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cawaps_gw

Resurrecting the Design Around This Threads

cawaps
10 years ago

How do y'all feel about reviving the Design Around This threads? For those of you who weren't around for the DATs (it's been a while), please see About the Design Around This threads.

When we last visited our intrepid DATters, they had just completed their 21st topic, Bold Patterned Tile. On the list for upcoming topics were:

Materials
Knotty pine
Metal cabinetry
Interesting tile (we can do this one over and over)
Vetrazzo
Marmoleum graphic series
Back-painted glass
Commercial Kitchens/Restaurant Supply


Defining the Home
Spanish Colonial Revival
Craftsman
Prarie School
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
Beach House
Mash-up house (what do you do with a house that is already a mash-up of styles, like a Mission-style Queen Anne)

Theme/Decorating Styles
Eclectic
Starting from clothing fashions as your inspiration pic, design a kitchen that suits the era/mood/style
Scandinavian
Black & white kitchens
Unusual colors (Colors you don't normally see in a kitchen)
All neutral kitchen

Budget/Supply restrictions
$10K budget
Ikea kitchen (all Ikea?)
Mail order kitchen
Home Depot kitchen
Architectural salvage/upcycle/recycle

Define the People
Mid-life crisis bachelor (or cougar) pad
Rabid sports fan wants to decorate in team colors

Presentation Strategies that Can Be Combined with Other Choices
This/Not That (Good taste/bad taste, works/doesn't work)
High/Low (same look, different budgets)

I'd really like to do a fashion-inspired kitchen. Fashion has popped up in individual kitchens in a number of the DATs--Pal's Marilyn kitchen in the Art thread, menswear inspirations in the Pink thread, the portrait-inspired kitchen in the Tudor thread. I seem to recall that some folks didn't see the connection, but there wasn't really a connection between art and kitchens and we made that work. Also, I don't just mean current runway fashion (although that works too), I'm thinking of fashion as in clothing trends over time from Zoot suits, to Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hats and pearl, to bell-bottoms and tie-dye from the 70s.

But, as always, this is a collaborative process, so weigh in with your votes on a topic.

Comments (25)

  • oldbat2be
    10 years ago

    I've been looking for these... will take the plunge one of these days. Please do resurrect!

  • dilly_ny
    10 years ago

    I'd love to see this resurrection

  • cawaps
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Bumping for more input.

  • purplepansies
    10 years ago

    I would love it! Miss the creativity.

  • debrak2008
    10 years ago

    I just posted on a thread on the decor forum that these should be restarted.

    I love reading these and learn so much. I can't however actually participate as I just don't have the talent/creativity/knowledge.

    Looks like you don't need anymore topic ideas but if you did.... I would like to see a thread on using using "arch" style cabinets. These are often maligned and called dated but there are many kitchens with them (in good condition) and they are still being sold/installed. Any threads using common but "dated" materials I like. The one on common oak cabinets was the best. I find these threads are most useful.

  • cawaps
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Debra, so many people have the attitude that they don't have the "talent/creativity/knowledge." I'm about as far from a design expert as you can get (I'm a numbers geek for work), and my first attempts for the DATs were pretty bad. But as with all things, design, and the mechanics of assembling a board, get better with practice.

    Now not having enough TIME, or being too wrapped up in planning your real kitchen to work on a hypothetical one, those I do understand...

    I love that the threads give you the opportunity to try out a lot of different ideas in a no-risk way. And in exploring for those design, you find products and ideas your might not have run across otherwise.

    I'm not so much looking for new topic suggestions as a vote for what the next topic should be. I'm fine with making unilateral decisions, but I recognize that it isn't always socially appropriate to play dictator.

    So IS anyone else going to participate if I start something?

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    I loved participating, but I have a new job and don't have a lot of time right now. I'd love to contribute the occasional post on them though!

  • palimpsest
    10 years ago

    I am probably being

    but I am not sure I see it happening. The climate of GW is changing, traffic seems to be down, many of the people who used to post are gone, and the last few DAT threads had commentary that was pretty much between the actual participants themselves. My feeling is kinda that it was fun while it lasted.

  • angela12345
    10 years ago

    My vote is for "Beach House" : )

    Oh, and maybe harvest a list of those who particpiated in the past threads and send each a private message with a link to the first DAT resurrection thread. It might peak their interest enough to come back.

    My thoughts are, they are a lot of work, so maybe people got burned out. There were a lot of them in a short amount of time. And the last one at least was harder to get started on because it wasn't as much of a focus. Some of the best ones were the ones that were more specific on the topic. I never participated in them other than making the first master list of threads. But I did enjoy them very much.

    This post was edited by angela12345 on Sat, Jun 22, 13 at 17:35

  • Holly- Kay
    10 years ago

    I think it's a great idea but I am not able to do the design on my laptop. I am totally out of my league with the software that it would take.

    It would be awesome if someone could design interactive software right here on GW.

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    Plain old MS Paint is all I ever used. It's on every computer around and has been used by everyone at one time or another. It's easy to cut and past. It really doesn't require a lot of expensive software or even very much skill.

