kids up from school on time!

We haven't accomplished much in the studio lately because Bernie was away on business for a whole week and then my sister's family was visiting with my niece and nephew the following week.  Hopefully we'll make some headway on the storage issue next week.

 



Sewing Studio Makeover: Task Lighting for the Cutting Table

After sulking for five days, I am now officially OVER my Corian countertop obsession.  I decided that, deep down, I really do not want a $2K countertop surface on my sewing cabinet.  For one thing, if I splurged on that countertop, I'd really feel stuck with it -- and who's to say I won't want to change or reconfigure my setup again a few years down the road?  What if I want to upgrade a machine or add an additional sewbaby to the family, requiring yet another countertop surface with custom cutouts to fit the new machines?  Nope -- no Corian for me.  We'll just have to figure out something else for the surfaces.  Let me know if you have any great ideas up your sleeves!

My Desecrated Currey & Co. Chandelier

Meanwhile, I've been on a lighting lark.  I already showed you here how I desecrated upcycled a chandelier from storage to replace the ceiling fan in my sewing studio, spray painting over its lovely hand painted finish with a can of Krylon Metallic Satin Oil Rubbed Bronze and switching out the chandelier pendants.  (It's looking a lot better now that the additional crystal chandelier pendants and replacement candle sleeves have been installed).  Then Bernie added four sloped can lights (just finding the right can lights and trim rings was an adventure in and of itself) while I embarked upon a grand quest to find the perfect pendant fixture to mount over my cutting table. 

The best information I found about designing an adequate lighting plan for a sewing studio came from Deb Luttrell, owner of Stitchin' Heaven Quilt Shop in Minneola, Texas.  Deb says that sewing requires at least twice as much light as casual reading, and says to plan for 2 watts of incandescent light (or 1 watt of fluorescent light) for every square foot in your workspace -- and that's just the ambient lighting.  She suggests a pendant light with a minimum of 150 watts hanging over the cutting table for task lighting, with the edge of the shade 14" above the work surface.  Wow -- compare that to the NO light I had over my cutting table before.  I also read some depressing statistic about forty-year-old eyes requiring twice as much task lighting for fine detailed work than twenty-year-old eyes need for the same tasks.  Ugh -- even my eyeballs are middle-aged, now?! 

Of course my husband wanted to just install additional can lights over the cutting table and "be done with it," as he put it, but the vaulted ceiling is way too far above the worktable and light disperses -- you get much better task lighting from a bulb that hangs 24" above your work surface than you would from that exact bulb mounted 8' above your work surface. I'm done using razor-sharp rotary cutters and shears in the dark. Not only was it difficult to get accurate rotary cuts after dusk with my old setup (because I couldn't see the markings on my rulers), but it's also dangerous.  I'm lucky to still have all ten fingers!  As it happens, it is not an easy feat to find a reasonably priced, moderately attractive pendant light with 150+ watts. 

Rejuvenation's 600 watt Dakota Warehouse pendants

The first pendant I crushed on was the Dakota Warehouse Pendant from Rejuvenation.  It comes in different finishes with different shade options, and you can customize the length for an upcharge.  Best of all, each of these pendants takes TWO bulbs with a maximum wattage of 300 watts EACH.  That's six hundred watts of luxurious lighting spilling across my cutting tables -- what's not to love, right?  Well, this fixture costs over $450, for one thing, but the deal breaker is that it can't install on my sloped ceiling.

I found quite a few pendant fixtures from other manufacturers with a similar industrial vintage style (not surprising, since this type of pendant is trendy right now in all sorts of residential settings), but I couldn't find anything that gave me the amount of light I was looking for until I came across the Ivanhoe Sky Chief Warehouse Pendant from Barn Light Electric Co. 



