An Easy, Cheap, Modern Kitchen Design Idea

Hey guys, welcome to my crib! Can I offer you some wine? A charcuterie spread perhaps? Okay, okay, I may be getting a tad bit ahead of myself; my sister and I just moved in and currently have an air mattress on the floor serving as a couch, there are boxes everywhere, we have no microwave, or utensils, or pots and pans for that matter… Yeah, it’s kind of the hot mess express over here, but hey, isn’t that what moving across the country is all about? The exciting news is that our cute little LA pad (affectionately known as the Scandinavian Beverly Bungalow when we were playing House Hunters a month back) is slowly but surely coming together, and I just know it is going to turn out so so chic. I am coming off of a year of living at home with my parents in Chicago and I could not be more ready to have my own space again!! So, let the interior designing begin! I can’t wait to share with you guys all of our plans and ideas. First up is essentially the only corner of the house that we’ve done any work to. It is an easy and cheap way to give your kitchen a modern vibe with a touch of glam.

Before

After

Our house is truly an amazing space; it is about 1,100 sq ft, has these beautiful hardware floors, and tons of crisp, white walls. If you’re a long time follower, you may recognize this metallic cowhide rug from my first Chicago studio apartment a few years back; I absolutely loved it, and it’s been sitting in storage for the longest time. I always had a vision of using it for a kitchen dining area, paired with a round tulip style table. Just to note, the exact rug I had is sold out; however, there are tons available online which I will link at the end of this post!

Originally, we wanted to do a saarien marble table; it would have looked very similar but way, way more expensive. And as I’m on a grad student budget, that unfortunately wasn’t going to fly. We instead found this table and chairs set from IKEA (DOCKSTA/TOBIAS $515) and absolutely love it! I’ve always loved the idea of having ghost chairs in a kitchen. I think it is so unique and different; I’m a sucker for texture, and I love that the transparency of the chairs allow for the metallic rug to really shine. The set comes with 41.38 inch circular table and 4 chairs. You can also buy the table and chairs separately, it doesn’t make a difference on the price (the table alone is $199 and each chair is $79. My sister and I are proud to say that we assembled both ourselves with… medium difficulty. With IKEA, it just be like that sometimes. The table and chairs feel sturdy and well made. Since it’s the only part of our house that is near complete, we spend a ton of time sitting around here! I think we may end up doing a DIY marble top on the table, so stay tuned for that.

Now, onto the star of the show… our mirror wall! We got this idea from a staged closet at IKEA and knew it would look amazing in our home. We ordered 9 of the square shaped NISSEDAL mirrors in white, which are only $19 each. They are on the heavier side, about 10 lbs each, but they have this really solid wood frame on them and just offer some really nice texture. The wall is so much more interesting now!! I love how it offers a completely new perspective when you’re sitting at the table: you see more light, different views… We still have more to do for this area of our kitchen; we want to get either a black or dark grey console against the adjacent wall and do a big framed print or piece of art above it. Something pink and girlie!

So, we had every intention of doing this ourselves, and I’m so glad we ultimately did not. We went to the hardware store, bought a power drill and a level, got home and we’re like…. um this can only end poorly. SO! We got on TaskRabbit and hired a handy man in our area who did a perfect job. Watching him install them also confirmed that we really would have fucked it ourselves… He had a laser level, all these additional bits and bolts that we didn’t know we would need… Yeah. It turned out perfectly and it was so worth the extra $100ish bucks.