Tchochkes

Now I get it. They stage homes. For an absolutely ludicrous price SpiceIT will come and stage your home for sale. It doesn’t explain why none of their beds were properly made. One would assume that if you are trying to sell your house it would help if you have an inviting bedroom.

Even with the idea that they stage homes instead of doing interior design - they still suck.

Look at the kitchen above. It’s pretty obvious what is wrong. There’s an oven missing, it’s cluttered, the towels hanging from the cabinets do it no favors and the rug on the floor looks like a rag. Then SpiceIT comes in and it turns into this:

The layout hasn’t changed. There is NOTHING original about the layout - it’s identical to what it was before. Even worse, now it is so individual you are alienating potential buyers. People who hate red will not buy your flat with this kitchen in it.

If you are staging a home for selling you try to NOT place too much personality on it. I’m not even going to start with the fact that they put in an IKEA kitchen in place of something which looked like it was done by a proper firm and was better made. They didn’t fix the oven issue. The upper cabinets are simply ugly. The wallpaper is great, but not appropriate for staging a home. Worse off, someone paid for this - when they could have gone to IKEA and had the whole thing designed for them FOR FREE. OH - and it looks like they put a linoleum floor in - who puts in linoleum when they already have tile????!!!! Linoleum was created for people who can’t afford tile.

[post edit: It turns out that the red cabinets don't come from IKEA, they are wallpapered - which means they ruined the original wood veneer fronts instead. This would explain why nothing moved in the space.]

Instead of ruining the original space they should have simply cleaned up what was already there, put in a proper oven, and bought an amazing light. Honestly, the financial irresponsability leaves me shocked. The fact that they made it worse - I’m gobsmacked.

They couldn’t even bother to put in nice accessories. They all come from IKEA as well. If a designer doesn’t know about the importance of good handles and bars - they aren’t good designers. Goldstein people, it’s in Florentine in Tel Aviv  - get a clue and go there. NOW.

I have to admit, I’ve never liked the rounded door kitchen cabinets. But these cabinets aren’t so bad.

Again, what did SpiceIT do? Take out a perfectly fine kitchen and put in the cheapest crap IKEA had to offer - with rounded doors. They didn’t change the side bar. They didn’t even change the size of the tile in the kitchen, they simply picked a different color.

The window dressing is great, but it would have worked equally well in the original kitchen. Again, since nothing essential in the space was moved - the person who paid for this WAS A FRIAR (fool in Hebrew). You can go to IKEA and they will design this space for you for free.

What I really like is now the middle cabinet door on the bottom isn’t even installed flush with the doors on either side. Great staging guys. And someone paid close to 2000 NIS for this? This is just for them to ‘design’ it, it’s not even for the materials or work. Hire me instead - I promise you I will do a significantly better job with nicer materials and better results.

Remember the painfully boring living rooms? Someone paid 3,500 NIS to have that done to their flat. The mind boggles.

I love the red counter. I have no idea what it looked like before, because the site isn’t offering that, but I do like the red and the green. It’s like Christmas on acid.

I HATE the ‘texture’ beneath the red counter. It looks cheap and unfinished. They took the kettle from an old house above and put it in this room. The cabinets look original. My guess is that they simply tidied up and painted. All of the accessories look like IKEA (shocker). It’s fine. But it isn’t worth almost 2000 NIS.

Chutzpa, thy name is SpiceIT.

After finishing the Tollman’s post I kept looking at their site (what a pleasure for the eyes - if you haven’t been yet GO THERE NOW.) I came across the Alessi Chin Chan Timer. Politically correct it’s not - but who cares? Look at those colors! Look at that pop design! How cute is that? I’ve been thinking I need an egg timer which can give me finer timing than my stove - and this is just perfect.

It reminds me of this Louis Vuitton pop bag designed by the amazing Japanamation artist Takashi Murakami. Below is a piece by him, so you can see his style. Hmm… maybe Tollman’s should have Takashi design something for them?

Almost a year ago now we inherited a breadmaker from my friend Ellen before she moved back to the US (which is part of the reason why it’s so good to be on your local anglo message board).

The Hubby complained about my taking it, insisting that it will never be used and it will just take up too much space.

He was right, so he decided to do something about it. Out came the breadmaker last weekend (not as nice as the one pictured, but works just fine) and he made wholewheat bread.

Oh My G-d. YUM!

We’re never buying bread again. This was so easy and so yummy and just absolutely wonderful. And the smell of the house - wow. I’m completely bread obsessed now and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t have one.

Country Kitchen is a custom kitchen designer based in Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv. Their designs are some of the best I have seen for the ‘country’ style of kitchen (which seems to be the new favorite style - I know it’s been mine for awhile now.)

I like the mixing of color and table-top materials. I also love the fact that there are no upper cabinets. Being rather short, I find my upper cabinets a hassle. Next time around, when I have a much larger kitchen, there will be lower cabinets only.

Again, a nice combo of colors - but I think the ‘antique’ edging on the cabinets is too much. They look like they have been beaten instead of gently used and loved.

