It’s true that most of us have stone countertops that can withstand heat, but I think (preferably) modern trivets still have a place in the kitchen.
Not long ago I put a Pyrex baking dish straight from the oven onto our granite countertop. It was wet. The entire dish, salmon included, exploded. Seriously. Exploded.
Many kitchens, including mine, mix countertops, using a different material for the island than for the rest of the workspaces. The ship-like cherry wood countertops on either side of our stove are scorched from the tea kettle. (Not my doing.) I leave a cork trivet nearby now.
And unless you have have a marble-topped Saarinen tulip table you don’t want to be putting hot dishes on your dining table.
Almost a year ago we repainted our family room in Benjamin Moore Steel Wool, which I detailed in a Family Room Makeover post. We hung different artwork as planned, but I never got around to choosing a new rug. Now that our older son, who likes to use the floor as a picnic blanket, is in boarding school, I feel a little more comfortable splurging on a new rug.
It should be an almost solid color rug, but not quite. It should have some variegated color, but not actual texture. The rug we have now is chunky and loopy, and I imagine the crumbs embedded in it could feed a family of four for a month. (Yeah, we’re gross.)
The room is a narrow rectangle with a slightly odd extension off one side and a bay window on the other. I’ve often thought about having a rug custom cut, but not sure if I can bear the expense. Here are 20 almost solid color, not quite patterned but not completely plain rugs.
S H O P P I N G
Shop StyleCarrot partners and other retailers for subtly patterned solid rugs.
Marble is everywhere. It’s leaped out of bathrooms and kitchens onto living room furniture. Marble top coffee tables and marble top side tables are available in so many styles and materials— brass bases with black marble tops, reclaimed wood bases with white marble, blackened iron bases with green marble.
All these marble top coffee tables make me wish I were in the market for one myself, but we’ll be sticking with our vintage Heywood Wakefield lazy susan coffee table that we inherited from my husband’s grandparents.
A million years ago, we offloaded our television in the living room, leaving an extra roomy could-be bar cabinet free and clear. It soon became a convenient space, given its boxy shape, to store art we weren’t displaying, extra picture frames, and overflow throw pillows. A television has since taken up residence again with a new DVD player, specifically for me to watch movies (since I don’t know how to work the main TV with its fifty-buttoned five remotes), or currently, Friday Night Lights (OMG, Tim Riggins).
I had the best intentions; I imagined transforming the newly vacant slot, complete with pull-out shelf, into a stylish home bar cabinet for my husband. I thought about it a lot, knowing it would make a much appreciated birthday gift. But no follow through from me. Instead, liquor bottles remain relegated to the upper cabinet of the pantry, with some of the more attractive specimens on display atop the would-be bar cabinet in a teal lacquer bar tray, provided by the lovely ladies at an agency for Absolut. (You can see my bar tray styling post here.)
So, woe is my husband’s home bar situation. Jon Draper he shall never be. But if you have room in your living room, you could set up a stylish home bar in one of these 25 bar cabinets chosen from a dozen of my favorite sources for modern and classic furnishings, including some partner sites. Imagine tucking one of these bar cabinets into an unused corner, complete with a shiny cocktail shaker, sleek drinkware, and stripey paper straws.
S H O P P I N G
Shop StyleCarrot partners & others for bar cabinets.
We have a modern grey sofa in the family room, and although it may not be as fashion forward as I’d like, it’s got clean lines, durable fabric, and big comfy cushions. It’s so long all four of us can watch television on it. We actually kind of built the room around it, insisting to our designer that the door to the study be extra narrow. (He wasn’t happy but obliged.)
Since everyone still seems to want to buy a grey sofa, here are 60 modern grey sofas you can shop for at 27 different stores (some StyleCarrot partners), from minimalist modern styles to more classic tufted chesterfield sofas, with a few gray sleeper sofas thrown in. Price points vary, with ten styles under $1000 and many falling in the mid-range.
1 Carmichael Loft Sofa by Gus*Modern, $1,999 at 2Modern.
2 Jacksonville Convertible Sofa II by Gold Sparrow, $360.99 at AllModern.
3 Sterling Sofa by BD Fine, $1,985 at Burke Decor.
