I never cease to be amazed at how much people will spend on their pets. While I admit that These Creatures pet bowls are pretty nifty, the $125 price tag seems a little insane for a piece of metal. What I did find interesting about this picture though is the countertop and backsplash. It is 100% identical to the stuff I just pulled out of our kitchen, right down to the boomerangs and metal trim.

The update on our little remodel. Rough electrical is 90%, I may actually finish it tonight, and we are getting bids on drywall. Hopefully we should be able to start painting and doing flooring the weekend after Thanksgiving. If all goes well we should be all finished up by Christmas easy. Say goodbye to boomerangs and hello to ABSTRAKT white.

Via Design-Milk

There is officially one week left to vote for your favorite affordable modern kitchen. So far it has been a pretty tight race with The Kitchen that Google built getting an early lead, then falling behind, and now surging back into the lead. Second place has been a tight race between Simple, Modern, Functional and Mid-Century Mod-ification. Ditching the Drywall is still not out of the picture either with a strong fourth place currently. Remember you can only vote once, so make it count.

Vote Here!

While I am a big fan of stark white, I also love it when there is a little color thrown in the mix. These white bone china storage jars seem to get it just about right. Each Cammeo jar is held together with a colorful elastic band that ads a healthy splash of color to the white container. Designed by Louise Campbell for Kahler, I am having a hard time finding anyone stateside that carries them. Anyone know of something similar available in the states?

Available (I think) from Kahler.

Rick sent me an email yesterday asking for some help, and unfortunately I had no idea where to begin. I thought I would put it out to the group to see if someone has any good ideas. He write;

I have some Thonet bent plywood chairs that need to have the back support piece repaired/replaced (the glue joints have 'sprung' loose and you can't lean back anymore). any ideas? I'll pay to have it done well. Rick, New Orleans

Does anyone know if you can repair that piece, or maybe even buy a new back support?

I'm loving the ceramic vessels from Perch. They have a great Scandinavian look with a little extra flair, and come in just about every size you can imagine. All of their pieces are handmade as well and they use low-fire earthenware and non-toxic glaze to keep it earth friendly. It seems that they have been slowly expanding their collection over the past year, and I'm anxious to see what other good stuff they come out with. Perch vessels available from Bobby Berke from $26 - $104.

Finding good art has always been a challenge for me. I really like the idea of having a unique original piece, but I never want to pay the prices for original artwork. Luckily for me, Wall Blank sent me an email telling me about their awesome original, and affordable artwork. Wall Blank puts a new limited edition print (sometimes photo, sometimes screenprint, sometimes another type) up every weekday. They're only available for one week. On non-profit Fridays, the artist donates their work and 100% of the proceeds from their print go to a non-profit cause of their choice. It doesn't get much better than that. My favorite piece this week is the "Original Paisley" shown here by Lauren Lenartowski. It's screen printed on french paper. Size is 11" x 22" and the price is an amazing $14.

Original Paisley available from Wall Blank for $14

There was some discussion over on Apartmenttherapy yesterday about affordable sofa's, and the Corona sofa from Macy's came up. I don't think that I have ever seen it before and I was impressed with it's clean mid century feel. Not the kind of thing I would typically expect from Macy's. The reviews on it are very favorable and to make things even better it is currently on sale for for $699, which in my mind puts it in the "very reasonable" price category. If you are looking for the "amazingly cheap" category, check out the Plaza sofa for $470.

Corona Sofa available from Macy's for $699

As we get closer to actually putting our kitchen back together, the accessories are starting to roll in. One of the first things that we bought for our new kitchen was a sink. In our old home we had a large single bowel kitchen sink that we loved. Since our little family is still growing, one of the criteria's for a kitchen sink for us is that it has to be large enough that we can give a baby a bath in it. Our new sink made by Vigo fits the bill perfectly both for style and functionality. We found it on overstock for $449, which is a fair amount of money, but a huge deal compared to the Franke sink that it is copying which retails for a shocking $1,800. Upon receiving it, we are super impressed with the quality of it. The 16 gauge 304 stainless is padded and undercoated to keep the noise down, and the overall look is great. Vigo Zero Radius Sink Available from overstock for $449

It's nice when the products inside your home look like someone actually spent as much time designing them as you did designing your interior. I totally admit to buying products just because of the superior packaging they have, especially when they are fairly affordable like the whole Method line. The Pentawards is an award given out to companies for best packaging, and the 2008 winners were just announced. Head on over the official pentawards blog thedieline to see all the winners. Be prepared however to be disappointed by all the rad stuff we can't get stateside. My personal favorite is the Tine Milk packaging. See all winners at thedieline.