Love it. Simply love the whole crowded overdone thing. This is warm and homey.

Ignoring the interesting Israeli-English, Pnina Maron from P.M. Studio has a distinctive style and creates some really nice decorative tile.

I like the charcoal border in basalt stone (left). I’m also loving the freestanding tub - but that’s not hers.

I could see the clover (which looks very much like Fleur de Lys (or is it Lis, I saw both when I was looking it up)) as an accent tile in a neutral kitchen.

Granted, not my style, but nice. And if you have to do neutral, at least this will keep it from being boring.

I have no idea why I like the rose inlay stone. But I do. So it’s here.

The stone border in this bathroom breaks up the neutral with a textured pattern. Again, neutral, but not dull.

After trying to get the lamps from Hafatzim a few weeks ago I needed a mood pick-me-up.

To sooth my tattered nerves I stopped into my favorite kitchen supply place - 4Chef on Nahalat Binyamin - and picked up a new pestle and mortar.

My last mortar (or is it the pestle - whatever the stick is called) died when it rolled off the counter and broke in half. Of course stores don’t sell just the stick bit on its own - nope, you have to buy the whole thing again. So I did, because pesto just doesn’t taste the same unless it’s been beaten to a paste by my bare hands and a heavy stick.

Kindly ignore the clutter on the counter - the picture was taken while cooking - and notice the rail with the hooks and the door handles. All of these things came from Goldstein.

In the post below I mentioned that I don’t recommend IKEA handles. I thought I should explain why. IKEA handles are, in my opinion, constructed cheaply, and try to use the attachment piece (such as the screw) as a part of the design. If you look at the IKEA hanging rail below. The wall attachment shows the screw-head on the top and the bottom. I haven’t the slightest idea how my husband attached the hanging rail to the wall in our kitchen, and that is how it should be (IMHO).

Plus I think the Goldstein rail cost about the same and looks so much better (but I bought it years ago, so this fact might have changed).

In case you are wondering about the curtains - they are cloth napkins from IKEA hung with clips from IKEA. We change them out to match the tablecloth because the table is in the open space living room and this ties the room to the kitchen better.

Would you recommend buying a kitchen from Ikea to install in a new home - for the long term? My husband and i have been around to various Israeli kitchen places and while we are impressed with the models and plans that we’ve been given by them, the high prices are also quite impressive… So we keep going back and forth in our heads about Ikea kitchens. Obviously the quality of an Ikea kitchen will be significantly less than a kitchen from, say, Decor or Ziv or Topaz, etc. but how much wear and tear do kitchens go through in the first place? would one of ikea’s most expensive kitchens look cheap ? any thoughts? might your readers have opinions?

I like IKEA kitchens. A good girlfriend of mine has had the Adel (the white front) for years now and it still looks good and works fine. I like how they have loads of gadgets for the kitchen and they are affordable.

With that said - before you decide to take the IKEA route you should still look at Home Center for kitchens (their prices are similar and you can negotiate), as well as your local kitchen maker - Netanya industrial zone or Florentine in TA are good places to look.

If you decide to go the IKEA route I would recommend buying handles somewhere else and spending the money on a proper stone or marble countertop.

For handles I like Goldstein in Florentine - my favorite handle store in Israel and where I got our kitchen door handles.

I have to admit, as much as I love Martha she also freaks me out. She’s about as warm as a 10 watt halogen light bulb. Regardless, her show is fabulous and her ideas for decor and organization are brilliant.

We’ve been looking for a new trash can for awhile now, something big enough to hold more than a days worth of stuff, and small enough to not overpower our small kitchen. This is Brabantia trash can from Hometags isn’t it. This trash can is 30 liters and 73 cms high. It also costs over 900 NIS. It’s gorgeous and really well made - but 919 NIS? Well, if you’ve got it, good on ya.

Last weekend we went to Monsour in Osefiya (a druze village up the hill from Dalyat Ha Carmel - take the main road all the way around and it’s on your left before the turn for Beit Oren.) The place is 2 stories of imported stuff cheaper than anywhere else. They carry kitchen things, indian furniture (the white, the dark, and the painted), and curtains. They had trash cans (not this nice mind you) but this size, with the peddle for opening, for about 200 NIS if memory serves correctly. They do not have a website.

On the other hand, if this is the normal size Chef’n salt or pepper grinder then it is a great price on Hometags. I know that the page is calling it Mini, but I don’t know how small that is. I just know that the normal one costs around 99 NIS typically and this one featured costs 59.90 NIS.

I’ve been wanting one of those for so long, but the hubby bought me a copy ages ago and since it works fine I just can’t justify buying something I don’t really need just because I want it. **sigh**

I want. I want. I want.

I had a marble pestle and mortar that I used regularly to create marinades and pesto (with basel from the garden). Grinding by hand brings out so much more flavor then throwing all the ingredients in a mixer.

So what happened to the pestle and mortar? I put the pestle (or is it the mortar) down on the counter, it rolled off, and cracked in two. That was a very upsetting day.

I want. I want. I want. Cilio 589 NIS.