This is a reposting of a guest blog post I did for Dos Family in 2009. I still regularly receive emails asking for the link to download the Swedish Christmas record, so I regularly share it here.

(Perhaps this reposting will kick-start a resumption of blogging in 2024? We’ll see!)

In the United States, it’s not uncommon to hear Christmas music wafting from shop speakers as early as the beginning of November, but it’s not “Here Comes Santa Claus” or “Jingle Bell Rock” that puts me in the holiday spirit. For me, it’s not Christmastime until I put on the recording of Swedish Christmas music that I grew up listening to each and every year: Christmas in Sweden, recorded in 1962 by Åke Jelving and a chorus of parents and children.

This is jovial, happy music, sung with energy and enthusiasm…and with audible gasping and stomping!

Our mother may be Swedish, but my siblings and I haven’t got a clue what the lyrics mean. I suspect that they, like me, sing along phonetically (and badly) in the privacy of their own homes. On Christmas day, we put the record on and leave the singing to Mommy as we all hold hands and dance in a circle, usually around the spread of snacks and glögg on the kitchen island.

My gift to you is a download of Christmas in Sweden. I created the files directly from the record, so you’ll hear all the same snaps and crackles that I do when I listen to the original. I think that just adds to the appeal! Unless you’re a Swede, this may not sound like Christmas music to you at first, but give it time. (And maybe enjoy it with a little glögg.)

To download the album, just click this link and then click the “download” button. A zip file containing numbered m4a files and album artwork will then download. No need to create an account. Easy! This link will expire on January 1, 2024.

God Jul!

Yay! It’s the finished dining room! I’m really, really pleased without how the floating banquette turned out. Pretty much every day I marvel at how it looks like it’s always been there. It’s exactly what this space needed to feel like an actual dining room rather than just a corner of the open living space. I’m really glad I opted to not do something fussier or more elaborate, too—putting a back on it or trying to incorporate storage underneath would’ve taken away from the kind of simplicity of purpose I wanted.

OK, but is it stable?

You can see here just how much support there is under the banquette. It’s really solid. Someone asked on Instagram how much weight/people it can support, and all I can really say is…a lot. Each of these brackets is rated to support 500 pounds, and they’re ALL mounted to studs roughly 16″ apart. 3/4″ plywood is even stronger than the 1/2″ standard used to make weight-bearing kitchen cabinets. In other words, the banquette can hold more weight than you’d ever realistically put on it.

Warm posteriors, warm canine.

So much better than just a couple of chairs! The banquette helps the area to look grounded and permanent rather than just a collection of floating furniture that happens to be there. It’s part of the house now. Hiding the baseboard radiators is a nice side bonus, too—as is the warmth the heaters provide to our butts (and Fritz) on chilly mornings over breakfast. Win-win! Sometimes I even stretch out on the long side to take a little cat nap.

I think it’s worth noting that the corner where the banquette and dining table are contained is only about 50 square feet (6′x8.5′), but we can easily fit at 6-8 people around the table. Or at least we could do that if it weren’t for this pesky pandemic and all! It’s been really long time since I’ve hosted a dinner party, and I miss it. I’m looking forward to having friends gather around in this little nook! Round tables are so nice for social meals.

✚ Table: Wayfair
✚ Chairs: Bertoia/Knoll
✚ Lamp: Nelson Ball Bubble Pendant (medium size)

For anyone who hasn’t been reading D16 for a while, I feel like I should mention that ALL of my fancy “designer” furniture is either vintage/scavanged or was purchased at an enormous discount from the now-defunct Design Within Reach outlet in New Jersey. It seems kind of gross to link to a $690 wire dining chair knowing the actual price I paid was closer to what you’d spend for a nice chair at IKEA. Most of this stuff moved to New Mexico with me from New York and has been in my life for a long time now. I believe in buying things for your home that you’re going to want to keep forever (which is why I wish I’d been more patient when buying the table), but I also realize that the full list prices of some of the furniture I own are a million light years beyond what the average American can afford—myself included.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room

This 7′ length of wall space is only 24″ deep, and I immediately knew it was the perfect spot for my beloved Eames storage unit. The drawers hold placemats, napkins, and other dining essentials, the sliding doors at the top are home to candlesticks, vases, tablecloths, and the like, and all of my records live behind the lower sliding doors! (I sold my record player last year and still need to replace it with a slimmer, Bluetooth-enabled one that will fit on one of the open shelves.)

✚ Chair: Eames/Herman Miller
✚ Chair pad: Eames Bikini
✚ Screen print: Alexander Girard
✚ Magazine rack: Target
✚ Cabinet: Eames Storage Unit/Herman Miller
✚ Calendar Flip Clock: Karlsson (also sometimes available on Amazon)
✚ Plant pot: IKEA
✚ Wooden dolls: Alexander Girard
✚ Vase and snail box: Jonathan Adler

See how it all opens up and connects to the rest of the house? That’s the kitchen through the doorway, obviously, and then over to the right is a coat closet—and beyond that, a small hallway that leads to our bedroom, my office, and the bathroom. You really get a sense of the layout of the entire house just from this spot—I love that.

✚ Painting: Bruce Dorfman (or as I like to call him, Dad)
✚ Mustard yellow dot hook: Muuto
✚ Leather bag: Pine & Boon
✚ Sofa: Article

Don’t you want to curl up in this corner with a cup of coffee and a book? It’s such a nice spot to be in, even when it’s not meal time. If you have an unused corner in your house (or even just an empty length of wall—there’s no reason you need to have an L-shape), you can build a bench like this. Minimal tools, minimal materials, minimal cost, and minimal time. And in return you get so much!

✚ Plant pot: CB2
✚ Candle holder: Nathalie Lautenbacher
✚ Fir tree pillows: Fine Little Day
✚ Eames Dot pillow: Atomic Livin Home
✚ Wall paint: Valspar Bistro White (flat)

✚ Triangle pot: Geninne D Zlatkis
✚ Terrazzo vase: Target
✚ Plate: Royal Copenhagen (My grandmother’s Christmas plate from 1911!)
✚ Solar window shade: BlindsMax
✚ Bench cushions: Hayneedle

Flow, baby. Flow.

I love the view from the kitchen into the dining room. I think I’m usually pretty consistent with my décor choices, but because this house is both small and so open, I’ve been extra-conscious of the view from one room to another. I think that’s something that can be forgotten too easily if you like to try out a lot of different styles in your house. I want the next room in my sight line to invite me in, and I don’t want to feel like I’m walking into another home. Flow, baby. Flow.

Speaking of flow, here’s the view from the dining room into the living room. Again, it’s clearly a separate area, but everything looks related. As far as I’m concerned there’s no limit to the number of patterns and colors you can put in a room, but they all need to talk to each other somehow. I’ll get into the details of the living room in a future post, but I didn’t think about these spaces as separate entities design-wise when I was figuring out how to set them up.

Before and after!

I love comparison shots like these where I can look back at how a space started. It’s like magic to me, especially when it’s my own home. No walls were moved or taken down, and yet it’s become something entirely new. I love that even though my own taste could not be farther from the traditional southwestern style of the house, all of these furnishings from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s are as much at home here as they were in my Victorian row house.

