… and we almost bought it, but realized it was too small. So we talked about making one instead, but never settled on a design. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I was browsing the Habitat website for inspiration (how I love that store, even though it’s veery expensive) and I found this:

I loved it! And it looked like something that we could build! Of course, I was just thinking of the base. For the tabletop, we knew we wanted it round, but that wasn’t a problem. We taped the approximate size we wanted it to have on the floor, and then I asked my uncle for it (he owns a glass shop). But if you’re looking at it thinking hey! I want one and my uncle doesn’t have a glass shop! Don’t despair, they’re actually not that expensive on Amazon. (Note: I saw it for around $60 last week, apparently the price fluctuates a lot so check it a few times before buying). Some of you might have seen on Instagram how we taped it onto the floor… it really helped us figure out the size we wanted, I really recommend it.

Anyway, onto the base. It was an easy design, no angled cuts were needed and since we decided to use the Kreg Jig for this, we didn’t need to notch out the legs like the ones on the Habitat table. I’m going to speak in cm when talking about the cut list so that I don’t drive myself crazy, but obviously the ratios apply, and I’ll explain how to change the measurements if you want to make it bigger/smaller.  Here’s the list of what we needed to build the base for our 90cm wide tabletop:

Materials and tools

• 2 posts 6cm x 6cm thick (approx 2.5 inch), ours were 270cm long (9 feet or so). It is not advisable to go thicker than this, since we’re already over the maximum thickness the Kreg Jig officially supports.
• 24 screws, 7cm long (2 3/4″ long)
• Kreg Jig
• Sander, brushes and stain for the finish
• Drill

The view from below, you can see the Kreg Jig holes:

Deep Fried Artichokes with Cold Tomato Soup

For the artichokes

• 8 artichokes
• Flour
• Olive oil and salt

Prepare a big bowl full of cold water and a spoonful of flour; another plate full of flour. Peel the artichokes, keeping only the heart (white) and the stem (similar to this pic). Peel the stem as well. Cut each artichoke in fours. As you cut them, place them in the bowl full of water so they don’t darken in color. Once they’re all cut into pieces, remove them from the water and pat them dry with a paper towel. Slightly cover them in flour and deep fry for 3 minutes.

For the tomato soup

• 3 small vine tomatoes, approximately 300g (10oz)
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt, olive oil

Place everything inside the blender, with just a bit of the olive oil. Slowly add in the olive oil, until it emulsifies. Strain it and serve. It also pairs very well with jamón or prosciutto.

All of this to say, our kitchen isn’t something I would’ve chosen myself. But it’s okay, and by working on it we’ve managed to make it more useable. For example, originally it only came with one drawer (I’m not even kidding, a single drawer!). We managed to install one below the oven, and another one above the dishwasher. Then we converted the skinny cabinet in the corner to a pull out cabinet. The biggest difference, however, was installing a cabinet and a long countertop on the left side of the kitchen. It doubled our countertop length and made the kitchen a lot more functional while adding storage space.

When we installed that “countertop” on the left, we didn’t want to shell out cash to exactly match the countertop on the right (the one already there) because honestly, it’s terrible. There are some nice laminate options out there, but ours isn’t one of them. The surface is rugged and so it’s impossible to remove all the stains properly. So we knew we wanted something different eventually, and decided to install a painted wood “countertop” on the left, using some of the lumber we bought in bulk a few years ago.

Fast forward three years ago, and both countertops are showing their age. Ideally, we’d love to replace them entirely with quartz. Quartz is very expensive here though, and it would cost us around 2000€… so it’s not going to happen. Another option we considered was butcher block, but I don’t like that it’s porous. Then one day, after watching a home improvement tv show, Andoni suggested we look into micro-concrete. Like the name suggests, it’s similar to concrete, but you only need a very thin coating of it (around 3mm, 1/8″), and you can use it on top of almost any surface. Even wood. Even laminate. You can use it on floors, walls, countertops… you name it. It’s non porous and has a raw industrial vibe to it that we both really like. Plus we thought it would be fun to DIY, and of course the cost: approximately 1/10th of the cost of quartz.

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We started googling companies that sell the materials, and realized that it’s a relatively new material and most people don’t even know what it is (at the local home improvement store they gave us a blank stare when we asked!). I contacted a few and asked whether they’d be interested in working with us on a how-to video, and they agreed to send us the materials for it. Obviously, we’re pumped! So that’s where we are standing right now. We already have the materials, but we are waiting on a new sink + faucet to arrive before we can begin. And as always, I can’t wait to share all the details with you as we go.

Note: Easyfloor sent us enough materials to cover our countertops with micro concrete in exchange for a how to video. They didn’t otherwise compensate us nor ask us to write a post about it. I’m just sharing our experience.

