Kitchen pendant lights

As some of you may already know, we are on the hunt for some new kitchen lights to replace some rather impractical ones we installed when we first renovated the kitchen. Read about it here.

The brief for the lights is: it must not harbour any possible creepy crawly...the lights must allow the bugs to free-fall on to our kitchen bench instead. The fun of living in sub-tropical Queensland without fly screens!

I saw a couple of lights at the Woolloongabba Antique Centre on the weekend, which would fit the brief well. Both are vintage and very attractive.

Anodised tubular lights from 1960s?

Scandinavian style brass lights which I completely adore...it may not actually suit our more traditional style kitchen in the Sow's Ear...it's still a contender though because they're just so damn attractive to me.

 I have also been browsing online to see what is available.

Artek hand grenade light

The Alvar Aalto designed A110 hand grenade light is modelled on the German grenades which were used during WWII and military-mad Jason has a very soft spot for them. He might want to throw them at me, I suspect, in his moments of frustration...Ha!

copper Utzon lamp
image from here

I have previously featured the Jorn Utzon light on the blog. They now come in copper...which is very on trend. I do prefer the more plain, less glitzy style.

Image from here

And I have always wanted a Nelson Bubble lamp. I may be able to get away with the small cigar lamps (first designed in 1952) suspended over our kitchen island.

I'm going to bite the bullet this week and finally settle on new kitchen lights. Have you got any other suggestions?

When things break..

One of the light fittings on our rangehood is busted. We were trying to change the light bulb and in the process we broke the actual light fitting (I'm using the royal we, and it wasn't me for a change..!).

Jason inadvertently took out the whole fitting and in the process broke the locking mechanism which keeps the light in place. Every time we pop the light back into its space it just pops right out again (imagine the seething rage and then mutterings of 'poor design' from dear old shirtless Jason). We now have this light fitting dangling out of the rangehood over the pots and pans!

It actually dangles a lot more than this but you get the picture from this image.
It should sit flush rather than as it is now

It needs to be replaced and mostly as a matter of pride - it is a constant reminder of a silly mistake...much like when I broke our new fence (read here). And Jason hates to be reminded of his mistakes too...so perhaps a blog post is not the best thing for it...?!

Rangehood and its broken light fitting

Anyway, I'm on to the task of sourcing a new light fitting. I'm trying to get the spare part online in the first instance. Who knew there were sites purely dedicated to rangehood spare parts?

So far it is looking promising and we will hopefully be able to erase all evidence of how not to change a light bulb on a rangehood.

Dishwasher and kitchen design thoughts

Sponsored by Reckitts Benckiser 

Jason used to be the chief dishwasher of the family, wielding his very own dish mop. But that was back in the dark ages BD. Before Dishwasher.

Someone told us that running a dishwasher saves you the equivalent of three solid weeks every year. That’s a vacation you never knew you had!

                                                                                                                        

When we were planning our kitchen renovation, that fact made Jason’s dishpan hands tap and click with joy. There was no way in this world we were going without a dishwasher – we were going to make one fit…whether we had room for it or not!

But we are so lucky these days, because space is no longer an issue with the new range of dishwashers on the market. We’re not limited by the size of our kitchens and fortunately smaller kitchens don’t need to miss out.

If I had my time again, I would think less traditionally about our choice of dishwasher. We tend to run our dishwasher once a day like it was an event, waiting for it to be full with the day’s dishes before switching it on before we go to bed in the evening.

However, our lifestyle is changing now the children are getting older. We are eating more takeout or Jason is away or we skip lunch…which means the dishwasher is not full enough to do a wash.

It really sucks when we have to retrieve all the coffee and breakfast things to hand wash for the next morning. I sometimes wish we could do smaller loads on the run.

Fisher& Paykel 7th generation DishDrawer dishwasher

The Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer has the most practical design for doing smaller loads and can squeeze into the tightest of spots. We used a DishDrawer when holidaying in a tiny apartment and it was a breeze to use.

The Sow’s Ear’s kitchen. We have drawers everywhere including under the sink.
image from Elizabeth Santillan here 

Having drawers instead of cabinets was one of the best design decisions we made for our kitchen, as it is the most efficient use of the space. A DishDrawer would have been a natural extension of that, especially with the new wider and taller dishwashing models which are now on the market.