Dining room recap:

✚ Read about my plans for the dining room here!
✚ Learn how to make your own DIY floating banquette here!

As always, if you have any questions at all about the construction of the floating banquette (or anything else in the dining room that I might have missed), please feel free to ask. And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Here’s to a 2021 that’s…well, that’s not 2020. L’chaim!

As I alluded to in my previous post about our small dining room area, the clear solution to creating a defined, purposeful space that feels separate from the living room area (despite them being fully open to each other as one large room) was to build a floating banquette in the corner. I wanted the banquette to also serve as a way to at least distract from the baseboard radiators beneath it, while not interfering with their functionality and purpose.

Having discovered that Lowe’s carries a ~16″ industrial shelving bracket with a rear flange that’s just able to slip behind the baseboard radiators, I figured out how many I’d need to buy to support both sides of the banquette. Each pair of brackets is rated to support 1000 pounds, and 36″ of 3/4″ plywood can support 50 pounds, and…you know what? That is TOO MUCH MATH for me to deal with, so I decided that the safest route to take was one of possible overkill: Attach a bracket to every stud.

Then began the always-tedious process of figuring out where the studs are, which involved a Studpop magnetic stud finder, a tape measure, a drill, and perseverance. In older houses with walls made from materials that aren’t drywall, there’s just no easy trick to finding studs.

Ten brackets turned out to be the magic number. Naturally, Lowe’s only had three in stock, so I had to order them. This was a fortunate delay, because it occurred to me while waiting that I was probably going to want to put seat cushions on the banquette, and that it was probably going to be expensive to have them custom made to fit.

Cushions first, plans second?

My brain did the thing where it comes up with an idea, and I decided it might be better to work backwards from the cushions when figuring out the exact measurements of the banquette. In other words, look for pre-made bench cushions, and take it from there.

I found these 18″ deep outdoor bench cushions on Hayneedle (they’re sold out now), and they came in both 45″ and 55″ lengths. This was miracle #2 in the Anna Builds a Banquette story (the first being the Miracle of the Bracket)—by using two of the shorter cushions and one of the longer, I could build the banquette at just about the EXACT size I was envisioning. Truly amazing.

Plans! Measurements! Materials!

Why yes, I did just draw this five minutes ago because I can’t find the version I drew when I was actually planning the banquette, which is probably crumpled up in a tool bin somewhere.

I had Lowe’s cut the 3/4″ plywood into two 18×96″ planks (plus the scrap) because my car isn’t big enough to hold a full sheet. Besides, why not? I don’t have a table saw, and doing a long cut like that is no fun without one. I also picked up a couple of 1×4″ boards to use to trim out the sides of the banquette to give it a bulkier/thicker look.

Installing the brackets

I had marked out where the studs were a few weeks prior when figuring out how many brackets to buy, so this part of the project actually went up pretty quickly. I drew a level line at the right height along both walls before I started, so it was just a matter of drilling into the stud, and driving in a 3″ lag screw in the top position, getting the bracket level on the vertical, and then driving in two more screws (except for the brackets above the radiators—those only got two screws, but because they’re all attached to studs, I have no concerns about the strength). As I worked my way around the room, I double-checked the horizontal leveling between each pair of brackets with a scrap 2×4. All ten brackets were up in about an hour, give or take.

When I reached the corner, I added a cleat (also screwed into the studs) for extra support. Possibly unnecessary, but given that it’s the end of the far board and also where the two sides meet, it felt like the smart thing to do.

Plywood time!

Before cutting the plywood boards in length, I did a dry-fitting. This was in part to test out the stability of the whole thing, but also so I could get the cushions in place and then mark off the cut lines based on the actual cushion and not the measurements on the website. I mean, it’s a cushion. It’s not like it’s going to be EXACTLY 55″ or whatever, and I didn’t want to wind up with any overhang—or any exposed plywood, for that matter.

It was so satisfying to sit down on the plywood and not feel any movement. Super solid!

Almost there…

How about that?? Plywood cut to fit and screwed down to the brackets, cushions in place and looking swell. Trim boards mitered and attached (I nailed them to the edges of the plywood, then added L-brackets underneath for extra strength and stability) and painted white.

All that’s left is to get the rest of the room looking cute! That’s coming in the next (and final) installment of this series. I swear I’m not intentionally dragging this out, but I’m trying to be conscious of not posting TOO much all at once for the sake of attention spans (mine and yours), and also to be sure I’m actually taking the time to convey the entire process in detail.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! This whole project was really easy once I figured out the specifics, and it’s definitely something you can handle yourself if you have a spot in your house for your very own floating banquette.

Dining room update:

✚ Read about my plans for the dining room here!
✚ See the finished dining room here!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned the square footage of my house before, but it’s about 875 square feet. Enormous by NYC apartment standards, but small compared to the average American house. It was built in 1950, when lots of smaller homes were built all over the country to meet the post-WWII demand for housing. Almost all of the houses in our neighborhood have additions built onto them, but ours does not. And we like it that way! I find large houses overwhelming—whether it’s an excessive number of rooms, or if the rooms themselves are very large.

I like cozy! I like compact. I like walls, I guess? I like separation of spaces.

The living room and dining room in our house is one large, open space, and that’s how the house was built. Not generally being a fan of so-called “open-concept” layouts, I was initially kind of unsure how I’d work with the space to create a dedicated dining area.

This is the space I’m talking about. The door to the kitchen meant that a long, rectangular dining table (like the one I had in my Newburgh dining room, which is currently serving as an enormous desk for my brother-in-law) wasn’t going to work unless we wanted to constantly squeeze past it, and a square table sitting in the corner seemed like it would be a hassle to maneuver chairs around—not to mention that it would almost certainly limit the seating capacity to four (which turns out to be the highest number people we’ve ever had in this house at once anyway, but never mind about that).

Enter a round table! I hate to say it, but I kind of regret this purchase. I really wanted a Saarinen tulip table, but instead of doing what I’d normally do—keep an eagle eye on Craigslist and vintage furniture stores and wait for someone local to sell a used one for cheap—I immediately got impatient and ordered a knock-off from Wayfair (which they apparently no longer carry). It’s…disappointing. The scale of the base is totally wrong and way too bulky-looking (the photos on the Wayfair website were clearly of a completely different table—extra annoying), and the surface of the top had all kinds of little dings and scratches upon arrival. Also, the base is fiberglass, not steel, and the surface has a bunch of little cracks in it. Does it function as a table? Yes! Am I glad I bought it? Nope! The only real upside is that Wayfair credited my account for half the purchase price after I complained about the condition and the inaccurate photos.

For now and for the foreseeable future, though, it’s just fine. At least it confirmed that a round table is indeed the right thing for this spot. The corner still looked kind of anemic and ill-defined, though, and I knew that adding more chairs wasn’t going to make it look more purposeful. (That shoe rack by the front door wasn’t helping anything, either.)