The Le Klint Pendant 172 is a classic modern design, and it's on sale at Y Lighting for almost $100 off it's normal price. Here's the description from Y Lighting;

These hand-folded sculptural pendant shades were designed by architect Poul Christiansen between 1969 and 1978 and have been in continuous production by the Danish company Le Klint. The material is a color-stabilized white PVC which is completely washable and anti-static. Le Klint pendants are enjoying renewed popularity along with other design icons of the 1960's. All pendants include 5 feet of white cord.

Available from Y Lighting for $282.

I'm really impressed with the number of entries that we had for our affordable modern kitchen contest. I have to admit, when we started the contest I was worried that we wouldn't even get 10 entries. Turns out we had more than 10, and all of them were really good. It was super hard trying to narrow it down to just 10 that everyone would vote for. After much consideration, we finally settled on our top 10. Head on over to the voting page to choose which one you think is the best. Remember, you can only vote once, so make it count.I wanted to thank all the people who entered for sharing their kitchens, and ideas on how to make the modern look more affordable. It's inspirational for me to see just what can be done on a budget. I know that sometimes it's not easy sharing your personal style with the world, so I appreciate the effort.

Now go vote for your favorite! Voting ends Nov 30th.

Ryan is a guy after my own heart. His kitchen remodel involved tearing down a couple walls before putting it all back together again. The ASTRAKT red really brings some nice color into the kitchen.

We tore down two walls to open the kitchen to the dining room and living room and moved the sink from the wall where the refrigerator is. Ikea Abstrakt cabinets in red were chosen to bring the color into the room instead of through paint. To save on costs we installed laminate countertops and purchased all of the appliances (Thermador and Bosch) from a discounted retailer. The backsplash are bamboo pulp tiles from Inhabit and the lights over the island are from CB2. The main idea of the remodel was to provide more countertop space as well as room for storage.

Approx price: $8,500

Here is a great kitchen remodel that preserves much of the great 1920's woodwork.

An equal lover of modern and vintage our kitchen tries to meet in the middle. When buying our 1920's house we knew we were going to gut the 1970's kitchen complete with dropped ceiling, spices wallpaper and wood paneling. Our goals were to make the kitchen look larger and modernize it in keeping with the beauty of the 1920's woodwork that surrounds the rest of house. A three foot opening was widened to create the bar reusing all of the original trim. When we needed more trim we relied on a great local salvage yard. We chose the IKEA AKURUM medium brown cabinets for cost, clean lines, and color choices that complimented the existing woodwork. By placing some cabinets horizontally it gave the kitchen a more modern look. The lighting scheme was also a huge part of the design. Josh went to the extra work of recessing all of the under counter puck lights. We chose contemporary lighting fixtures that bring out the colors of the orange art deco chandelier in the dining room. The layout of the kitchen was drastically overhauled. By placing the fridge in the old ice box niche (fitting I thought) the space is drastically opened up giving us a ton of counter space. Budget was always on our mind, hence the IKEA cabinets. Believe it or not the granite was a steal because it's thinner than normal. We were cheap labor except for the parts we relied on the experts which was electrical (good old knob and tube), redirecting a vent, and putting in a support beam. I think we managed to make the most of our $10,000 budget; it's still small, but now a comfortable place for two to cook.

Approx price: $10,000

There is no doubt that the internet can be a great resource for any remodel on a budget. I would wager that I spend almost as many hours researching products online as I actually do installing them. Wes stresses how important google was for a resource for him too.

Our kitchen suffered from an inefficient layout (no counter space) and the adjoining rooms weren't getting used as much as we'd like because the floor plan wasn't very open.

After DIY remodels of both of our bathrooms in the past 2 years we decided we were up to the task of tackling the kitchen (so we gutted the entire thing and started over.)