I like how the DishDrawer is designed so you don’t need to bend down to fill it up. Pulling out a drawer at waist height makes dishwashing more effortless. It is clever design.

There are lots of ways people are integrating dishwashers into their kitchens to better suit their lifestyle and available space. Pinterest has a plethora of inspiration images of kitchens that are handy when planning a renovation.

The symmetry of side-by-side dishwashers. Image from here

I’m envious of kitchens which have dishwashers installed on both sides of a sink. Great symmetry and so perfect for a narrow galley style kitchen! You can have one running a fast wash, while the other can do the pots – domestic bliss. Ha!

So what do you think about a dishwasher giving us three extra weeks a year? Are you a drawer person or a cabinet person? What do you like or dislike about your dishwasher (machine or person)?

Kitchen renovation ponderings

sponsored by the good guys kitchens

You know how they say you shouldn’t renovate a house straight away and that you should live in it a good 12 months before lifting even a hammer? Well, we committed that most cardinal of renovating sins when we moved into the Sow’s Ear. We started planning a new kitchen before we even moved in and had it built within three months of moving.

Kitchen in a Queenslander house
I took all the magnets off the fridge for this shot! 

Do we have any regrets three years on? Hmmm…I’m not sure. There is nothing in particular I would change in terms of the layout or finishes. We have a great looking kitchen but I think we probably could have managed it better which would have meant more efficiencies in the long run – time and cost savings.

If we ever do it again, I’d most likely allow myself more time to research and shop around at kitchen showrooms and I definitely would organise my own tradies, especially now that we’ve got a great network at our disposal. 

You can get a more competitive price and the job is completed in a more timely fashion… as opposed to relying on someone else’s network. The number of questionable invoice surprises after our kitchen was completed would make you shudder…

We pretty much went with the first kitchen place that gave us a quote which is quite silly in hindsight. Although everything went okay and the design is good, I can’t help feeling that we should have got another couple of quotes, downloaded a kitchen design catalogue or two and perhaps not feel so pressured to rush to get the kitchen “done”. But that is the wisdom you gain through hindsight.

open kitchen shelving

One of the best things about renovating our kitchen was that it introduced me to the world of design and renovating blogs. Bloggers are generally very generous with the information they share about their renovating experiences and a lot of the inspiration for our kitchen was from blogs.

So are you guilty of renovating before the 12 month mark too or do you think that 'renovating rule' is just nonsense? 

Decanting the pantry

When we moved to the Sow's Ear last year, the kitchen was one of the first things renovated. I didn't bother to unpack the kitchen boxes until it was done.

The kitchen took a lot longer than what we had anticipated. By the time it was ready, I was so over the whole kitchen renovating process and just shoved the kitchen things everywhere and anywhere without proper thought. Silly really...

Every single time there is a post written in Blogtopia about food pantries and pantry organisation I just cringe, thinking about my pigsty of a pantry. I'm afflicted with pantry envy.

And part of the problem is I never decant food packets properly...mostly because I've never had many containers in which to decant. I've remarkably missed that Tupperware Party train that people jump on...!

Newly organised food pantry

 
Today, I finally did a pantry clean out.

Lots of empty packets for the recycle bin

It was such a relief.

I purchased some reasonably priced plastic storage containers and started the decanting process. I'll need a few more larger containers for the items bought in bulk like Basmati rice and flour, and also something for storing spices.

New storage containers

Anyway, I feel much better for my efforts. It was well worth the trouble.

So, do you decant everything or just particular things? And what do you decant into?

Coffee

I've been doing a little bit of a clean up in the kitchen this morning. The oven and the coffee maker are now clean - such annoying but necessary jobs.

I also dug out our coffee percolator which we have largely ignored since we went down the coffee appliance track a few years ago. The only time we use it now is when we go camping or holiday in a self-contained apartment.

I'm going to try to use it more, especially when we have dinner guests or when a crowd drops in.

Anyway, coffee is an extremely important part of our morning ritual, especially when we are woken up by the little one at 5am each morning. Ahh...the coffee hit makes everything seem more optimistic at that hour.

We are not hard-core coffee aficionados, as our coffee machine is basic and we no longer grind our own beans since I gave my old Moulinex grinder away during the great purge of 2009 when we moved house. (I seriously don't know what I was thinking!)

