Realistic Home Inspiration

I've been having a bit of an adverse reaction to Pinterest lately.  Don't get me wrong, I am still totally obsessed with the visual bookmarking site and could/do spend hours happily pinning.  Most of the time I'm pinning outrageously beautiful home spaces - perfectly styled laundry rooms, bathrooms dripping with carrera marble and kitchens larger than most city apartments.

It all started with this kitchen image. Amazing?  Sure it is.  But seriously, who has not one but TWO ten foot islands in their kitchen?!?!

 
I love to ooooh and aaaaah over these rooms as much as anyone but it got me thinking -



Not every kitchen has room for an island and many people are struggling with renovating older homes to get that open floor plan look.  This is a classic example of how to do that.  There was very likely a wall separating this room from the dining room where the kitchen peninsula is. 

 

What a difference a great stove, a little bit of graphic tile and nice counters can make.  There's nothing special about those (dated) cabinets but I still love the way this small kitchen looks.

Beautiful slate floors ground the whole space but you don't need much of it to transform this small room.

I love what Lauren Liess did with her 70s style kitchen with just some paint.  The before and after is really inspiring and proves you don't need to spend a ton. 

I posted about the light in this next kitchen here but the entire room is worth reviewing. It's not huge but boy is it beautiful.  See the full transformation here.

I love my walk-in pantry but I am VERY aware that the majority of people don't have the luxury of so much space for food storage.  So I love seeing uber-organized reach-in pantries like this where every inch is being utilized to the max. 

 

Gorgeous laundry rooms are all over Pinterest but how many of you out there have to drag yourselves down to the basement to do laundry?  Not exactly inspiring right?  I love this next image precisely because it's so clear that it IS a basement yet it's still a bright, happy space.  

 

Sometimes you have to make unorthodox decisions in order to get convenience into your life.  Laundry in the kitchen?  How very European of you!  Sure, you'll have to give up some kitchen cabinet storage but I know lots of people who would prefer this over a basement laundry set up.  

This bathroom is doing double duty as a laundry room.  Hey why not...the plumbing is already there so if you have the space, make use of it!

I am obsessed with mudrooms.  OBSESSED.  Probably because we don't have one.  I would gladly give up a bedroom in our house if I could move that square footage downstairs for a mudroom.  But I can't so I'm always on the lookout for ways to create a mud "space" without an actual room.  Love these next images for that exact reason.  

A small mud nook.  I love that it looks real.  Hats, shoes, jackets...it's all out there and still looks cute.  Also note the oil drip pans tucked underneath for the shoes.  Brilliant to catch all that outside ick.

I am a firm believer that no matter how outrageous and over the top a room is, there's always something you can take from it and incorporate into your home.   It could be as large as the perfect light fixture or as small as how to creatively place accessories on a bookshelf.

But isn't it nice to see images of beautiful AND attainable spaces sometimes? A realistic image can inspire ACTION.  It can get you measuring and hammering instead of pinning and wishing.  And while I recognize that we all have different definitions of  "attainable" is, I think we can all agree that these rooms are at least more in the realm of possibility than a kitchen with two ten foot islands!

Trash can turned shoe cubby

I love this smart use of trash cans by designer Jennifer Ward of Modern Details NYC. The perfect use for some plastic Dollar Store trash bins.

via

Can it really be this simple folks? Turn seven trash bins on their side and drill them into the wall through the bottom...instant shoe cubbies! This idea was entered into the TimeOut NY Designer Challenge where Jennifer elaborated by saying you could also raise the entire unit up and use it as toy cubbies. Add some hooks to the bottom row and you could even hang jackets.

Mudrooms, "room" optional

For most people, having a mudroom is a nice-to-have option when looking for a home. I've decided that for me, it's a deal breaker. Our next house MUST have a mudroom...or at least a space for dumping things in a semi-organized fashion.

Perhaps it's my New England upbringing that makes me so keen on them. A Boston winter comes with many months of heavy coats, gloves, hats, and scarves not to mention lots of snow-filled shoe soles that promptly melt and leave messy, muddy puddles around the house. I didn't grow up with a mudroom and I can remember my mom laying old towels at the front door in an attempt to capture all that winter nastiness.

Twenty years later I'm living in the South where the rare snow fall is so exciting, one can forgive the mess for the day. But that doesn't mean we have any less "stuff" to drop when we walk in the door on every other day of the year! Purses, laptop bags, gym bags, backpacks and coats are all part of everyone's daily life. And without a mudroom, all these things just get dropped wherever there's room. For us, that means a combination of the coat closet off to our kitchen (from the garage which is our main point of entry to the house on most days)/the bench by our family room. It infuriates me that in a house this big and this new, a builder wouldn't make any accomodations for the modern family's daily needs. I'll save my rants about careless building practices for another day (don't get me started on my laundry room).

For now, I just want to dream of these pretty, organized utiliarian spaces. Mudrooms come in lots of shapes and sizes it seems. Some are actual rooms, some just a makeshift space at the home's entrance outfitted with hooks and a mud-catching boot tray. This is about the best I could do with our current set up. But the door to the garage leaves me with no room for shoe collection.

This same minimalistic approach gets stepped up a little with the addition of a bench. I love that the bench provides a place to put on/take off your shoes and storage. Also, I think the bead board is a must. In high gloss paint, it wipes down in a minute which you need for a space like this!

Other, more traditional options include a dedicated "walk thru" space that makes use of hooks and open storage cubbies. A hook for everyone and a cubby for everyone. Love this option but it can definitely get a bit cluttered and crazy looking right?

On the other end of the spectrum you have this completely closed storage mudroom. Who knows what kind of crazy mess lives behind those doors. But that's exactly the point! Tons of storage without any of the visual clutter.

I think for me, I like this nice middle ground - a combination of all 3 options really. Some closed storage for the less often used things in our lives, open storage for things you need to access all the time and some handy hooks for purses, dog leashes and coats.

What are your thoughts on a mud "room" space? We don't all have the luxury of a dedicated room for this space but have you created a catch-all entrance area in your home? Am I the only one bothered by the rogue laptop bag and running shoes?