Showing posts with label ikea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ikea. Show all posts
Saturday, August 6, 2011
cutting boards
So, cutting boards.
I hear the plastic ones, even though they can go in the dishwasher, can't get as clean as the wooden ones for some reason I don't entirely get involving wood being kinda self healing and plastic having little knicks that absorb bacteria. Also, little bits of plastic in your food. No thanks!
At one point, at a county fair a way way long time ago, we bought a big huge board. 24X18 or thereabouts! From a cabinet maker. It was nice, but it had these ~ 1inch ball feet that made it too high for me to cut on without standing on my tippy toes. No thanks.
So I took off the feet, but still, tippy toes. I decided just to suck it up, and eventually (due to the lack of feet, i'm sure) it warped. But even before that, I totally ruined the top of it by letting one of my cast iron pans dry on there.
So, I could sand it, but it's still warped. I could try soaking it for a few days and then rigging something up to straighten it, but that seems like kind of a pain in the neck. Plus it's still a little too tall (I think it's like 2" thick) plus I think I would like it to be bigger.
BIGGER? yes, bigger. The new kitchen is huge. Therefore, having an enormous big cutting board that never leaves your counter is awesome. So cool. But even the 24X18 ones can cost over $100. DO NOT WANT.
Then, I had an idea. I love butcherblock. It looks so warm and pretty! If I were going to remodel the kitchen that we had, instead of building on, I would totally have done it on the cheap by painting the cabinets and putting in a butcherblock countertop.
Butcherblock is basically cuttingboard, right? And IKEA will sell you some butcherblock countertop that's huge for like $40.
Read more >>
I hear the plastic ones, even though they can go in the dishwasher, can't get as clean as the wooden ones for some reason I don't entirely get involving wood being kinda self healing and plastic having little knicks that absorb bacteria. Also, little bits of plastic in your food. No thanks!
At one point, at a county fair a way way long time ago, we bought a big huge board. 24X18 or thereabouts! From a cabinet maker. It was nice, but it had these ~ 1inch ball feet that made it too high for me to cut on without standing on my tippy toes. No thanks.
So I took off the feet, but still, tippy toes. I decided just to suck it up, and eventually (due to the lack of feet, i'm sure) it warped. But even before that, I totally ruined the top of it by letting one of my cast iron pans dry on there.
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| friends don't let friends jack up their huge boards |
BIGGER? yes, bigger. The new kitchen is huge. Therefore, having an enormous big cutting board that never leaves your counter is awesome. So cool. But even the 24X18 ones can cost over $100. DO NOT WANT.
Then, I had an idea. I love butcherblock. It looks so warm and pretty! If I were going to remodel the kitchen that we had, instead of building on, I would totally have done it on the cheap by painting the cabinets and putting in a butcherblock countertop.
Butcherblock is basically cuttingboard, right? And IKEA will sell you some butcherblock countertop that's huge for like $40.
 |
| lagan, by ikea |
So clearly I should buy the shortest piece of lagen beech countertop which is 25X50, cut it in half, sand the edges, and then share it with a friend. We will both have HUGE HUGE countertops for $20! Plus feet. I'll have to find something to be feet. Maybe just something rubber.
This is GENIUS! Or at least adequate. Now I just need a friend.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Desk Wall!
I have totally weird issues about wanting a desk. I don't know that I can adequately explain them, but suffice it to say that i will not share a desk or a dessert item. (Hey, everyone has their own weirdness! Back off!)
The kitchen was designed to have a wall of desks for the family, but largely for me. My son has taken over the smallish desk that we had there (taken from another room) so we decided that we needed to investigate different/better desk options. We went back and forth on what kind, and finally ended up at IKEA, home to a desk that you can fit in any location in your house.
Next up, I am going to paint the wooden tulips on the left window so that they all match and are red. My husband's grandmother gave them to us over the years; her husband made them before he passed away, so they are special to us and we've had them in every kitchen we've been in since we got married. I think it's OK to paint them, though, and since our kitchen has red and white and green, red + green tulips seem like a good thing.
Read more >>
The kitchen was designed to have a wall of desks for the family, but largely for me. My son has taken over the smallish desk that we had there (taken from another room) so we decided that we needed to investigate different/better desk options. We went back and forth on what kind, and finally ended up at IKEA, home to a desk that you can fit in any location in your house.
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| Hooray for my new desk! |
The corner desk is big enough for the family iMac and printer and assorted hard drives and other electronic bits. I need to tack up that cable underneath, so just pretend you don't see that. The longer part in the middle is for me me me me me! We have some wire storage on the right for my camera and our grocery bags and the dog's medicine.
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| I love it!!!!! |
Best of all: SHELVES! I got to move my cookbooks from the dining room into the kitchen. I am basically ready to sit here with a cup of coffee and peruse my cookbooks, calmly creating a meal plan and not frantically racing to the store and getting whatever is on the end caps. Oh hey, did you notice those grates with the pictures and stuff?
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| Creative framing, right? |
The wire shelving used to be taller, but we took off the top box to make it fit under the cookbook shelves. I took the leftovers and some of those 3m command hooks and made an artwork and picture display out of them. I have some paper clips and some hooks from IKEA that I am using to hold stuff up. Today, my mother's day cards and pictures of my kid. That whole project was basically completely FREE because I had the command hooks and the grates and some paperclips and hooks.
All in all, the desks, shelves, filing boxes, containers, pen cups, etc. etc. etc. was right about $350. Not bad for a 12' wall full of desk.
Next up, I am going to paint the wooden tulips on the left window so that they all match and are red. My husband's grandmother gave them to us over the years; her husband made them before he passed away, so they are special to us and we've had them in every kitchen we've been in since we got married. I think it's OK to paint them, though, and since our kitchen has red and white and green, red + green tulips seem like a good thing.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Mockups and Boards
So, I have not scanned in the kitchen layout that was made for us by our (really fabulous) kitchen layout designer at Home Depot, but I did find the photoshop top-down view I made of what I was looking for.
Turns out, I did a decent job, because I got almost exactly what I put here. Big differences are that the peninsula is going to be bar height, and not table height. (It will just look better all around.) Also, there is a pantry to the left of the fridge, which pushes the fridge over a bit, but still gives me the 3' of counter space I wanted on the end for the coffee bar. (Basically, that's where our coffee machine and toaster are going to hang out, so the are quick to get to, and away from the rest of the more cooking/baking oriented kitchen.)
Husband and I walked through the space last night. Father-in-law-contractor measured out where everything will go and drew it on the plywood, so we can get a feel for how it is going to work out. I still love it. I had to fiddle with cabinets and windows forever until I got a sink centered on that stretch of wall, under the large window, with the 12" cabinets on top, and the range centered on the back wall. I'm in love. I just need it to be complete!
Also, when I was looking at all that, I noticed a mood board thingy I put together for a friend, who was lamenting the fact that all her bedroom furniture was ikea-colored (that light birch they make everything in.) Our old house, umple corner, was FULL of ikea birch, so I had a ton of ideas about how to make ikea birch look homey and fresh and happy and not like you were living in your first college apartment. Also, I made everything relatively cheap. Saved the high ticket stuff for small accessories, and stuck to Ikea/Target/World Market for the big stuff. I think it's pretty cute.
Fun!
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