Soup Kitchen to Super Kitchen Part One

Hello!

It is amazing how the time passes and how much I think of you all and I often wonder if time passes just as quickly for you as it does for me. I get so many wonderful emails asking me to write more often and I am so very grateful for the encouraging words - as I miss writing very much! Thank you for your concerns and taking time to write me. It often boggles my mind how I let life interfere with my true love - writing.

This will be a quick update and when I return from my very sudden "surprise trip" I will update you more on what I have been up to. My year began with my need to turn our "soup kitchen" into a "super kitchen" on a limited (very limited) budget. Our kitchen will be featured in Romantic Homes' June issue, but below is a sneak peek at the process. It is just a cosmetic make-over.

One morning, after staring and our studying kitchen (again) I mentioned to my handsome groom, Randy, that something just had to be done with our kitchen...I could no longer allow it to remain in this state of repair...I mean, this was no matter of differing tastes, but rather a matter of torn tiles, cracked walls, and burnt counter tops. I am pretty sure the kitchen hadn't been touched since 1940's. I bet him I could re-do the entire kitchen for less than $500. So, being a very competitive couple (remember, we met running in the park while training for a marathon), he took me up on the challenge. Actually, I wasn't so sure I could do it, but I was willing to try.

Actually, as I thought about it some more, I realized that there must be some other people out there in the same position: what does one do when a kitchen needs a total gutting, but the funds are yet a few years away to do it properly and one can't stand to look at it one more day? I was sure I could find a way to do our kitchen cheaply, quickly, and end up loving it, even if the results only lasted a couple of years. Besides, if we do get to gut it and put in a new kitchen like is really needed, I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time or money on it right now anyway.

I won't show you very many "after" shots, but below are some before shots. You will have to check out the June issue of Romantic Homes to get the full deal. I believe it will be a fairly long feature. I do explain the "how to's" and give tips.

I would like to add a personal note about doing our little kitchen. When some of my girlfriends had seen it, they all expressed how much personality went into it and how they couldn't believe the change. While I appreciate their comments and compliments, what I think they were experiencing was something that we all have the ability to include in our homes...and that is our own personal touch. Whenever we take the time to add that little "something" that is truly ours and ours alone, that is when we turn our houses into homes.

Yes, I love my little kitchen, but what I love even more is hearing my handsome husband tell me each morning how nice the kitchen looks. And I enjoy watching him crack open his little soft boiled egg in his little German egg cup,while he is sitting in his Barber uniform, and watching him scoop out the soft yoke with his tiny spoon and he then looks up and smiles at me and says, "I just love having breakfast with you in our little breakfast room...." Beginning our day with our little breakfast, in our quiet, little breakfast room, is the little personal touch that makes our house a home.

Enjoy the sneak peek of our kitchen and more photos of the finished kitchen soon to come!

Also: next posting: More info on the April in Paris show in Kansas City - don't miss it!

From my house to your house,

Elizabeth

BEFORE PHOTOS:

SNEAK PEEK AT AFTER (MORE TO COME LATER):

Common Cents Creates Comfort

"...but the concept of the new Cape Cod and Nantucket II is to show how people can live comfortably in the $600,00s."

This is a direct quote from the April 27th issue of the St. Louis Post Dispatch Sunday newspaper in the new home section. This comment came from a local developer. Is it me or do any of you also find yourself re-reading the quote two, maybe three times to make sure you read it correctly and then roll your eyes and are screaming in your head "you have got to be kidding!!"

I can't believe that we Americans "need to be shown" that we somehow can manage, without too much discomfort, find a way to find to live in a $600,000 home comfortably. I know that the majority of us lack the imagination and know-how in finding some impossible way, to make our inhabitable shack of a $600,000 home livable...but thank goodness for the beloved HGTV shows to set us all straight and to inspire us to get off our lazy butts and do something to get our half a million or so home livable and presentable for company....

Okay, I will stop with the sarcasm...I just couldn't believe that someone feels the need to show us how to live comfortably in a half a million-plus home. I only hope it was a misquote. Anywho, while there are many people who can well-afford such a home and in certain parts of our wonderful country, $600,000 really is the average price for an average home. I have lovely clients that live in homes three times that cost and the owners all feel very fortunate and blessed and have made them very comfortable and they didn't need me to show them how. They just needed some custom drapes or bedding. But for the rest of us, a $600,000 home would be very comfortable and we would most likely not need some developer to show us how to live in it.

I would like to prove my point with a little eye candy from a feature I designed and photographed for Romantic Homes June issue (now on stands). While this home is not $600K, nor the size of a McMansion, it has all the comfort, warmth, and love that any mansion would envy. The owner, Debbie McReynolds, and her daughter, Caitlain, have turned their tiny home into a haven. I will give you a sneak preview of photos that were not used in the magazine. To see the entire 10-page feature, you must buy the issue, or better yet, subscribe to Romantic Homes magazine!