Dealing with Baseboard Radiators

Look, there’s no way to pretend it’s not true: Baseboard radiators are ugly. They just are. SOMEDAY I’d like to build nice covers for them all, but that day is not today, or even next year. It’s a fantasy. In the meantime, anything that can distract from the baseboard radiators—while not impeding their functionality—is a good thing.

To that end, I started thinking about seating that could go over the radiators. An L-shaped banquette is an obvious solution for a dining room/corner nook, but what about a floating banquette that would allow heat to flow freely from underneath? Would that be possible without opening up the walls to build in the supports?

Photo via Mary Haseltine

Floating Banquette Inspiration

While searching for examples of banquettes floating over baseboard radiators, I came across this excellent (and ambitious) post from Mary Haseltine. This was exactly what I had in mind and it looks spectactular, but I’m gonna be real with you here and say that there was no way I was going to make a bunch of wood brackets and use joist hangers and dowel joints and clamps and all of that. I admire people willing to go to those lengths, but frankly, that’s precious time I could be spending watching all 12 seasons of Love It or List It. Priorities.

How about steel brackets and plywood?

My next thought was to take the much, much easier route of just using 3/4″ plywood and basic steel brackets, much like how Allison from Designed Simple created her dining room bench. I’d have to make it work with the baseboard radiators, of course, which would mean finding brackets strong enough to support the banquette, but with a short enough rear mounting plate to somehow clear the radiators without making the bench ridiculously high off the ground.

Just for the halibut, I picked up one of these ~16″ industrial shelving brackets from Lowe’s and brought it home. Maybe there was a chance that the bottom flange of the rear mount could slide behind the baseboard radiators, solving all of my problems and making this entire project so much easier than it has any business being?

…AND LO AND BEHOLD, IT FIT!! I feel like this is never how these things you imagine might work ever actually turn out? I was fully expecting to get the bracket home, immediately discover how silly I was for thinking it might fit behind the radiator, and then move on to some other option. I’m kind of still in disbelief that it not only fit perfectly, but that in the lowest possible position it was situated at exactly the right spot to support a banquette with an 18″ seat height, which is even more amazing.

On the next episode of Anna Builds a Banquette

Not to leave you hanging, but the details of the banquette construction really do need their own dedicated post. That’s coming up in the next installment! Stay tuned…

Dining room update:

✚ Learn how to make your own DIY floating banquette here!
✚ See the finished dining room here!

I decorated the fireplace mantel for Christmas last week, and I really love the combination of classic New Mexican architecture, modern design objects, and traditional Swedish decorations. It looks so festive and cheerful, especially with a roaring fire going! The Julbock (Christmas goat) is one of several my mother had for many years, and the Jultomten (Christmas…goblin) and straw wreath are gifts she gave me more recently to help make my home feel more…well, like home at Christmastime.

In recent years, I’ve neglected to uphold my old tradition of posting Swedish Christmas music here on the blog. My sister Melissa texted me the other day asking for a link to download it, and that’s when I realized that the old link on the blog doesn’t actually work anymore. So! Let’s do it again!

(By the way, I looked at the calendar this morning thinking it was the 11th, and then had a small freakout when I realized it’s actually the 17th. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Considering 2020 has been approximately 97 years long, I don’t understand how it’s possible that the last two months have moved at lightning speed. What even is time? And is 2021 an actual year, or is it a science fiction genre?)

Growing up, this is the Christmas album we listened to in my house. It was recorded in Sweden in 1962 and then released in the United States by Capitol, and as far as I can tell, it’s been out of print for a very long time. Åke Jelving was a Swedish violinist, and his downright jaunty playing style is the sound of Christmas in my family. There is no other music that instantly evokes this kind of intense, comforting nostalgia for me!

On Christmas Eves untouched by a pandemic, we’ve joined hands during “Nu Är Det Jul Igen” (“Now It’s Christmas Again”) and danced around the island in my mother’s kitchen—preferably after taking a few gulps of glögg to tamp down any inhibitions. And while our mother may be Swedish, my siblings and I haven’t got a clue what most the lyrics mean! I suspect that they, like me, sing along phonetically (and badly) in the privacy of their own homes.

This music is absolutely joyous, and it’s the thing I miss the most at Christmas if I’m not with my family. This year in particular feels especially difficult, and I’ll be leaning hard on Åke Jelving and his band of merry Swedes to keep me in the spirit.

If you haven’t already downloaded Christmas in Sweden from my blog in the past, I truly hope that you’ll do so now. Over the years, I’ve heard from so many people without any Swedish ancestry who have told me that this album has become part of their own family’s annual traditions, and that makes me so, so happy.

✚ Download Christmas in Sweden / Åke Jelving with Chorus and Orchestra (1962)
Grab a new link here!

God Jul!

A mere seven months after my last kitchen renovation update, at last! The final reveal! In real-life, I “finished” the kitchen last January, but of course you never actually finish a renovation project, do you? Just looking around the room now I can immediately count at least five things I still need to do in here—the big one being retouching scuffs and scrapes on the floor that happened during the countertop demo and refrigerator replacement. It’ll happen eventually! In the meantime, there’s no point in putting off sharing the completed (“completed”) kitchen as it is.

I took a whole bunch of photos yesterday, and I think what makes the most sense is to kind of “walk” around the room with them. I’m including a few side-by-side before-and-after set, too, since if you’re like me you want to compare every little detail between the beginning and the end. (Side note: Remember when people used to get all up in arms over before-and-after photos on Apartment Therapy that were taken in different lighting? It’s funny to think about now—all of those accusations that all someone did was open a curtain and magically the room looked like a whole new space.)

I’ve already detailed all of the steps of the renovation in previous kitchen posts, and now I can give you the details on the finishing touches and all of the stuff that went into the room after the renovation—the lovely little details that make it my favorite room in the house.

It’s the spice cabinet! Hello! I love how perfectly it fits on this otherwise empty wall. It’s like it was made for exactly this spot.

Also, that thing on the bottom left? That’s a trash/recycling bin. You can see it better in the top photo! It’s the Brabantia Bo Touch Bin, and it’s AWESOME. I really wanted a trash can with an integrated section for recyclables, and I didn’t want it to be stainless steel. When I stumbled on this one and saw that it’s ON LEGS, I was sold. It’s so nice to have a trash can higher off the ground, and I love being able to leave the top open while I’m cooking or cleaning. It’s SUPERB.

✚ Cabinet: IKEA
✚ Iron hanging rail + hooks: Amazon
✚ Dust pan: West Elm
✚ Potholders: Target
✚ Cutting board: American Heirloom
✚ Tea towel: Bookhou
✚ Trash/recycling bin: Brabantia

Here’s the pick-me-up coffee station! You can get the details in this post. I still love my Nespresso machine and my Breville milk frother!

This is the area to the left of the sink, with a little pink concrete pen pot I use for sugar-esque packets and the most lovely of bowls for scrubbing implements.

