Ellen Beldner

God, oh god, when will it end? Why is it that every single time we go to the city for permits, they tell us something different?

Anyway, I wasn't quite happy with the angled countertop my architect had designed for the space. It was cool, for sure, but it didn't make great use of the space. I couldn't figure out how I was going to fit even basic furniture in there. It would have made invisible lines that claimed too much active area for the kitchen and afforded traffic patterns that would wipe out a lot of usable floor area. Plus, when the contractor finally figured out the stair specs, we realized that the stairs were going to require chopping the counter short by a bit, which in turn meant that the cabinets I had made to go under that bit of counter weren't going to fit. Great.

So I've been trying to figure out what to do with that space. Again playing in Sketchup Pro:

I'm not sure what finish of wood I'd want for the stairs / cabinet / shelves. And I think that instead of making the countertop / eating bar a contiguous outgrowth of the rest of the countertop, I'd make it as a freestanding table that abuts the rest of the counter -- and, ideally, can somehow fold open to double its size and become an 8-person dining table.

Next revision. Got rid of some of the office-busyness.

I'm currently remodeling my loft. Part of the reconfiguration will make much better use of my mezzanine. I want to put my office / workspace in there. (...Lie. I don't want to put my workspace in the bedroom, but it's the only place it'll fit.)

The other day I downloaded SketchUp and started to play. After some maddeningly annoying and frustrating false starts (please tell me it's a bug that there are no keyboard shortcuts assigned to tools by default!), I was able to model my entire mezzanine with a new furniture concept in about 5 hours.

There are things I don't like about this layout: the office area is too busy, and the whole place looks more office than bedroom. So back to the drawing board, but sketchup is a great tool for visualizing my space.

Note: the little wall-mounted horizontal stacks of books represent these invisible book-stacking bookshelves from Chiasso. They mimic the Sapien bookshelves I have downstairs, which currently hold most of my books. PS, I love Chiasso. Check out these vertical stripey tealight holders.

FYI: I am super stressed and busy right now, in the middle of remodeling my condo. I expect to have no social life the next few weeks and will probably be really bad at returning phone calls and invitations.

Sitting down with my architect this weekend to make decisions about kitchen cabinets, countertops, sink, and how the stairs will work. The kitchen will be monolithic charcoal gray (or maybe white) so it doesn't compete too much with the brick & timber in my loft. Work will start ASAP.

I can't wait to start cooking again. My 14 boxes of kitchen and dinnerware are starting to annoy me, and I want to have dinner parties again.