Quick Weekend Project – Organize your Refrigerator

Posted on April 5, 2012 by DishOnDesignGal

You’ll be seeing lots more organizing projects here in the future when GiGi starts blogging with me over the next few weeks. Why, you might ask? Well, lets just say GiGi is compulsively ~~obsessed~~ ~~addicted~~ … well, let’s just say she loves to organize things. Well not really things, really everything. She loves to organize closets, refrigerators, garages, cars; basically nothing is off-limits.. And it’s not just her things. Chances are if you invite her over for a visit, she will be organizing and re-arranging your home within the hour. She just can’t help herself.

Just ask her friend Jean. She’ll tell you when she comes to visit, Gigi literally doesn’t stop till the sun comes up. Jean wakes up to find closets, drawers and more re-arranged with a place for everything and everything in its place. She’ll think she has discovered everything Margie organized until she opens up her purse and finds everything color coded and organized down to the pennies. True story.

GiGi invaded our friend Dr. Nune’s home a few months ago and organized it from top to bottom. There wasn’t an area left undone. Dr. Nune will tell you her newly organized home has changed her life, she is so happy with all of it! GiGi and I stopped by tonight for some Dosa’s (a traditional Indian lentil/vegetable protein crepe), scrambled eggs, salsa and homemade yogurt. For a special treat after dinner, we had Indian coffee. I’m going to show you how to make it soon, promise! It is so darn good…it’s a bit of work, but sooooo worth it! The ~~drill sergeant~~ GiGi of course had check out if Dr. Nune was maintaining the “systems” she had installed…

Yep, that’s GiGi’s finger…just a few things were out of place

I clicked a few photos so you could see her refrigerator. It’s a pretty quick project to do this weekend and it makes such a difference! Here’s some tips to get your refrigerator organized!

At the top of refrigerators, milk and juice boxes tend to block each other along with other items on the shelf. A small turntable and glass jars ensure that everything is accessible. You can find the glass Frigoverre jars at HomeGoods or The Container Store – the key is to transfer your liquids as soon as you get home from the market. Always store the containers on the turnaround whether they are full or empty. It is their “home”, so they always stay there. Gigi used a rubber band and round key tags to label the contents. Not only does it work well – it looks great too! The turntable has a 11″ diameter.

The turntable is also perfect for condiments. Here’s a larger one that GiGi uses in her fridge for condiments…

GiGi also likes to use glass containers to store food such as vegetables, soup, leftovers and more because they are the safest choice to store food. A second choice would be to use airtight plastic containers, but make sure they are a no.5 – you can check it on the bottom of the container. The best kind of containers have straight sides (as opposed to cantilevered) and are either square or rectangle in shape. Why? Because they fit well together and waste the least amount of space. The rule is to fill your fridge with the containers and LEAVE them there, whether full or empty. It’s really a great system, as you don’t have to waste space storing them in your cabinets.

Check out this drawer….

I love using the $1.00 office organizer to hold the cheese and dressing packet. Think outside the box and find things that will keep items together and in an easy accessible place. Look for items you can use that you already own or check out the dollar store. It doesn’t have to be expensive to live an organized life. Ziplock baggies work okay in a drawer, but if you need to store them on a shelf, a clear container works better.

If you have items such as bread, bagels, over-flow fresh vegetables or fruits, etc. put them in a bin rather than leaving to sit loose on a shelf. A bin is easy to pull out and access. Using a clear container is a bonus as it makes it easy to see to see the contents. Hidden items tend to go to waste. Out of sight, out of mind as they say…

What do you think? I’d love to hear any other refrigerator ideas you have! I organized mine a while ago, but I think I’m going to switch to the glass milk jars, too. I’ll show you pictures when I’m done! xo Amy

Tuesday Tip: Welcome to My Home

Posted on October 27, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

Welcome to my kitchen!

Have you ever noticed some homes are more comfortable than others? Certain homes, although beautiful, have a museum like – hands off mentality. Others seem to embrace you the minute you walk in. So how do you make your home more welcoming? It all starts with personal touches you can place throughout your home. Here’s some suggestions…

Welcome!

Entry Way: A chalk board in an entry way is a great way to greet guests! This one is used to give a little history about the house, but it could also be used to say Welcome, Happy Holiday’s or anything that you’d like to greet a guest with!

Dear family and friends...

The Kitchen: Let’s face it, when you have a party or a gathering with friends, like it or not, they’re going to end up hanging out in your kitchen! It’s a natural gathering place, so why not put a clever note like the one above inviting guests to make themselves comfortable and help themselves to whatever they’d like.