✚ Pen pot/packet holder: DOIY
✚ Ceramic bowl: Geninne D Zlatkis
✚ Tawashi scrubber: HAY
✚ Nail brush: Garrett Wade
✚ Piñon reed diffuser: P.F. Candle Co.
✚ Plant pots: Target

I love the kitchen. Truly. It’s so functional and easy to be in. It’s great to not feel like anything is in my way, or like I need to reorganize things in order to cook. The spots that were dead zones before are now in use in better ways. There’s just the right amount of counter space. The sink RULES. The countertops still look brand new, and couldn’t be easier to keep clean. It’s all great. I’m so happy this all happened without ripping out the original cabinets—as simple as they are, they really make the kitchen feel like it still belongs in this 1950 house.

✚ Pink sconce: Sazerac Stitches
✚ Ceiling pendant: Wayfair
✚ Dish rack: Yamazaki
✚ Sink: Kraus
✚ Faucet: Kraus
✚ Countertops: LG HI-MACS (Nordic White)
✚ Floor tiles: hand-stenciled
✚ Rug: Rugs USA

✚ Paper towel holder: Earth & Iron
✚ Mixing bowls: Crate & Barrel
✚ Cutting board: IKEA
✚ Salt & pepper grinders: Menu
✚ Spice grinder: Food52
✚ Spoon rest: Martha Stewart Everyday
✚ Upper cabinet paint: Valspar Du Jour
✚ Lower cabinet paint: Farrow & Ball Pink Ground

✚ Range: Cosmo
✚ Kettle: Sori Yanagi
✚ Utensil crock: West Elm
✚ Cabinet knobs: Home Depot

I still can’t get over what a different it made moving the refrigerator out of this spot and building new cabinetry (and adding counter space!) in its place. I’m endlessly grateful for the job Manuel did matching the original cabinets—you truly would never know they hadn’t been in the house forever. (My storage cubbies with their New Mexico flourishes are pretty sweet, too.)

✚ Butter keeper: Sandbox Ceramics
✚ Mugs: Clay Factor
✚ Coffee maker: Technivorm Moccamaster
✚ Coffee + sugar jars: Target

Getting a taller refrigerator with a smaller footprint and putting it in this formerly-dead space at the end of the room has really worked out. Trying to build cabinetry around it would’ve been a waste of time and space, but the finished sides on this fridge mean that it wasn’t necessary. Building these simple shelves made up for the lack of a pantry, too—I even have room for more jars in the future.

✚ Refrigerator: Summit
✚ Storage jars: Le Parfait
✚ Thermal carafe: IKEA
✚ Candle holders: Iittala
✚ Heart bowl: Hella Jongerius
✚ Wall tapestry: Target

And that’s the kitchen! If you have any questions at all about the process, expenses, resources, or anything else, please feel free to ask. As always, my primary wish in sharing projects like these is to help demystify renovation, and to empower others to turn their own homes into spaces that work FOR THEM and their families—even if you don’t think you know what you’re doing or if you’re working with a shoestring budget.

For anyone coming into this project at the end: This is a kitchen in a pueblo revival-style house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, built in 1950 by Allen Stamm. I’ve posted a series of installments over the past year breaking down each step in the process—all of which are linked below. Thank you for reading!

Kitchen recap:

✚ It’s time to meet the kitchen!
✚ Kitchen planning!
✚ Kitchen cabinets: Prep + painting.
✚ Painting and stenciling the kitchen floor.
✚ Kitchen countertop demolition.
✚ Painting the kitchen’s steel casement window.
✚ Let’s add some cabinets!
✚ Building cabinet cubbies for extra storage.
✚ It’s time for the kitchen to get some countertops!
✚ Installing a stacked bond subway tile backplash.
✚ A new refrigerator! Pantry shelving!

If you have a front-loading washing machine, you know what it’s like to discover that you’ve closed the door too soon after finishing a cycle, having thought it was completely dry. You’ve done your duty and kept the seals clean and dry, you’ve diligently cleaned out the filter regularly, and now your washer is STINKY. The moisture remains! It’s so unfair. Fortunately, I am here to show you how to rid your front-loading washing machine of moisture (and smell) with a super-simple trick.

(Side note: I feel like an imposter writing this post, because it’s the kind of thing you’d see in every other issue of Real Simple or connected to a Pinterest-ready graphic labeled with lettering that’s supposed to look like it was hand-lettered with a brush but is obviously a font. Even the title of the post sounds like someone else wrote it. If you never look at me the same way again, I completely understand. But man, my heart is IN THIS.)

I had a front-loader in New York, but because it was in the basement next to Leatherface, I was able to leave the door open whenever it wasn’t in use. Now, though, our washer and dryer are stacked in a closet in our living space, and leaving the door open for 24-48 hours (which is truly how long it takes to dry completely, even in New Mexico’s bone-dry climate) is a pain—especially since an open washer door impedes our access to the backyard.

After a year or so of feeling annoyed by having a stinky washer (and having to mitigate the stinky with more tub-cleaning treatments than should really be necessary), it crossed my mind that I should start saving all of the silica packets that come in vitamins and stuff, and maybe I could put a little dish of them in the washing machine when it’s not in use.

Then I started wondering whether it’s possible to buy those loose silica or another desiccant in bulk, and then I remembered DampRid. DampRid!

In New York, the Land of Humidity, putting a container of DampRid (which is really just calcium chloride in a strainer with a receptacle for the water that gets pulled out of the air) in a closet is a normal, common way to avoid winding up with musty clothes or moldy papers, but since moving to New Mexico, Land of Parched Air, I’d completely forgotten it exists.

While I initially envisioned just setting a container of DampRid at the bottom of the washer, I discovered they also make a bag version with a hanger at the top designed to hang from a clothing rod. Hmmmmmmm. Hmmmmmmm? For about 15 minutes I thought I might be able to come up with a way to hang the bag from the gasket somehow, and then it hit me. MAGNETS.

I ordered up a couple of heavy-duty rare earth magnets and a pack of DampRid hanging bags, and felt like a goddamn genius while I waited for them to arrive. New Mexico just brings this brilliance out in people, apparently.

Magnetic hook on the back of the drum, DampRid bag on the hook. Washer drawer shut. YOW! But would it work???

Friends, IT WORKS. It works!!! It works so well. It is absolutely BANANAS how much moisture it absorbs from a washer that’s already “dry.” I still leave the washer door open overnight after doing laundry (I typically only do laundry once a week), but the next morning I shut the door and forget about it. And the door stays shut. It’s not stinky AT ALL when I open it up a week later!

When the washer is in use, I just move the bag and the magnet to the side of the washer. It could not be easier. (And yes, one time I did forget to take it out before I did a load of laundry, but incredibly, the DampRid bag was still intact and only slightly depleted afterward! I rewashed the load and got on with my life. No harm done!)

One DampRid bag seems to last about three months, but that’ll of course depend on how often you do laundry and what the humidity levels are like where you live. At any rate, it WORKS, and if front-loader washer dampness and stink is something that has plagued you, this is a pretty nice solution.

The only thing I’ll do differently next time is make sure I’m buying fragrance-free DampRid. I was in such a rush of excitement when I ordered it the first time that I didn’t even consider that it would have a scent. What they call “fresh scent” reminds me of bathroom air freshener—better than mildew stink, but definitely not ideal. Also, I haven’t been able to find these hanging bags in local stores, so it does seem like something I’ll have to continue ordering online.

