Pepper Design Blog

Kitchen Update: A Sticky Situation + A Neat Feature

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend! We spent Monday relaxing, having lunch with friends and visiting the park. Such a great way to spend the day off!

Here’s a quick fix that I finished up yesterday too – a solution to our slippery slidey kitchen cushions that may just swoop out from right under you when you sit down.

You may have noticed when we added the cushions (from this great fabric) that I decided not to add ties for around the barstool backs.

I don’t really love the look of ties (though they are so practical) and I wanted to keep the lines modern.

But… those darn seats slide up and off all the time. I didn’t think I would mind so much, but it’s kind of annoying.

So when I came across these picture frame velcro fasteners at a Joann’s, I thought I’d give it a whirl. These are built for securely fastening objects like frames to walls, and I figured if they’re strong enough to hold a picture, they should be strong enough to hold cushions on a chair (even with the weight of a person sliding forward or back).

Plus, when you’re ready to remove them from the wood of the chair, a little soap and suds is supposed to take them right off.

The seat of the barstool reieved a fastener on the top and each side, then the sticky end came off and the cushion was applied directly to the top of the sticky velcro. I pressed down on each cushion-to-velcro piece for at least 30 seconds to ensure a very tight stick.

So far so good! This velcro is strong! I attempted the above with just two pieces for a cushion and that wasn’t as secure, four may be even better.

In other news, these cushions made it to the Quadrille gallery! You can imagine my excitement when the marketing director asked me if they could post an image of our kitchen in their gallery (along side my favorite magazines and designers):

Woohoo! Made my day.

Have a great Tuesday!

San Diego Magazine: June, The Good Eats Issue

Wow, I can’t believe that June is almost over! The latest issue of San Diego Magazine is all about food and delicious places to find it locally. Jump out to page 76 in the digital edition to check out my contributions this month.

I still can’t believe it’s nearing the middle of summer {sweet July} and that the weather is really crankin’ up the heat around here. Our summer vacation will be spent, in part, biking across Iowa with our family in an event called RAGBRAI. I’m not really a biker nor do I particularly enjoy humidity in late July, but the entire family (in-laws, my parents and all of the brothers) are game so we’re making a go of it. If you’ll be sipping fruity drinks on a beach somewhere I’m not sure I want to hear about it.

We’ve been training a bit so that I don’t flat pass out after 20 miles, but yesterday was the first day that it really felt like the summer heat wave had arrived. The weather has been just beautiful.

But back to the magazine. This month’s issue features chicken hideaways (we have some of those), best San Diego restaurants and a feature on a gorgeous, sustainably built La Jolla home that I had the chance to tour before writing an article about it (for the full article, here’s the digital edition).

The June issue was all about good eats and so I assembled a collage of favorite kitchen renovation finds for a variety of styles. The spread was supposed to run parallel to a great full page kitchen but an ad snuck its way in instead.

I’m loving those stools and the mix of runners – nevermind the great pendants (especially that Glabraith & Paul one) and the tile.

Back to RAGBRAI training I go! Hope you have a few exciting adventures planned this summer, too!

Birds of a Feather…

…flock together. Well – maybe not of a feather. These little buddies are more of the cast iron variety. I spotted them a while back and thought they were so cool and would be a nice little addition for the new kitchen.

But when I couldn’t find the sourcing information after searching for everything ‘iron’, ‘bird’, ‘oil rubbed bronze’ — you name it on Google, I eventually let them go and forgot about them.

Then a couple of weeks ago I came across the pair on HomeDecorators.com for $19 and nabbed ‘em quicker than you can say ‘new-birds-for-the-kitchen’. I think I spotted something similar a while back at Pottery Barn for $70+ and recently a different version at West Elm for $20 each.

There’s just something quirky and special about this little pair, and while I won’t use them as votive candle holders (as they’re shown above), I love how they peer over the kitchen from their corner perch.

Sort of a Where’s Waldo but for iron birds – can you spot them?

Here’s a close up:

A picture from a taller vantage point would be nice, I should have stood on a stool. These short legs only offer so much.

Here we go, here’s a higher angle. I didn’t think Kevin would notice but he walked in just as I was opening the delivery box. When he said ‘Sweet birds’, I knew that they had found their home. Yay for rediscovering a favorite find!