Place a personal note in a guest bath

A Guest Bath: I like to make sure that when guest are staying overnight, their bath is stocked not only with towels, but items they may need while visiting. Some of these items are an extra toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, hair dryer, disposable razors, hair spray, lotion, tweezers, nail clippers, tampons and deodorant. Leaving a framed note such as the one above let’s them know that anything there is for them to use!

A Guest Bedroom: There’s lots of fun ideas to do for a guest bedroom. My aunt likes to place a framed photo of her and the guest on the bedside table. You could leave a note under the pillow expressing how glad you are that they are visiting and place chocolates on a pillow with the bed turned down as well. An extra pair of reading glasses next to a book is a nice touch and I especially like a book with fun things about the town that you live in as well.

The bottom line is it’s the little personalized touches that make your home a place that feel comfortable for those that visit. It’s those little touches that will bring joy to both you and your guests! xoxox

Step Five: Adding a Wood Floor- a Kitchen on a Budget

Posted on May 20, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

: After Photo: New Wood Floor

The Kuster’s are just about finished with their kitchen remodel, which means I’ll do the full unveiling soon, but in the meantime, here’s a sneak preview of the new wood floor. They used prefinished planks they found at Sam’s that fit their budget and their needs. I’ll talk more about wood floors in my next post, because I’m going to see it in person tomorrow evening and want to take some close of photo’s to show you what I’m talking about – I like visuals

Below is the before picture – amazing what a difference a new coat of paint and a DIY wood floor can make! Stay tuned for the final pictures…

: Before Photo: Old paint and Flooring

Step Four: Valances and Wall Art – Kitchen on a Budget

Posted on May 6, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

: Painted Wall and Cabinets

If you’ve been following the Redo of the Kuster’s Kitchen, I’m happy to report that the painting is done and it looks fabulous! As of the last update, they had painted the walls and beadboard, but still had the cabinets to complete. It’s amazing what a little paint can do!

: Before Photo

Lori found some apple pictures that she really liked. Remember the original apple photo that she loved? I think the new one’s below work much better – don’t you?

: Wall and Beadboard Painted with New Artwork

: Before Photo

Additionally, they hung the window treatments on the window and door Doesn’t the valance on the door look great with the photo’s? Lori purchased an extra one so we can make a custom valance to go over the eating area. I’ll take lots of photo’s when we do that in the next few weeks!

: Valance on Door

What’s up next? Besides hanging the chandelier and making the additional valances, the final project is to lay the wood floor. They found prefinished laminated flooring at Sam’s Club and hope to have it finished in the next few weeks! I can’t wait to see that! I know…I’m holding out and you haven’t seen all the areas, but I wanted to save the best for last! Once the wood floor is installed, we’ll do a full unveiling…Stay tuned!

Step Two: Choosing Finishes – a Kitchen on a Budget

Posted on March 19, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

paint-selections

On Monday I shared the begining thoughts from a few weeks ago for a kitchen project that my friend Lori and her husband Bill are ready to begin. She had found a window treatment that she ordered off the internet to use for inspiration and we were waiting for it to come in. It came last week and over the weekend, we selected paint for the walls above the beadboard and also decided what would be the best finish for the new wood floor. Here’s the things we talked about…

window-roman-shade

The valance that Lori ordered from Pottery Barn turned out to be perfect for the kitchen windows and worked extremely well to pull together the green stove and the red coffee maker. The only suprising thing was we thought from the picture in the catalog that it had a yellow/gold color in it that we could match the walls to, but it ended up having a tinge of orange in it. After much consideration, we chose a color by Sherwin Williams called Afterglow.

I have a photo that I created on Sherwin Williams website using the actual color, but it really looks much more orange on the computer than it does in person. I think it will be a great color for the kitchen and add a fresh new feel. Especially with newly painted white beadboard and cabinets. If you ever want to get some paint ideas, you can to to the Sherwin Williams website and using the visualizer tool, you can pick a room that is most similar to yours - I picked a bathroom since it had the beadboard. Once you choose a room, you can play with different paint colors to see how it changes the look of the room. It’s a great way to get some ideas, but do not…DO NOT ever choose paint from a computer. A computer does not show you color in true form and a shade that you see online will not look remotely the same in person.

They currently have an existing wood floor in the living room that runs up next to the kitchen. It would be next to impossible to try to match it and continue the same floor into the kitchen. Rather trying to make it look the same, I recommended installing the new floor in the opposite direction and matching the dark pegs that are part of their current wood floor which has a light colored finish. Their living room floor looks like this…

existing-wood-floor

See the round dark pegs? I’m thinking that if they chose a wood floor for the kitchen with a stain color similar to the stain on the pegs, that it will be a smooth transition. They agreed.