We replaced old appliances (oven, stovetop, fridge and rangehood) with energy efficient ones. We replaced old laminate glue-down tiles with laminate wood flooring to match the rest of our house. We opened the doorway between the kitchen and dining room from 3 feet to 7 feet (dramatically opening up the space) and opened up the kitchen footprint by combining an unused adjacent room. New lighting was installed and electrical updated. Every surface was replaced... walls, ceiling and floors. New cabinets and diy concret countertops.

The keys to our affordable kitchen were planning, the internet, smart purchases and ikea.... and the internet... did I mention the internet.

As weird as it might sound, I can't imagine tacking this on my own without the power of google. Any time I had a question, felt stumped, or needed a photo or video reference along the way I was able to get help on the internet. Sites like ikeafans.com, thathomesite.com, youtube, froogle (for price comparisons) apartmenttherapy.com and countless other blogs and community sites all served as the ultimate reference library and source of inspiration. The availability of information online was solely responsible for giving me the confidence to tackle pouring our concrete countertops myself.

Patience, planning and flexibility also helped when researching and waiting on deals to become available. Our LG fridge was nicer than the frigidaire we planing on purchasing but was available at half its original price due to a model closeout deal plus the extra 10% plus rebates Home Depot was offering when we stumbled upon it.

• Our sink was purchased on ebay (HUGE savings) • backsplash tiles from an online supplier (mosaictilesupplies.com) • cabinets and some accessories from ikea • dishwasher was reused but relatively new (from a bandaid reno on the kitchen a few years back) • range was a special purchase sale item at hhgregg (almost half of retail) • laminate flooring was special ordered but on sale 20% off (had to find a good match for our existing flooring in the rest of the house)

The photos I'm attaching are the latest we've taken... we still want to get some art up on the walls (specifically around the desk area) but we're very happy with how it all turned out.

Before during and after photos are up on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesc/sets/72157605825434732/

as well as some progress posts on our blog wesandsarah.com

Approx price $9,000

This desk looks like it is a counter top on top of two ikea uppers (maybe over fridge cabs?). I totally want to steal that idea.

Brandon did a beautiful job on his kitchen redo. Replacing a bunch of the drywall really helped to warm the space up and gives a nice contrast to the stark white of the ABSTRAKT and Corian kitchen.

Our kitchen design is the result of three principles:

1. Maximum sight lines. In our small home (860 sf), opening things up so that adjacent rooms "lend" their space to the room I'm in makes me feel less confined. By removing the wall between our dining area and kitchen, we can now see from the front of the house to the back.

2. Hatred of drywall. Yes, it's kind of irrational, but I really dislike drywall. Using walnut veneer plywood for the walls in the kitchen allowed me to keep the drywall out of the kitchen, while providing some essential warmth to the white-and-metals palette we'd chosen. Another benefit was that having plywood walls allowed me to mount the cabinets to the wall without requiring blocking between the studs or using anchors.

3. Compromise. My wife's aesthetic is not as adventurous as mine, so the kitchen is neither as out there as it might have been if left to me, but it was still led more by form than by function. It does function well, however.

I did everything in the renovation except the electrical and any plumbing that required solder. There was absolutely nothing worth salvaging in the old kitchen, so I gutted the room—subfloor, studs, and joists. The old sliding door leaked, so I reframed the opening, replaced the damaged section of the subfloor, and installed a new door. We also removed the old, disused terra cotta flue that took up about 2 square feet in the corner.

The cabinets are Ikea; Abstrakt white for the base cabinets and Avsikt for the uppers. Appliances are a Fisher & Paykel refrigerator (truly cabinet depth and relatively narrow, it was the linchpin of the layout); Thermador 30" range (from our old house); and Asko dishwasher (also from the old house). We used Home Depot for the Corian counters with an integrated sink. Behind the sink and range, we installed sheets of tempered glass as backsplashes that would not obscure the walnut.

We chose Flor polypropylene carpet tiles as an experiment, partially because of budget. They've held up well, but I think we'll eventually put in oak strip flooring to match the rest of the house. If we do, I will miss the color pop they give.

