Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Desire to Inspire

I am so excited!  I made it onto the blogroll of Desire to Inspire!  That is like being acknowledged by my mentor.  Desire to Inspire is a fabulous interior design blog that I have been reading for years.  I remember sitting in a bookstore years ago (I think it was 2006) hunched over on a little stool going through a stack of interior design books that I didn't intend to buy (no wonder most of the bookstores in Atlanta have closed).  One book recommended a few websites which I could peruse on the internet at home.  I pulled a little notebook out of my purse and wrote down "desiretoinspire.blogspot.com" (note they have since changed their address to "desiretoinspire.net").  I thought, "What is a blogspot?"  I visited the site and have been studying it ever since. 

To take advantage of some of the design savvy readers that may be coming over from that beautiful website, I am going to show you my design dilemma.  Ever since we moved into this house almost 9 years ago, we have been talking about renovating the kitchen.  I don't do well with construction projects.  Replacing our windows almost killed me.  But I think the problems with my kitchen (dying oven, slanting stove, deteriorating cabinets) have finally given me enough resolve to deal with it.  Plus, I need something to focus on now that I'm not buying clothes.

We are going to hire a designer, but it takes me FOREVER to make decisions.   So, I want to have some direction before we set the process in motion.  I also just love tossing around ideas and trying to come up with creative solutions. 

Here is my problem -






That is the view out of the window next to our kitchen table.




I hate looking at our cars and the ugly lattice work, so I usually keep the blinds shut.  We had almost decided to dry wall over the window, since we never use it.  But I keep thinking that we don't want to lose any natural light.  We will get some natural light from the dining room, because we are probably going to knock down the dividing wall between our kitchen and dining room.






Here is our dining room.  It's small and could benefit from an expansion into the kitchen.




I also think that having a room that is only used for dining is strange.   I feel claustrophobic when I am in there and spend most of the time staring out the window.  The view from our dining room window is our driveway and our neighbor's driveway, but at least there is a lot of greenery surrounding it.




So, back to the kitchen window.  I figure we can either change the window or change the view.   I considered stained glass, because then you could retain the light but block the view.  However, it would be a pretty permanent art fixture.  My most recent idea is to remove the lattices and plant more trees on the other side of the garage.  Then, your eye would hopefully be drawn past the cars to the greenery.  My husband doesn't like that idea, but I still think it might work. 

What are your ideas?

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