Barn Light Electric Co.'s Ivanhoe Sky Chief Warehouse Pendant

I ordered one of the Ivanhoe Sky Chief pendants with a 20" diameter Cherry Red shade.  It comes with an 8' black cord that can be shortened at installation to position the light precisely above my table, and it takes a single 200 watt incandescent bulb.  It's not going to be the prison searchlight that the Rejuvenation light would have been, but it should be more than adequate -- and it will install on my sloped ceiling with no customization or modifications required, all for a mere $238, less than half of the cost of the Rejuvenation fixture.  I think it will be perfect.

Next post, I'll share some conflicting advice about ergonomics in the sewing studio as it pertains to the proper height for sewing cabinets, cutting tables and pressing stations.  I know you're excited but, please, don't hold your breath -- I'm still working on gradually emptying the studio.  I'm hoping Bernie will have time to put in the additional dedicated electrical circuit for my iron (so the lights won't dim every time my iron cycles on and off) and the floor outlet for my sewing cabinet (no more cords to trip over) and complete drywall repairs this weekend so we can start painting.  I can't believe I unwrapped my new sewbaby over two weeks ago and I still haven't sewn a single stitch with it -- I want this room finished ASAP! 

That's not going to happen unless I get EVERYTHING else out of the room, though.  Here's a reminder of what my room looked like just before Christmas:

My Studio Disaster "Before"

...and here's what my room looks like today:

Studio Half Emptied, Today

See?  My sewing room may only be half empty, but my cup is almost half full or something.  Whatever that means! 

By the way, I did order a finish sample of that Cherry Red pendant shade so I could check that it was the right shade of red for my custom sewing cabinetry, but then I just ordered the fixture anyways, because I'm impatient (and because I have a very good track record with dangerous color-matching like this -- don't try this at home!).  If the two reds don't play nice together when my pendant arrives, I'll repaint the sewing cabinets to match the pendants. 

Time to get those kids to bed so I can go back to emptying the studio!

PSST!!  I'd Love to Quilt for YOU!

By the way, if you or any of your quilty friends has a quilt top or two that needs quilting, I'd be delighted to quilt for you!  My turnaround for edge-to-edge quilting is currently running about 2 weeks, and you can click here to find out how to book your quilt with me.

My Goth Chic Sewing Palace Chandelier!

Partially Transformed Currey & Co. Chandelier

Original "Largo" Chandelier

The sewing room transformation has begun!  That hideous ceiling fan is gone, replaced by a very Goth-looking incarnation of a Currey & Co. "Largo" chandelier that has been languishing in my garage for over a year.  Originally this fixture had three different painted finishes: rusty brown, verdigris, and gilt gold, along with silver leafed amber chandelier crystals.  There was a lot going on, and although the dimensions of the fixture were perfect for my space, I wanted to get rid of the gypsy circus riot of colors and make it more neutral. 

I briefly considered repainting it white or ivory so it would disappear into the walls more, but I didn't want the headache of primers, multiple coats, and incomplete coverage, so I went with a satin oil rubbed bronze and just sprayed the whole thing.  Or should I say, Bernie sprayed the whole thing, because apparently I am not to be trusted with spray paint in his garage. 

 

Bernie as Decorative Painter!

New Candle Sleeves on Order

I ditched the amber faceted crystal pendants, and replaced them with the smooth chandelier pendants that I took off my master bathroom fixtures.  I hated them for the bathroom, but I love them with the "new" look of this fixture.  I had been using these pendants as Christmas ornaments, so they were easy to locate at this time of year.  I had eight of them and they were exactly the same size as the amber pendants I was replacing, so I only had to order four more as replacement parts from Minka Lavery.  The candle sticks have to go, too -- they were too orange and one of them was damaged -- so we left them on during painting rather than removing them first and taping the electrical components.  I've ordered two different styles of ivory/white candleabra candle sleeves from chandelierparts.com, as well as six clear rosettes in approximately the same diameter as the octagonal amber crystals that were originally wired in place at the base of the leaves. 

