Hello everyone, happy Monday, hope you had a great weekend!  The hub and I spent our weekend in San Francisco, and apparently everyone else in the world did too. Oh my word the traffic! It was Fleet Week and the Niners were playing at home, but we had great seats at Candlestick and oooooooohhhh yeah, we kicked some boo-tay!  So sorry to you Buc fans, but the Niners played at their very best yesterday. 48-3.  ‘Nuff said.

The game was awesome and we had such a great time watching in the autumn sunshine, I needed that!  Fall is simply incomplete without great football. 

So I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about things I may or may not have mentioned around here, and I thought I should offer a few As to some frequent Qs so here goes!

Q: I was wondering what color you used to paint your white kitchen cabinets. ~ Jenny

A:  Hi Jenny, I didn’t paint the white cabinets in my kitchen, the cabinets arrived in that finish from the manufacturer (Kemper) in more of a cream color called ‘Toasted Almond’.  However, I did paint my kitchen island last year.  A recent match of the creamy white cabinets reveals that the two closest color matches are "Floral White" by Benjamin Moore and "Ivory Dust" by Valspar.

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I think I’m most happy with a paintbrush in my hand.  Painting furniture relaxes me, it’s my strange form of therapy, and I do my best thinking when I’m fixing up something old and turning it into something new.  I get a range of comments when I post about a refurbished piece and they cover the spectrum.  Mostly it’s these kind: “Thank goodness you painted that ugly old thing!”  or “Wow, I love that makeover!  Way to bring that piece into this century and give it new life!”  I love those. 

Then I’ll get one of these from time to time. “Oh my goodness, you girls and your paint cans, you’re going to be stripping off all that paint in five years!”.  If you’ve ever read the comments on Apartment Therapy anytime someone paints a piece of furniture, the wood purists come out of the woodwork (pun intended) and proclaim ruination.  It raises a controversial question, when should you or shouldn’t you paint your {insert old piece here}. 

My answer is always, “It just depends on the piece".  How’s that for vague?  OK, well how about this generality.  For me, anything that is mass produced is fair game, especially if it has laminate or veneers.  Solid wood unique pieces, especially if they are true antiques are where I hesitate.  Unless the wood is damaged, then wood putty plus paint always works in my book.      

Recently, I received and email from Kathryn, she sent me a picture of her dining room set, and asked how could she freshen it up.  Should she paint the chairs, the table, or both? 

My advice?  Pull an Eddie and paint those shield back chairs.  Then restain the table.

Painting the chairs and reupholstering the seats in a modern fabric would go a long way to freshening this set. 

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Melanie from Washington recently wrote this to me:

“Hey Kate, I read that when you remodeled your house a few years ago, that you designed and built your kitchen.  We’re in the beginning stages of gutting our very dated kitchen and we’re starting over from scratch!  We’re so excited!!  My question for you is, were there any pitfalls you ran into?  Anything you learned along the way you’d be willing to share?  What should we know about building a kitchen starting from four bare walls?  Help!”

Great question Melanie!  Me and my Mister built our kitchen over five years ago, so to answer Melanie’s question, I had to dig through the archives and pull out all my files to refresh my recollection of the process of building our kitchen from scratch.  It resulted in a mild rash and minor heart palpitations, but I’ve since recovered.  

No, I’m kidding.  I absolutely love kitchen design, and loved the entire process of choosing all the details of the one in our own home.  I’m one of those people that if I overheard at the grocery store you were building a new kitchen, I’d butt my ponytail right into the conversation and want to chat all about appliances, countertops and the exact style of door front you’re choosing for your cabinets.  “Really?  Oh, fabulous!” 

Building a kitchen from scratch is an enormous task.  Unlike throwing the latest most popular shade of paint on your walls, a kitchen must be a space that can stand the test of time.  My kitchen suits the style of my home, and also my own personal tastes as well.  While there are a few things I wish I’d done differently, for the most part, I really love the floor plan and finishes we continue to live with every day.  

Ten Lessons I Learned from Building Our Kitchen

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Greetings!  I hope you all had a good weekend.  We had a great party despite the huge storm that is pounding California, and a splendid time was had by all.  Today I thought I’d address a question I keep getting via email and in comments:  “How do I take better, brighter photos for my blog?”  I do not consider myself an expert in photography by any means so I wonder sometimes why that question is even directed at me.  However, I have taught myself a few tricks for achieving higher quality images in the past year, and every now and then I take a pretty good shot.

The most important thing I have learned to make for a better brighter photo has everything to do with light.  And a good camera.  When taking photographs, either for your personal use or for your blog, good natural light and a kick booty camera are your two very best friends. 

