How realistic is this $1527 kitchen remodel?

The yahoos at Apartment Therapy were crowing last week about a $1527 kitchen remodel that had been featured on the This Old House website.

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

I have to say that's quite a transformation. And talk about a bargain.

But not so fast. On the last page of the seven page story on This Old House's site, there's a cost breakdown and it reads like this:

Tore out the old cabinets, salvaging the bases. $0

Called in a favor for help upgrading electrical outlets. $0

Replaced the ceiling fan and added task lighting. $300

Patched the walls and ceiling with new drywall. $207

Built six pine cabinet boxes; added medium-density fiberboard doors and drawers to all the cabinets. $200

Resurfaced the laminate counter. $150

Used donated tiles for a new backsplash. $0

Upgraded to new brushed nickel hardware. $170

Built custom window arches and added crown molding. $100

Added a range hood. $140

Replaced the faucet. $110

Brightened the space with 2 gallons of primer and 4 gallons of paint. $150

Total: $1,527

They didn't pay for an electrician to rewire for new lights and a range hood. There's no mention of whether or not the hood vents to the outside or just recirculates. There's also no value assigned to the labor they put in. Granted, they still did everything on a shoestring, but this was not a weekend project and the home owners clearly had some building skills. Obviously too they didn't replace the appliances or the floor.

So despite the fact that they did do a terrific job, is the $1527 price tag being bandied about even close to an accurate accounting? Is this story and isolated incident or can people realistically expect to recreate what they'd done here for the under $2,000 being thrown around?

Is this $1527 renovation fact or fantasy? What do you think?

Regenesi recycles with grace and style

About a month ago, my good friend Saxon Henry wrote an article for her great design site, Roaming by Design. Her article was an interview with Silvia Pazzi and an overview of the products being offered by her company Regenesi.

Regenesi is a producer of designed products for the home and elsewhere and it was founded two years ago in Bologna. Regenesi has launched in the US recently and it was this lamp that hooked me.

The Lamp is part of the O-Re-Gami collection designed by Matali Crasset and it's made from regenerated leather. Like all of the raw materials used to make Regenesi's products, O-Re-Gami's regenerated leather is 100% recycled and 100% recyclable.

The O-Re-Gami collection also consists of a waste can and a cup, both made from the same material.

Regenesi's two guiding principles are that everything they make be beautiful and sustainable, and without exception, their offerings are so beautiful you'd never imagine them to be green products. Say goodbye to the hair shirts, Regenesi's rewriting the rules.

Take a look through their website, you find that everything adheres to their motto, Il bello é sostenibile. On that site, you'll find everything from the O-Re-Gami collection above to jewelry and all of it's recycled, recyclable and most importantly, sustainable. Italian grace and style have a new voice in Regenesi.

Fashion firsts from an avowed non-fashion person

I was doing a Google image search the other night. Oddly enough, I was looking for an image of a pink feather, preferably one from a roseate spoonbill. Roseate spoonbills are my favorite local wading bird you see.

In my search results, I came across this photograph of Demi Moore from a fashion spread she did for Harper's Bazaar last spring. Something looked oddly familiar.

What looked so familiar was the dress she's wearing. Why it looked familiar was made blindingly apparent when I read who the designer was. Fashionistas out there don't need the reminder but for the rest of us, that dress was designed by Jason Wu.

Well, I was there when the dress made its debut at Fashion Week in the fall of '09. Many, endless thanks to Brizo for seating me prominently enough to take this bad photo of it as it marched down a runway for the first time ever.

My head still spins when I think about it. Me? At Fashion Week? And not just once, but twice. This blog has changed my life on a very fundamental level and I stammer when I try to express my gratitude. Never in a million years could I have predicted any of this two and-a-half years ago when I didn't know what a blog was.

Thank you Charlie Kondek from Manning, Selvage and Lee and just as many thanks to Jai Massela and the rest of the gang at Brizo.

Test drive Hansgrohe's PuraVida lavatory faucet

I've written before about Hansgrohe's PuraVida shower. I gave it my Best in Show Award in the days following KBIS last April and some time after that post appeared, Hansgrohe sent me a PuraVida hand shower of my very own. It remains the highlight of my morning every day. Here's my review after having used it for a couple of weeks.

The PuraVida hand shower is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Hansgrohe's PuraVida collection and is in fact not the primary fixture. That honor belongs to the PuraVida lavatory faucet.

Well, if you're an iPhone user, then Hansgrohe has an app that will let you preview how a PuraVida lavatory faucet would look in your bathroom. It's pretty slick and here's how it works.

First, follow this link and download the Hansgrohe app, Hansgrohe@home.

Then launch it.

From the home screen you can watch a short video about PuraVida, look over the whole collection, or use the graphics tool to install a PuraVida lavatory faucet in your own home.

Virtually of course.

To use the graphics function, launch the Planner. Your iPhone's camera will launch automatically. Line up the on-screen guide and take a photograph of your bathroom sink.

Then once you have the photograph, draw over your existing fixture with your finger tip.

Hit the Next button and a PuraVida lavatory faucet will appear over your photograph. Use your fingertips to scale and orient the fixture correctly. Then hit Next again.

 Et voila! Actually, make that Und da ist es! This is a German company we're talking about after all. What ever the language though, now you can see what a PuraVida lavatory faucet would look like in your own bathroom. Great use of technology Hansgrohe!

If you're intrigued, go download Hansgrohe's new app and take the PuraVida lavatory faucet for a test drive.

here's a video that showcases the entire collection:

Follow up to yesterday's question about switch plates

That switch plate and outlet cover post really struck a nerve yesterday. Everybody has an idea about how to deal with them and that's terrific. I love being a clearing house for this kind of information and it adds heft to my belief that there are no right answers. At least no blanket right answers anyway. As the day played out I received  four referrals that are worthy of particular note.

First up is a new offering from a company called Trufig. Trufig makes a variety of minimized-to-disappearing switch plates and outlet covers. Check this out.

Somewhere on this wall of granite is a double light switch next to a double outlet. See it?

I didn't think so. How about now?

Amazing, isn't it? Here's another shot of the same wall from a different perspective.

Look through the rest of Trufig's offerings, you should see how they hide a speaker.

The great Mike Hines from Home Path Products knows a thing or two about home wiring. He recommended that I check out Pass and Larson. I did check out their 1400 flavors and found these beauties.

If you want to be playful and bright against a playful and bright back splash this may just be the solution. Pass and Larson has seemingly endless variations on the theme of switch plates and it's not hard to kill an hour on their site.

The great and powerful Kelly Morisseau recommended that people explore the offerings of Lutron. Lutron sells entire switching systems and their Diva line comes in a mind boggling array of colors.

And finally, my favorite Portland mother of two (how's that for playing it safe?) and kitchen designer to the stars Rachele Harless-Gorsegner, reminded me of a post I wrote in December '08 on plate-less outlets and switches from the Canadian company Bocci.

I don't think that Bocci works with anything other than drywall, but man oh man is it distinctive. Thanks for the reminder Rachele, I'd nearly forgotten about those things. Check out Bocci's website.

So there's my follow up to yesterday's switch plate post. What am I missing? Anybody have anything else to add?