inspiration : open shelving in the kitchen.

the kitchen, as we inherited it, has very little upper cabinetry. and the larger wall, that is above the sink, has none at all. i'm rather enamored with the idea of open shelving with a pop of color and some woodwork to match the craftsman style of the home. this first picture is exactly what i would want - i love just about everything in this kitchen - but the shelves are what i picture in my head to a T. the beautiful seafoam color, the curvy yet simple corbels. i'm a little concerned though that the shelves may look strange without a window over the sink.

housebeautiful via houseofturqouise.

Source: butterflies-1.blogspot.com via jenn on Pinterest

via inspirationgreen.

via hookedonhouses.

obviously, living in earthquake-prone california (plus having lived through the northridge earthquake of 1994) makes open shelving a bad idea in general. so sad, because it's so dang pretty. i would only be able to put non-breakables or fall safe items up there. or find some way of securing it - which would make anything meant to be easy-grab not-so-easy-to-grab. maybe something like the small cubby below with a built-in barrier.

via michaelgraydon.

wishlist: yellow tufted chair.

west elm has a 15% off sofas and chairs sale right now! i'm in love with the yellow tufted chair in the back right corner of the above photo. it's their elton chair in dandelion. unfortunately, there are other, more important things that need to be purchased for the home first that we can't even afford right now, so this will just have to wait.

kitchen project : the floors.

oh, the kitchen floors. i already ranted about how awful they were, so the first weekend we had the house, i just had to get in there and do something about it. we already knew there was some linoleum underneath, so the plan was to tear up the checkerboard vinyl, use an adhesive remover to clean up the linoleum underneath the best we could, then lay the luxury vinyl plank we found at lowe's (though ours is antique woodland) for $1.08 per square foot.

so off came the trim and and i started ripping up that nasty stuff.

on day one we removed all the checkerboard. on day two we cleaned up the mess we made, put down a thin layer of vinyl tile adhesive as a primer, not as an adhesive itself. we figured it would also help since the floor surface was pretty uneven, but not something like wood or concrete that would actually take on primer. the vinyl planks themselves were very easy to install since they are peel-and-stick. here are some close ups so you can see the texture and 2mm thickness.

the hardest part of the install was cutting the custom pieces, especially around corners and uneven walls. the vinyl itself is relatively easy to cut - just some scoring required with a utility knife then you can snap it. we tried to lay them unevenly or randomly, and also tried to break up the pieces enough that you can't see the repeated patterns. i think we did a pretty good job!

we totally cheated and didn't go all the way under the stove, but we went to where the base of the cabinets would be, so you really can't tell.

that's all for now. we still need to buy and install a threshold and trim, as it's looking rather unfinished right now, but overall we're very happy with the new floors and how much warmer it makes the kitchen feel. they're definitely a HUGE improvement over what it was before, and while we want something nicer in the long run, the vinyl is a great, cheap and easy temporary solution.