(This is an old, pre pass through pic)

But if you try to open both the fridge and the pantry at the same time, well…

Not practical at all. So, solution number one: remove the kitchen door and install a barn door on the outside. Solution number two: convert the pantry doors to sliding ones using an Ikea track. The jury is still out on converting the pantry doors… Andoni thinks it’s not necessary, but I disagree! Sliding doors everywhere!

Anyway, today’s post is about the barn door. The idea was to use the same DIY track system as we did for the pass through, but of course we had to build the actual door. We decided not to use the door we already had because we wanted to be bigger than the opening it covers. After taking measurements, we ordered a sheet of 3/4″ inch thick MDF, already cut to size, and bought a few strips as well.

Once we brought it home, we were able to cut the strips to size (they were all straight cuts) and glue them to the large sheet – er, door. Adding those strips instantly made the MDF sheet look more door-like:

We also thought that making sure the edges between the MDF sheet and the strips were seamless would make it look a lot better. See how in the image below the seam is still noticeable?

We used a planer (we have a handheld one from DeWalt, similar to this one) to make sure it was all level, then skim coated with putty and let it dry before sanding (hence the white edge below):

No seams!

We painted the kitchen side of the door with chalkboard paint, and the hallway side with black lacquer (doors and trim are usually lacquered here in Spain instead of painted, don’t ask me why… lacquer smells terribly toxic when you’re applying it!) The MDF was ready to be painted/lacquered (no primer needed) so we jumped right in with a brush and a roller, lightly sanding in between coats.

Once it was dry, we added a countersink pull for the kitchen side of the door:

We really wanted a bigger one (it’s pretty tiny!) but they don’t sell bigger ones here, boo. Maybe this fall we’ll buy a bigger one while in Boston and install it.

Then it was time to remove the old kitchen door and hang the new one. We used the same system as with the pass through, so I won’t repeat the whole process, except for an addition. This door was a lot heavier, and the piece that attached the track to the wall dug into the wall, bowing the track a bit from the weight. So we decided to add another piece.

Here’s how we did it with lighter doors:

And this one:

The round metal piece between the cylinder and the wall helps spread the weight a bit and now the track doesn’t bend anymore. That’s the only difference with respect to the pass through system. Of course we added two of those, one on each side.

Yes, I know the black door and white trim combo is trendy – maybe too trendy – but I love it! And since it’s pretty noticeable the door is not the original one, I wanted to make it purposeful by lacquering it in a color other than white.

From the opposite side:

The subway sign used to be where the door is now, but we moved it since the door will be open most of the time. And the view from the inside of the kitchen:

Very plain since there’s nothing written on the chalkboard yet. And me closing the door from the kitchen using the tiny pull…

The kitchen, now:

It used to be impossible to get a picture of this because the door was there. We’ve come a long way!

Next to it, we set up two bowls, one with the blank cardboard circles, and another one which was initially empty, where people could leave their written notes. We also provided a couple of pens, ink, and wipes for the one who left their fingerprint.

I also wrote a couple of signs – one asked guests to leave a note, their signature, or their fingerprint on one of the blank cardboard circles. The other pointed to the framed blank “guest book” above and stated that, once we were done with it, it would look something like that (but filled with their signatures of course). Since this was all a bit non traditional, I hoped that was clear enough for everyone.

I didn’t think everyone would sign, but boy was I wrong! We had tons of signatures, notes, and fingerprints when all was said and done. And I think giving guests the option to sign or leave a fingerprint instead of writing us a note was key to this, since most people have a hard time figuring out what to say in events like this one, myself included. So whomever felt like writing something did, and everyone else just signed, and it worked out really nicely.

A few months after the wedding, I finally reprinted the circle-less “guest book” background (in a bigger size than I intended because we had a lot more circles than I expected) and assembled it. I arranged them on top of the background without gluing them first, making sure to space out the colors, and when I was happy with the arrangement, I carefully glued them all one by one. It took me a lot less than I expected (about half an hour maybe?) and doing this myself instead of having it already assembled at the wedding / having guests glue them themselves gave me a little bit of control over it and there were no smudges, etc. the day of.

Once the assembly was done, I had to find a frame for it. Since it ended being bigger than I expected, there were no ready made frames for it and I had one made to measure. But I found this great store online that had exactly what I was looking for (black wood frames, I wanted to see the grain a bit when up close) and it wasn’t expensive considering it was made to measure, 36€ including shipping.

Here it is in our entry way!

I’m happy to have it in the entry way, since it’s right next to the living room so a ton of people see it,  and check it out to locate their name. And it kind of reminds me of the movie UP. So that’s the last of the wedding-related stuff… it took a few months, but I’m so glad to finally get it done.

