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New House

Range Hood and Bar Stools

Every afternoon the girls do their homework and I do my housework.  And by housework I don’t mean cleaning and laundry, although I should be cleaning and doing laundry.  Instead I go over cabinet and built-in sketches, take calls regarding plumbing and electrical issues, and compare prices for light fixtures on-line.  We also eat lots of cheese and crackers during this time.  Cheese and crackers make us think better.  Kole runs circles around the table tapping each of us on the leg and saying “play!?” so we take turns chasing him in the back yard or up and down the stairs.  Then when all three of us girls are worn out and can chase no more we turn on Peppa Pig.  We are always SAVED by Peppa Pig.  This has become our afternoon routine.  :)
Today I have been working on my range hood that will go over my oven.  And by “working” I mean pondering, contemplating, debating, and stewing.  I’m a little torn and would love some help from anyone who has an opinion!  Here is the latest sketch:
I feel like it’s SO close to how I want it, but I can’t quite say it’s done.  Does the top section with the three panels need to be longer?  Should I move the corbels up under the shelf instead of below it?  Do I want to lose the arch and make it straight along the bottom?  The hardest thing about building everything from scratch is having TOO many options.  I’m swimming in options!  Or more like drowning in them.  I would love to hear your opinion on the range hood!  You know.  So that I can tweak it ten more times and drive my cabinet guy even more crazy than I already have.  Thankfully he is so sweet and calm and patient with me.  I need to make him some muffins.  
I’m really not much of an arch person and most things in my house will be straight lined, but I added the slight arch to the range hood because I’m going to do a valance over my kitchen window and wanted the two to compliment each other.   
Here are the two options for the window valance and I’d love to get your opinion on this too!
Option #1

Option #2

Do you like it better with two panels or three?  Thanks in advance for sharing your sage wisdom and advice!  I clearly didn’t eat enough crackers and cheese this afternoon to power through this decision on my own.  
Now for some more decisive new house news, I bought bar stools!  

What do you think!?  My designer (who lives in Utah) called me one afternoon and said “Erin!  I found some bar stools that are totally you in TJ Maxx at such a good price!”  He took a pic with his phone and as soon as I saw them I called my mom.  “Mom – I love you.  Remember how I’m your favorite and how I’ve brought you so much happiness over the years…”   :)
“What do you want Erin.”
“I need you and dad take his truck to TJ Maxx and pick up some bar stools for me.  Keep the receipt just in case I see them and change my mind.  Oh.  And then I need you to store them for me until the house is finished because you know I don’t have an ounce of room for them in my current house.”

She and my dad went to TJ’s and got the bar stools for me.  Clearly because I’m their favorite and have brought them so much happiness over the years.  And I don’t want to return them!  Even though my dad predicted that I would.  (Such little faith dad!)  Fingers crossed they will look good in the new kitchen!  I can only fit three under my island, but I bought four just in case I need an extra.  Accidents tend to happen often with my crew.

I love the nail head trim and that they are leather so they will be easy to wipe clean.  Pretty and practical.  Something I’m always attempting to achieve.  YEA for my first furniture purchase for the new house!  And thanks mom and dad.  I love you both and suppose the two of you have made me pretty happy over the years as well.  
:)
xoxo, Erin
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40 thoughts on “Range Hood and Bar Stools

  1. Love the range hood with the arch. I also love #2 for the windows. I think the arch of the oven hood will really look nice with the windows.
    The arch on the oven hood gives it a little character.

    The bar stools are stunning!

    Cathy

    P.s….I would def make your cabinet guy muffins…LOL.

  2. Lol. You always crack me up:-) So, the hood is beautiful as is, However I prob would go with straight along the bottom. My ocd likes straight lines. I like option #2 for the valance. Erin, I literally could not do this, I am horrible at decisions…like really horrible, I will spend 20 min at Target in one isle trying to figure out what color whatever to buy. Its really sad lol. The stools are beautiful (straight lines too)!! Thanks for showing the pic of your table, because mine is totally the same right now and that makes me feel better:-) Your house is going to be A-mazing!!! I can’t wait to see it all start to come together

  3. They are beautiful. I will warn you that there will be gook that gets in the crack between the back and the seat of the stool. I have similar ones and if you ignore it too long. It gets disgusting…apparently Cheerios and bread crumbs mixed with little juice and milk spills…make a very toxic, goopy mess. Make sure you vacuum has one of those narrow stick attachments.

