Kitchen DIY

OK, so I've been blabbing for a while now on wanting to reorganize my kitchen, not a remodel, but just reworking some of the issues like increasing counter space, having enough shelves for better ways to display my dishes...and so on. Just wanting a change I guess, I am the type who gets bored of the same thing very quickly ;-)


Now if you look at this pic below of my kitchen from this post, you will notice a while plasticky shelf on the far right corner. See it?

Yes, this.

Useful? Yes. Pretty? No. So I decided it needs to go. So I gingerly broached the topic to hubby cos he was the one I nagged to put it up for me a year or so ago. So this is how the convo went:


Me: I want to get rid of that?


Hubby: Why? Looks perfectly good and useful to me? You wanted it there.


Me: Umm, yes I know. But I want something better.....


H: How much is this "something better" going to cost? 
(Why is it always about the money???? What about aesthetics???)


Moi: I don't really know, but let me shop around a few stores and see what is available and for what price (knowing fully well something nice - meaning made of wood, with pretty designs could be pricey). but was I going to say that? Nah!


H looking a bit fed up: Ok, take a look....what are you going to do with this then?


Moi: You can use it in your workshop.


H: Hmmm I don't think so!


And so the past week or so I went scouting around for a nice wooden shelf, measuring approx. 21" wide x 24 high. Went to Inhabit, Fab India, Home Store...and other arty stores. No luck! Even thought of maybe calling our carpenter and having him make one but thought I would try some more.....Then last week while visiting a cousin, we drove thru this street lined with vendors selling cricket bats, wooden tables, shelves and assorted knick knacks. Cheap stuff, but I found just the shelf I wanted....the dimensions were perfect. So I bought it...

.....had my able assistant Krishna sand it, prime it and paint it red with enamel paint

and then I embellished it with leftover white paint from this project.
Ta da.....

The two framed pics on top are to cover the holes in the wall left from the previous shelf!

And there you have it! Not entirely a DIY since Krishna did a bulk of it, but I did tell him how to Do It Himself! That counts right?

Total cost for shelf, primer, brushes and paint: Rs 380/$9! Hubby is happy, I am happy! Its a win win!

Now here is a sneak peek at my next DIY - wall art with some leftover pieces of broken mud and ceramic pots and a terracotta mask that fell down last week in the wind and broke!

Will post pics of this as well as the entire kitchen in its new found glory, next week!

Music and Makeovers

I'm here! In case you're wondering if I just fell off the planet  or something:-)

Its been a crazy busy week...I dived headlong into a couple of DIY's without fully thinking them through and am now sort of stuck, I got the living and dining rooms repainted a lovely mustardy yellow (sounds awful, but its not), I am reorg'ing my kitchen, we are restarting our kitchen organic garden now that the rains are here!!!

So, all in all a busy time. Here is a quick peek at one wall of the newly repainted living room...

And all through that busy time, this song, has been haunting me! Its a Bengali song, for a commercial for the newly built Tata Medical Center in Kolkata. I heard it about 2 weeks ago and it took me a few days to find out what it was, and I have to share it with you all. Its beautiful!

Here are 2 versions, both heart wrenchingly beautiful. The first for the children in it, who are being treated at the Medical Center. The second one for the music.

Here is the TV ad which had me at the very first line even though I didn't understand a single word of it "Tumi Shunona Amar Kotha"

And here is the original song in its entirety in the TV series it featured in

I'll be posting pics of all that I have been doing soon.....! 

Kitchen makeover

Does it ever happen to you that one day, suddenly out of the blue...you want to change everything in the house? I mean, you're going about your business as usual, doing the things you do every day and then BAM - you're just tired of seeing the same old things in the same old room, the same old way!!!! You want to change things around.

Well, that's how I have been feeling about my kitchen lately. My cook left more than a year ago, and ever since then I have been spending a lot more time - happy time - in the kitchen. I love to cook and as long as she was there, I didn't bother too much about how efficient or user friendly it was. But for the past year now I have sort of been adapting....! Now I really want to change things around so I'm not dashing around madly between the food and the frig. and the dishes and the sink and the stove, tripping over my one dog who is ALWAYS there while I cook!

I need a LOT of counter space, I mean a lot. I guess we all have different ways of cooking, but I cook sort of like they do on cooking shows. I get all my ingredients measured out, my veggies all chopped and lined up, so when its time to cook I have everything right at hand. So obviously I need a lot of space to keep all these things.

Then secondly all my nice pottery and dishes which I never used when my cook was around, have all come out now. So I need a place for them.

So you see....why I need to redo things? So for some inspiration and ideas I checked out Elle Decor's Lookbook. I just loved some of the ideas and over the next week am going to try to incorporate some of them...take a look at these lovely kitchens.

Will post some pics in about a week's time. Let me see what ideas I can get (and successfully execute) from these pics. 

Cook's Nook!

I have been invited by Sharon of The Key Bunch to join the October Blog Carnival - the Cook's Nook! We're talking kitchens here...but we all know the kitchen is not just the cook's nook.......the kids do their homework there, the dogs lay on the floor while the cooking is going on, drooling for any food that may fall accidentally, guests always gravitate to the kitchen no matter how lovely the living room is, in other words it is everyone's nook!
My kitchen is no different. Every new house we move into has had a larger kitchen than the previous one and yet, my kitchen is never big enough! I like lots of counter space....my mom jokes saying I need lots of counter space to keep empty :-) Yes, I don't like clutter. I enjoy cooking and I need all the space I can get. I love love old utensils and cooking gadgets.....traditional grinding stones, stone mortar and pestles, antiquated coconut scrapers and vegetable cutters and so on. I have inherited a lot of brass and bronze ware from my mom and grandma which co-exist happily with Indian village mud and clay pottery, Italian ceramic ware, Moroccan tagines and Turkish bowls! Its a synthesis of old, new, modern, rustic, simple and sophisticated! And I love it all!

The nook

Brass coffee filters, copper and bronze glasses

Tibetan copper tea kettle and singing bowl

Measuring spoons and cups

Brass pots as spoon holders

Painted mud vessels...for storing rotis(bread) and yogurt

Very old wood painted Laccadivian coconut scraper...masquerading as a fruit bowl!

The essential of any Indian kitchen....the "brass masala dabba" (literally translated to mean the box that holds the spices)

My mug collection...yes, a bit freaky I know

My dachshund salt and pepper shakers

Thank you Sharon for letting me participate in this!