Anyway, unlike other websites which require you to download a specific software to design the album, PhotoBox works entirely online. You upload all your images (using their website or an FTP connection, which was especially useful for me since I had more than a thousand images to upload), choose the type of album you want (we wanted a classic black background without any text), and then decide whether you want them to create/design one automatically for you or you want to create each page individually yourself. I used a combination of both: I asked PhotoBox to design the album, and then went over each page and moved things around. This way I had control over every single image & page design, but it drastically reduced the work.

Once I was happy with the inside, I chose a front and back cover (you could add a title & subtitle but I decided not to) and added the wedding date to the spine. You can then proceed with your order (either enter payment info or a coupon code) and here’s when – SURPRISE! – I was hit with some hidden extra charges. The coupon I had bought was supposed to cover all the costs, but you had to pay an additional 3€ if you wanted to remove the PhotoBox logo from the back, and an extra 3€ if you wanted the cover to be matte instead of glossy (which we did). I thought this (especially the logo thing) was a bit sketchy. Because really, who isn’t going to want to remove the logo?

Hidden fees aside, it arrived quickly and on time and we’re very happy with the results. The quality of the paper and images is great. It cost us 50€ total (coupon + “hidden” fees + shipping), which isn’t too bad for a 100 page album, but it’s not terribly cheap either. I would definitely not pay full price for it though (full price was something insane like 140€). They have tons of sales / coupons going on so if you’re thinking about buying I’d recommend you wait for a sale.

Check out the results:

It’s a great “coffee table” book and so far, everyone has loved browsing it and trying to find a picture of themselves. I’m thinking of making another one of our travel pics. Did you guys make your own wedding album or did you ask your photographer to do it?

Come back in a few days for an update on how our non-traditional “guest book” turned out!

Image from Amazon

… which is not only expensive, but also difficult to install without the proper equipment, since you need to “notch” out the wood and we don’t have the tools. We could use the same hinges we used for the outdoor kitchen, also nearly impossible to attach with a high level of precision (live and learn).

Eventually, I found these gems:

Image from Leroy Merlin

They’re called pivot (or compass) hinges and they were exactly what we needed. We just had to screw them on, no notching out required. You can see on the image above that you can screw one side onto the inside of the cabinet side, and another side to the inside of the door, and the door opens downwards (or upwards depending on how you install it). I think these types of hinges are meant to be used for horizontal kitchen cabinets, but don’t quote me on that.

Anyway, like I said, these were perfectly and super easy to “install” since we only needed a couple of screws. And now the doors swing open!

You can see in this closeup shot how you simply screw the hinge onto the side of the cabinet and onto the door:

Of course, this required some new pulls as well…

And with this, we can call the TV area redo pretty much done. Actually, now that we have functioning doors I have to bring our DVD and Wii back inside the console. Thankfully they squeeze right in even though it’s very narrow. What doesn’t fit, sadly, is our cable box (top right)… I might try to conceal it but it doesn’t bother me too much so we’ll see. All of this to say: if you like the look of inset doors with hidden hinges, you should give these a try! They’re a lot easier to install than other hinges and work really well.

Besides the eighties tile, it was also rocking eighties mint green tub, bidet, vanity and toilet. So how did we manage to go from that to this…

without any demo?

• The biggest change was painting the tiles with a special enamel paint. It’s expensive (around 30€ a can and I think we used three) but it’s much more economical than retiling. Not to mention it’s way faster to paint than to demo + lay out new tile. And I can promise you, that paint is magical. No one will be able to tell you’ve painted the tiles unless you tell them.
• We also laid vinyl flooring on top of the existing floor tile and on the tub surround. It’s a dark gray vinyl tile that mimics wood, gives the room a modern feel while breaking all that white, and is great to the touch. They sold the vinyl for around 15€/m2 (15€ / 10sq feet) and the bathroom was tiny (less than 3m2) so we didn’t need much.
• We removed the unused bidet and swapped the mint green pedestal sink for a modern white vanity. They were running an offer at our local home improvement store that also included the mirror and was only 125€ for the whole set.
• We painted the mint green tub white using another special paint – it came in two components that you had to mix yourself, because it hardened in a few hours, and the fumes were nasty, plus it was expensive paint – but it turned out really, really well.  Again, no one will be able to tell it’s painted unless you let them in on the secret.
• We replaced the existing green toilet for a new, shiny white one.
• Once all those things were done you could really tell the ceiling was dinged up and needed a fresh coat of paint. So with our attention on the ceiling, we also went ahead and replaced the light fixture with recessed LED lighting.
• The last step was to replace the old switch plates with newer ones, pick out another shower curtain, and we were done.