  4. Beautiful bar stools! Decisions are so hard when you have to make them ALL!! We’ve built 3 houses to live in and around 10 to sell, so I know all about decisions :) just my opinion but I would lengthen the top of the hood and leave it arched, and I like 3 panels for the valance. Can’t wait to see it finished!

  5. I’m with all of the 3 panel voters. :)

    I’m about 3-4 weeks behind you on house construction, so it’s nice to have someone thinking about the same things I think about all day!

  6. I really like the arch in your range hood. I think it will compliment the valence nicely. As for the valence, I agree with Cheryl, if you’ve got 3, do three panels so they compliment one another.

  7. My mother in law has a beautiful hood similar to the ones in your sketches. The sides pull out with shelfs for her spices. I don’t know if yours will do this, but it is a GREAT feature and great use of space! I can send a picture if you need it. Good Luck!

  8. First of all, I love those bar stools, what a great find! I like the arch, it’s not only pretty but it looks custom. If you’re going to build a house from scratch, you may as well take advantage of getting to make it look more unique. Love your blog by the way!

  9. Thanks for your sweet comments and advice everyone! Sounds like #2 is the winner so far!

    Yolanda – thank you! You are too kind. So nice to “meet” you! :)

    Hi Sarah! So fun hearing from you! I have the pull out spice racks along both sides of my oven. I’m all over it! Although you know I don’t own that many spices… :)

  10. I like the idea of bothe range hood and the valanced arched. They’ll break up all of the straight lines. Just a little bit of something different. But, if you like straight lines so much, why don’t you make them BOTH straight? It’s your kitchen after all. If straight lines make you happy, go with it! :)
    Jessica M.

  11. Erin – this comment is totally unrelated to the content of the post but I notice you have a MacBook Pro. I recently switched from a PC when I bought a MacBook Air almost on an impulse.. and don’t love it yet. Did you switch in recent times as well? What is your experience like with your Mac? Do you love it? Did it take a while before you started loving it? Maybe a post on that sometime? :)

    – Radhika

  12. I would choose option 2 with the three panels. I would keep the arch in the hood as well. Even if it is for practical use only. I think the extra height the arch makes will be better. I can’t help with the other choices; I too have a hard time. Everything looks beautiful! Love the bar stools too!

  13. I like the range hood with the arch. I’m also partial to the 2nd window valance.

    Can’t wait to see your house all finished.

    Love, love, love the barstools!

  14. Range hood is perfect! Go with two panels for the kitchen valance. The bar stools are perfect too. You’re doing a great job Erin. I know building a house is a lot of work and multiple decisions are difficult. We always joke that it was easier to renovate when we were poor. Not many choices when your budget is “what’s the cheapest?” Hang in there!

    Wendy from Vancouver

  15. Valance #2 gets my vote too! And I love the arches. I think you should keep the corbels at the bottom of the hood where they are. And the barstools are fantastic! What a great find. Love reading about your house decisions. It’s so fun!!

  16. nothing to do with barstools or arches…

    i read your blog last week and tried your sleeping suggestions on my 4.5 month old – you are a BABY GENIUS!!! we are regularly napping around here and my world is wonderful – thanks again :)

  17. Hi Erin! I need to see you in real life!:) You will pick the perfect one of everything for you! Love the barstools. Can’t wait to see them. WAnt to catch up!

  18. Just something to ponder. We bought leather like dining room chairs when our kids were young. My kids introduced them to forks one day while eating lunch. They loved the sound the fork made when it was stabbed in. After that we bought an over sized picnic table kit and made a new table that’s chairs could not be poked.

    …Bette who loves your decisions!