ALSO, it’s possible that there’s a solution someone smarter than me could come up with using reusable/refillable materials like glass and metal that could be combined with bulk calcium chloride (thus eliminating the need for the disposable plastic components), but I’m just not the person who’s going to figure that out.

I’ll keep cleaning my washing machine’s seals regularly, keeping the link trap clear, and running a monthly cleaning cycle with an Affresh tablet monthly, but I’m pretty happy that mid-week mildew stink is no longer an issue for my washing machine.

It’s been a long year.

This is my fourth quarantine/pandemic-themed (inspired?) post, and if you could have told me back in March that I’d be writing this in December, I would have curled up and wept on the spot. Instead, as each month has passed, I’ve become more and more sad about the entire situation. I’m sure there are more eloquent ways to describe it, but I think “sad” is really the word that describes where most of us are.

I know I’m not the only one who hasn’t felt like writing about it, while simultaneously feeling like focusing on anything else—for public consumption, at least—is an exercise in avoidance and denial. I admire those who have gotten past that internal conflict, especially when it’s been for the sake of others.

Anyway.

Since mid-March, I have seen my career go from a place of near-stagnation (which had lingered for about six months and was financially terrifying) to a point where I am putting in six-day weeks and many nights in order to not fall behind. I have shed almost 50 pounds. I have not seen my family. I have not seen my friends. I have been to the dentist, once. I have lost two family members to Covid. I have yelled at the television. I have yelled at my phone. I turned 45 years old, which does not sound right. I have tried to become the avid reader I once was, to no avail. (I did read a self-help book for the first time, though.) I have listened to so many podcasts. All of the podcasts, maybe. I have reglazed and restored nine steel casement windows. I have struggled with maskne. I have snuggled intensely with Fritz. I have felt extremely grateful that my boyfriend and I can both work at home. (I am even more grateful to have a partner that I love to be around all the time.) I have read way too many news articles at midnight and have watched way too much television news during mealtime. I have doomscrolled at 3AM. I made it through eight seasons of My 600-Lb. Life, and I don’t feel good about that. I voted. I have maintained a day planner. I have not gone out to eat. I have cooked many, many meals. I learned how to cut hair for real. I have gone through multiple bouts of insomnia. I have not, fortunately, gotten sick. Oh, and I really love that bidet.

This is definitely not a complete list, but it’s a rough outline.

Speaking of lists, lists are largely what has gotten me through the chaos of my workload over the past few months. I make multiple lists a day, on paper. I make lists of the lists I need to make. The other thing that’s kept me from grinding my teeth into a fine powder is utilizing timers. Setting a 20-minute timer on my phone and then racing against myself to get any many menial tasks done as possible during that time is pretty much a damn miracle.

ANYWAY. I’m back. I absolutely had to stop blogging for a while, because there are only 24 hours in a day, and I’ve actually become one of those weird people who needs to sleep for at least 7-8 hours a night in order to function properly. Things have leveled out, though, and I finally feel like I have a handle on life-stuff. See that calendar? That’s where I put all of my sticky notes with the names of the book covers I’m working on, and you’ll notice that all of those stickies are currently above the dates rather than on them, meaning everything I’m working on right now is in someone else’s court for the time being. I can’t fully express what a massive relief it is to have gotten to the point where I actually feel like I’m slightly ahead of the game.

So what’s going on with you all? Fill me in! Are you OK? Are you going to be OK? And aside from the full kitchen reveal, what do you want to see here from me—exterior house stuff from the summer, or bathroom renovation details?

Photograph © Mila Jam, 2020

I’ve written this post before, and I know I’ll write it again, and I think that knowledge is largely why I feel exhausted by the thought of writing it all down now.

That exhaustion is my privilege. I’m a white woman living in a country that was built for the success and safety of white people. So I get to feel exhausted and change the channel or close my laptop and get on with my day.

You know the story by now: George Floyd was murdered by a pig named Derek Chauvin, who spent 18 years with the Minneapolis Police Department. As Chauvin compressed Floyd’s carotid artery by kneeling on his neck for nine minutes, three other Minneapolis police officers—Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J Alexander Kueng—took turns standing idly by and doing nothing and kneeling on George Floyd’s back.

Now George Floyd is dead. George Floyd is dead because this is a country with a criminal justice system that is stacked from bottom to top to not only to give a pass to those in positions of law enforcement, but to ensure that the lives of Black people living in America are filled with as much trauma and as many obstacles to success—and I mean success on every level, not only economic—as possible.

That’s how this country works. That’s how it’s worked from the day the very first disease-ridden, colonizing looters arrived in Jamestown to the day George Floyd called out for his mother as he lay dying in the street outside a grocery store in Minneapolis.

Photograph © Gordon Parks, 1963

That’s how this country worked when Eric Garner had the life choked out of him by a cop after being accused of selling a loose cigarette. That’s how this country worked when Trayvon Martin was murdered by a man who only wished he was a cop while walking in his own neighborhood. That’s how it worked when Sandra Bland died in a jail cell after a routine traffic stop. That’s how it worked when Philando Castile was shot by a cop seven times a point blank range after being pulled over for a having a broken taillight. That’s how it worked when Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by cops with a no-knock warrant that turned up nothing. And that’s how it worked when 12-year-old Tamir Rice decided to play with a toy gun at a park and was murdered by a cop within two seconds of arriving on the scene.

This post would be many times longer if I kept going with the names of Black individuals who have had their lives needlessly taken from them at the hands of police (and former police, and people cosplaying as police), and then that list would multiply exponentially if we knew the names of the thousands upon thousands of Black lives lost before the era of cell phone cameras. And what if we were to factor in all of the instances of brutality? The list would never end. On and on and on and on.

And for what, exactly?

It’s not just about maintaining the myth of a society where “law and order” reign supreme. No, it’s about maintaining the entire structure of a society that was built on land stolen from the indigenous and built on the backs of the enslaved. It’s about maintaining white power, in every sense of those words.

Photograph © Devin Allen, 2015

It doesn’t begin and end with police brutality. It extends to every aspect of Blackness in America, from the school-to-prison pipeline to healthcare to Jim Crow to redlining to voting access to hairstyles to advertising to literature to education to entertainment to housing to just walking down the fucking street and existing. And I have the gall to say I’m exhausted? I need to shut up.

This is a deeply racist country, and that did not begin with the sociopathic white supremacist who currently holds the office of President of the United States of America. And no, it will not end when Trump eventually leaves the White House, whether by election or force or death. It will not end until we break down the entire system and start over. No amount of photos of cops hugging protestors will lead to systemic change.

If you’re white, you need to take some time to think about what it means to have gone through your life with the basic privilege of having the skin color you do. Whether you grew up in poverty or with a medical condition or with any kind of other hindrance to success—Black people in America face those things, too, and in greater numbers than anyone else. And they do it while being the target of so many forms of racism on every step of the ladder. Your whiteness alone has been your advantage. Don’t ever forget that. It’s not about whether your ancestors owned slaves. Your existence as a white person in America benefits from 400 years of Black oppression.

