Friday, November 27, 2009

Derek's Kitchen

For some reason my house has been a hot topic of conversation lately, probably because I have been bragging about all these new free appliances my roommate got us. More on that later.

So I thought you might enjoy seeing the evolution of my kitchen. It all starts in January 2007 when I first went to look at the house. I promise you the kitchen was the least offensive room in the house, even with the sparkly gold cabinets and bland off-white appliances. Here is a photo of the kitchen and dining room with my home inspector standing in the middle of this mess:

The woman who owned the house was a huge fan of over decorating, as you can see here. Now maybe this is your style but it certainly isn't mine. And most of what I wanted to do with my mid-century Cape Cod was to return it to a more mid-century look. That is not what she was going for. Clearly, she craved "country kitchen." And how!

We swapped out the light fixtures, replaced the door pulls with something more period, and painted the kitchen. Mike came up with the idea of painting the back wall and the cabinet fronts blue and keeping the rest of the walls and cabinet sides a pale taupe through the kitchen and dining room since it has an open floor plan between the two rooms. Some listeners on my Facebook fan page think the kitchen is "too blue" but I promise you, even though it is a strong color, it is the accent color in the room.


Mike works for a production company that makes videos and they needed a kitchen to film a cooking show in, sponsored by Samsung. And the best part? Samsung would be supplying free appliances for the shoot and we could keep them after they were done. So, in the week before Thanksgiving, all new stainless steel appliances were installed. I bought a new dishwasher to match.


Now the kitchen makeover is complete. And to see it in action, you can check out the cooking show they filmed in my kitchen! As you will see in the video the blue is not too dominate at all and I think the kitchen looks amazing. But judge for yourself. It's short and it has some good ideas for remaking those Thanksgiving leftovers. Enjoy! And post your comments here!
Happy Thanksgiving!

7 comments:

  1. There's only one thing left to do...replace the sink and faucet. Then, the kitchen will look great!!!

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  2. I saw the pictures and watched the vides.. the kitchen looks great, Derek...and NO.. there's not too much blue..
    I don't keep a house anymore..part of my retirement plan..get rid of everything costing me money to keep, if i don't really need it..lol.. but i have to say, the kitchen is the only room I actually miss. I used to throw dinner parties for 25 or so often, and loved every minute of it, every time. .. now about that sink.. nice as it is..hehe..it has to go!!

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  3. The Nightbird of TucsonNovember 28, 2009 at 11:51 PM

    When you first moved into your house, it had that look, you know, like the woman had channeled the decorator spirit of my mother (and she's been dead nearly ten years). I'm not sure about the blue and white, but with the stainless steel those colours really pop.... plus, after watching the cooking video (which, the food, ew, not even vaguely interested in trying those.... the potato soup, maybe, possibly, but the crab cakes, oh, no, never!) (sorry, former chef here), I can see how your kitchen is very bright and nicely set up. Without doing one of those HGTV total make-over's, I think it looks pretty good, indeed.

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  4. I think the blue is overkill. It looks incredibly gawdy. It's clear you and Mike have no taste in color. The before colors look better than the blue, IMHO. The wall would've been ok in blue but not the cabinets.
    The appliances on the other hand... A+!!

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  5. How do you cook with so little counter space? Gross. And yes, that is WAY too much blue. Look, I know you're an A-gay who loves Fire Island but your little home is not looking out over open water. It. Is. Way. Too. Blue.

    You'll be changing that in a year.

    I know you wear blue shirts to bring out your eyes but do you pick up guys in that closet, umm, err...kitchen.

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  6. Poor ladies! having to suffer the wrath of winter's biting cold! I am sure they were thinking, "My God, why the FUCK are we eating outside here? Is it because Derek has no decent table?" (I know...Samsung doesn't make tables...)

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  7. Brian is crazy! First of all, I hate Fire Island. B, the kitchen has already been like this for a year and we have no plans to change it. Three, it is a traditional Cape Cod with traditional colors and a traditional shotgun kitchen. I don't know what you expected in a 50 year old house.

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