Kitchen Chair Makeover {Overstock Tabouret Chairs Painted}

Last Fall, we brought home the Jackson dining table from World Market for our breakfast nook. I loved everything about it - the industrial metal base and the rustic wood top, and after pining after it for 6 months and cursing our budget for keeping me from impulse buys, it was mine. 
But the Tolix knock-off chairs - even on sale - added an additional $400+ to the purchase price. And Overstock sold very similar chairs in a set of 4 for $199. So I bought the Overstock chairs.
When they arrived, I was disenchanted with how the finish worked with the table. It was a very flat silver - more space age than vintage Tolix chair knock-off - and the silver stood out badly compared to the finish of the table base. When I ordered online, I thought they'd match perfectly because the World Market website shows a lighter finish on the chairs and table and the Overstock chairs look darker. Both were incorrect depictions of the products and the result was George Jetson inspired silver chairs with an industrial rustic table. I wanted to paint them immediately, but my mom convinced me to wait to see if the finish grew on me.  It didn't. See how the bright silver just doesn't jive?

So, I mentioned to my cousin Sarah (one of my favorite house-talk buddies) when she was over a few weeks ago that I wanted to paint them and she said, "Then let's do it!" So I did. I bought four cans of Rustoleum's Metallic Spray Paint in Black Night. I did a really light dusting of paint - two coats, allowing a little bit of the silver to show through for a more zinc oxidized/vintage finish - I was looking to soften the glaring space age finish and add dimension to the chairs - figuring I could always just coat them with more black if all else failed. 

I love the chairs immensely more now - they work so much better with the finish of the table and don't look like I took the cheap route. Even though at $199 for the set of four chairs and $20 worth of spray paint, I totally did.
Here's the view walking down the stairs now just so you can get the full effect:

You might also notice the banquette is gone - not gone gone, just moved for now. But that's a story for another day. Maybe next week, I'm making progress over here. And I've decided that what this barren breakfast nook needs is wainscoting. Don't hold your breath, though.
Thoughts? Definite improvement for the table the chairs are sitting at, right? 

Breakfast Nook with Banquette Seating

If you've been reading imperfect from the start, you know that I've flip flopped over Banquette Seating for, ohhh...3 1/2 years now. Then, last February we bit the bullet and started construction. Yes, that was almost a year ago.  After much debate, I finally came across a real estate blog that recommended a one wall banquette over a corner banquette for resale (due to difficulty that getting in and out of a corner booth creates) - I'd link to that blog if I still could find it, but interestingly enough, 2 years later, I no longer have a record of it. But back to the banquette - my main concern with this project was always resale - and a vent underneath the window in the nook. Not to mention that one window is fairly low and wouldn't be great to sit against. So the one wall approach helped to alleviate that venting issue that neither B nor I are handy enough to tackle ourselves, and also made me feel better about the long-term saleability of a banquette.  Still not convinced, though, I realized that we could have a built-in looking bench without actually building it in. Buh-bye resale hang-up, time to get started.  Here's what we were dealing with:

Just an empty corner nook. The size of the nook prevents a rug from being very practical (vents and doors would open into the size we need), and there was no softness (a white curtain that didn't photograph well). We needed fabric. We needed some color. We needed seating.

I consulted Ana-White.com's plans to see if she had anything that would fit the bill for a banquette - she had a few bench ideas, but nothing that was what I had in mind. And then I realized that I could modify the plans for the storage bed to make a bench. I did some rough calculations, handed them over to my resident engineer for "approval" (we all know I don't give two hoots about approval...I just needed my long division checked.) and we were off to Home Depot and Lowes for the parts.

6 months later...we had this.

Don't be alarmed, the cushion isn't staying long-term.

I don't love the cushion. It's temporary - I cheaped out and bought a thin piece of foam thinking that thickness didn't matter. Then I made a sloppy cushion out of clearance fabric because I wasn't sure what I should do for fabric. It will do for now while I'm saving my house money envelope to re-do it...which will cost more in the long-run. Don't cheap out is the moral of the cushion story.

I made square throw pillows from fabric projects around the house - I love bringing the whole house together with fabric. The geometric green is from my DIY Ottoman/coffee table in the adjoining living room, and the floral is the fabric I used for the kitchen curtains. I stole the grass green ticking from Caroline's fabric stash with some excuse like, "Your house is blue and yellow, this would look way better at my house". I'm an excellent daughter.