This is not a post about what to do. There are plenty of those out there, and if you care enough to take action—whether through protesting, taking political action, donating to groups supporting protestors, changing your buying habits, making sure your children grow up to be actively anti-racist, or any of the other countless ways you can affect change—you’ll find that information. This post is me asking you to stop and THINK. To put aside defensiveness and move past your exhaustion and put some serious thought into what kind of society you want to live in.

BLACK LIVES MATTER. BLACK DREAMS MATTER. BLACK FUTURES MATTER. BLACK MEN MATTER. BLACK WOMEN MATTER. BLACK ARTISTS MATTER. BLACK WRITERS MATTER. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

*ETA: A loved one brought something up with me after reading this post, and I want to address it. I recognize that not everyone reading this post is Black OR white. There are a mélange of races and colors and religions and cultures and combinations of all of the above who live in America, and the experiences of each of these groups are unique and valid. I recognize that Black people are not the only casualties of racism in this country, just as I recognize that the perpetuation of Black-targeted racism is not limited to white people. Know that I see you. That said, I do not feel equipped to speak to anyone but white people when it comes to calling out systemic racism, because I can never understand what it means to be on the other side of that line.

ANYWAY. Let’s get back to the kitchen renovation!

Remember this end of the room? This is how it looked in early 2018, before we’d done anything to the kitchen. This space was essentially wasted; probably used once upon a time for a Hoosier-style cabinet or a tiny kitchen table. Although I briefly toyed with the idea of building out a small pantry in that corner, but it really made so much more sense to move the refrigerator over there, and then add additional cabinets/counter space where the fridge used to be.

I wish I could say that I was totally fine with the refrigerator that came with the house, and for a while, I tried really hard to convince myself that I was. But the more work we did on the rest of the kitchen, the more out-of-place it looked. It also seemed HUGE and bulky, even though it was short.

So…the entire time we were working on the kitchen, I was casually researching refrigerators on the side. It would not have made sense to try to build out cabinetry to surround the fridge in a kitchen like this, so I was determined to find a refrigerator with a small footprint, finished sides (meaning the side material/color/texture is the same as the front, and is intended to be exposed), and no visible hinge mechanism. I’m as amazed by the lack of refrigerators with finished sides now as I was in 2013 when I discovered a SMEG was one of the few options.

I also have all of the same issue I always have with not wanting any logos, digital displays, or water dispensers on a refrigerator, which of course makes finding one that checks off most of the boxes (and still comes in at a reasonable price point) all the more difficult.

December 2019

As soon as I came across the Summit FFBF281W, I was sold. It checked off EVERY box! It’s counter-depth (29″ with the handle), and only 27″ wide. It still clocks in at almost 12 cu.ft for the fridge and 5cu.ft for the freezer, though, thanks to the 75″ height. And the sides are finished! I love that the handles are so simple, too. No logos, no frills. Just right!

AK agreed, and we ordered it right away from Home Depot.

A full WEEK before the tracking info showed it was supposed to arrive (and with no advance phone call from the delivery service), a huge truck pulled up in front of the house. I was home alone. A massive snowstorm was just beginning. The delivery company was only allowed to bring the refrigerator to the porch. Of course.

As usual, Geninne came to my rescue! She deployed her lovely husband and son (who are currently building a whole house together) to help, and they quickly and quietly carried the refrigerator (and the GIANT box it was packed in) off of the snowy porch and into my living room. PHEW.

(Oh! And! I found someone on NextDoor to come and pick up the old refrigerator the next day. He’d just lost his job the day after his own fridge died, so the timing was perfect for both of us. Habitat for Humanity won’t take appliances that are more than a decade old, and while the power company does offer a rebate for recycling “inefficient” older appliances, I would much much much rather have given it to an actual person who needed it right away. Win/win.)

Hello, refrigerator! Hello, defunct heating vents I need to drywall over! Hello, empty space next to the refrigerator that’s just the right size for some shallow pantry shelving!

That sliver of wood door that’s visible on the left is the door to the garage, and it stays open 95% of the time—so any shelving had to both clear it completely and allow room to pass through without worrying about bumping into anything. Fine, because what I really wanted to build here was shallow, wall-mounted shelving for pantry goods.

Hello, wood! I bought inexpensive 1×8″ pine boards, figured out how much space I needed between shelves to accommodate my jars and stuff, drew up a plan, and cut everything to size. In this photo, nothing is assembled yet—it’s all just standing up on end on the floor.

The construction is really simple. I drilled pilot holes, then countersunk screws at the corners and for each shelf. I didn’t bother making the shelves adjustable. My advance planning is just that good (remind me I said that in a few years when I’m wishing I could move a shelf). The screw holes got patched, the whole thing got sanded, and then I did a test-hanging on the wall.

You can only see one of them in this picture, but the whole shelving unit is mounted on two cleats that are screwed into studs. The frame of the unit “hugs” the cleats, which bear the weight. A few screws through the top and and lower shelf into the cleats keeps the unit from falling off. It’s simple stuff! If you need a shelving unit like this, you can absolutely do it yourself. (Wall-mounted bookshelves, anyone?)

Hello, paint! A coat of primer and a couple of coats of black paint (I’m pretty sure I used semigloss Rust-Oleum), and it was ready for its permanent installation! After hanging, I patched over the screw holes in the cleats, then painted the cleats white to match the walls. It is REALLY secure. Four screws are going directly into studs, and the others are well-anchored.

Hello, jars! I took this photo before I loaded the whole thing up with stuff, but you get the idea. It’s a WHOLE BUNCH of extra storage. This house doesn’t have an actual pantry, so these shelves are a huge bonus. I’m really happy with how they came out! Scroll up to the top photo—doesn’t this end of the kitchen look a million times cozier and ten million times more functional now?? I love it.

Unless I’m forgetting something, the next kitchen post is THE BIG REVEAL! All of the projects are done!! Wheeeeeee! I’m even going to put down my iPhone and use an actual camera to take photos. Should I make a video, too??

In the mean time…
Kitchen recap:
✚ It’s time to meet the kitchen!
✚ Kitchen planning!
✚ Kitchen cabinets: Prep + painting.
✚ Painting and stenciling the kitchen floor.
✚ Kitchen countertop demolition.
✚ Painting the kitchen’s steel casement window.
✚ Let’s add some cabinets!
✚ Building cabinet cubbies for extra storage.
✚ It’s time for the kitchen to get some countertops!
✚ Installing a stacked bond subway tile backplash.

Shanna Murray made the tea towel. Food52 made the knife. Ariele Alasko made the cutting board.

I didn’t intend for this to be a food post, but looking at the photos I just rounded up, it’s looking like it’s going to be a food post.

It’s been 55 days since Friday the 13th, the day when a lot of us in the United States realized life was going to be very different for a while. It’s been even longer than that elsewhere around the world. 55 days!