A detail that I'm proud of is the 1-inch reveal where the wall meets the ceiling. Instead of soffits or running the upper cabinets to the ceiling, I held them back to give a sense of openness. The reveal is created by an aluminum extrusion from Fry Reglet. It also captures the top of the plywood so that I didn't need to have a finished edge.

The renovation took months, mainly because I didn't make all of my design and materials decisions before the sledge hammer first flew. I'm now in the midst of renovating my bathroom, and even with the decisions made ahead of time, it's still slow going. I guess it must be me!

Approx Cost: $7,000

Before

After

The second entry to day should be no surprise for regular Grassrootsmodern readers. The entire construction of Salt Lake's affordable modern home "Lucy Ave" was blogged about here. I have actually had a chance to see this kitchen in person, and it is beautiful. In case you missed it the first time, here is a little more info from Jacob.

Our primary money savings is attributable to the cabinets. Ikea as we all know are a great value and make modern an affordable option. We chose the Abstrakt to try to give our kitchen a more minimal look. Anything else would have been too busy as we do not have any symmetry in our kitchen. We were also able to get a special deal on appliances. We were able to get higher end appliances for the price of what ordinary appliances would have cost. We also did not spend much on countertops. Countertops are probably the most expensive material in most homes. We may upgrade them later but for now the laminate is just fine. We chose a black granite sink that was about $275.00 and has held up very well. Doing it mostly myself also saved a lot of money too.

Approx cost: $10,000

Before After We have two Salt Lake City entries today. The first is a great bungalow update on a budget. A little fresh paint and countertops give this kitchen a whole new look for not a lot of money. They are currently trying to choose between rubber floors or natural linoleum.

While our kitchen isn't quite finished yet, I figured I'd throw it into the ring anyway. We bought a 1920's bungalow with some really nice original woodwork throughout the living and dining room. The kitchen, however, was in serious trouble. It was ugly and non-functional. There wasn't enough storage, counter space or even a place for a fridge. Because of this and our very small budget, my focus was on making it a usable kitchen with some modern touches. I did all the work myself, including the plumbing and electrical upgrades. Since we couldn't afford to replace them, we painted the original cabinets and added some inexpensive unfinished oak ones to match, moving the sink and creating more work space. New dishwasher and appliances, counter tops and hardware really livened up the space. The cost estimate includes what we are planning on spending on the much needed floor. We are currently torn between a natural linoleum and rubber tiles.

Approx cost: $2,400

For all those iPod/iPhone lovers out there, there is a new radio alarm clock out that is as good looking as your coveted music player. The Vers 1.5R is the little brother of the Vers 2X stereo that was released a while ago. Just because it is the little guy in the family line doesn't mean that it has any less features however. The 1.5R adds a alarm clock and radio to the previous design and is still available in a range os sustainably styled wood casings. Unfortunately all that high style and technology puts the price close to $200. The good news is that you can currently save $50 by using the discount code "wood" while checking out.

Available from Vers Audio for $150 (after discount)

Eric from Portland knows how to leverage his skills. By doing some freelance webdesign he was able to get this amazing kitchen for the cost of materials only. Not only does the kitchen look great, but it's jam packed full of unique green products.

Custom cabinetry made of bamboo and Sustainable plywood guts. The backsplash and inner core layer of the counter top are made of Sourghum board covered in not so eco boating epoxy for water resistance. The counter tops are paper pulp top and bottom with the sourghum board core. Built by Bren Reis at www.earthboundindustries.com cost was mostly materials as Bren and I agreed on a trade where i provided him with webdesign and logo and he provided is expertise in cabinetry.

Approx price; $3,500

If you are in the market for a new dining room table like we are, you may be in luck. As part of Ikea's continued "seize the days" sales events, there are two tables that are currently on sale. The JOKKMOKK isn't the best looking table (actually the table is ok, it's the chairs I don't love) but for $59 including chairs, it's a super good deal. I've got my eye on the BJURSTA table in the black-brown. It seats 6, 8, or 12 depending on the number of leaves you use. It's on sale for $199 instead of the normal $399. Plus if you get there before 10:30 you get free breakfast too. The sale is the 8th - 11th, but some items are only available on the 11th.