I'm on the hunt for the perfect (reasonably priced) locker baskets for the six cubbies, so for now this is all the decor that's happening. But when the baskets are here, I'll use them for paper plates, smaller appliances that I use less frequently, table linens, and the far end one for Casco's leash, harness and collar. But in the mean time, it's a less frequently used cookbook hang-out:

With the banquette complete, and our kitchen recently updated with painted cabinets, new Silestone countertops and a subway tile backsplash, I decided the rest of the nook needed an overhaul, too.

I stumbled across the Jackson Dining Table at World Market last year and took bad phone pics for Mr. B. But we never pulled the trigger. Right before Thanksgiving they had a huge furniture and I snatched up the table, intending to buy the matching chairs for myself as a birthday present in January. But that lasted 12 hours before I ordered almost identical chairs on Overstock. Happy early birthday, I guess?

I'm madly in love with the table and chars. I adore the industrial table pedestal with the more rustic top.

And the metal tub chairs make me smile as I walk down the stairs every morning. B pulled them out of the box when they arrived and said "These are not chairs I ever would have seen and thought, 'Em will love those.'" But I absolutely love the combination of more industrial with traditional - and I've been lusting after a Tolix chair knockoff for years. 

Should we do one more quick before and after?

Before:

And after. Well, after-ish. I still need to remove the too-small chalkboard and find a solution for the wall behind the banquette. And then I need to make that blank wall on the right of the photo above our Grand Central station for keys and bags to hang. I've got plans, just need to put them into play!

And, if you're looking for a dose of reality, Thomas's booster seat is attached to one of the chairs, and there's usually a dirty dish or two and a toddler art project at any given time:

So that's the breakfast nook redo with banquette seating. What do you think?

DIY White Subway Tile Backsplash

The backsplash is done-zo. Mr. B was totally dreading this portion of the kitchen remodel - he cut the first tile and it shattered. I cut the second tile and it didn't. So he threw his hands up in the air and said, "I'll take Thomas to the pool, you do this".  It was a tedious job - we probably didn't have the best tile saw and the outlet cuts just about did me in.  But, I perservered and made it through my first tile job.

I had originally planned on doing Carrara marble subway tile for the backsplash, but in comparing the cost and what we wanted to spend on this quick little kitchen project, we decided to hold off on the marble and spend a little extra on the counter tops and sink instead. And, with the number of mistakes I made while cutting, I'm so glad I went with Home Depot's $0.28/tile white subway tile instead of the pricier marble. But, when we ditched the idea of Carrara Marble, I was drawn to the idea of some dimension somewhere. It's a good thing, you guys all brought me back down to earth and reminded me that classic is better.  Thanks friends, I needed a reminder that I'm not trendy. Ask the skinny jeans I tried on last week.

I LOVE the pure white subway tile backsplash.  But, with the accent tile nixed, the next hiccup was that B and I disagreed on grout color - B (after seeing and really liking the mosaic option I brought home) wanted gray grout to differentiate the tiles while I preferred the look of white grout for our small kitchen. So we decided that we'd just start tiling, and if we thought the tiling job was perfect enough for gray grout, we would consider it carefully.


But the tiling job answered that question for us - it was our first tiling job, after all. Not that there are any glaring errors, but I wasn't confident enough in my seams to use anything but bright white grout. And I'm glad that we ended up with white because it just makes the tile so sparkly and bright, and I was concerned that in our kitchen - which lacks much natural light - the gray grout lines would 1) be too busy and 2) not allow the light to bounce quite as much.  I had no reason to believe these things, I just did. Sometimes our minds are funny things.

This backsplash was the project that unearthed other projects - like window trim. Our house didn't come with windowsills (thanks builder). It hadn't really bothered me, except that I knew how great window trim and sills would look on the big windows in our house. But with tile going up, we didn't want tile to trim the kitchen window, so our handy neighbor came over one Monday night and installed a windowsill. We're not done with the top of the window (we'll do a traditional craftsman window trim), but the windowsill is my most loved unexpected part of the reno. More on that when the window is done.

So that's the kitchen. Crown Moulding is still in the plans for the tops of the cabinets, we're just taking a little time off before we start that. What do you think?

