Kelly’s Kitchen Sync by Kelly Morisseau
Several years ago I decided to give my kitchen a facelift and set about: pulling magazine pages for inspiration; visiting kitchen and bath showrooms to talk to designers about cabinets, counters and plumbing fixtures; reading how-to do kitchen remodel books from cover to cover; and walking the appliance aisles at the big box stores all with the intention of creating my dream kitchen on my own. How hard could it be? I loved DIY and design, and had been decorating the homes of others for quite a few years so I didn’t give it a second thought. I would undertake the kitchen facelift project on my own.
A few months into my project my enthusiasm waned as I learned that kitchen design is a whole different beast. I got through the project but I suffered needlessly. One of my biggest frustrations was the day the refrigerator was delivered. I had worked closely with the appliance store to make sure the refrigerator would fit perfectly in the niche left behind by the late 80s era refrigerator the previous owner had installed. I measured, measured, measured, so imagine my surprise when this expensive refrigerator refused to fit where it was supposed to based on the wall, cabinet and counter measurements and the appliance specifications. My frustration turned to absolute dread when the delivery guys said to me, after trying to shimmy the refrigerator for 30 minutes, “We have another delivery and as much as we want to help you out here, we can’t. Got to go.” They left me with a refrigerator which was slightly angled in place because the top cabinet jutted out less than 1/16th of an inch. Enough to prevent the refrigerator from sliding in snuggly right under it – and the problem wasn’t with the cabinet and counter measurements; no, the refrigerator specs on paper were off by a bit coupled with a less than level floor and a slightly less than square wall-all of which led to the fitting problem. The nightmare scenario then ensued. I had to go to my husband and ask him for help. After some discussion we agreed that we’d keep the refrigerator. I really wanted it and didn’t want to send it back. So we removed the upper cabinets forsaking valuable storage space in the process.
How I wish I had my friend Kelly Morrisseau’s handy guidebook “Kelly’s Kitchen Sync: Insider kitchen design and remodeling tips from an award-winning kitchen expert.” back then. Kelly is a second-generation kitchen designer who lives and breathes kitchen design and remodeling. It’s her passion; one that she has generously shared with readers of her blog, Kitchen Sync. She gleefully answers questions on all things kitchen design with a perfect balance of charming wit, and top notch expertise. Her newly released book expands on the topic of kitchen remodeling and design and offers up loads of tips, advice and recommendations delivered in a warm and conversational tone – just like having Kelly right alongside you!
I adore Kelly’s take on writing this book, as she shares not only the tips from her successful projects, but she opens up and shares about several design challenges she encountered and how she approached the problems and delivered to the homeowner the kitchen of their dreams. In the following passage, Kelly details a design challenge: fitting a refrigerator into an angled corner:
Refrigerators are deeper than all other appliances, up to a maximum of 34” deep with handle. Even the “built-in” refrigerators still protrude further than 24” deep once we allow for the electrical plug and counters and side panels. How the doors swing also determine whether they’ll pinch against a corner.
The last refrigerator I placed next to a lazy susan, I allowed 15” of swing space to the adjacent counter. The design was hindered by the kitchen door to the garage, which wouldn’t allow us any more movement away from the corner. So I designed with the understanding that according to the appliance specifications, 14” of clearance width to the corner was sufficient.
Except it wasn’t and the specifications were incomplete. Any time the door swung wider than 135 degrees, it hit against the counter and eventually had to be redesigned.
When you design the refrigerator next to the corner, ask how wide you will be swinging the door open before you make your final decision…and allow more than what the specifications say.
Kelly also goes beyond offering her design expertise in this book. She discusses some of the leading appliance and cabinetry trends in the kitchen design industry which I think makes this book even that much more useful to homeowners. For example she shares why she thinks Induction cooking ranges will overtake gas ranges over the next few years. Those little industry insights peppered throughout the book will give homeowners the additional information that they won’t necessarily find at the design showrooms or big box appliance or cabinetry stores where they only show you what’s available now. Which is fine if your project is a near-term endeavor and/or you don’t necessarily care about technological or design innovations. But if your project is slated for a few years out, and you do want to buy the most technologically advanced designs, then it’s imperative that you know where the kitchen design industry (appliances, cabinetry, surfaces, etc) is headed.