Most photographs taken outside on a sunny day with a point-and-shoot turn out pretty well, all because of the natural light present.  Yet with interior shots, it’s tough to be as blessed with natural light unless you’re shooting a room with walls of windows on a sunny day.   When shooting pictures indoors in less than ideal conditions, here are a five tips I shoot by.   

My Five Tips for Better Brighter Blog Photos

1) Use a Good Camera

I think it’s essential to invest in a good SLR digital camera with variable settings (F-stop, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, white balance, etc.) if you want to have high quality interior photos.  I know there are a lot of comparatively inexpensive point and shoot digital cameras out there, and they are perfectly fine for so many everyday uses, but for high quality blog photography, invest in a good camera.  I use my Nikon D60 that allows for changeable lenses, and I use two kinds of lenses that I mention in my FAQ page. 

2)  Know Your Manual 

When my hub bought me my Nikon D60 three years ago, I always used the auto setting just because it was so darn easy and I was, at first, intimidated by the manual settings.  80% of the time, the ‘Auto’ setting worked fine and produced adequate images. 

However, the ability to manipulate your camera’s light settings makes all the difference in the world in less than perfect light conditions, and when shooting interiors or detail shots.  Here is just one half of one page in my Nikon’s manual but look how much information can be gathered from this quick camera tour.   

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We all know how the perfect chandelier can add just the right finishing touch to a space.   Great light fixtures do more than simply illuminate – they make a design statement too.   Recently a reader asked this question: 

“I was wondering about your fantastic office redo.   Are you ceilings regular height?  8 feet I think is standard.  I would love to hang a chandelier in my office, but am afraid that the ceiling is too low.  Do you have that problem?  Any help would be appreciated!  ~ Emily N.”

Great question Emily!  When it comes to hanging a light fixture in a main traffic area in a room (and not over a dining table) lighting designers and interior decorators typically follow two rules of thumb. 

1)  Measure the height of the room and allow 2.5 to 3 inches for each foot of height.  According to this formula, if your room has an 8 foot tall ceiling, you would multiply 8 x 2.5 inches and 8 x 3 inches, to arrive at a light fixture that is between 20 to 24 inches in height (but see comments below).

2)  A chandelier also needs to be proportionate to the room size.   Add the width and length of the room together in feet and convert that figure to inches to come up with the correct width of the chandelier.  For example, in my office, the room measures 10 feet by 13 feet.  You add 10 + 13 together to get 23 inches in diameter.   

In my office, my ceiling is nine feet high, so according to the formula, my chandelier can drop up to 27 inches.

This Ballard Designs Montserrat chandy measures 23” wide by 26” in height.   You can’t see in this picture, but with the chain, it actually hangs down 28 inches. 

I fudged and went an inch outside the guidelines – but I love the added drama, plus it’s still 6 feet, 8 inches off the floor which is clearance for all the tall people I know and also the height of a standard door frame.     

Taking these rules of thumb into consideration, you also want to consider the path of traffic through a space, and whether tall individuals may bump their head on your fixture.  

You can always hang or swag a statement chandelier a bit lower over a bed, desk, table, sitting area, workspace, fireplace, or focal point outside the path of travel.  Take a peek at this bedroom inspiration picture and note how low the chandelier is hanging, far below the height of the door frame. 

Over a bed, where no one will walk, you can get away with dropping a chandelier a little lower like this for added drama. 

(Note: rules are different when it comes to fixtures over bathtubs, so check with your local ordinances.)

When you’re hanging a fixture over a dining table, the rule of thumb is to choose a chandelier with a diameter equal to 1/2 the width of the table, and suspend the chandelier 30 to 34 inches above the tabletop. 

But back to high traffic areas in open living spaces.  Personally, I would not hang a fixture any lower than 6’8” from the from the floor (the same height as a standard door) to prevent taller people from bumping their head.   If I had an eight foot ceiling like yours Emily, and I was hanging a fixture above where people will walk, I would opt for something closer to a flush or semi-flush ceiling fixture, and measuring no more than 16 inches in height.  

However, if you have your heart set on a larger fixture (closer to the 20 to 24 inch rule of thumb), I would swag it over your desk to illuminate your workspace, and to prevent visitors from bumping their head on your fixture.   But you can certainly capture the uber glamorous feel of a drop chandelier with a semi-flush mount fixture with choices like these:

1.  Vintage jewel ceiling light;  2. Lumens flush mount chandelier; 3. Downtown three light semi flush;  4.  Three ceiling light with chocolate shade;  5.  Crystal three light ceiling mount;  6.  Anastasia ceiling mount   7.  Kingston crystal ceiling mount; 8.  Antique white semi flush fixture

Don’t forget, when you have lower ceilings, you can always make a decorative statement with lighting with dramatic sconces on your walls, and with beautiful floor or table lamps. 

I hope this helps you Emily with your design inquiry ! 

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