Wise Words: Live within your space means

image from the book cheap chic

'You should love and use everything in your home and live within your "space means", like you live within your financial means.'

-Stacey Platt

Beautifully Organized Space of the Week

Cookbooks organized by color on open kitchen shelving and pans hung neatly on a rail.

Budget Makeover: My Kitchen

When we first checked out this condo back when we were first house hunting, I was really turned off by the kitchen. It was so dark, dreary, dirty and in unusable condition. My husband and I agreed that it was in severe need of a renovation and because we couldn’t afford the cost of that, we passed on making an offer. Weeks later after looking at many other homes, and actually losing out on one we had put an offer on, we came back to take a second look at the condo. The first time around we hadn’t paid much attention to how great of a location it was in and the fact that is was actually one of the bigger ones we’d seen. Long story short, we ended up buying it, figuring that all its other features made up for the ugly kitchen and we would figure out a way to fix it up on the cheap until we could afford a full renovation.

Here’s what it looked like when we first checking out the condo:

that's our real estate agent in the pic

Immediately after moving in, we bought a new fridge, brought in a gas stove that was handed down from a family member (free!), cleaned heavily, and got to work on painting! I knew that for the kitchen I wanted white cabinets with a bold background wall color. I decided on a teal color. Here’s the kitchen just with the background walls painted:

We made painting the cabinets a weekend project. Boy was it labor intensive! Painting the interiors was the most difficult because we had to get into all the little corners. We were going from dark to light so we used about 3 coats of paint (two primer coats and one finishing coat).

my husband painting the cabinet exteriors

the cabinet doors laid out to dry

My mom was nice to come over and help :-)

Here's the after:

Definitely not a fancy kitchen but a big improvement from what it was when we first moved in. It's a lot fresher, brighter and doesn't put me in a bad mood! (funny how environments can do that to you no?) All it took was a few coats of paint and a lot of elbow grease!

Kerry Washington's Apartment

~ Have you checked out Kerry Washington's fabulous apartment featured in this month's O Magazine yet? I love, love, love it because first of all the designer Danny Seo used green materials, products, etc. so it's planet friendly; secondly the prints and colors used are so vibrant and uplifting; and thirdly it has such a cozy feel to it! Who wouldn't want to live there?

kitchen
I love white kitchen cabinets against bold wall colors!

living room
How great is that Rubie Green red and white fabric??

office space
Stylish, organized, and eco-friendly, just how it should be :-)

bedroom
Doesn't that blue wall color remind you of Carrie's apartment in the Sex and the City movie?

Colorful Kitchens

I am loving the use of color in these kitchens! It's easy to play it safe with whites and neutrals, but why not take a chance and add color to the cabinets or walls in the kitchen? It might just turn out fabulously...