“Kelly’s Kitchen Sync” is a wonderful guide book that covers kitchen remodeling from inspiration to designing to purchasing to completion while offering homeowners fantastic and insightful tips to help them avoid many of the pitfalls often associated with remodeling.
Where to buy:
Kelly’s Kitchen Sync on Amazon
Contact:
Read More »3 Design & Entertaining Books for the Book Lover on Your Holiday Gift List
Stealing Magnolias: Tales from a New Orleans Courtyard (Our book review)
Four Florida Moderns: The Architecture of Albert E. Alfonso, René González, Chad Oppenheim, and Guy Peterson (Our book review)
New York Parties: Private Views ( Our book review will be out soon, but in the meantime we wanted to make sure you put this fabulous book on your gift list! )
Read More »Discover the Beauty, Spirit and Joy of New Orleans with Debra Shriver’s Stealing Magnolias: Tales from a New Orleans Courtyard
One of the few cities that I can still vividly recall from my travels as a young girl is New Orleans. The memories aren’t of the distinct architecture associated with New Orleans, yes, I can close my eyes and recall images of the bustling and energy-filled French Quarter, but rather with the mysterious beauty and spirit that embodies all that is New Orleans. It’s no one single thing that makes New Orleans a magical city that enchants and casts a heady love-spell on those who visit; it’s a combination of her people, diverse cultures and religions, history, location, design, arts and music, fusion of worldly cuisines, the dichotomy between the old and the new, and her strong ties to charming southern-infused entertaining and protocol. Author Debra Shriver, captures that multi-faceted enchantment of New Orleans in her new book, Stealing Magnolias: Tales from a New Orleans Courtyard, which she affectionately calls “part love letter, part scrap book”
In “Stealing Magnolias”, Debra takes us on a post-Katrina tour of New Orleans, in a fashion that can only be recounted by one who deeply loves the city. She shares her love story with the city, from the initial courtship which entailed short trips to New Orleans from her home in New York City to the moment when she and her husband committed to New Orleans with the contract signing for their dream home in the French District, just weeks before hurricane Katrina. Post-Katrina many were fleeing New Orleans, but Debra and her husband made the decision to stick it out, and they continued with the home purchase.
Photo of Debra’s renovated and beautifully decorated French District home.
Her guided, very personal tour of New Orleans takes shape as she embarks on the journey to renovate and decorate her French District home to its original state of elegance, glamour and joy-filled beauty. She journals her many experiences with setting up house and living in New Orleans, and along the way she shares, in a very intimate fashion – as if she’s one of your closest, dearest friends and is giving you a private tour of the magical city (and her home and gardens): all of her favorite places to shop; exciting and exotic things to do (yes, there is even a captivating story where she whispers the details of her foray into voodoo); recipes passed on from generation to generation of New Orleanians; fragrant glimpses into her courtyard garden; decorating adventures, the best restaurants to feast upon tasty epicurean delights; crazy, and colorful street parades; and entertaining fetes where formal gowns and white tie attire are de rigueur.
Stealing Magnolias, is more than an inspiring decorating book filled with beautiful photos of Parisian and New Orleans influenced design, and lush gardens. Nor is it a city tour guide you stick in your tote bag as you walk the jazz-filled streets of the city, but rather, it’s more akin to the southern tradition of being invited to a private home tour followed by tea or lemonade on the porch where the gracious hostess shares fabulous local gossip, and her favorite destinations and haunts of her beloved city with her visiting guests. It’s an enchanting book for an enchanting city.
Read More »Four Florida Moderns : Book Review
Four Florida Moderns, the recently released architecture book from design expert and author Saxon Henry, is so much more than a sexy addition to your design library. Saxon goes beyond offering the reader gorgeous photos of architectural design projects – she takes the architectural and design enthusiast on an experiential visual and written tour of a thoughtfully curated review of architectural projects designed by four of Florida’s new masters of modern architecture: Alberto Alfonso, Rene Gonzalez, Chad Oppenheim and Guy Peterson.