We also discussed how the colors will go with the rest of the areas that adjoin to the kitchen. This is where having a whole house plan comes into play. Since they want to continue the olive green color in the kitchen and solariam, the colors work well. The green will be a common thread in each area which will create a nice flow from room to room.

Lori showed me a picture that she bought and said she absolutely LOVES it. I loved it as well, and I think the apple itself goes really well with the roman shades and walls, but…I think that the background is just a little too much for valance. I asked her what she really loved about it, and she said the apple. With that in mind, she’s going to keep her eye out for another picture that has a large apple without the busy background. I think in the long run she’ll be much happier. If you find something that you LOVE, but it doesn’t quite work, figure out what it is that you love about and maybe you can find something else that will work even better. Here’s a photo of the picture she bought with the fabric below it…

dscn0355

window-roman-shade-cropped

What do you think? The next step is for Lori and Bill to dive in with painting the cabinets. When they get started, I’ll make sure to post some pictures. Hopefully, it doesn’t take as long as my dining room did – haha! Come to think of it, it’s not 100% complete. I need to get moving on that

Step One: Finding Inspiration – A Kitchen on a budget

Posted on March 16, 2009 by DishOnDesignGal

kuster-kitchen-color-board

My friend Lori called me a few weeks ago and wanted help picking colors for her kitchen. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get together with her and her husband Bill for a few weeks, so I gave her some assignments before I met with them. I thought I’d blog about the process with you from beginning to end and also share my thought process so you can see how some of the decisions were made. Although I did get together with them this weekend to choose the paint colors, it really has been a project that they have done on their own. They key to a successful project is to really think it out before you run to the paint store. When I talked to her a few weeks ago, she was biting at the bullet to get going, but by pulling back and really thinking it out, I think they’ll have a kitchen that they really love on a budget that they can afford.

Here’s a couple of photo’s of their kitchen as it is now…

cabinets2 Main kitchen above and side door next to eating area is below

side-door-in-kitchen1

INITIAL QUESTIONS

What is your budget? Lori and Bill want to keep the project as inexpensive as possible. It’s one project of many that they have planned, and they don’t want to go to the expense of a full kitchen remodel.

What do you want to keep? Actually, the better question is what do you need to keep! Obviously, we’d all like to have everything new, but that’s not always realistic. Keeping their budget in mind, they have chosen to keep the existing cabinets, mini-blinds and appliances, but do want to replace the vinyl floor with a new wood floor and the olive green sink with a white one. Fortunately, Bill is a willing to do all of the works (gotta love that!) which will save them alot of money!

Summary: Knowing the above, this is what they have to work with…

Worn, but charming painted cabinets that could use a little revitalization.
White refrigerator and dishwasher
Tall Painted bead board wainscoat which adds to the charm of the kitchen
Nickel finish table and 4 chairs with wicker seats. (Table has a glass top with blue inlay tile underneath, but we will not design around that, as we can ultimately cover the blue if need be.)
Olive green double oven that will eventually be replaced
Red coffee maker that was a gift from Bill’s parents

Do you have a particular style, color scheme or look in mind? They really didn’t have anything in mind or at least like most people they couldn’t verbalize it. They just new they wanted a new look. They wanted something fresh and inviting. A place they wanted to spend time in.

HOMEWORK

I had Lori go through magazines and websites on her computer to find pictures of things that she loved. When looking on the web, some good places are sites of stores that you like, better homes and gardents (bgh.com) or even blogs like this Lori doesnt’ need to necessarily find photo’s of kitchens, but rooms that she liked the look of. She also might find a piece of artwork, a color scheme, or a vignette that she likes. The point here was to look and earmark anything that caught her eye and made her feel good. The only rule is don’t think too much. The end goal here is to find an inspiration picture or two.

Why do you need an inspiration picture or item? An Inspiration picture or item is a visual guide to help you start a project. It’s an invaluable tool, as it can keep you on track as you become overwhelmed with decisions you’ll need to make. It could be a treaured picture or item that you want to incorporate into the room or a photo of something that you love that you found in a catalog or online. Maybe it’s a photo of a room that catches your eye and you want to achieve that look and feel.

In Lori’s case, it was several things. Last week, she found first found a look in a pottery barn catalog that she loved…

inspiration1

And then she found a valance that pulled in the colors of her stove and her red coffee maker.

window-roman-shade

Bill was a little iffy on the valance, but agreed to hold judgement till they saw the real thing. I took the inspiration photo’s and made the color board that is at the top of the post and suggested that the next step was to order the valance and see it it was right. She did get swatches from the local pottery barn, but with the size of the print, it was too hard to tell if it would work.

Tomorrow, I’ll let you know if it matched and the next steps they’ll take!