Door Sixteen did a great post on their coffee set-up in their city apartment, so this post is very much inspired by that. I thought it was really interesting to see how other people do coffee at home.

This is our coffee set-up. The old illy tin actually contains Lavazza which is our coffee staple of choice.

I grew up drinking Lavazza - my Italian father used to grind the beans religiously every morning for our morning coffee. We've flirted with other coffee brands - cheaper and more expensive - but always go back to familiar favourites.

The machine is a basic 15 BAR pump variety which produces a nice crema on an espresso and also has a steam nozzle to heat or froth our milk. We also use filtered water to minimise the scale build up in the machine. It's a cleaner taste.

We drink from glass, because they fit well under the machine and are the perfect size for morning latte. Jason takes raw sugar in his coffee, which is contained in a small Georg Jensen sugar bowl.

And my most favourite thing is the set of Robert Welch teaspoons which was given to us as a gift last Christmas.

This particular pattern of cutlery won a Design Council Award in 1965 and is featured in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The people who gave us this gift had no idea of the pedigree of the spoons. They were stunned at my elation and then flattered for having such good taste.

Now tell me, how do you do your coffee, if you drink coffee? Or is tea your brew? I'd love to know.

P.S We are not elitist because we also have a jar of instant in the pantry...caffeine hits are welcomed in any form.

Textured bark glass

I'm starting a collection. Clear textured bark glass.

There are two open shelves in our kitchen and I've pretty much shoved whatever doesn't have a home onto them. So, I've made the decision to have more stylish shelves, which are also functional.

Yes, it is very important world-changing decision making you are witnessing here.

So far, the collection is limited to textured fruit/dessert bowls and one vase.

iittala bowls, vintage bark glass bowls and sklo vase.
It would look brilliant to have clear bark glass en masse.

The plan is to have our drinking glasses on the shelves too. However, our drink ware is actually jar ware.

Our water glasses are old Allowrie jam jars (remember those?) and Thomy mustard jars. A lot of jam and mustard was consumed to provide us with our drinking vessels.

image from here

Sophisticated we are not.

This is what I'm envisaging instead.

iittala aslak cordial glass

something Swedish

Actually, just something that didn't originally contain food would be a good start.

I'm not rushing the collection though because the search is half the fun. I know that I will stumble upon unwanted bark glass in my travels.

Sklo Union vase

I really like art glass, so I have added two new pieces to my small retro collection. They were both very inexpensive purchases.

L to R: 1960s hooped glass vase (maker unknown) and candle wax vase by Frantisek Pecency for Hermanova Hut.

I liked the toffee colour and shape of the hooped vase - it has a Scandinavian feel even if it's pretending.

The clear vase is my first foray into the mass-produced world of mid-century Czech art glass. Wow! It's all about texture with Sklo Union, which is my latest obsession...!

Here is the newly adjusted art glass collection on the plate shelf in our kitchen. I know, it's a very random assortment, but it is also a great burst of colour for our white walls.

At Remodelaholic today

This is just a quick post to say that our kitchen renovation is on Remodelaholic today. Click here now to check it all out if you want a remodel fix.

 Thanks Remodelaholic!

Housiversary week - kitchen wall

We are having a week-long celebration here at the Sow's Ear - celebrating our first year in this old house. So I'd like to share with you some of my favourite images from the renovations done in the past year.

As some of you may know, I was not at all keen about buying this place. It was Jason's romantic notions of owning a Queenslander which led us here. You can read the backgrounder here.

A year on, I'm definitely more at peace about living here but I don't love this house as much as Jason does. It is actually quite ironic that it's me and not Jason who lovingly writes a blog about this house (he is my number 1 blogging fan though). I call blogging my therapy and you know what, I've become fonder of the house because of it.

Today, I'm showing you photographs of the kitchen wall which was built to accommodate the new kitchen cabinetry. We had a builder do this part of the job - done effortlessly compared to an agonising Jason DIY.

As you can see from the photos above, this wall was lined with short, shallow cabinets which had been removed by the time I took the photographs.

Renovating an older home illustrates how building standards have changed so dramatically. You would never see such a shallow space used for cupboards anymore. They were about 30cm wide! What cornflake box would fit in a cupboard that size!

Also, see how much room from where the top of the cabinets ended to the ceiling - lots of potential storage space!

