kitchens Archives

A Kitchen Table

One of the things that came up, when we found our new apartment, was the fact that there was room for a kitchen table. I liked that idea, but didn’t really think that much about it. As we set things up, though, there was an obvious space in the kitchen–in front of my cookbook shelf–that needed to be filled. Last week, I pressed Craig on the subject and showed him a wide variety of options. On Twitter, Charlotte Druckman and Oliver Strand mentioned the famous “Tulip Table” which was a little too expensive for us; but IKEA makes a decent copy called Docksta. We decided that would go well if we got some colorful chairs to go with it. We found those on Crate and Barrel’s website.

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My New Cookbook Shelf

Let’s pretend that I have a boyfriend (or partner or whatever it is you prefer I call him, you touchy readers you) named Craig and let’s pretend that Craig, one day last year, bought a designer bookshelf from H.D. Buttercup in Culver City. The bookshelf, in this story, was so heavy you couldn’t lift it and so important to Craig that it remained in our bedroom, virtually empty, for a year. We’d talk about the things we might put on it (“What about a vase?” “No, I hate vases,” Craig might reply) but never actually put anything on it except the one time I put a bunch of my favorite paperbacks on the top shelf and they looked incredibly feeble and minuscule in this giant bookcase. “You know,” I may have said, if this story were real, which–to be honest–it is, “what would look really good on it?” “What?” “Cookbooks.”

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Sneak Peek: Our New Kitchen

Hey, check out the kitchen above…I hope you like it because that’s our new kitchen! After a frantic search that lasted three weeks (ugh) my friend Nick e-mailed me a link to an apartment in Atwater Village on Wednesday morning. The funny thing about that is each morning I would wake up and the first thing I would type into Craigslist would be: “Atwater Village.” It’s absolutely my favorite neighborhood in L.A.: cozy, charming, scenic and home to both Proof Bakery and Canele, two of my favorite places here. Nothing worthwhile turned up and the few that did turn up I would make myself go see, only to be disappointed because the places–while well-situated–were really dirty/dusty/musky inside. Craig wasn’t having that.

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Sad Kitchens

I am in a spiral, a funk, a panic. Today is June 3rd and we’re moving out July 1st. Only, we don’t know where we’re moving yet because we haven’t found an apartment. Craig’s editing his movie so it’s my job to spend my days on Westside Rentals and Craigslist searching for a place that’s not only comparable to ours, but better. That, at least, is the plan. Only, as I click past apartment after apartment I feel myself growing more and more depressed…and it’s a depression brought on specifically by sad kitchens.

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How I Fixed The Lighting In My Kitchen

Last we talked about my L.A. kitchen, I’d mentioned how much I hated the overhead lighting. Fitted with a round, white fluorescent bulb that would be difficult to replace, the resulting light had all the charm of a middle school science lab or the waiting room of a hospital. I tried to time my cooking so there’d still be natural light coming through the windows; but once it got dark, the fluorescent bulbs came on and the room went from charming California kitchen to a scene from “Dexter.”

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Our New Kitchen

It happened, people. We found an L.A. apartment in a great location that’s clean, in a great neighborhood (Franklin Village, right beneath the Hollywood sign) and–most important to me–with a bright and sunny kitchen. I mean look at it. Wouldn’t you want to spend a lot of time in there cooking? We move in on September 1st.

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Collecting Vintage Menus to Hang in My Kitchen

I’m not sure how the idea came to me. How did it come to me?

Ok, I was in San Francisco, staying with my friends Kristen & Felix, and I had a bit of a cold (another illness! Proof that I’m dying?) While coughing and sneezing in their guest bedroom, I was noodling around on the internet and found myself on E-Bay. And while on E-Bay (a site I rarely visit) I had the sudden idea to search for vintage menus. And a new addiction was born….

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Kitchen Colors

We move to our new apartment a week from today (ahhh!!!), and this weekend my friend and new neighbor Rob and I are going to paint the new kitchen. The question: what color should we paint it!? Craig and I are leaning towards orange–check out this gallery of orange kitchens on Apartment Therapy–but I’m very curious to hear what you think. So what say you, readers: what color would you have your Amateur Gourmet paint his kitchen? The more specific, the better.

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