A pic of the vanity, sink, mirror set:

Tiles, after first coat of paint:

After the second (we did three):

Laying out the vinyl floor:

And more “after” pics:

As you can see, we managed to bring an eighties bathroom back into this century with little more than paint and new “furniture” / accessories. Have you ever laid out vinyl flooring? It was pretty easy, but I can write up a how-to post if anyone’s interested since I took pictures of the process.

Obviously, the middle one is the Photoshopped / Pixelmatored version while the last one is the actual bus roll sign. It’s one of my favorite projects to date, and it wasn’t hard to DIY at all. Here’s how I did it:

1. Measure the space you want to fill – in my case I wanted it to fill the space next to our closet and have it more or less centered. I knew I wanted it to be extra large and a statement piece, so I went for it. This beauty is 195cm (6’5″) tall and 67cm (2’3″) wide. I should’ve taken a pic of myself beside it so you can see how huge it is, maybe I’ll do it when I arrive home and update the post.

2. Do a mockup on the computer of the design. As usual, I used Apple’s Pages for this. Since I can set custom document sizes, I set my document to the actual measurements of the bus roll and did the mock up in “real size”. This means I was working with fonts 200-300pt big but that’s okay. Play around with your design – size of the font, space between lettering, etc – until you’re satisfied. I recommend using a font with a classic bus roll feel – I used one called Roadway, it’s a free download.

3. Decide on the material you want to use. I wanted the texture of wood grain so we went with a pine board, but you can definitely do plywood or MDF. We had them cut it to size at the store and my cousins helped us bring it home (our car is too small).

4. Sand it down properly, and stain it or prime and paint it. I used an ebony stain and it took me a couple of coats, although if you want the color to be less black, more of a brown a coat would suffice.

5. Print out the design you did on the computer. Since it’s super large, you could pay to have it printed in one piece through a plotter (I have no idea how much this would cost) or you can break up your design in normal sized sheets of paper and print it at home. That’s what I did. I used a free app called PosterRazor that does exactly that: breaks up a large image into normal sized sheets that you can print. Once it’s printed, you have to tape them all together. Here they are, one third of the way there:

6. Once you have your huge taped poster, you’ll need to cover the back of it (i.e. the side you didn’t print) with chalk. Cover it really really well. Then place it on the board and tape it where you want it to go.

7. When it’s in place and covered with chalk on the back, you have to trace all the letters with a pen or pencil. Since the letters / font are really straight, I found a ruler helpful for the tracing step. It’ll take a while to trace everything, especially if it’s this big, but you’ll see that the results are good. In the shot below you can see how “Los Angeles” and “Via Monterey” are traced faintly in chalkboard.

8. Once you’ve traced everything and transferred the chalk to your board, it’s time to trace everything, once again, with paint. OR – in my case – liquid chalk. I decided to use a chalk pen instead of a small brush and paint because I have much more control over the pen. The results are pretty much the same, you just have to make sure to protect it once you’re done if you use the chalk pen (or never get it wet). The upside of using a pen is that you can also use the ruler for this step so the edges will be crisper and straighter.

9. Fill out all those letters with more paint or the chalk pen. When you’re done, you can spray some poly if you want to protect your masterpiece.

10. The last step is to hang it. I wanted it flush with the wall so we did the same thing as Katja: countersink a couple of pieces with a key hole into the back of the bus roll, and hang them from a couple of screws into the wall.

Have you jumped on the bus roll bandwagon? Do you like it or think it’s overdone?

That’s why I’m sharing another recipe instead of a project. Today’s turn is crème brûlée, a classic french dessert which consists of a custard base topped with a layer of burnt sugar. The twist: we used a special chocolate bar, Caramelia by Valrhona.

Chocolate Caramelia Crème Brûlée

Inspired by Pierre Hermé

Note: Prepare a day ahead so that the custard settles completely. If you don’t have this special chocolate available, substitute for dark chocolate and increase the amount of icing sugar to 90g (3.2oz).

• 250ml (1 cup) whole milk
• 250ml (1 cup) heavy cream
• 120g (4.25oz) Caramelia chocolate (Valrhona)
• 4 egg yolks
• 70g (2.5oz) icing sugar
• Brown sugar, for the top layer, to burn it

Preheat oven to 120ºC (250ºF). Heat the milk and cream. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, in chunks, stirring occasionally until it melts. Let it cool down to room temperature. In a separate bowl (in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment) beat the yolks with the icing sugar until they reach the ribbon stage. Add the heavy cream, milk and chocolate mixture to the egg yolks. Pour into small ramekins and bake bain-marie style (in a hot water bath) for 45-60 minutes, until just set. Remove from oven, let it cool down and settle. Just before serving, add about a teaspoon of brown sugar per ramekin, covering the top completely, and caramelize it using a kitchen torch.