Backsplash Choices

So we're going with a white subway tile backsplash. I'd originally thought that Carrara marble was the route I wanted to go, but the price point of white can't be beat, and it's classic and timeless. Which is pretty much my schtick...just ask NameBerry.

But, while I was picking up the subway tile, I couldn't get an accent tile out of my head. So I ordered a Carrara Marble accent tile just to see, planning to get it home, set it out with the subway tile and immediately return it because it wasn't timeless enough. But now I'm torn. So I'm turning to you all. Ready?

Option 1, white subway tile. Classic & timeless.

Option 2: White Subway tile with a Carrara Marble Accent Row

What would you do? I am leaning one direction, but let's see what you all think. Please comment.

Silestone Marengo Counter Tops

Is it possible to be madly in love with inanimate objects? I'm beginning to think so. Our counter tops are here and they are everything I hoped for and more. And the new sink and faucet? Ditto.  I'll let the pictures do the talking - subway tile backsplash and crown moulding still to come.

Shall we quickly revisit what the kitchen looked like three weeks ago?

I can't believe I didn't do this years ago - I had convinced myself that wood kitchens were more appealing to the masses for resale. And now I don't care about the masses. Let's get back to the pretty.

The new faucet and sink rock my world. Simple as that.

Here's a close-up of our counter tops. I mentioned to my sister (a high school Science teacher) before we started this project that I wanted my kitchen counters to look like the lab tables in her Chemistry classroom. We laughed about this because...how should I put this? I didn't see eye to eye with any of my high school science teachers and science wasn't my forte. Probably because I was admiring the finish of the lab tables instead of learning the periodic table. Oh well, I graduated.

We went with black hardware for contrast and to echo the dark counter tops. [To answer a previous question, we bought a hardware template at home depot to make sure that we installed each knob and pull in the same place. It worked great - you could also make your own template with cardboard]. And I'm so glad I went with the black hardware - with the white appliances, I think the contrast is important.

In other kitchen news, the banquette is done! I just have to make the cushion and then it will be ready for prime time.

Painted Kitchen Cabinets

The kitchen cabinets are painted and ready to go! Just in time - the Silestone counters are being installed tomorrow!

We used Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations (in Pure White) kit after much debate. Actually, I went to Home Depot after deciding not to buy the Cabinet Transformations to get TSP and primer and the guy basically bullied me into buying the kit. My thoughts: It is easy to work with and looks great. But it is NOT brush stroke free. And it definitely took 5 coats of paint to cover well. It took two small kits worth of paint (our HD only sells small kits) and only 1/2 a kit worth of the other supplies. So I felt very wasteful. I think if you like the look of glazed cabinets - which this kit includes the steps for - it's worth the cost of the kit. I personally don't prefer the glazed cabinet look - I went pure white in order to get our white appliances to blend in - and opted out of that step, and think that some primer and cabinet enamel at my local hardware store would have done the job. Meredith and Kristal both have great recommendations.

One of these days I'll get my shizz together and take pictures during daylight hours again.

But anyway - back to the cabinets themselves. I was loathing our kitchen. I know that's silly - we had a kitchen. Was it my dream kitchen? No, but it was fully functional, everything was relatively new and working. But the red-brown cabinets were not our style, and with very little natural light streaming into the kitchen it felt dark and depressing.  And now? I seriously just feel like smiling when I walk into the room. Walking down the stairs I see a bright white kitchen. Laying on the couch I see a bright white kitchen. No more black hole on the North side of our house. It's wonderful.

We'll install hardware on the bottom drawers and cabinets once the countertops are installed. Then the backsplash. I can't wait - more pictures when the counter tops are here!

Everything In The Kitchen Sink

The kitchen remodel project is coming along! All of the upper cabinets are rehung and I'll be starting on the lower cabinets this weekend. We should be finished with everything but the crown moulding and backsplash within three weeks. I cannot wait.


For the countertops, we're going with Silestone's new color Marengo. I was really liking Caesarstone's Concrete color, however our kitchen counters are two square feet bigger than a slab of Caesarstone will cover. And with Caesarstone, the only option is to buy full slabs. Thankfully, Silestone - which allows you to buy just what you need - just released their new commercial series including the cement-like Marengo. I'm thrilled.

