This is long overdue post but on my way to Paris, I bought Elle Decoration and only managed to go through it recently. One of their articles was on 21 Easy Kitchen updates and I was really thrilled to see they had used my kitchen cupboard from our house in France (where I'm right now to celebrate my Dad's 65th B'day) as example no 9!

If you haven't got a copy, I've just listed these easy updates for you because I think a lot of do are easy and also inexpensive.
1 Show your cupboards some love by adding new fronts or wallpaper them with the scrapwood wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek
2 Cheer your ears with a whistling kettle
3 Treat yourself to proper tools
4 If you can, position your sink station by a sunny window (or add one of our cool roller blinds!)
5 Add some character to your kitchen with quirky tea towels
6 Look for imaginative ways to organize your space
7 Decant cutlery into large glass tumblers for instant deli-style chic (I have been doing this at home since I saw it done at Story Deli in Bricklane)
8 Take the plunge with a colourful tap and inject a jolt of fun

9 Give the inside of cupboards a lick of paint (which is honestly the easiest thing to do! I bought a second-hand cupboard for 15 Euros in France, painted the inside in blue grey and the outside in white and then add white crockery). I really like this B&W version too.

Norrgavel via Emma's Design blog

10 Swap standard cupboard handles for something more unusual
11 Raise the heat with a sexy new oven
12 Add some pizzazz to your walls with patterned tiles
13 Make an impact with colourful storage
14 Commission glassworker to make you a decorative splash-back
15 Store spices in magnetic mini containers on the side of your fridge
16 Create a dynamic display with pots and pans
17 Transform shelves by covering with patterned oilcloth (you can use these large blind fabric samples too to achieve the same result)
18 Grow a herb garden and keep it near the hob so you can add straight to the cooking pot
19 Make recycling your New Year's resolution!
20 Enjoy eye-catching crockery every day
21 Collect colourful cookbooks

En allant a Paris, j'ai achete Elle Decoration et il n'y a seulement quelques jours que j'ai pu enfin lire. Un de leurs articles etait sur 21 facons faciles de renover une cuisine et j'etais super contente de voir qu'ils avaient utilise le placard de ma cuisine de notre maison en France (ou je suis actuellement pour feter les 65 ans de mon pere) en exemple no 9!
Si vous n'avez pas une copie du Elle Deco, je les ai liste ci-dessous parce que je pense que la plupart sont faciles et faire et pas trop cher.
1 Montrez un peu d'amour a vos placards de cuisine en remplacant les portes ou en les couvrant de papier peint comme le papier peint Bois de Recup de Piet Hein Eek
2 Ajoutez une jolie bouilloire qui siffle ou en couleur
3 Equipez-vous avec de vrais outils
4 Si vous pouvez, positionez votre evier pres d'une fenetre ensoleillee (ou ajoutez un de super cool stores!)
5 Ajoutez du charactere a votre cuisine avec quelques torchons un peu funky
6 Essayez de trouver des facons imaginatives d'organiser l'espace
7 Mettez vos couteaux et fourchettes dans des gros pots en verre comme dans les cafes our Delicatessen (je fais ca a la maison depuis que je l'ai vu a Story Deli a Bricklane)
8 Ajoutez un peu de fun avec un robinet en couleur
9 Peignez l'interieur de votre placard de cuisine (ce qui est honnetement super facile a faire! J'ai achete un placard d'occasion pour 15 Euros in France et peint l'interieur en bleu-gris et l'exterieur en blanc en une weekend et ensuite je les remplie avec de la vaisselle blanche). J'aime bien aussi cette version N&B.

10 Changez les poignets de vos placards pour quelque de different
11 Ajoutez un nouveau four aux lignes sexy
12 Ajoutez un peu de vavavroum a vos murs avec des carreaux a motifs
13 Creez un impact avec des meubles de rangement haut en couleur
14 Commissionnez un artisan pour creer une plaque
15 Rangez vos epices dans des petits containers magnetiques sur le cote de votre frigo
16 Creez un mur dynamique en exposant votre batterie de cuisine
17 Transformez vos etageres en les recouvrant de tissu impermeable (vous pouvez egalement utiliser ces larges echantillons de tissu pour arriver au meme resultat)
18 Faire pousser des herbes et gardez les pres de la gasiniere pour les ajouter a votre casserole lorsque vous cuisinez
19 Faites du recyclage votre nouvelle resolution pour l'annee!
20 Faites vous plaisir avec de la jolie vaisselle

21 Collectionnez des livres de cuisine qui vous font faire envie

Now that the B'day Boy party is over, we're off to Andorra for a few days of skiiing with Lily and Mila. Have a great week!

