Ceiling Fan Side Project

Just installed a new ceiling fan in the living room. The old fan was hideous. This one is more to our modern/mid-century taste. It is the Minka Aire® Artemis™ in copper bronze. It's actually semi-transparent. Comes in many other cool colors and finishes. It's absolutely silent and very efficient. I can't imagine ever using above the low setting. Everything's controlled from a fancy wall mount controller, which simply replaces the wall switch.

Had to trace out a bit of electrical. The old fan was on a 3-way switch and I just needed to determine which box was the circuit feed from the panel. Naturally it turned out to be the box furthest from the panel. The people who wired this house were, uh, not so smart. When I wire for the kitchen, I'll be rewiring several other zones as well.

Eureka!

I love these moments. Is it sad that my best inspirations come through accidents and the resolution of problems rather than pure vision? Oh well, you work with what you got.

I thought a bit more about raising the island countertop and realized I can make it a design element. Why try to hide or blend the spacer between the drawers and countertop when I can use it to create a "floating" countertop. This is just what this kitchen needed to make it less ordinary.



boring.



Not boring!

Without the floating spacer, the countertop would just sit right above the drawer (top photo). Now, since I'm raising the countertop, I can use a simple black material and recess it a little bit to create that floating look (bottom photo). Cool.

I'm gonna do the same thing for the main counter against the wall so everything matches. I just have to be careful I don't raise it too much. Not only are high counters a problem, but the hanging wall cabinets are already just barely high enough to maintain the desired 17" space between countertop and bottom of the cabinet.