So with the countertop replacement, we decided to undermount the kitchen sink. You know how some people have weird things they're picky about? Apparently kitchen sinks are on my list. Who knew? I've been around the dish washing block a few times and shallow sinks and I do not see eye-to-eye. Luckily, our current sink was a good 7 1/2 inches deep so we got along just fine, but it was also a double basin sink. I didn't think much of this until we brought Thomas home from the hospital and were trying to give him a spit bath in our sink. Impossible. And post c-section the last thing I needed was to kneel over our bathtub. See how I'm still reliving this over a year later? Yeah, scarring birth experience literally and figuratively. But I digress...

 The soon-to-be former sink. It will live a lovely new life with a Craigslist family, I'm sure.

So, when we started seriously talking about redoing the kitchen, I knew I wanted a single basin sink for baby washing. And, you know, for the more long-term goal of cleaning baking sheets and skillets since babies are only sink bathable for so long. And since I was being picky, I wanted this sink to be deep enough for me to swim in.

Enter Overstock. I cashed in some credit card points and ordered our sink and faucet the day I finalized the Silestone order. And when it came, our countertop guy was astounded by the quality of the sink - and he couldn't believe how little I paid for it. Which is funny because I thought it was still a bit hefty in the price department, but whatevs.

I had originally picked this faucet, but it doesn't have a spray water mode. That was a deal breaker for me, so a slightly less sleek handle was my compromise for water that can both stream and spray. And it's gorgeous. So that's the current status of our kitchen semi-overhaul. I get more excited with each coat of white cabinet paint.

Progress Report

I'm up to my elbows in cabinet paint. And taking it slowly in order to do this thing right. As opposed to imperfectly. It's tough for me.

But I'm so loving the outcome. Everytime Mr. B walks into the kitchen he says, "I cannot believe how much brighter it is in here". Exactly what I was going for.  I'll keep you posted, but for now, it's back to painting. And child rearing. Oh, and that job thing. So posts might be a bit sporadic until this project is closer to finished.

Customizing the Builder Grade

We've lived in our house for 4 years. The starter kitchen that I thought I could deal with is now driving me insane.  It feels dark and moody, not bright and refreshing. And now that we don't have immediate plans to move, it's time to add some custom touches to our builder grade finishes. Starting with our Kitchen.

The Banquette will be finished by our anniversary, believe you me. And along with the Banquette, our kitchen's getting a face lift. The only reason we haven't done this sooner? We were worried about the appeal of painted cabinets for resale. But we've done some research and looked at some options for moving. We could move to a bigger house with my dream kitchen, a fourth bedroom and a bigger yard, for sure. But B and I have pretty big financial goals for our future and at this point we'd rather put our extra money each month into retirement, savings and college funds.  So why not just stay in this house that we LOVE for a few years longer than expected, put some cash into upgrading the things that we don't love, and live really well within our means until our means allow us to buy a house with a big kitchen island and a 4th bedroom?

So, our "Walnut" kitchen cabs are going white. Yay. I'm adding crown moulding to the tops of the cabinets, and I'm toying with the idea of beadboarding the sides facing out and adding a subway tile backsplash. But we'll see on that step. And for the big money portion, we're replacing the countertops.

I've narrowed down my search to the eco-friendly Quartz options in a concrete gray (I've heard a lot about radon off-gassing from Granite lately and am just not gonna go that route). Now we're just getting bids from the different brands before we purchase. I'm very excited about the project

Beautiful Banquette

I love when people look out for me!  Kath sent me yet more inspiration to get my act together and get the banquette seating I've been talking about for years happening in the kitchen.

Aubrey + Lindsay's Blog

I had just convinced myself I'd rather have a counter height table than banquette seating in this problem child breakfast nook.  But now I'm back to being annoyingly indecisive.

It's a sad space.  It needs something.  And I think a banuqette is that something.  Still.

Take it to the Banq(uette)

I think we're going for it.  The banquette seating in the kitchen, that is.  The blogosphere wants us to.

Rest assured, this is just to make sure I like the look -

this is not to scale, or an accurate representation of what I want it to look like finished.

 

I've gotten so many emails from readers (and husbands of readers) with inspiration photos and advice and warnings.  My favorite (hi John!) was when Shannon's husband emailed me.  He sent pictures and ideas, but his general point was, "Whatever you do, please don't take Shannon's advice and just cover a floor vent without talking to someone who knows what they're talking about."  B is in love with John for that email - he likes when he doesn't have to be the only person to bring me down to earth.