Crystal Rosettes on Order

Right now I have six 40-watt "Reveal" candleabra bulbs in this fixture, which is hanging 7' off the ground, and already it's a big improvement over the amount of light I was getting from the wretched ceiling fan.  However, this room is going to need a lot more ambient lighting from cans or track lights in order to light the space evenly, without shadows, as well as beefed-up task light, especially at the cutting table.  So that's next on my husband's agenda, and while he's figuring that out, I'll be going through the mounds and mounds of accumulated "stuff" and hopefully filling some trash and/or donation bags. 

Here's one last view of my room as it looks today:



Chandelier Sans Candle Sleeves, Missing 4 Crystal Pendants

I'm really digging the look of my creepy chandelier!  I love my red painted sewing cabinet, so I'll stay with that, and I'm planning to paint the rest of the shelving and cabinetry red or deep black/brown as well.  Mismatched finishes really contribute to that feeling of overwhelming clutter.  The walls will be a very pale ivory, to keep the room feeling light and bright.

One little disclaimer: I would never, EVER, not in a million years, spray paint a chandelier this way for my dining room or for any of my interior design clients' projects.  A chandelier that originally cost close to $2,000 now looks like it cost about $500.  My faux finish artist could have changed the finish for me much more professionally and created something exquisite, but I keep reminding myself that this is a SEWING ROOM, after all, not a dining room slated for Architectural Digest, and I'm trying to snazz it up as inexpensively as possible.  A $7 can of spray paint is just what the Design-on-a-Dime Design Doctor ordered!

My Sewing Studio Has GPS: Giant Purse Syndrome!

According to The Daily Mail, the average woman's purse now weighs a whopping 5.2 pounds, and it's causing quite the increase in related back and shoulder injuries.  Why would women want to schlep around such heavy bags?  It's partly a fasion-driven phenomenon, but I think we naturally trend towards larger and larger bags over time.  You start out with a small handbag in your teens, which you pack full of makeup and a hairbrush, maybe a travel-sized can of hairspray.  Then you move up to a medium-sized bag as a young adult, so you can fit your cell phone and your planner, your keys and maybe even a novel.  Once kids come along and you get used to having a monster diaper bag to fit bottles, toys, iPads/iPods/kindles, Cheerios, water bottle etc., you get hooked on the capacity of the big bag and you pack it so full the seams are nearly splitting and tell yourself "If I got a bag just a little bigger than this one, I could fit EVERYTHING I need..."  The reality is that, the bigger the bag, the more crap you will fill it with, the less often you will clean it out, and the more difficult it will be to FIND what you're looking for when you need something!

 

This is my Sewing Studio when we first moved in, before we'd finished unpacking

Which brings me to the current disaster of my sewing studio.  When we bought this house with a 21'6" x 15'6" bonus room to completely dedicate to my sewing, I thought I had died and gone to heaven and I was sure I would never again feel cramped for space to create.  The previous homeowners even had a full-size pool table in this room.  My sewing room has a high vaulted ceiling, is flooded with natural daylight from the beautiful windows, and is located at the end of a narrow hallway on the second floor of our home, so no one traipses through my space on the way to some other part of the house, and I can leave in-progress projects out while I'm working on them.  Perfect, right?

 

This is what my sewing studio looked like a week before Christmas!

Welcome to my Chaos...

Unfortunately, just like the stuff you "need" in your purse expands to fill your handbag, the stuff I "need" in my sewing room has expanded to fill my room to the point where I don't even have room to work anymore.  My cutting table is overflowing with several in-progress projects, new rulers and other tools that I haven't found homes for, and new fabric not yet pre-washed and added to my stash.  My bulletin boards are overflowing with project ideas and inspiration ripped from various magazines.  My sewing cabinet and several folding utility tables surrounding it are similarly loaded down, and all of my storage pieces are overflowing.  It's time for a change, don't you think?  Since January is all about resolutions, renewal and reorganization, I'm planning a complete overhaul of my sewing studio for the New Year!