  19. I think that the bottom part of the hood should have the same inner frames as the top part, I think you should lose the arch and leave it straight and also have a straight valance (with the same number of panels as the top section of the hood) and I think the person who commented about the number of frames lining up with the range itself has got it right – if the hood lines are at odds with the range it will look strange and I think eventually becoming annoying. Also leave the corbels below the shelf and I think the top section of panels does need to be longer as at the moment I think that’s what’s looking out of proportion.

    Sorry that seems critical and negative but really I do think its lovely and nearly there, just would be my tweaks if it was my own decision.

    PS What colour will this (the hood/valance) be?

  20. I love the design of yoru range hood with the arch. it break up all the straigh lines you have going on in rest of house and just add that little extra detail in kitchen..i love option 2 as it is more pleasing to eyes.

    I love love those bar stools. great choice. I can not wait for this house to be finish… to see it all…

  21. Hey Erin! Barstools were my first purchase for our new place too :) Love yours! And what a good idea buying an extra. I like option 2. And the 2 curves complement each other – clever girl ;) xx

  22. Thanks so much everyone! I really appreciate the advice!

    Wendy – your comment made me laugh. Love it! :)

    Radhika – Oh that’s so hard! I didn’t love my Mac for a long time either and to be honest, I still don’t. I really like it, but I miss some things about my PC. But I know if I switched back I’d miss some things about my Mac. I feel like there isn’t a perfect set up! But give it some time. I definitely like my Mac a lot better than I did when I first bought it!

    Ashlee – I am SO happy to hear that! YEA for a sleeping baby! Thank you! That’s great news and I’m thrilled my post helped you. :)

    Bette – TOO FUNNY! I never thought about fork poking! HA! I’ll have to watch out for that. :)

    Anonymous – the hood will be white. :)

  23. I would do the arch! I also like option 2 on the sink valance :)

    We also have barstools that are leather and they are so easy to clean (i also have a 2 yr old boy that is crazy like Kole!). I agree with the girl who said “gook” gets stuck in the back… I do use the narrow vac attachment to get crumbs and such out!

  24. hi erin!

    i’ve been reading your blog for a few months and love it! you and i seem to have quite a bit in common…passion for organizing, 3 young children, and more. and your personality really comes through in your posts – love it!

    sorry if i am hijacking your comment section here…don’t want to or mean to do that! :-) but your post encouraged me to share our kitchen with you…because we have the same sort of look (of your drawing) going on in our kitchen. if you want to see how mine looks, i thought it would help. here’s a link to where i shared our kitchen on my blog….

    http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com/2012/09/organized-kitchen-cabinets.html

    i’m a visual person so it always helps me to see the drawing in real life…in action…in someone’s home. not just flat on paper. and your drawing looked so much like my hood that i wanted to share the images with you.

    we have 4 cabinets above the hood (which has the arch you are talking about) AND on each side there is a drawer that pulls out (to hold spices, etc) and another smaller drawer (to hold hot mits, etc.). if you have the option of adding those 2 side pieces with pull-out drawers, go for it. i love having those elements there. it frees up more space in our kitchen.

    i really hope seeing this in a photo will help you visualize how your kitchen might look. :-)

    super excited to watch that drawing come to life in here!

    thanks for the inspiration!
    samantha :-)

  25. I would vote for the arch on the oven hood and although I think I like the look of the two panels on the valence, I might go with three to match the three panels above the range. Just my 2 cents!

  26. Hi Erin,

    I would like to comment, but was wondering if you could show us a drawing of the hood in context with the other cabinets that will be near it – I’m a visual person like you and find it hard to make these sorts of decisions until I can visualise it and just looking at the hood itself its hard to know what I would choose until I can see how it will look with everything else round about it. Having said that I don’t think I’m a fan of the arch, although it does seem a more popular choice, its just not for me. Have you finalised a cabinet colour – I know you’d been thinking about white but you’ve also mentioned grey – or are you going for two-tone, grey on the bottom units and white on the top perhaps?

    Sometimes I envy you being able to redo your whole house from scratch but then I think how hard it is to just make decisions on one room – then not so much of the envy more of the “oh you poor soul, how have you not taken to drink!”.

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