I’m not sure if I’ve been cooking more than I did pre-quarantine, but my cooking has changed. There are fewer fresh vegetables involved since going to the grocery store is now an endeavor more than an errand, with the exception of longer-life veggie friends like onions, potatoes, carrots, and peppers. There are more dried beans, and a lot of lentils. So many lentils. I love lentils, so I’m not complaining, but…well, you know. Sometime you just have an immediate craving for a romaine salad, but putting on a hazmat suit to go to the grocery store just isn’t worth it in that moment.

Everyone is baking. I don’t know if it’s the scarcity of flour in supermarkets that’s made us feel like we urgently need to bake, or if the desire for the comfort of carbs has led to the scarcity. Maybe we all just want to feel like we’re able to provide our households with fresh bread and other sustenance without going to a store? Whatever it is, I’m here for it.

Oh my god, look at this banana bread. Just take it all in.

Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s recipe for vegan marbled banana bread is a staple in my baked-good repertoire. I have made it approximately one million times, and it is always delicious. It’s not super sweet, which is nice. Bananas are so sweet on their own, and I usually dislike when banana stuff has a ton of sugar in it. Like Isa says, if you leave it on the counter overnight (in plastic wrap, not nude), it will be SO MOIST AND DELICIOUS in the morning. Also, if you’re feeling bold, leave a couple of slices out naked overnight (if you have a cat or a tall dog, maybe put the plate inside a cabinet) so they get stale, then make banana bread French toast in the morning. You’re welcome.

Speaking of breakfast, check out this tofu Florentine I made! I got the tofu nice and eggy by marinating it in a mixture of soy sauce, Sriracha, garlic powder, and kala namak (black salt) for about 30 minutes, then pan-fried it until it was crispy. I had some spinach in the freezer, which I sauteed with a little garlic. I used this vegan Hollandaise sauce recipe, which is amazing (it makes a lot, but the leftovers are good on just about anything—even for dipping potato chips). The English muffin is probably self-explanatory. I toasted it.

This was SO GOOD. The Hollandaise was more effort than I usually make at breakfast time (and actually remembering to soak the cashews and marinate the tofu was a true feat), but every now and then? Why not.

Yes, like everyone else, I have been making Dalgona coffee (aka “quarantine coffee”). And yes, it is just as delicious and addictive as everyone says it is. There are a bazillion articles describing how to make it, all of them roughly the same: Combine 2 tablespoons of instant coffee*, 1/2-2 tablespoons of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of hot water in a bowl. Blend until super-creamy and thick (I used an electric hand mixer), then spoon over your milk of choice and ice. It’s like magic. (For my follow nerds, there’s a great article at Vice that gets into the global history of Dalgona coffee.)

*I’ve been using Medaglia D’Oro instant coffee because it’s cheap/readily available at the grocery store I usually go to, but I’m told Café Bustelo is even better.

Brownie edges for dayyyyyyys

And finally, THESE BROWNIES. The recipe is from Nora Cooks, and they truly are the Best Ever Vegan Brownies. BEST EVER. I’m not a huge chocolate lover, but for some reason, I just need a brownie every now and then. I love a brownie that’s fudgey, not cakey, and the edges have got to be crispy and chewy. This recipe delivered. I don’t own a baking pan for some reason, so I just used a round cake pan. This gave the brownies a little extra surface area, so they kind of came out like the entire pan is an edge piece. Except the actual edges are like the best brownie edges in the world. Anyway, THESE BROWNIES. Make them. They’re even better on the second day after they’ve been wrapped in the fridge overnight.

Tell me: What are you cooking lately? More baked goods than usual? Do you feel like you want to be hopped up on caffeine as often as possible?

Now, I know what you’re thinking looking at this photo: That backsplash looks great already, Dorfman, why in the world would you want to tile over it? (Am I close?) Well, I’m more of a traditionalist than you might think, and while it’s certainly an adventurous combination of concrete patch, mastic, spray foam insulation, joint compound, and Bondo, I just felt like some good old-fashioned tile might be a little…safer. Back when the kitchen was in its planning stages, my first thought was to use 4″ square white tiles in a grid layout. While this kitchen never had a tiled backsplash (the original backsplash was probably just a low strip of the same linoleum used on the countertops), 4″ square tiles were very popular in the 1950s, and I know they would have looked right, but I just kept feeling like a rectangular proportion was needed.

BMT 4th Ave tiling / Forgotten New York

That got me thinking about the tile work that was going on in actual subways in the 1960s and ’70s, and how great that kind of stacked bond arrangement looks with rectangular tiles. It’s the same proportion as the tiles used in the classic running bond configuration, but it reads much more modern.

Home of Thao Nguyen and Anthony Angelicola / Photo by Heidi’s Bridge
Bon Appétit test kitchen / Photo by Douglas Lyle Thompson

Since I don’t live in a subway station, it was nice to find a couple of examples of homes with stacked bond subway tiles that have a bit of a later-mid-century vibe to them. These are the two images that really pulled me away from the thought of using square tiles. The contrast between these two examples is also what confirmed my hunch that white grout was the way to go in this particular application. As lovely as the dark grout looks, I knew it would be too busy in our smallish kitchen, and that it would accentuate any weird transitions and cuts I knew I’d likely have to make.

December 2019

After diligently covering the brand new countertop with paper, I started planning the tile layout. I used basic Daltile Restore tiles (extremely affordable at $1.20/sf), which are self-spacing. That just means they have a little ridge around the outer edge that creates just enough of a gap for grout, with no need to use plastic spacers. I almost always like the tightest grout line possible.

When planning a tile layout, it’s really important to think about center lines. Always plan from the middle out. If you’re tiling around a window or doorway, you really want to try to have the same tile cuts on either side. Symmetry, baby! It matters! Plan your layout so you don’t have little slivers of tile at the end of a row, too—as a general rule, you want to have no less than half a tile where a row ends. In my case, I had to break that rule by a tiny smidge on the left side because it was more important to be able to have balanced cuts on both sides of the window. I don’t love that I had to make that call, but that goes back to my choice to use white grout—it’s a lot more forgiving than colored grout, and now that the kitchen is done (and my pick-me-up coffee station is in that corner), I don’t even notice that there’s only about 1/3 of a tile in that column. Anyway, the point I’m making is this: PLAN YOUR TILE LAYOUT. And not just on paper, if possible! Make conscious choices when it comes to placement and cuts.

Sadly, I don’t have any photos of my tile-cutting setup. I was in must tile as fast as possible-mode the whole time, and I just didn’t snap a pic. It was winter, which is a less-than-ideal time to use a wet tile saw (a messy endeavor that really needs to happen outdoors), and my main goals were to not get frostbite or slice my fingers open. For what it’s worth, though, I used this sweet little SKIL 7-inch wet tabletop tile saw (also available on Amazon, but Lowe’s has a better price), and it was a DREAM to use. Believe the positive reviews! This is a great little saw, and honestly not scary at all to use once I’d made a few cuts.

