Getting a Handle of the Situation

Sorry for the cheesy title.  I feel like I'm working at The Mirror or The Sun and it's my job to try to find terrible titles that work off puns and plays on words.  That drives me nuts about those papers (well, just one of several things) but it's actually a lot harder to make up the ridiculous titles than it looks.  I know a lot of very witty people: if you come up w/ a catchy title, I will change this title just for you.

So this post is about HANDLES. heh heh heh

Remember how all over the place I was about floors.  Well, I didn't fare any better with kitchen handles and knobs.  Such a small part of the kitchen but seriously, it really makes a big difference to the look of the whole kitchen, no?  Now, I'm very lucky in that Stephen doesn't really care what I choose.  He'll be honest and say, 'No, I really don't like those' or 'Those are kinda old-fashioned' but as long as the doors open and close, the rest is up to me.

So my idea of kitchen love is a painted wood look, country style but classic too.  Not too country bumpkin like.  You've seen some of my favourite kitchens when I've talked about floors.  But here's a re-visit to my favourite kitchen:

Actually, I have another absolute favourite but I can't actually find a copy on-line that allows me to reproduce it (and I will be super respectful of that copyright and NOT scan the picture) but if you somehow have access to The Best of Irish Kitchens magazine, Issue 24, Oct/Nov 2011 -- It's on the cover!  Solid wood tops.  Light grey painted wood.  Cup and knob handles.  Belfast sink.  Really simple clean lines.  DROOL!

So getting back to handles, I really like the brushed nickel type of finish and a cup-handle style fitting for drawers, simple knobs for cupboards.  Like this:

These are the kind of handles that Stephen doesn't like.  But hey, we've already gotten over that.  So thinking that this should be a fairly easy decision, I went to my kitchen guy only to find that he doesn't have any cup handles in stock.  To stay open minded, I bring 3 different handle options home just to mull them over and they still don't really take my fancy and I figure I'll look around.  Stephen's comment, 'How can you go to a kitchen place and not find a single handle that you like the look of'.  If you can hear his tone, this is not a judgement on the kitchen place but rather yours truly of course.

Let me tell you.  Ireland is not a big fan of cup handles.  Woodies has one option, that looks a little small as it doesn't have the pretend screws incorporated into the face.  Homebase had another option that looked ... alright.  So I was holding out for Ikea ... which fell flat and seriously disappointed as the Fagleboda cup handle only came in a flat black or shiny chrome and had a much more semi-circular shape than crescent moon.  (ok, yes I see I am starting to sound a little crazy).  They also had a Fintorp handle, that looked really lovely on a kitchen in last month's House and Home magazine ... but those were much larger than I expected and I came home last weekend with still no solution to my handle search.  And in frustration I went back to the handle options that are in the same catalogue as our kitchen doors and do you want to see the only cup handle they offer?

Ugh!  It's a little too medieval and reminds me of a knight's armour or something.

So feeling 'ok' about the DIY store options, I picked up a sample from Woodies and Homebase and went out to the kitchen place to have a look at how the handles would actually look like on the model kitchen.  And after about 20 minutes of humming and hawing, and Colin (kitchen guy) looking through 4 different catalogue for similar cup handles, we made a decision on a lovely satin nickel cup handle, with a slim edge that doesn't have pretend screw features.  Very similar to the Woodies one.

Job done .... you'd think.

Guess what presented an even bigger problem?  Finding a simple oval or round knob, with just the right nubbiness (or is that knubbiness) in the same finish!!!!!!  I'm serious.  NONE of the cup handle options in ANY of the catalogues had a corresponding simple round or oval knob in the same finish.  Finally, there was a compromise of a knob in silver nickel finish from the same catalogue.  It was a bit too flat for my tastes, as opposed to 'knubby', but atleast it was a match (though it didn't look exactly like the same finish in the catalogue, it was described as the same ... and apparently we're not meant to trust picture reproductions.  So job done .... you'd think.

Colin had a sample of the flat knob in stock so I put it up to a door painted in the same colour 'Stone' as our kitchen will be.  And after all of the decision making, would you believe that it looked absolutely terrible!  Seriously.  The colours were just  too similar so it did nothing to 'lift the door' or make the handle or knob stand out as a feature.  I was gutted.  And perplexed.  And confused.  It worked on my dream Best of Irish Kitchens kitchen.  It works on the cream and beige kitchens on the pictures in this post.  Does the search for the handle continue or ....

Should I change the kitchen colour?

It did cross my mind.  I put the handle up to some more sample colours.  I put it on the model kitchen 'Country White' doors.  I ignored the 'What are you doing?' look that Colin was giving me.  And I internally was VERY grateful that Stephen was not there.  But then I realized I had to choose ... do I want my grey kitchen or do I want my brushed nickel cup handles?

I could tell you.  But wouldn't it be more fun to wait until everything is in place?

Dining Room Door Decision About-Face

STOP!!!!!

Forget the decision made re. the last post on our sliding central dining room doors and all my humming and hawing about it.  We went back into the house today to have a look around at what was completed over the last week.  And for some reason after standing in the 'play room', both Stephen & I came to the same conclusion that a single door placed laterally would just suit better.

The play room space hasn't changed much at all.  We moved a window.  And a small part of the wall was knocked out to put a door in for the the study/spare bedroom.  But the area and dimensions are exactly the same.  It's quite a cozy room so I think the idea of central doors opened it up too much and also decreased the usability of storage, play area, or couch placement.