Four Florida Moderns offers the reader rich analysis of each architect’s design and style tendencies in the form of essays provided by luminaries of the architecture and design world: Charles Gwathmey, Richard Meier, Terence Riley, and Warren R. Schwartz who in some fashion or another influenced each of the architects. These beautifully written essays add a level of contextual understanding to the works of the four architects that pictures alone simply can not convey.
Saxon’s conversations with each of the four architects gives the reader an intimate glimpse into the varied processes: thought, inspiration and design that comprise the design journey for each of the architects. Feeling as though we are sitting next to Saxon and across from the inspirational architect, Alberto Alfonso we learn that he resists the urge “to jump right into the design process” – rather Alberto espouses the lessons he learned as a young man as the result of a visit to Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp.
“As student, I made a pilgrimage to Le Corbusier’s Ronchamp, where I found a tiny book containing his texts about and sketches of Ronchamp. One passage always resonates with me when I begin a project. He wrote that when a job is handed to him, he tucked it away in his memory, not even making sketches for months on end. He felt that the human head was made to have a certain independence—actually called it a box into which you can toss the elements of a problem and leave them to float and ferment.
Suddenly there would come a spontaneous movement from within: a catch is sprung and that’s the time to take pencil or a drawing charcoal or some colored pencils and give birth on a sheet of paper.” (As told by Alberto Alfonso to Saxon Henry in Four Florida Moderns) “
This book introduces the reader to the concept of regional modern architecture that may be considered at odds with the conceived characteristics or tendencies associated with “Modern” architecture – a style that at times can be perceived as sterile, soulless, and cold. One look at Chad Oppenheim’s “Villa Allegra”, Rene Gonzalez’s “Indian Creek House”, Guy Peterson’s “The Revere Quality House”, and Alberto Alfonso’s “Lake House I” illustrate the ability to create a dwelling that is at once unique in its design and in harmony with the natural beauty of its surroundings. Each of these design projects exude a sense of inviting warmth, and create a soothing sensory experience filled with light and open space.
Though each of the four architects profiled in the book have their very own distinctive styles, the one thing that they all evidently have in common is the ability to create inspirational architectural projects that have a soul and that brings joy to those lucky enough to work or live in any of the properties they’ve designed.
The “Four Florida Moderns” is so much more than a book about architecture. It’s a book that gently peels back the complexity of design and shares with the reader the intimate thought processes and inspirations that drive the four Florida architects. I highly recommend this book to architecture and design students, enthusiasts, and to all who are seeking a fountain of inspiration – because this book is as much about inspiration as it is about architecture.
Available at fine book stores and online at Amazon.com.
PHOTO CREDITS
Photos for “Four Florida Moderns” curated by Saxon Henry and artist, Alejandro Vigilante.
Headshots
- Alberto Alfonso: Al Hurley
- Rene Gonzalez: Marcelo Aniello
- Chad Oppenheim: Rodrigo Londono
- Guy Peterson: Barbara Banks
- Saxon Henry: Alejandro Vigilante
Architecture
- Nielsen Media Research project by Alberto Alfonso : Al Hurley
- The Revere Quality Home project by Guy Peterson : Steven Brooke Studio
- Villa Allegra project by Chad Oppenheim : Ken Hayden
- Indian Creek House project by Rene Gonzalez : Curtis Woodhouse
Four Florida Moderns Book Tour & Signing Events
- April 15th 2010 at 8PM : Books & Books in Coral Gables,Florida— BOOK SIGNING
- April 29th 2010 at 1:30PM: Orange County Convention Center, Orlando for COVERINGS show–PANEL DISCUSSION and BOOK SIGNING
For more scheduled dates please visit Saxon’s website: Saxon Henry
Design Sites of Interest Edited/Written by Saxon Henry
Read More »The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era
If money were no object and anything is possible, what would your ideal modern art collection look like? This question is posed and answered by authors and art consultants, Franck Giraud and Philippe Ségalot, in their book “The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era” – a compilation of their ideal modern art collection.