Maillardville Manor

And here's a recent favorite inspiration picture.  I love the single shelf and artwork above the banquette.  I love the farmhouse table.  Thanks Queenbee for sending me the link!

So we're going to attempt it.  You'll see the banquette seating complete - FC and I have an agreement signed in blood that we won't be swatch by swatch and nail by nail project bloggers.  Okay, that's not true.  But you get the drift, you'll get a before and after when its complete.  If it gets completed - my general contractor was totally convinced until he realized we'd probably want a rectangular table once it was complete.  Details.

Kitchen Flip Flopper

You know those really annoying people who fret over something for years and never do anything about it?  I'm afraid I'm becoming one of them - at least as far as our kitchen is concerned.

I had pretty much ruled out the banquette seating I considered for the breakfast nook last year after Mr. B and I attempted to build Casco an elevated feeder (which we're replacing with a real one any day now).  Add to our lack of impressive box construction the complications of reworking floor vents and a low window that prevents comfortable back support  and it just didn't seem like a great project for the two of us to take on.

But I still need to do something with this area.  And this photo just about convinced me the banquette seating should be back in the mix regardless of our previous attempts at construction.

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But even putting the banquette seating aside, I'm loving this inspiration photo - the high shelf, fabric, the statement the artwork makes.  I think one tall shelf could work in my yellow kitchen with some fabric brought down to the table somehow.  But I'll probably change my mind tomorrow.  

Here's the room that needs help - the chalk board is going away, but the wall needs something.  And please excuse our mess - this is what the kitchen table usually looks like when I don't sweep things off of it to take a quick picture for all of you.  And please excuse our boob lamp, I usually cover up but modesty's out the window over here these days.

So that's where we stand on the kitchen - in limbo.  Someday, I'll think of something brilliant that I love. Someday.  Until then, I'll entertain any suggestions you all have for adding texture, charm and character to this nook.  And if the answer is banquette seating, I need ideas on rerouting the floor vent.  I promise, I can still make important life decisions quickly.  I'm not totally annoying and undecisive...yet.

Casual Winter Breakfast Nook

We're not hosting Thanksgiving, and my dining room table is pretty much set everyday, so for Kim's challenge this week I decided to turn my attention to my oft-neglected breakfast nook. Mr. B and I eat at the dining room table every night, so this table really is just where I eat my breakfast before work. It needs a casual vibe - cause we're not fancy schmancy people.

This table is a dumping ground. Directly to the right in the picture above is the door to the garage. And with no mudroom to speak of, the table collects keys, handbags, bills, parking tickets, speeding tickets, hate mail and other crap. I keep my dining room table set to prevent the dumping ground scenario, but it's never worked in the kitchen. So we'll give it another try - and maybe paying attention to the speed limit and parking restrictions would help move us in the right direction. We're nothing if not imperfect over here.

I've always thought this space needed some warmth. So I relocated the burlap centerpiece I made for the Dining Room and placed it on a green placemat to add a little color to all of the wood. Then I grabbed my favorite green dishes for a little splash of color.

I love to use dish towels as napkins for casual dining. They're absorbent, actually cover laps and are made to be washed. The more washed, worn and mismatched the better, in my opinion, but for this challenge I went with my Williams-Sonoma candy cane striped dish towels.

I love red and green together - and not just for Christmas. So that's our table setting for this week. A casual place to sit and enjoy our cereal separately - and maybe we'll start eating dinners here more often if we don't let the junk pile up.

Linked up to Kim's Dare to DIY Challenge.

Banana Hammock

Oh I can't wait to see the google searches that bring people to this post! I need kitchen help. Where do you keep your produce so it doesn't bruise and also looks uncluttered and presentable? Mr. B likes to just put the fruit all over our counter tops (drives me crazy), and I corral them into this green colander for now, but would rather nothing be on the countertop.


Both methods result in fruit that goes bad. So please, keeping in mind that I'm probably not a banana hammock kind of girl - either banana hammock - do you have any suggestions for keeping my apples and bananas bruiseless and keeping my countertops clutter free? What works for you and your fruit?

Table or Booth?