So the idea of being able to supervise better into the playroom has been scrapped.  But that's not that big a deal as there are loads of times the little one is out of sight when she's playing away.  So here are my two favourite pictures of the kind of hanging/sliding door we're looking for.  Now to just source it.

Visions of Pocket Doors Dance in my Head

Our latest big decision has needed to be made regarding the doors leading from the kitchen/diner and into the 'playroom' or den.  I always envisioned having lovely french doors in this space because:

1. I LOVE french doors
2. It would bring light from the playroom into the dining room (which lacks windows as it is in the middle of the long space
3. I could keep an eye on the baba while she is happy self-entertaining and I am whipping up a domestic goddess feast (in my dream world)
4. I LOVE FRENCH DOORS

Come on, how can you not love THIS ....

But in addition to french doors, I've always loved the look and idea of pocket doors.  They just make sense.  No swinging arcs.  No wasted wall space.  So I got fixated.  I WANT POCKET DOORS.  I NEED POCKET DOORS.

But we have a problem.  The way the space is designed, the dining room table will be placed directly in front of those doors.  I think that's fine.  I think there's enough space to walk around it.

But then when Sinead, Stephen's cousin and an architect questions the practical flow of the space ...  And Steve, our contractor, also wants verifications that that's what we really want...  And Colin, our kitchen guy, also questions the central placement of the doors AND makes you think about whether the dining space may lack intimacy...  And Stephen, my dear hubby, reminds me that we'll need to keep the playroom tidy if visitors can always see directly into it via the french doors .... well, it makes me re-think this plan.

So it's been an evolution (much like all my decision making processes) that followed along like this:

POCKET FRENCH DOORS ... LOVE

POCKET SOLID TIMBER DOORS 

(OPEN to watch the baba, CLOSED to hide the mess)

Super size single sliding door, positioned laterally to avoid  having to walk around the table
(and btw, our finished product will not be gorgeously spacious or look as fabulous as
this drool worthy table and dining area!)

Then we re-measured the space and our dining room table.  The first and very clear decision was that the extra wall depth required to fit a pocket door would eat into the dining room area too much.  So we will just go with a sliding door fixed to the wall.

Next evolutionary step - Sliding door hung directly to wall or door frame
... and I love this barn door type railing system

And we also realized that the width of the dining room is the exact width of our current dining room!  But our table is positioned along the longside of the room instead of across it, which is the dilemma with these centrally placed doors.  As below:

So we turned the table the other way and positioned it in front of those central doors and have left it like that for the last few days to get a feel for moving around the table.  And you know what?!  It's just fine.  So that leaves us with our final decision.  Double doors, placed centrally and hung on the playroom side so that from the dining room, it will be framed by the door frame, but on the other side will hopefully be hung with these type of barn-style sliding tracks.

Kinda like this ... but I think we'll go for a painted wood finish instead!

Decision made! Woo hoo!  Completed pics will definitely not be ready until the very end so I will have to post that MUCH MUCH later.  But now just to try to find the right door ......

Let's talk Floors

This week has been nuts and I've needed to be in Dublin the last 2 weekends so I haven't been out to the house to take new pictures.  So as I don't have any photos to back up anymore wall demolition and construction updates, I might as well move on to other fun stuff .... FLOORS!

So, as most of our living space is going to be open plan, we decided to go with the same type of flooring throughout.  I think it will be more streamlined (and it cuts down on me having to search for and make a separate decision about tiles too!).  Trolling through the internet, drooling over different flooring is akin to the time spent looking for the 'ideal kitchen' and the excitement while searching for the 'perfect wedding dress'.  Unfortunately, when you enter the showrooms, the dreaming becomes shortlived as Practicality and Budget begin to rear their necessary but clearly less indulgent personalities.  I've been into Bruce (our floor guy) a number of times, humming and hawing over real wood vs laminate flooring (I'll do a separate post on that point!) and getting samples.  He has been incredibly patient with all my questions and probably thinks I have NO IDEA what I'm looking for as I've borrowed samples that couldn't be more different from each other.  This is sort of how my flooring desires evolved ....

In the beginning, I loved the look of glossy and dark hardwood.  It is rich and classic and would marry beautifully with the classic creamy kitchens that I had been looking at.  Kinda like these:

And then I began to worry about long-term care, scratches, wearability.  So I switched gears and fell in love with older looking oak or pine, reclaimed wood boards, anything that lends itself to a cottagey or farmhouse feel:

And then one day I was in a kitchen showroom where a part of their floor was laid with a very light wood laminate, think white ash or Scandinavia.  And that very same day I came across 2 pictures of kitchens with a similar type of floor AND kitchen features that are similar styles to what I'm looking at:

And armed with this last love of light wood flooring, we went to the floor guy a few weeks ago to narrow things down in terms of what I could get within our budget (actually, Stephen went with me and gave me the ultimatum that I could leave with no more than 2 samples from which our floor must be chosen from).  So I am still undecided but atleast I'm down to 2 options, DARK or LIGHT.  Here are my last 2 model images, and sorry, the darker floor is mostly covered by an area carpet (!) but it's the best pic I could find that also incorporated the look and feel of the kitchen that I'm thinking about!

 ..... or ......      What do you think?

(and btw ... all these pics are from my Pinterest boards so if you want to find original sources, find me there!  I couldn't figure out how to embed pics from Pinterest or the source directly into the blog!)