A few things, before I go any further: Yes, I tiled right over all of that concrete patch, mastic, spray foam insulation, joint compound, and Bondo. I’ve done enough tiling in my life to know what I can get away with by building up thinset (that’s the mortar you use to adhere the tile to the substrate), and while I would NEVER EVER do this in, say, a shower enclosure, the rules of tiling are a bit more flexible when it comes to a backsplash that’s not in constant contact with water. If this were my first tiling project, I would DEFINITELY have removed the damaged wall and put up new cement board or greenboard and tiled over that. Instead, I got the damaged wall patched up to a point where it was relatively even/level (though definitely not smooth), and completely solid…and then I back-buttered each individual tile rather than spreading the thinset directly onto the wall. This may be one of those situations where you do as I say and not as I do, but hey, I’m nothing if not honest when it comes to renovation projects. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

With the sink wall tile completed, I moved on to the wall behind the range. Again, starting from a center point and working outward is the way to go. In this case, the range (and the shelf above the range) determined the center line. Because there’s no countertop behind the range, I screwed a ledger board to the wall so the first row of tile would be supported while the thinset dried. Later (not pictured, but I promise it happened), I moved the ledger board down to allow for an additional lower row of tiles behind the range, because I didn’t want any of the wall to be visible.

As I made my way out and up, I checked each row with a level to make sure things were staying, well, level. Tiles—even machine-made ones—are imperfect, so every now and then I had to make up the difference the tiniest bit with a little piece of toothpick. If you have to make adjustments like that when you’re tiling a wall, it’s a good idea to add bits of painter’s tape just to make extra-sure that nothing shifts.

Making my way into the corner, I was starting to feel really, really good about this whole thing. There’s something about getting to a place where planes meet and having it all line up right that is extremely reassuring. And again, I had to break my rule of using less than 1/2 of a tile, but it helps when the abutting pieces at least add up to the size of a full tile. Also, see that thing with the blue handle? That’s called a float, and it’s really important to use one to press your tiles flush and firm against the wall as you go. No matter how good you think you are at getting the tile to sit flat with your hands, you still need a float. Especially if you’re being reckless like me and tiling over a surface similar to the Taconic Parkway after an especially grueling winter. Use a float.

Look at this cute little tub of grout! I’ve relaxed my standards over the years when it comes to premixed grout, but I couldn’t find premixed unsanded grout anywhere. I’m not actually sure it exists? Sanded grout is too coarse for tight grout lines, so I bought this small container of Polyblend Non-Sanded Grout (the color is Bright White). It’s the perfect size for a small project like a backsplash. I bought two to be on the safe side, but one was plenty—and it was great to not wind up with 5 pounds of leftover grout. The nice thing about these is that you can just add your water directly to the container, mix, and go. That’s great if you’re working on a small project that’s going to be done all at once and with relative speed. However, it’s not great if you’re working on a job that can’t be grouted all at once, since there’s a limited window of time before the grout dries after you’ve mixed it. I realize this is common sense stuff, but it’s worth mentioning.

Grouting is inherently messier than setting tile because of the amount of water involved with cleaning off the excess grout, so I switched from paper to plastic protection for the countertops. I like to grout in small sections at a time. First I use my float to scrape the grout firmly into the joints, then I remove the excess with a flexible plastic joint knife. Then I use a CLEAN finger to smooth every grout line. Yes, for real. Yes, I wind up with wrecked fingers. This is how I get a super-clean line with no excess grout and no bubbles. One of the biggest tells of a shoddy grouting job is too much grout in the joint! It looks especially bad with darker grout, since it translates to uneven-looking lines that are really obvious.

After finger-tooling the joints, I use a barely-damp tile sponge to clean off the excess. Then I rinse that sponge really, really well. I use a small rinse bucket (don’t rinse your tiling equipment in the sink unless you want to clog your pipes) and dump the dirty water outside often. Grouting is messy business, but cleaning as you go makes all the difference. It’s OK to work in small sections! Obviously if you’re tiling a massive room you’ll want to cover more ground at once, but on a backsplash? Contain yourself. Better to clean as you go than try to remove all of the excess grout at the end and discover it’s already too dry to get a clean line.

I should mention that these are just my tips—this isn’t meant to be a concise guide to tiling. For that kind of thing, I highly recommend spending some time over at the John Bridge website. Tons of advice, tutorials, and most importantly, the world’s friendliest DIY forum. I’ve never had a tiling question that a pro on the John Bridge forum wasn’t happy to help out with.

After the grout had dried for 24 hours, I was ready to caulk! If you’ve been reading Door Sixteen for a while, you know how passionate I am about a good caulk job—and how much I hate sloppy caulking. Whenever I’m caulking tile joints (and you should never be using grout where two planes meet, by the way—those joints need to be able to expand and contract, so that’s where you want to use caulk), I use painter’s tape to get a nice, crisp line. It takes some time to do the taping, but the results are worth it. Tape, run a bead of caulk, and smooth with a damp finger. Use less caulk than you think you need to, but make sure you aren’t leaving any gaps or holes as you run your finger along the bead. BEFORE the caulk starts to dry, carefully peel off the tape. Admire your work!

(By the way, if you’re doing something like regrouting your shower or recaulking your tub, check out my post about dealing with that kind of situation. It’s an easy way to make a gross bathroom look a helluva lot better, and you can definitely do it yourself.)

I went back and forth about how to deal with the tiles on either side of the window up until the day I caulked. Ultimately, I opted to repeat that New Mexico-happy stepped pattern that I used on the storage cubbies rather than notch out a full tile to make a squared corner. It’s also worth noting that I chose not to use any designated edge pieces, which are usually a different proportion (often 1×6″). That would have detracted from the grid, and given how casual this kitchen is, I honestly don’t think they were needed to make the tiles look “finished.” Tiles in New Mexico are often embedded into the surface of the walls, so it’s common to see a stuccoed edge where tiles end rather than a glazed edging piece. Rather than just leaving the edge of the tiles completely bare, though, I did make a little bevel with paintable sanded caulk. This photo was taking pre-painting so it looks a little grimy, but when I painted that wall, I just ran the paint right up over the caulk all the way to the face of the tile. It looks like an intentional choice and not a mistake, I swear. And I love it.

I’m so very pleased with how the tile came out! It’s a very subtle look, and this kitchen truly did not need more than that. Between the wood ceiling/vigas, the patterned floor, and the pink cabinets, there’s enough going on in the room already. I’m so glad the backsplash is understated. It’s also a testament to versatility of basic subway tiles. This space with its stacked bond tile and white grout looks completely different from my Newburgh kitchen, where I used a running bond pattern and black grout. I don’t buy into the whole “subway tile is played out blah blah blah” thing. There’s a reason this tile proportion has endured for more than a century in different incarnations. It’s highly adaptable!

Next up? It’s time for a new refrigerator and some shelving at the other end of the room! Meanwhile, if you want to get caught up on the kitchen renovation so far…
Kitchen recap:
✚ It’s time to meet the kitchen!
✚ Kitchen planning!
✚ Kitchen cabinets: Prep + painting.
✚ Painting and stenciling the kitchen floor.
✚ Kitchen countertop demolition.
✚ Painting the kitchen’s steel casement window.
✚ Let’s add some cabinets!
✚ Building cabinet cubbies for extra storage.
✚ It’s time for the kitchen to get some countertops!