Remember when I said I wasn't a big fan of bench seating at tables? That it's the equivalent of having an inside seat on an airplane to me - do you really want to ask the people next to you to awkwardly move from their seats into the aisle so that you can shuffle down the aisle to the air-toilette where you squat and curse your burning thigh muscles while wishing you did more leg work in your workout routine because who would really want to put their bare bum on something that hundreds of other people have put their bare bums on and then you have to shuffle back to your row and ask the people to again awkwardly shuffle into the aisle so you can take your cramped seat and go to town with the hand sanitizer? The answer is no, you don't want to ask. And the answer is also that I need a break from airplanes after my summer of work travel.

But we were talking about bench seating. Biggest digression ever here at imperfect. Sorry. So I'm generally anti bench and booth seating. But lately I can't get the idea of a built-in banquette (with storage for our out of season appliances) out of my head for this problem corner (too much wood, not enough softness) of my kitchen.

I love this table my aunt handed down to us. It's classic. And I think that adding built-in seating to the corner would encourage more people to gather into this nook while we're entertaining - making me less lonely in the islandless kitchen.

Credit for all 3 Photos above

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So, what's your take on banquette seating? Love it or hate it? Take it or leave it? When I mentioned the idea to Mr. B he pointed out we'd have to rework a vent in the floor to make it work. And that he thought we should consider how we (and others) would feel about it when we want to sell. Meh, details.

Up the Down Staircase

Do you know that movie? I've never seen it, but it's my life motto. I'm just an up the down staircase kind of gal.

The thing that I first fell in love with about our house was the staircase. It starts at the back of the house rather than in the foyer and reminds me of older houses with back staircases. It's just charming - and unexpected. I adore our back staircase.

So, when Mr. B mentioned that he was tired of the oak banister - it's the only oak in our house and builder basic oak at that - I agreed with him. Isn't it funny how something can seem fine until it's pointed out, and then it nags at you? And since I wasn't feeling our banister anymore - an integral part of one of my favorite features of our house, I was itching to fix it.

Now, I'm not they type of person to take time to worry about how changing something might turn out. I figured if it looked awful, I could paint the railings white and we'd have an all-white banister. I LOVE painting wood - especially oak. My heart skips a few beats as I watch things go from something that's not me to something I love. I truly dream of the day that Mr. B and I buy a house with oak cabinets with which I can paint white and fall in love. I search the MLS listings for pictures of outdated kitchens so I can photoshop white cabinets, different paint colors, and even layout changes and think about how great a house could be. It's an illness. Really.

So, I grabbed the satin finish white paint we had sitting in the garage and a foam brush and went to town. It took a ton of coats. I probably should have used primer, but we've already discussed my lack of patience.

I wanted a two-toned banister - the more traditional look of white spindles and a wood railing. I love the result. Like, my first love Kyle Chandler of Early Edition in middle school love. And I don't even mind the oak that much because there's less of it. We'll probably end up sanding and staining the railing and posts later on, but for now I like the banister as is. We'll live with it for awhile to see what we think is right.

Casco loves our back staircase, too. It's his favorite place to hang out. Looks comfy, eh?

What do you think of the white spindles? Would you leave the railings as is or stain them a darker walnut shade? Any wood stains you love or hate? I've never stained anything, it's been all paint for this girl, so suggestions are welcome!

Kitchen Schizophrenia

I have a folder on my computer dedicated purely to Kitchen inspiration. You know, for our next house. All of the images feature wall to wall white cabinets, a built-in wine rack, stainless steel appliances, islands with farmhouse sinks and gray granite countertops.

So when I stumbled across the Kitchens.com "What's My Kitchen Style?" quiz, I was excited to answer the questions and get another inspiration image to add to the "someday" file.

And I got this:
I guess it's not too far off, if you paint all the wood white and put in a substantial island with counter-height seating. But, since I'm manipulative, I went back and changed the wood question to "I'm not a fan of the look of wood" and clicked submit.

Oh no. This is their solution to not being a fan of the look of wood? Yikes. This is definitely not my kitchen style. One more try at manipulation. Curses! I got the second one again.

So I went searching for my actual dream kitchen:

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Perfect. A Something's Gotta Give inspired kitchen. I'll take it. And throw in the beach that should come with it while you're at it, mmmkay?

But anyway, here's the quiz. Go take it. Report back. And if anyone gets a white kitchen, I want your formula for success. What's your kitchen style?