 

Step One: The Painful Purge! 

I've already started the first step, going through everything to figure out what to keep, what to throw away, and what to donate or sell.  I have accumulated quite an assortment of high-end drapery fabric and trim remnants from my interior design business, for instance, things that I couldn't bear to toss in the trash because they were so expensive, but they are mostly in pieces that are less than one yard, that don't coordinate with anything else in my own home, and they are all wrapped around tall cardboard fabric tubes so they take up a lot of real estate.  What am I REALLY going to do with these?  I remember a professional organizer once telling me that you have to consider the cost of storing items that you aren't using -- is that item worth giving up space that you could be using for something else?  Well, right now all those bolts of fancy drapery remnants are costing me the ability to run a vacuum over the carpet, preventing me from seeing or accessing everything that is buried behind them, making me feel claustrophobic and overwhelmed, and making it impossible to even consider bringing a comfortable chair or two into my room so my husband and kids could hang out with me while I'm sewing.  It's time for them to go!

 

Step Two: Redesign Furniture & New Floorplan

Next, I'm going to redesign my existing custom sewing cabinet, cutting table, and storage furniture to improve their function, ergonomics, and use of space. 

Santa Baby did not bring me a new sewing machine for Christmas -- but Bernie and the boys did!  My new Bernina 750QE is a bit heavier and has a larger footprint than my previous Artista 200E/730E machine, so it won't fit into the opening of my existing custom-built sewing cabinet without modifications anyway. This is a great time to make changes to the size, shape, and storage options of the sewing cabinet as well.  I'm toying with the idea of designing a larger table with two lifts on opposite sides, one for the main sewbaby and the other for the serger, which currently sits on a table top full time, taking up valuable surface space.

I'll do a new floorplan in my design software to come up with the best layout for the room (borrowing some basic principles of kitchen and bath design), and once I know where the main furniture and workstations are going, I can design a new lighting plan for the room.  Although this space has great natural light during the day, it's currently lit by a measly four bulbs on a ceiling fan that was mounted way too high to begin with and a few inadequate lamps and task lights scattered around the room.  The whole room is on a single electrical circuit as well, and every time I plug my iron in, the lights dim.  I keep my computerized sewing machines plugged into a UPS at all times to prevent damage from power fluctuations, but the truth of the matter is that the existing wiring is inadequate for the way I'm using this room. 

 

Step Three: Structural Upgrades, Electrical & Lighting

"Largo Chandelier" from Currey & Co.

So I'm planning to add two additional electrical circuits, one just for the iron, one for the lighting, and one for everything else.  I'm going to replace the ugly ceiling fan, which I can't turn on when I'm sewing anyway because it blows things all over the place, and maybe replace it with a fun chandelier (I have this Currey & Co. Largo Chandelier in my garage that used to be in my dining room, and I'm already thinking about repainting it in Oil Rubbed Bronze and changing out the amber crystal drops for clear ones).  Then we'll have to add additional can or track lighting around the perimeter of the room to provide even lighting without shadows -- maybe the new LED cans, which run much cooler than traditional bulbs and provide truer color rendering.  I love the red paint on my sewing cabinet, but I think the wall color and surfaces need to stay light, bright and neutral so I can focus on the colors of my project fabrics.

Step Four: Rebuild Sewing Furniture & Built-In Storage


Koala DualMate Plus IV: Pricey, Very Little Storage, and Inadequate Support for Large Quilts

The goal here will be to maximize efficiency and space.  I've looked at commercial sewing furniture from Koala, Horn, and other big name manufacturers, but they all seem to sacrifice storage capacity for the ability to fold up when not in use, and the prices are outrageous for what they are made of.  I'd like to design one large sewing cabinet for my sewing machine and serger to share, with the ability for both machines to completely lower and hide within the cabinet when not in use and no wasted storage space beneath the cabinet.  The cutting table needs to be large enough for basting a large quilt or cutting 54" wide home dec fabrics when needed, but perhaps it can have drop down leafs so that it doesn't eat up so much floor space all the time.  Storage solutions for fabric, thread and notions needs to be sized to fit contents.  Who knows -- hopefully I can even fit a small seating area and a wall-mounted flat screen TV in the redesigned room, to entice my husband to hang out with me more often while I'm sewing?  Right now he sits on the floor with his iPad and both of our hundred-pound Rottweiler puppies pile onto his lap. 

