Confession: I have kitchen envy. coming from people who love to cook and also loving to cook myself exacerbates the condition. Thankfully, our current kitchen is at least efficient. The “triangle” is — pardon the pun — on point. Whether grabbing something out of the refrigerator, chopping or sautéing, everything is just a couple of feet, if not arm’s length, away from any given station. It’s just this side of small, but it works for us. The good news is, my woes are easily fixed with just a few new fixtures and finishes. I’m truly just butcher block countertops, a subway tile backsplash, distressed wood flooring and farmhouse sink with an elegant, bridge-style faucet away from dream kitchen territory! If you too are in need of a minor makeover or even an extreme makeover, our faucets, fixtures and finishes spread on page 64 is just what the kitchen doctor ordered. We’ve pulled together a variety of looks for inspiration that’ll spur your imagination.
As always, our renovation of the year on page 48 is a stunning example of what it looks like when everything is done exactly right. The homeowners worked with NANO to overhaul a 1970s center hall cottage and the result will induce more than just kitchen envy. Our second featured home is a pristine shotgun that is so fabulous, the Preservation Resource Center picked it for its Shotgun House tour. Get a sneak peek on page 56 and then go see it, and the other homes on the tour live and in person.
Spring (and post-Carnival time) is of course a universal season for renewing and refreshing. Let’s all shake off those winter blues, fling open the windows and freshen up those interiors. Who knows, it might just cure that kitchen envy.
ROCK THE VOTE!
Do you have a favorite home interior store, designer, contractor or pet store? If so, your chance to show your love to all of the people and places that help make your house a home is coming up in the next issue of New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles. Vote for your favorites using our online ballot, which is available at www.myneworleans.com/bestofhome. We’ll publish the results in the the Autumn issue of the magazine. Vote now!
EDITOR'S PICK
NOLA Love
Finishing up a second home, while simultaneously engaged in a book tour and continuing to write for multiple publications, including Garden & Gun, Southern Living, and The Wall Street Journal’s WSJ magazine didn’t stop journalist, author and humorist Julia Reed — who splits her time between New Orleans and now her hometown of Greenville, Mississippi — from entertaining. Case in point, in her “The High & the Low” column in the February/March issue of Garden & Gun, she writes about breaking in the new house with a Thanksgiving party, despite the fact that it looked like a “box museum” the day prior. Reed pulled it off in grand fashion, which is only one of the many reasons she has become such a force in the world of home entertaining. In her latest book, “Julia Reed’s New Orleans: Food, Fun, and Field Trips for Letting the Good Times Roll” (scheduled to publish in March), you’ll get raucous stories, delectable recipes and a host of envy-inducing and inspired photos by Paul Costello. It’s simultaneously a love letter to New Orleans and to food — which of course go hand-in-hand.