By Day...
16/12/2010:
2pm: Crisis hit us...No more Royal Mail Dispatch Express labels. Over 350 parcels sitting on our packing table which we can't send.
3pm: Body gives in and neck gets stuck...purely and simply. I can't bent over, turn left or right without being in excruciating pain
5pm: off to bed to fool my body and make it believe I will relax
9pm: Steve emailed me from Hong-Kong where he and Mila on the first leg of their flight to N-Z
17/12/2010
8am: Neck back to normal, off to work
4pm: Call Royal Mail to track down supply order. Get told they may arrive the day after we've closed for the holidays. Stress level get a promotion...Email everyone I know at RM including IT and accounts to get someone to help...no luck
4.30pm: Call back RM. Luck strikes...The person on the phone tells me that I should have ordered them before...
And I'm sitting on my chair full of 'can do/there must be a solution' attitude...thinking...that's bound to help me...I have been working from 8am to 11 pm for the past 8 weeks, had our Customer Service Advisor leaving us suddenly for health reasons at our busiest time ever and all this girl can tell me is that I should have planned this...nevermind
6pm: Come up with a back-up plan to print label on normal office labels. Crisis sorted in 24 hours (call me Jack Bauer)
8pm: Order curry, skype Steve & Mila who are now in New-Zealand. Mila has already fed the cows, had ice-cream for breakfast and is watching Barbie...
By night
Since I saw this home in Elle Decoration, it has been the template of what I would like to achieve with our kitchen in London...a simple, yet functional space stripped of the unnecessary...no kitchen units on the walls to keep a sense of space, just simple shelves to display beautiful, organic tableware (mine is Vera Wang's Naturals first spotted at Merci in Paris and tracked down in the UK), ideally a mix of vintage, wooden furniture with industrial, concrete finishes and a big, big table to have at least 12 people around. So here is more images of one of my favourite homes.

Via Design shimmer

Steve and I have recently agreed to transform our lounge into something similar to what photographer Paul Massey did with his home. This is quite a big job. A lot of structural work is involved and the whole family (Lucas included) would have to move out for at least 6 weeks.
My friend Mandy who is trying to convince her husband to put large black floorboards in their lounge asked me how on earth I managed to do this..you know... to get him on board, to agree to what I want.
Umm...if I knew, I would probably write a book called :"How to convince your husband to let you do whatever YOU want in the house" and I would probably be rich :-)
The truth is that I never take no for an answer...I spent months showing him rooms, homes, styles I like and at first, I was only getting negative, grumpy and stressed out NOs but I would come back to it later on with similar styles but different images...Persistance girls, persistance!!
Now that we have also agreed to a new kitchen with polished concrete floor like this home in Amsterdam, I have to show him the kitchen below from Paula Leen's home...although probably not from my post with the comment above :-) Have a great week!

(C) Photography by Hotze Eisma via Emma's Design Blog

Go Shop With HGTV

With the number of HGTV Dream house offers, you can now start looking for different products on their homepage which might be necessary for your dream home. You can also participate in their sweepstakes which has a deadline of 50 days. The dream offers are amazing with spacious rooms and furnished kitchens and a nice front yard. The foyer also looks ultra-modern. The architecture is an ensemble of southwestern style. If you get lucky to win the offer, you may just have your unfulfilled dreams come true.

Get Lucky With HGTV Dream Home

You get your dreams to come true with HGTV Dream home. They have different floor plans explained on their website along with description of location and also the list of facilities available with the home you would prefer to have for yourself. There are many give away prizes with HGTV Dream home to be won. You can just try your luck and win your dream home with spacious rooms and all the facilities which you can’t even imagine to purchase in a lifetime.

When I saw Nicole and Andrew Sheehan's kitchen in this month's Traditional Home magazine (photographer: Werner Straube), I was immediately in LOVE with the window backed kitchen cabinets. (The photo in the actual magazine is more of a close up of the cabinets so you can see how amazing they really are.)

Unfortunately, if I did this in my kitchen it would only offer a view into the garage, the mudroom or the foyer, so it's not an option for me. What are your thoughts on the idea? Would it work for you?

You can see the rest of their home on the Traditional Home website.