I've ordered a couple of books on sewing room design and organization tips for quilters from Amazon, and I've also been scouring Pinterest and the blogosphere, looking for suggestions and best practices from others.  If you know of any resources I may have overlooked, please share them with me in the comments!  I'm hoping that, if we can start this project in January, we can wrap it up by the end of March so I can get back to sewing again.  Not that I don't plan to commandeer the dining room as a sewing space while my room transformation is in progress...  ;-) 

So, that's what I'm planning for the new year, once the trees and decorations are all taken down and packed away.  Wish me luck!

Once Upon a Dining Room: A New Ceiling Reinvigorates an Ever-Changing Space

Finally, my dining room ceiling is finished!  In person, it looks like a midnight sky; pictures (my pictures, anyway) don't do it justice at all.  The ornamental scrollwork design around the chandelier is barely visible in this picture.  It's subtle in real life, but you can see it much better.  It's kind of like a shadow or an echo of the scroll work on the chandelier, and it's embellished with decorative upholstery nails.  The crown molding has a metallic foil finish selected to complement the gold drapery hardware and accents on the light fixtures.

Fire Restoration Update: Drapery Installations Begin in the Kitchen!

The project I've been working on for the clients who suffered a house fire last summer has finally started installing this week, and everything looks amazing.  The client's objective was to take this tragedy and use it as an opportunity to make her home "even better than before," and that's exactly what we've done.


Kitchen as decorated by Previous Homeowner



 I'm just going to post a few snapshots for now, just to whet your appetite.  This first shot is of the kitchen as it was when the client purchased this home several years ago.  The drapery treatment was from the previous homeowner, and my client hated these pendant light fixtures with a vine detail that reminded her of serpents.



Same Kitchen, Redecorated Prior to Fire

This is a view of that same elevation after I worked with the client the first time around. We replaced the serpent pendants with Quadralli pendants from Fine Art Lamps, and I designed this kimono-inspired medallion swag treatment to give the kitchen more of an Asian contemporary aesthetic while indulging the client's love of exquisite drapery textiles.

Same Kitchen, January 2011

Now, here's what that same kitchen looked like a couple of months ago, when the custom built, solid tropical wenge wood cabinetry installation began.  The cabinetry was built by Bill Truitt Wood Works, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Same Kitchen, April 6, 2011, 9 AM

...And here's what the kitchen looked like yesterday, when the drapery installations began.  The cabinetry and gorgeous art glass backsplash tile have been installed, all the appliances have been replaced with upgrades, and the remaining bit of crown molding around the new range hood installed later on in the day.  I recovered the client's bar stool seats in Lee Jofa Jasper Velvet, and we have a swivel glider chair for the adjacent keeping room area coming that will be upholstered in the same fabric.  The Fine Art Lamps pendants have been replaced with identical fixtures, and the drapery installations and furniture deliveries are about to begin.

Brian Installs the Iron Drapery Medallions

In this picture, the builder has already installed the remaining crown molding around the range hood, and my drapery installer is putting up the iron Artigiani medallions for the kimono swag valance that was recreated to be identical to the treatment I originally designed.  The Pyramid medallion drapery hardware is from Helser Brothers, the company that sent me to Paris last January to cover the Maison et Objet trade show for their Why Helser? blog.  Just for the record, I loved Helser Brothers' beautiful products and outstanding service even before they sent me jet-setting to Paris.

