If you’re a lover of bungalow homes and want a chance to drool, I suggest The New Bungalow Kitchen, a recently published Taunton Press book by Virginia architect Peter LaBau. "Classic charm meets modern convenience," the book jacket says. "Craftsmanship, comfort, and a little piece of history. This is what bungalow kitchens are all about."…
Santa Monica decorator Kitty Bartholomew, with whom I wrote a decorating book a while back, has a gift for making big changes on a very small budget. In the "before" version of this kitchen (pictured below), she was faced with several challenges: dark cabinets, dated gold tile and dated gold appliances. It would be easy…
Just as I’m ruminating on how much I love slate floors, I come across a posting on the Kitchen Designer blog concerning slate countertops. According to kitchen designer Susan Serra, the author of this blog, slate is the quiet, little known but serious player in countertops for kitchens. Who knew? It had seemed counter choices…
I asked local designer Enid Harris if she could recommend anyone who sold granite counters really cheap. Here’s what she said: “I don’t have any low-budget granite or slab people . . . nor would you want one! The best tip I can offer is the one I used: Ask a stone setter if they’d…
. . . but I’m also obsessed with green building. Do I need an attitude adjustment? For some new ways of thinking about this, I consulted a green builder: Question: My dilemma is that I love granite counter tops and yet I want to do a green remodel. I’ve heard that granite is out of…
When Kitty Bartholomew moved into her 1940s Santa Monica bungalow, she didn’t have enough extra dough for a complete kitchen remodel. But she did want to infuse the all-white room with some color. Part of her strategy was to remove the doors of the upper cabinets, thus allowing her colorful dishes to add to the…
There’s often tension when a project goes over the projected budget. The homeowners might feel out-of-control, or weak-minded, or confused that it happened despite their resolve for it not to. Why, why, why does budget bloat happen? Commenter John Beaty has referred to it as “feature creep.” We also got a savvy explanation of this…
“You could be spending a lot more and getting a lot less” when remodeling your kitchen, says Realty Times columnist Broderick Perkins, quoting from studies done by Consumer Reports. The magazine’s August issue includes: 10 Most-Hyped Products And What To Buy Instead. “Mistakes can be costly as well as disappointing, because the most loudly hawked…
When he set out to renovate the kitchen of his West Hollywood condo, Cyrus Deboo discovered more than how to paint cabinets and lay a tile floor. The do-it-yourselfer also found out some things about patience and perseverance. “The incredible lesson I learned from that kitchen rivals anything I learned in therapy,” said Deboo, a…
Question: Help! We plan on remodeling our kitchen and opening it up to the family room, which will require removing a wall. My question is where do I start? Do I contact the architect, the contractor or the kitchen designer first? We are in the $90,000 to $100,000 budget range. — Karla Answer: Good question,…