One of the experts we recommend to our clients who are building a new home and need help selecting appropriate light fixtures for their home is Ellen Winkler, CEO and principal of Ellen’s Interiors on Main Street in New London, New Hampshire. Her 3000 square foot showroom features a lighting display, fine furnishings, kitchen & bath fixtures, granite & tile displays, area rugs, carpet samples, decorative accessories, and wall art. I had the opportunity to talk to Ellen recently to find out what her potential clients are concerned about the most in regard to designing the interior of their home.

Not surprisingly, one of the top concerns folks have about interior design is lighting. When clients bring up the subject of lighting, Ellen says she puts her clients at ease, explaining that lighting style and efficiency, as well as basic lighting elements are more easily addressed after each room is evaluated for its purpose and use.

Addressing lighting efficiency, Ellen helps clients decide how much light they actually need, rather than how much they think they need. “I talk about lighting elements and their uses in the home,” Ellen explains, “and we discuss ambient lighting for general indoor and outdoor activities, task lighting for specific areas such as under-counter kitchen lights, table lamps, or bathroom mirror lights, and accent lighting to showcase aesthetics such as sculpture and art.”

Our visual performance depends on the location of the light as well as quality and quantity. “An example of this is a client who has a specific sculpture they would like to showcase,” Ellen says. “We discuss the angle of the light as well as the type. For instance, placing the lighting unit above the sculpture will produce a lot of angles and shadow. Lighting placed below the sculpture will highlight the texture of the piece. We talk about their specific goals in displaying the sculpture and the results they would like to achieve to determine the location of the lighting units.”

For kitchen lighting, Ellen likes to use a rack system for under and display cabinet lighting applications, such as this Xenon fixture. The photo here demonstrates the system nicely. (photo courtesy WAC Lighting)

Ellen explains, “We like this low voltage system for several reasons: 1) The Xenon bulb has a rated life of 8,000 to 20,000 hours making it a good financial and long term choice; 2) The Xenon bulb is dimmable and is available in a variety of sizes for a variety of lighting needs; 3) The Xenon bulb does not emit much heat, and can be specified for use in compact designs, such as cabinet, soffit and cove lighting applications without maintaining a huge distance from combustible surfaces; and 4) Xenon bulbs emit a warm light, which is nice aesthetically and does not present health problems for people who are sensitive to florescent lighting.” The photo below shows the Xenon rack system under the cabinets (photo courtesy Ellen’s Interiors).

More light is not necessarily better, as some may think. “After identifying the ambient, task, and accent lighting areas, I create a lighting plan identifying the number of footcandles (a unit which measures the intensity of illumination) in each room. Hallways and other areas that require only ambient lighting can require only about 4-5 footcandles. On the other hand, areas where specific tasks are performed, say an office or bathroom vanity, may require 45 or more footcandles, depending on the intensity of the task.”

Concerns about lighting are minimized when you work with an architect and experienced interior designer.

Ellen’s Interiors, Inc.

12 Lovering Lane

New London NH 03257

603-526-8662

www.ellensinteriors.com

One of the experts we recommend to our clients who are building a new home and need help selecting appropriate light fixtures for their home is Ellen Winkler, CEO and principal of Ellen’s Interiors on Main Street in New London, New Hampshire. Her 3000 square foot showroom features a lighting display, fine furnishings, kitchen & bath fixtures, granite & tile displays, area rugs, carpet samples, decorative accessories, and wall art. I had the opportunity to talk to Ellen recently to find out what her potential clients are concerned about the most in regard to designing the interior of their home.

Not surprisingly, one of the top concerns folks have about interior design is lighting. When clients bring up the subject of lighting, Ellen says she puts her clients at ease, explaining that lighting style and efficiency, as well as basic lighting elements are more easily addressed after each room is evaluated for its purpose and use.

Addressing lighting efficiency, Ellen helps clients decide how much light they actually need, rather than how much they think they need. “I talk about lighting elements and their uses in the home,” Ellen explains, “and we discuss ambient lighting for general indoor and outdoor activities, task lighting for specific areas such as under-counter kitchen lights, table lamps, or bathroom mirror lights, and accent lighting to showcase aesthetics such as sculpture and art.”

Our visual performance depends on the location of the light as well as quality and quantity. “An example of this is a client who has a specific sculpture they would like to showcase,” Ellen says. “We discuss the angle of the light as well as the type. For instance, placing the lighting unit above the sculpture will produce a lot of angles and shadow. Lighting placed below the sculpture will highlight the texture of the piece. We talk about their specific goals in displaying the sculpture and the results they would like to achieve to determine the location of the lighting units.”