Debra & Brian Finessing the Swag Valance Installation

...Ta da!  The first of many drapery treatments installed.  After taking this picture, I had Brian turn the medallions so they would be squares instead of diamonds, which I like much better with the new cabinetry.

I'll be posting more photos of this installation over the next few days.

CD Volcano Kitchen Granite Installation: A Photo Essay

At 8:30 this morning, three trucks from Tile Collection pulled into my cul-de-sac laden with precious cargo...

Bye Bye, Baltic Barf!  Good riddance...

The first pieces that went in were the countertops on either side of my stove.  These pieces were cut immediately adjacent to one another on the slab so that the same swirling colors flow from one side to the other.

Next they installed this piece to the left of the wall ovens.  I love all these colors -- red, green, gold, orange, all streaked through with black and brown and smatterings of silver mica everywhere!  It reminds me of an amazing ice cream sundae melting in the bowl while you're eating it.

There was only one little annoying surprise today.  Look at all that wasted space between these two cabinets!  I'm always strapped for storage space.  If I had realized this was there early enough in this remodel, I could have had Bernie rebuild these cabinet boxes with angled side walls to utilize all that wasted space.  Naturally, Bernie is glad that I did not find out about this opportunity in time to add it to his Honey-Do list!

Here's an aerial shot from the second floor once the stoveside granite had been installed.  The reason Bernie looks so happy is that today, other people were doing the heavy labor and he was merely an observer.  You can also see my funky new Kohler Undertone Large/Medium sink in place on the island.

Here's that same shot a few hours later, with the island granite in place.  I love how the curves we added to the raised island bar soften the hockey stick look, and Tile Collection did a great job of cutting the island countertop and island bar from separate bookmarked slabs so that the movement in the granite seems to flow from one surface to the next.

By the time Anders got home from school, he was able to sit at the new island bar to do his homework.  Bernie is reconnecting the plumbing to the new Brizo Tresa single handle faucet.  This faucet is from the same collection as the bridge faucets I used in my master bathroom.  I was a little nervous about the sink choice, whether it might be too contemporary for my kitchen, but I looked at hundreds of sinks and kept coming back to this one.  The main basin is huge, deep enough for my biggest pots and pans, and I think the curved lines of the sink complement the flowing lines of the granite much better than a hard rectangular sink would have.  It was a tight fit, however, and the faucet, sprayer and soap dispenser are in the only possible positions where they would fit between the sink and the sink supports. 

Last but not least, here's what my butler's pantry looks like at the end of the day.  The wine fridge is humming away, the granite and Belle Forêt hammered copper prep sink are installed, and the smaller bar/prep version of the Brizo Tresa faucet has been installed.  I chose a full granite backsplash for this area to dress it up a little bit more, since it's in full view from the front door and formal dining room.  The backsplashes in the main kitchen are getting tiled in beveled marble bricks starting tomorrow morning.

Meanwhile, today we placed the orders for the cabinet doors and drawer front required by this new cabinet, since the ones we removed were too small to reuse.  Fortunately, I was able to research the original builder's supplier for the cabinet doors and drawer fronts last summer when we were working on our master bath, so I know the new ones will be exactly like those in the main kitchen.

We also reached a truce on the under cabinet lighting battle we'd been waging for the last few weeks.  Bernie ran wiring to all the cabinets and wanted line voltage xenon light bars.  I preferred the customized low-voltage strings of xenon festoon lamps that could be sized to fit each cabinet precisely, with bulbs spaced every 4-6", but this would require transformers and more hassles than Bernie wanted to deal with.

*LET THE RECORD SHOW THAT REBECCA GAVE IN AND ORDERED THE LIGHTS THAT BERNIE WANTED!  I DO NOT ALWAYS INSIST ON GETTING MY OWN WAY!*

Tomorrow, Bernie will be able to finish the plumbing connections so we can regain the use of the kitchen sink.  The backsplash tile will go up tomorrow and the next day, and hopefully within the next few days the new range hood will be delivered so that can be installed, too.  The under cabinet lights were in stock so we should have them here to install by early next week, too -- and somewhere in the middle of all this the new carpentry and trim will need to get glazed and top-coated.  But the end is in sight!