There  was also a small casement window in this area. We believe, the original bathroom would have been in this spot. And that's Number 2 son picking his nose, I would say.

These renders were drawn by the cabinet-maker of the proposed kitchen. We were happy with these plans and I don't think we changed anything. This is exactly what I envisioned for this particular space.

We probably could have moved the sink to the island bench to obtain the perfect functioning triangle, but I liked the idea of keeping the sink near the window. Call me old fashioned.

The builder's apprentice building the wall.

Old casement window removed on the otherside and new VJ boards added to cover the gap.

Below are photos of how this particular space looks like today. Ah, the magic of building.

Cooking area where the old casement window used to be.

A few more centimetres of wall allowed us to have wall-to-ceiling storage and cabinetry.

Smiths Wall Clock

I'm beginning to feel a vintage clock fetish setting in.

This is a new but old addition for the kitchen.

Gold anodised Smiths wall clock. I would have preferred chrome but the gold is growing on me.

Smiths started as a family business making clocks and watches in 1850s England. In the 1930s they were  mass producing clocks by the many thousands per week. They ceased making clocks for the domestic market in the late 70s.

I like it because it reminds me of an airport clock. I can pretend to catch the 8.40 am Brisbane to Canberra flight while I'm making the school lunches.

Actually, I like it because it is a good way to teach the two younger boys how to read the time and it suits the mid-century vibe I love so much.

Kitchen - before and after and a Marimekko giveaway winner

Yesterday, we were showing a friend some before photos of our house (only because they were interested - we attempt not to bore our friends).

Blogging about our renovations has given us a great collection of photos of the house which we otherwise wouldn't have taken.

I've been trying to take after shots in the exact position of the before shots. It is very motivating, especially as we are waiting to do our next large project which is Number 1 son's bedroom. I can't wait!

To date, we have renovated the front entry, lounge room and kitchen. This is the first before and after I have collaged together:

The before shot is from our second inspection of the property last year. It is the only before shot we have. Most of the storage in the photos was freestanding and went with the previous owners.

As you can, see we didn't change the layout dramatically - just tweaked it so it would function better and have more bench and storage space. The bi-fold windows were also added to allow us to open up the space when needed. Jason said he will definitely paint the windows a gloss white when the weather improves (it's been raining heaps).

The fridge obstructing the doorway leading onto the deck was also very bad feng shui  - the couple who owned the house were divorcing. Perhaps if they had moved the fridge, things could have been different...

Marimekko Giveaway

Man, I was relieved there were a few more entrants than the embarrassing eight or so I had early last week! My plea for more entries worked and saved my pride somewhat. Anyway, there were 23 entrants (including the double entries for those who advertised my giveaway on their blog).

This morning I recruited the help of Number 1 Son to draw a name out of a stainless steel bowl for the Marimekko cushion giveaway. So very hi-tech! And this is what he pulled out:

Congratulations to Amanda from Small Acorns for winning the Marimekko cushion. Amanda, I will be in contact with you shortly to arrange delivery.

And a big thank you to everyone else who entered!

Kitchen Collage and Kitchenism

The Picasa collage thing is very enjoyable, so I did a quick collage of our still newish kitchen.

I didn't realise how opinionated people were about decor until I started reading design/home blogs. And when it comes to kitchens there seems to be some very passionate views being aired about the best type of benchtops, cabinet materials, appliances, colours etc. etc...

A new scourge in our troubled world - Kitchenism!

In Blogland there appears to be an anti-granite fraternity, a white kitchen insurgency group, anti-visible microwave lobby, "say No" to the island bench movement and countless other kitchen factions. It's enough to give a good-natured suburban renovator a complex!

I don't see why it would matter if you are not the person using the kitchen? Shouldn't we show more tolerance?

From my perspective a kitchen is only as good as the food that is produced in it. The best food I have eaten has usually come from a non-designer kitchen - my Mum's.

Good food produced in a gorgeous kitchen is just a pleasing aesthetic bonus. However, there is much disappointment if "friends" with a fab looking kitchen just re-heat party sausage rolls for a sit-down dinner party (we don't eat there anymore because we are Foodists - yet another scourge).

Anyway, I hope my kitchen doesn't annoy your kitchen decor sensibilities.

Useful

One of my favourite things I like about the new kitchen is the groovy jelly bean shaped shelves in the corner cupboard. They are called leMans Corner and are by Hafele.

