Three reader questions for a Monday morning
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Help! My husband and I are planning to finish up our kitchen with all new appliances and by fixing our old cabinets at some point after the new year. Ideally we want to replace the cabinets rather than just fix them, however we want to keep the granite counters we had installed a few years ago. Is it possible to replace cabinets and keep our existing granite counters?I hate to be the bearer of bad news but here goes. No.
Except for cases that are very few and very some distance among, a granite counter can't be reused. The act of putting off them incorporates with it the very real chance that the counter will crack or destroy all collectively. Granite's a very difficult material, however it's also very brittle. I must be supported completely whilst it is in a horizontal role. That's why it's usually transported vertically. Sliding a counter off of the cabinetry where its's resting will depart it very prone to being held in an unsupported, horizontal position.
Adding a layer of complication and chance to all of that is granite's sheer weight. 3cm slab granite weighs between 18 and 20 pounds consistent with rectangular foot, relying on the density of the stone you have got. So if you have a counter it's eight ft long and 25 inches deep, that unmarried counter will weigh around 330 kilos. Manipulating a huge object that weighs that much will take a crew of people. Dropping it's going to break whatever it lands on, be that a ground or the ft of the people wearing the stone. If it breaks whilst it is being carried, doubtlessly catastrophic damage and damage anticipate. Do not try this on your own. Please.
Since it's not a DIY project, one would think that a stone yard would take on a project like that. Don't hold your breath. You'll be amazed at the cost if you look into it. A team of stone workers' labor costs that aren't folded into the cost of an installed counter can be pretty steep and that's if you can find a company willing to take on the liability of moving a previously installed counter.
Barring a few miracle, you will become announcing goodbye to those counters unless you are inclined to do a cosmetic do-over at the shelves you have got already.
Since you asked me this question I'm going to tell you what I think is a better plan. For 2012, have you and your husband set a goal to save between $25 and $30,000 so that you can renovate your kitchen correctly and without having to resort to Band-Aid solutions. Once you have that goal set, make an appointment with a local, independent kitchen designer. If you need a referral, I will find someone for you. In that appointment, tell the designer your budget and talk about the items on your with list for your new kitchen. Explain too the time frame you have in mind.
If you have a rapport constructing, brilliant. Any designer I'd send you to is there to help you get as a good deal on your cash as it's feasible to get. It's his or her activity to do the maths, discern the whole lot out that wishes to be addressed and to make certain that the whole lot no longer only seems incredible, but that it really works too. You'll spend much less money with a good designer at the helm than you'll in your personal, as paradoxical as that sounds. Good good fortune!
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Help! Do you have got any idea a way to refinish brass cupboard hardware? The knobs in my kitchen are legion and I'm in no hurry to shop for new ones. I just replaced my tap with a brand new one which has a brushed nickel finish. I absolutely like how that looks and I'm wondering if there may be a manner to exchange the finish on my knobs to brushed nickel. Is there a product available that can help?No there isn't, sorry to tell you that. While it's true that there are metallic spray paints out there, they cannot accurately recreate the appearance of something like brushed nickel.
Spray portray cupboard knobs is a extraordinarily huge mission because all of these knobs have to be eliminated from the doors and drawer fronts, connected to something like a bit of cardboard and then sprayed lightly. Spray portray isn't as easy because it looks below normal circumstances and in the case of kitchen cabinet hardware, the present finish will will working time beyond regulation to prevent you from portray it.
Metal knobs and pulls (and faucets and pretty much the whole lot that gets installed in a kitchen) have a stain-resistant clean coat implemented to them even as they're being manufactured. This clean coat locks in a manufacturing facility end and makes cleaning up spills a whole lot easier. It makes including a new finish over top of that clear coat nearly impossible at the equal time.
While it is genuine that you can do away with that clear coat with a solvent, you may probable turn out to be damaging the metallic under as you rub off the clear coat.
A much better use of your time and resources is to bite the bullet and replace everything. Lee Valley Hardware sells a plain, brushed nickel knob from their Atherly collection for $2.80 and if you buy ten or more, the unit cost drops to $2.40.
Start saving up your shekels and save yourself a whole lot of heartache and replace your brass knobs.
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| Andrew Coppa, Vis Vitae/ In Touch Weekly |
I get it that during sure areas of the united states like Florida and California there may be a ancient and cultural link to Spain, so the architectural background of that united states of america informs the aesthetics of these parts of the USA. But within the northeast, kitchen designers are nonetheless pushing miles of tile, corbels, distressing and glazing in an attempt to recreate their idea of Tuscany. I assume subject matter rooms belong at Disney resorts or Graceland. Any thoughts?Oh you bet I have some thoughts. You hit a nerve. But before I get to that, let's have some geography first. While it's true that Florida and California were once Spanish territories, so was the rest of North America. However, it was only in the southern areas of what's now the US that the Spanish actually did any kind of development. Surviving Spanish structures in California were primarily missions and the surviving Spanish structures in Florida were forts and a handful of homes. Oh, the wild pigs that wreak havoc in our great state are their legacy too.
Furthermore, Tuscany is a place in northern Italy. Tuscany, even as lovable, is a very unique area than Spain is and the Italians in no way performed a function in the colonization of North America.
What passes for Tuscan design in the United States is a uniquely US creation and yet another embarrassing example of trying to prove one's cultural awareness through excess. The nightmare in the photo above has nothing to do with Tuscany or anywhere near the Mediterranean. It is however a testament to the striving ambition of the nouveau riche vulgarian standing in the middle of it.
Here's a kitchen in a domestic for sale in Gandia, a coastal metropolis 70km south of Valencia in Spain.
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The hole on the left facet is wherein a showering gadget will cross and the hollow at the proper facet is where a dishwasher will pass. Notice the oven and the cooktop. They're the metric equivalent of 24" wide. Note absolutely the lack of "Mediterranean" details. By Spanish standards, that is a large kitchen and by way of Italian standards, it's giant.
Here's a kitchen from a villa in Montagnana, 20 minutes outdoor of Florence, the capital of Tuscany. That makes this a actual, Tuscan kitchen.
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Where are the corbels? Where are the multi-step glazes, the dried flowers, the tapestries and the vast appliances? I'll inform you where they're. They are in every cul de sac subdivision in the United States.
I've stated it here greater instances than I can be counted, a home is not any region for themed decor. Architecture need to look the time whilst it was built and it ought to reflect the area wherein it sits.
There is not any way someone on foot across the streets of Florence or Valencia could conceive a kitchen along with the fist one show at the top of this query after which call it Tuscan or Mediterranean. A kitchen which include that is the made from a few sort of warped nostalgia, too many weekends in Las Vegas and too many dinners at the Olive Garden.
But all of that extra is high priced and I believe very truely that it is the rate of that stuff that drives peoples' requesting it and architects' willingness to offer it to them.
So there you have got it. My thoughts.