The Mushroom Factor

Our current project—one we’ve been working on for over a year—is the renovation our kitchen. In truth, this has little to do with renovation and everything to do with creation.

Our house is 90-years-old and in the course of those ninety years the kitchen was never updated. Yes, it was a very quaint kitchen. But let’s be real, a sink hanging on the wall with no surrounding cupboards—no cupboards anywhere—is not conducive to today’s style of living.

So, as you can imagine, a lot of planning, research and discussion (emphasis on the cuss) has gone into this project. But hey, it’s been fun!

THE BEST ADVICE IS WHAT WE’VE FOUND ONLINE
We’re not kitchen designers. And, judging by the number of times we’ve redone the same soffit, we certainly can’t profess to be designers either. But we’re also on a budget and paying for such expertise didn’t make the cut.

Instead, we turned to the Internet and found more knowledge than we ever imagined possible. Here are a few of my bookmarked links:

gardenweb.com
The Internet’s Garden & Home Community

I’m addicted to the forums on this site. They easily are the nurturing source in the development of our kitchen. The well-organized topics range from kitchens, to appliances, to lighting, to bathrooms to home finance. There’s a lot of conversation and participants, for the most part, are homeowners rather than industry professionals. They readily pass along ideas, recommendations and photos.

Anyone know who sells a good quality stainless steel sink?

Ask such a question on one of the forums and you’re sure to get lots of good answers. Many members recommended Galaxy Tool Supply in Chicago, IL, and sure enough, we found a 16-gauge double sink at a very good price. And, yes, I’m ditching the old cast iron baby. Need an old sink?

hgtv.com
Start at Home

If you love bold interaction and the latest Internet technology, check this out. I could spend hours and hours digging through this site. It has phenomenal imagery and its long list of video clips features interesting tidbits from industry professionals.

The How-To/Online Tools pages are fun and you can design your own room in 3-D. The one drawback, these pages only work with Windows Internet Explorer. What about us Mac people?

behr.com
Explore Color

As a graphic designer, I’m supposed to know all about color. Somehow, though, color on the wall seems so much different than it does on paper! In addition to rebuilding the same soffit several times, I’ve also repainted its walls in no less than three varying shades of green.

We’re not stuck to using one particular brand of paint, but the color site I like best is that of Behr’s Explore Color. It’s user friendly and coordinates your chosen color as a main or accent color.

You can also preview your chosen color on their sample photos or your own. Pretty cool. I really should have tried this before I painted my kitchen!

Next time…