LeMans corner shelves

Useful - see how you can pull the shelf right out

I store all my pots in this area. It makes searching for the right pot so much easier and makes my usually disorganised life organised (at least in this cupboard). They glide out effortlessly and are strong enough to take the weight of my smaller cast iron pots. An extremely effective form of storage.

I would highly recommend them and I have no vested interest in saying so!

Hidden storage

There's a lot to be said for storage in an older Queenslander home. It is one of my major issues with this house because where do you put your stuff? There is only so much that can fit under the bed.

Well, this is where our secret wall cupboards come in handy. An excellent solution for storage-poor families such as ourselves.

Storage via hidden VJ wall cupboards

The cabinetmaker suggested we use the space above our kitchen cabinets. We planned on just having a false VJ bulkhead anyway, so why not use that wasted area for our storage needs. And why not indeed!

The cabinets being installed during the kitchen renovation

Practical storage

They used MDF VJ board for the doors which we have painted crisp white. There are no handles because they toggle open and close. It is probably as seamless as they can be for doors. We store our luggage, board games and all the stuff we don't need on a daily basis in this area.

With our ceilings being so very high (3m) and me being of middling height, I am now on the look-out for a taller step ladder so I can reach the very top shelf.

Finally

Those stools, I had nearly written off, arrived today.

T.H Brown and Sons 1960s bar stools

T.H Brown was a South Australian furniture company establised in the early 1900s.

I like that they fit neatly under the island bench and do not take up valuable floor space. They are also in pristine condition for chairs of this vintage. I have an extra chair which I will be able to use on the deck where we have the kitchen servery.

After waiting almost three months, I can safely say they were well worth the wait. Phew!

An epic voyage

Melbourne may as well be on another planet as far as I’m concerned.

This is my tirade about the “in transit” bar stools for our kitchen. We are approaching the third month waiting for the courier to deliver these stools from Melbourne to Brisbane. And my low expectations have not saved me from, the word I hate using, disappointment...

I spoke to my mate Chris about his recent courier experience because he purchased two exquisite Robin Day plywood chairs from England. Some unexpected money came his way and what else does one do but splurge for one’s modernist chair collection?

I asked Chris how long the chairs took to arrive from overseas. He said it took one week from London to Brisbane. One week. From London to Brisbane. How does that work when I can’t get four spindly bar stools up from Melbourne?

Robin Day Plywood Armchair 1951

image from

http://designmuseum.org/designinbritain/robin-lucienne-day

That’s one bad, bad courier I used.

On the bright side, I’ve been told my stools are now in Queensland, languishing somewhere in Beenleigh (45 minutes away) to be delivered tomorrow. Ha! I’ll believe it when I see it.

Bi-fold windows

I had very little idea  about what we would do with the windows for the kitchen.

We were originally planning to leave the old casement windows but I liked the idea of bi-fold windows opening onto a servery on the back deck.

My main concern was whether we could get windows to match the same hopscotch profile of our other windows. I didn't want another set of different profile windows in the Sow's Ear.

I also didn't want them to look too out-of -place in an old Queenslander house and I was afraid they would look kind of cheap.

Jason wasn't terribly helpful because he wasn't keen on the bi-fold window idea at all, for exactly the same reason. So he was left out of the discussions...

Anyway, the point of this post is there wasn't a lot of information about how the bi-fold windows would look on an older home and how they would work. I'm a very visual person and a more personal account would have been helpful.

So, here is the low down. We had the windows custom made and it took approximately six weeks from when we ordered them. They came in one piece (frame and all), it is made from hardwood (can't remember which type, sorry!), all the locks, hinges and handles were already integrated therefore it was just a matter of fitting the entire frame into the space.

Windows are partially opened - integrated bi-fold locks

Bi-fold hinges

bi-fold track

View of closed bi-fold from the back deck.

The windows also came unpainted. Jason was so over painting when it came to the window that we decided to just give it a coat of oil. The jury is still out as to whether it stays like this or gets a coat of gloss white. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated...We will also be re-painting the exterior of the house, so the cream colour weatherboards will change eventually. Not sure what yet...

Before shot - vale to the old windows

I'm enjoying the windows particularly when we entertain - I'm still part of the hum of conversation when I am slaving away at the sink!