For kitchen lighting, Ellen likes to use a rack system for under and display cabinet lighting applications, such as this Xenon fixture. The photo here demonstrates the system nicely. (photo courtesy WAC Lighting)

Ellen explains, “We like this low voltage system for several reasons: 1) The Xenon bulb has a rated life of 8,000 to 20,000 hours making it a good financial and long term choice; 2) The Xenon bulb is dimmable and is available in a variety of sizes for a variety of lighting needs; 3) The Xenon bulb does not emit much heat, and can be specified for use in compact designs, such as cabinet, soffit and cove lighting applications without maintaining a huge distance from combustible surfaces; and 4) Xenon bulbs emit a warm light, which is nice aesthetically and does not present health problems for people who are sensitive to florescent lighting.” The photo below shows the Xenon rack system under the cabinets (photo courtesy Ellen’s Interiors).

More light is not necessarily better, as some may think. “After identifying the ambient, task, and accent lighting areas, I create a lighting plan identifying the number of footcandles (a unit which measures the intensity of illumination) in each room. Hallways and other areas that require only ambient lighting can require only about 4-5 footcandles. On the other hand, areas where specific tasks are performed, say an office or bathroom vanity, may require 45 or more footcandles, depending on the intensity of the task.”

Concerns about lighting are minimized when you work with an architect and experienced interior designer.

Ellen’s Interiors, Inc.

12 Lovering Lane

New London NH 03257

603-526-8662

www.ellensinteriors.com

If you are building a new home, there are countless options for countertops. Countertops are priced by the lineal or square foot, most often with the template, delivery, and installation included in the price. Prices vary significantly, too, depending on the material, texture, complexity of the edge, the number of holes, the type of sink you are using, and how many seams there will be. You will want to consider the countertop's longevity, durability, maintenance, and installed price.

Laminate $15-$45 per square foot: economical, not scratch or heat resistant; not built to last

Ceramic Tile $10-$30 per square foot: economical, scratch and heat resistant, but high maintenance

Butcher Block $30-$65 per square foot: easy to install and repair, durable but maintenance required

Solid Surface $35-$100 per square foot: seams only visible from the underside; stain and heat resistant but may crack or get scorched from hot pans; scratches can be softened (Corian® solid surface colors by DuPont®, right)

Quartz $50-$100 per square foot: good for busy kitchens; stain and heat resistant, low maintenance

Engineered Stone $50-$100 per square foot: extremely durable, resists heat and stains

Marble $50-$140 per square foot: New England slate, from New York, Vermont, and Maine, is durable, non-porous, and requires no sealing; price varies by color

Limestone $60-$100 per square foot: low-traffic kitchen. It withstands heat very well

Natural Stone / Granite $50-$200 per square foot: density, strength, water absorption, and acid resistance (granite countertop, right)

Concrete $80-$120 per square foot: very popular, but porous and absorbs stains easily, must be sealed regularly

If you are building a new home, there are countless options for countertops. Countertops are priced by the lineal or square foot, most often with the template, delivery, and installation included in the price. Prices vary significantly, too, depending on the material, texture, complexity of the edge, the number of holes, the type of sink you are using, and how many seams there will be. You will want to consider the countertop's longevity, durability, maintenance, and installed price.

Laminate $15-$45 per square foot: economical, not scratch or heat resistant; not built to last

Ceramic Tile $10-$30 per square foot: economical, scratch and heat resistant, but high maintenance

Butcher Block $30-$65 per square foot: easy to install and repair, durable but maintenance required

Solid Surface $35-$100 per square foot: seams only visible from the underside; stain and heat resistant but may crack or get scorched from hot pans; scratches can be softened (Corian® solid surface colors by DuPont®, right)

Quartz $50-$100 per square foot: good for busy kitchens; stain and heat resistant, low maintenance

Engineered Stone $50-$100 per square foot: extremely durable, resists heat and stains

Marble $50-$140 per square foot: New England slate, from New York, Vermont, and Maine, is durable, non-porous, and requires no sealing; price varies by color

Limestone $60-$100 per square foot: low-traffic kitchen. It withstands heat very well

Natural Stone / Granite $50-$200 per square foot: density, strength, water absorption, and acid resistance (granite countertop, right)

Concrete $80-$120 per square foot: very popular, but porous and absorbs stains easily, must be sealed regularly