(Nothing wrong with a little PR :-)

Enjoy the photos - the concept is simply that even the smallest home can pack in the personality. I also took a formal dining room, and with a few simple changes, I made a rustic, whimsical "Young at Heart" party to kick off the summer. A corn drying wrack over a glittery mirrored buffet, and antique hose nozzels on vintage china. And Little Debi snacks for dessert - summer is finally here!

If you would like to see many more photos, please pick up the June issue of Romantic Homes Magazine.

Texture, texture, texture! Linen table cloth, French collars, wooden floors, mirrored furniture, Oriental rug, vintage china and upholstered chairs all make this tiny room a room to remember!

What's up with all the friggin antique hose nozzels? You can read all about it in the June issue of Romantic Homes magazine....sorry - I can't tell you everything, now can I? :-)

Yes, I designed this bedding for Debbie. She gave me the most endearing compliment. She told me that when she goes to bed at night, and covers herself, she feels like "Elizabeth is giving me a hug goodnight." I teared up when she told me that because I had no idea that the bedding meant so much to her. How fortunate I am to have such lovely people in my life?

Thank you for allowing me to share with you.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of Debbie's home. I had so much fun with the photo shoot and dressing up her table. I especially got a kick out of my friend, and Debbie's neighbor, Renee. Renee came over during the photo shoot and couldn't believe all that went into a shoot and how long it took (three days). When the magazine feature came out, Renee was the first to call me and tell me about it and she couldn't believe that while the photos in the magazine were beautiful (thank you Renee), but how they also didn't even begin to show how much work went into capturing it all. That is the magic of a photo shoot...it all looks so effortless which makes us (yes, even me) look at the rooms in magazines and think, I want to live there! But in reality, I think most of us just love the thought simply living in just a clean and orderly home...never mind the style....I just want someone to clean my home for me....that is my goal anyway.

A clean...orderly...comfortable home are things we all strive for. But until I am "shown how I can live comfortably in a $600, 000," I will have to make do with my common cents in creating comfort in my little abode.

From my abode to your abode,

Elizabeth :-)

Note: For those of you who are waiting for my notes from the Country Living Magazine seminar, please go to my other blog, Shop Talk for the notes. Thank you!

GOT SILK?

I thought this dash of color would catch your attention...in keeping with the colors of Valentine's Day, I thought I would post a little pink, coral, and chocolate colors of a project that I worked on a while ago.

I had wanted to post the "after" photos of a entire room that I worked on and designed in conjunction with David Suttle, designer and architect. However, as I started to load the photos, there were so many projects for this one bedroom, that it will have to be a series of postings. I had forgotten how much custom work I actually did on this one project!

I can only show you sections of the room I designed and produced and not the entire room, as I am told it may appear in a design magazine. But for today, I am starting out with the largest of all the projects - the custom bed and bedding!

This bedding was designed for a lovely teenage girl who is very appreciative of all that her parents provide for her. She is classy, hip, and loves pink and chocolate brown. Not done in my signature Elizabeth House colors of creams, whites, tans, browns and black, this room is still very elegant, but youthful.

Everything you see was custom designed and built - even the bed itself!

These photos do not do it justice, as they were snapped on the fly and not styled. It was getting late and I happened to bring my camera along and snapped away. I hope to go back, style the shots and do it right. But for now, these will do.

Before we get to the photos, I would like to take a moment to say that while many of us aren't fortunate enough to afford such luxuries (a lot of what you see is silk), it does my heart good to see a young teeneager appreciate my work as well as everything she is given. She is the most polite, sincere young lady and she has a very good understanding that most people don't get custom-designed beds and bedding. And having said that, while the rest of us may not have a custom bedding set, we are still able to customize our own haven with our own personal touches.

Whether it is throw pillow that your aunt made, or a pair of heirloom pillow cases, or an antique jeweled brooch that is pinned on a new pillow, it is these little personal touches that make a house a home and a room warm.

Thank you for warming my heart and always remember it is your personal touch that gives your home its soul.

From my house to your house,

Elizabeth

This area was designed for the headboard of the bed to fit perfectly inside. Wall sconces are added later. The color of the wall is a pale pink.

The silk, chocolate crown is mounted to the ceiling. A chain cover is made of the same material. The bed is covered in a dusty rosy-brown chenille fabric.

Chris, a wonderful carpetner, is installing the dowls that he made, and I painted, to hold the drapes of the canopy. The measuring and re-measuring of this project was numerous!

Chocolate, silk rosettes are at the base of the dowls to finish off the drape.

The canopy is lined with a silk check, which goes with the dust ruffle below.

A punch of grape silk and green monograhm gives this pillow a little edge for a teenager.

The complete bedding set used over 100 yards of fabric....I died and went to fabric heaven with this fun project!