The results of my moonlighting

This is a stray dog that was sacked out in a walkway of the Stabian baths in Pompeii. I swear, Pompeii is lousy with stray dogs. It's the strangest thing.

The great Franki Durbin took the week off from her equally great blog, Life in a Venti Cup. I stepped into her fashionable shoes for the last five days and I wrote about (what else?) Italy. Franki's going to be filling in for me at some point in the next couple of months when I take off on a well-deserved vacation. Ahhhh, I can feel it already.

Anyhow, here are the links to my Life in a Venti Cup project from last week.

How I Ended Up in a Villa in Sorrento

Oh Sorrento, the Curious Gateway to Amalfi

Spend Some Quiet Time in Ravello

Find Amalfi if You're on the Amalfi Coast

OK, Here's the Last of my Traveler's Tales from Campagnia

And with that out of my system, I think I'm done writing about Italy for a while.

Woo-hoo! Life comes back.

The US Department of the Interior just announced that it's reopening the crown of the Statue of Liberty on July 4th, 2009. It's been closed since the national nightmare of September 11th, 2001. The crown was closed originally because it's nearly impossible to evacuate it in the event of an emergency. In order to deal with whatever eventualities arise, visitors will be limited to 10 at a time and there will be a lottery held to determine the lucky ten, three times an hour. The lines will be beyond belief but what a great sign that life's coming back.

Follow-up: great new colors and styles from Medallion Cabinetry

So as promised, here are some better photos of some of the new offerings for spring from my pals at Medallion Cabinetry. Everything I'm showing here is from Medallion's Platinum line of inset cabinetry. Feast your eyes.

Here's the Trinity door as a beaded inset. The wood species is maple and the color is Bliss, a new paint color for us.

Here's the Tahiti door as an unbeaded inset. The wood species is cherry and the stain color is Ginger Snap.

Here's the Gable door as a beaded inset. The wood species is maple and the color is Eagle Rock, a new glaze color and technique.

This is the Fiji door as a beaded inset. The wood species is maple and the color is Amaretto, another stain and glaze combination.

Here's the Catalina door as a beaded inset. The wood species is maple the color is Truffle, another new paint color.

This is the Camelot door as a beaded inset. The wood species is knotty alder and the color is Amaretto.

This is a Catalina door as a beaded inset. The wood species is maple and the color is Appaloosa, a new stain and glaze combination.

Finally, here's a Bahamas door as an unbeaded inset. The wood species is maple and the color is Harbor Mist. Harbor mist is an addition to our Coastal Collection of finishes. The Coastal Collection features opaque, pigmented stains finished with a dry brush technique. They're beautiful, all of them.

Photography can't do these finishes justice, they have to be seen live. And that my friends can only happen at a Medallion dealer. You can find a dealer near you through Medallion's website. Go forth and see!

How to light a new (or an old) kitchen

I linked up with the Lighting Style Blog a couple of weeks ago and I'm enjoying watching their site grow. I'm intrigued by good lighting and over the years I've taught myself a thing or two about how I like to have my work lit. I am not a lighting designer and I'll be the first to admit that. Complicated lighting jobs are best tackeled by a lighting pro. But even with that said, it doesn't hurt to know a thing or two about some of the general guidlines of how to light a kitchen.

1. To add interest and functionality to a kitchen, you should have several different levels of lighting:

• Ambient Lighting:  General lighting
  
• Decorative Lighting:  A fixture that adds a design element, such as a chandelier.
  
• Focal Lighting:  Is used in a specific area such as glass cabinets or a tile pattern.
  
• Task Lighting:  Used on any work surface.
  

2. Ambient Lighting, or general lighting, is important for seeing into cabinets and appliances.

3. The most important areas to light in a kitchen are the task areas like countertops, tables, appliance tops, etc.

4. Under-cabinet lighting looks and functions best when the fixture is pulled to the front of the cabinet so that the light is hitting the middle of the countertop.

5. A footcandle is a unit of measurement used to calculate the illumination of light cast on a surface. One footcandle is equal to 10 lux.  General footcandle requirements for any space is 25-30 footcandles. (Follow this link for a good explanation of how brightness is measured.)

• For a task area such as a countertop, plan for 50-75 footcandles.
  
• You may need to adjust the footcandle level based on the occupant’s age.  Occupants over the age 55 would need about 30% more footcandles than a younger person.
  

6. How colors are used in a room will affect the quantity of light required.  Darker cabinets and countertops will require more task lighting.

7. Kelvin ratings are used to determine light’s color temperature (coolness or warmness).  The higher the number, the cooler the light.  The lower the number, the warmer the light.  This is important in the kitchen as a light’s color temperature greatly affects the presentation of food.

• It is best to stay away from cool lighting (3,600 to 5,500k).
  
• Warm-neutral lighting (2,900 to 3,600k) is best for general and task lighting.
  

8. It is important that all lamps used in a room appear to be the same color temperature.

• If you use warm incandescent bulbs in the recessed cans and hanging pendants, but you use cool fluorescent bulbs in the under-cabinet lights for the task lighting, the difference in color temperature will not work well together, creating an odd look.
  

9. Note, dimming a lamp will cause it to look warmer.

10. It is important to prevent scallop lighting while illuminating wall cabinets as they can cause visual disruptions.  For minimal scalloping on the front of 12” deep cabinets, a minimum of 40” from the back wall to the center of the recessed can is usually required.

Cool, modern switchplates and outlet covers

Back in December, I wrote a post about the Bocci plate-less outlets. They are beautiful and I still love them as much as I did when I first found them. They are however, a bit of a commitment and insanely difficult to retrofit. So what to do when I have a modern design and I want to do something interesting with the switch plates and outlet covers?

Enter Chiasso and their Traverse series of plates. They are really interesting and I mean that in a good way. They're simple and they announce themselves subtly. Modern design is quiet and simple the way I see it. It shouts by whispering if that makes any sense. Even if it doesn't, these plates do that I think they're cool. Their prices range from $14 to $22, and really, who's going to argue with that?

Many thanks to Creede Fitch from Grass Roots Modern for the heads up.