In a chronologically detailed manner starting in 1901 highlighting Pablo Picasso’s self-portrait “Yo” and spanning the decades through to 2000 (ending the collection with an untitled work of Rudolf Stingel), Giraud and Ségalot share their one hundred ideal masterpieces of twentieth-century art. Joachim Pissarro, great grandson of Camille Pissarro writes in the introduction, “…by selecting these works, Giraud and Ségalot have selected one hundred of the most indelible moments in the tumultuous years of modernity between 1901 and 2000.” However, there is little objective justification or defense of the authors’ selections (why these and not other works?), but as is the case with artwork, justification of its “covet-worthiness” can be purely subjective – and in many cases driven by what that piece will bring at auction.
Marc Chagall’s, “Birthday”, one of the works on my dream “Impossible Collection” list.
Though I may not agree with some of the authors’ selections of what constitutes the “most coveted” modern artwork representative of the twentieth-century, I do acknowledge that art and its collection is subjective, and this book offers modern art lovers some beautiful examples of twentieth-century art. And more importantly “The Impossible Collection” inspires the reader to dream about what modern artworks would populate their “Impossible Collection” list. And in the end that is what the authors most desire, “ Our one hundred masterpieces will not necessarily be your one hundred masterpieces, but nothing would give us greater satisfaction than to know this book inspired you to assemble an Impossible Collection of your own.”
“The Impossible Collection: The 100 Most Coveted Artworks of the Modern Era” soft-cover edition is published by Assouline and available at fine book stores and online at Barnes and Noble.com.
Book cover image courtesy of Assouline. Page image from “The Impossible Collection”.
Read More »House Beautiful “The Home Book” Book Review
House Beautiful’s “The Home Book” is a gorgeous, educational and inspirational decorating guide-book filled with over 460 pages of design advice and more than 500 photos of rooms designed by top interior designers. “The Home Book” is the literary equivalent of having your very own on-call personal interior stylist available to answer your pressing design questions (How do I pick the right decor colors? or What patterns work together? – to name a few), and offers up fresh, decorating advice at the turn of a page.
“The Home Book” contains three sections:
Understand Your Home: Lays the foundation for understanding the importance of your home’s exterior location, architecture and space/floor plan. This section is critical as this is the foundation on which the ensuing layers of design shall rest. Learn how to highlight your home’s design assets and diminish its design liabilities with the sage advice of designers who’ve overcome design challenges hundreds of times over in their profession of creating beautiful, comfortable and livable interiors. One of the interior designers highlighted in this section is Shawn Henderson of Shawn Henderson Interior Design (New York). Mr. Henderson explains the importance of achieving balance “between the space and the decorative elements within it”, and offers insightful advice for how you can achieve it.
Elements of Design: Learn how to use the seven elements of Design: Ambiance, Color, Lighting, Fabric & Trimmings, Walls & Ceilings, Floors and Window Treatments to create your dream home interior. If the thought of introducing color into your home frightens you, the section on color which includes a very straight-forward color primer will assuage your color fears and prepare you to boldly introduce color to your home. I’ve learned over the years from my readers that choosing decor color is their number one design fear. Their number two decor terror? Patterns, and how to correctly use them. The fabric and trimmings section includes “Instant Room” illustrated guides to mixing and matching fabrics and patterns – I think this section alone will give a confidence boost to all who shudder when faced with the task of adding patterned decor to their rooms.
Design, Room by Room: Over 200 pages filled with beautiful photos of rooms (from bedrooms to bathrooms to kitchens to living rooms to home offices to kids rooms to outdoor living rooms) designed in all manners of styles and tastes provide a visual learning experience with an exciting dose of inspiration that will set the heart aflutter of any decorating diva worth her salt. On page 363 a home office designed by the immensely talented Celerie Kimble (one of my fave designers) illustrates the results of expertly bringing together varied design elements and smartly designing the room’s layout to accommodate for the flow of everyday living while working in a beautiful organized space.
Equally compelling design advice and tips show you how to get the look at home. Designer Ernest de la Torre explains his top ten rules for using and hanging wall art. Ellen Kennon shows you how to create a holistic sanctuary-style bedroom, a place you can retreat to from this increasingly maddening world of economic upheavals and geo-political strife. With over 45 pages dedicated to expert “how-to decorate a bedroom” advice, and the accompanying photos of bedrooms designed in a range of styles: Contemporary, French country, Neo-classic, Eclectic and so many others; you’re sure to find one that will inspire your future bedroom design.