Three Days Until Christmas? Let's Rip Out All the Countertops and Start a Kitchen Remodel!

It all started so innocently.  I had ordered wallpaper for the boys' Jack-and-Jill bathroom, but before the paper was installed I wanted to remove the cultured marble vanities and replace them with granite remnants.  My granite fabricator sells leftover pieces from other jobs at a fraction of the regular price, and since the vanities are small I wasn't going to need much, anyway.  Once I was at the granite place, though, looking at all the gorgeous slabs of stone, I started thinking about my kitchen countertops again.  How can I have nicer granite in the boys' bathrooms than I have in my kitchen, after all?

My kitchen has granite countertops that I lovingly refer to as Baltic Barf -- you may be more familiar with the term Baltic Brown.  I have seen some Baltic Brown granite that actually does have brown in it, but alas, mine is decidedly mauve, and not in a good way.  As if the black-and-pink splotched counters weren't bad enough, the builder chose the nastiest, cheapest commercial bathroom type tile on the planet for a backsplash and used huge grout lines.  Yuck, yuck, yuck! 


Our Kitchen Before it was Ours: Home Inspection Day



We've done a lot in the kitchen since we bought the house already: Replaced all the light fixtures, painted, painted again, installed crown molding, custom draperies and shades (naturally), upgraded all of the appliances, recently replaced all the light fixtures again (one of the dangers of the design biz), and upgraded the gas fireplace logs in the sitting room area off the kitchen. 

Breakfast Room soon after we moved in, Lars at the table

Breakfast Room with Custom Draperies, Temporary Chandelier

Don't draperies make a HUGE difference?!  This Home Depot chandelier was recently replaced with a nicer, larger one with fabric shades from Nulco that has more of a French flair to it:

French Country Chandelier from Nulco Lighting

And yes, I know the pattern on my dining chair fabric fights with the drapery fabric, but these chairs were a bargain buy at a clearance outlet.  They will eventually be slipcovered, reupholstered, or replaced, once my kids learn to wipe their hands on their napkins instead of on my chairs.  The drapery fabric is from Vervain and I absolutely love it:

Monado from Vervain, Havana Colorway

But still, what continues to bug me most about the kitchen is the pink and black countertop and the wretched backsplash tile.

Previous Owners' Mauve Sofa Complements the Baltic Barf

I had fleeting hopes that I would find some perfect replacement backsplash tile that would make the existing Baltic Barf counter look more terra cotta than pink, but that turned out to be a lost cause.  Although I'm sure Baltic Brown looks great in the right kitchen, mine ain't the right one -- I never in a million years would have selected that stone for my home.  It's just not me. 

So, what kind of stone does say Rebecca, you might ask?  Allow me to introduce you to CD Volcano, three slabs of which are scheduled to be installed in my kitchen next month:

Isn't that breathtaking?  The drawer box that the man is holding in the foreground gives you an idea of the scale.  This stuff is even more dramatic in person. 

Can you believe that's natural stone that just came out of the earth that way?  The owner of the granite import company flew to Brazil to selected CD Volcano himself and bought up the whole lot of it on sight.  If granite could be custom ordered, and I could select all the colors I wanted, I still couldn't come up with a slice of earth more perfect for my kitchen than this one.  Gush, gush, gush!

Since there's a lot going on in the granite, the backsplash is going to be a simple 3" x 5" polished creamy marble in a brick pattern, with a herringbone section inlaid above the stove.  The new faucet is from the Brizo Tresa collection:

http://www.brizo.com/

 So this year, when all the gifts are unwrapped and the debris has all been carted out to the curb and the kids head back to school, I'll have countertop demolition to look forward to!  There will be no post-Christmas blues in my house this year!