  • purplepansies
    10 years ago

    I think we should give it a try. There are a lot of new people around, but I see that as a good thing! Maybe we'll get even more participation than before. We'll never know if we don't try.

    Holly-kay, many of us use Olioboard. It's easy to use, check it out!

  • oldbat2be
    10 years ago

    I like the neutral kitchen idea. Basic canvas with elements that pop. This, of course, because it's what I like. Very boring I'm sure but it works for me. Good luck! If the subject has a broad appeal, you'll get more respondents, because most of us are interested in something we might encounter. (Just saying, steam punk... (Sorry marcolo -btw, hopefully some progress? )

  • pricklypearcactus
    10 years ago

    Sorry I missed this thread when it came up. I would love to participate in the DAT threads again.

  • oldbat2be
    10 years ago

    How about tile with texture? Or hexagonal tile? No reason of course, just dreaming and planning...:)

  • sochi
    10 years ago

    I'd be willing to participate again too. I'm not around that often here anymore, but I really loved those threads. Pal may be right about the nature of the forums changing though, I'm not sure the interest is really there.

    Debra, most of us didn't have any idea what we were doing. The point was to experiment, have fun and learn, which I certainly did.

    I wonder if a separate forum or site might be a better place for these types of threads, perhaps combined with the educational/informational type of posts Pal often posts. These are the best part of the kitchen and design forums for me. The practical advice on specific issues, be they bathroom, kitchen, etc., are great and important, but I enjoy pushing beyond that too.

  • cawaps
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks everybody. Pal's post had me a bit discouraged, and then I was on vacation.

    But we still don't have anything resembling a consensus. We have suggestions for:
    "arch" style cabinets. (or other common but "dated" materials)
    Beach House
    neutral kitchen (but I don't think Oldbat2be meant the same thing by this that was originally intended)
    tile with texture (Our last one was bold patterned tile, although that was a very long time ago)
    fashion-inspired (which I now think is probably too "out there" for our first revival thread)

    But everything has one vote. Beach house sounds like it might have broad appeal.

  • sochi
    10 years ago

    I vote for beach house too.

  • live_wire_oak
    10 years ago

    For the resurrection, I think something with a broad appeal, and that also means different things to different people would work. I like the Beach House suggestion. It's seasonal appropriate. It can encompass a slick Miami Vice condo to a rustic Margaritaville shack.

    I also liked the stories behind the decor choices. It underscores that there are no choices in a vacuum. Every kitchen belongs in a specific style home, and is owned by specific individuals with their own taste that has it's own limiting parameters. That was what was so successful about the DAT threads. It was educational for so many to see how to combine the choices that the different limitations gave as the parameters.

    Even when you are doing a "free for all" with imaginary occupants of an imaginary house, you will have limitations as you begin to make the selections. Each selection narrows the field a bit further for the remaining selections. I don't think many amateur participants had ever looked at design from that viewpoint before. It's both freeing and limiting at the same time. Understanding that there can be a LOT of "right" choices frees you up to be more creative in many respects!

    I'd REALLY like it if more people would express an interest in participating, but there are so many new people that some may not even know what we're talking about here! Perhaps someone who has bookmarked the previous threads could insert some links within this post to show people what was done in the past? And didn't someone do a "how to" for the DAT? Perhaps that thread could receive a "bump up" for further conversation about the technical end so as to allay the fears of new participants that it's "too hard" to do.

    I've got a couple of weeks of only 40 hour week work here on the front end in the lull of summer, so I'd be happy to participate in a new thread. I'd hope that Marcolo could be coaxed out of his depressive hiding state to at least do a virtual project since his real one is stalled. And perhaps after Pal has finished moving, he might have some time? Sochi and Cawaps are on board, so that's two of the heavy participants of previous threads. (Forgive me if I omitted some names here. I had to drop out of the previous ones after just a few.) If we can get 10 responses during vacation season, I'd think that would be "successful" as a new beginning.

    Maybe bring up the technical stuff, and talk about what Mood Boards do for designs, and talk about a Start date for beginning to post the designs?

    This might be the only beach time I get this year!

  • rosie
    10 years ago

    It's summer and Beach House seems appropriate. I just found Paint on this computer, so if I can figure out how to paste more than one image into it, I could do a pocket-change "redo" of a kitchen in an old bungalow, the kind you see on hidden behind overgrown tropical plants on a narrow, sandy street.

  • Iowacommute
    10 years ago

    I can't believe I missed this! Let's do beach house.

    I know the climate on GW has changed (I read a lot of past threads), but I do hope we can make it great again.

  • Circus Peanut
    10 years ago

    I'm dealing with multiple family health emergencies and am not often online these days, but would love to participate in the DATs again where possible.

  • justmakeit
    10 years ago

    I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'd love to jump in anyway. I'm already getting kind of excited about the beach house theme. I have no sand in my bicycle tires here in Chicago this summer, but I'd love a go at a grey-shingled cottage.

  • cawaps
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I will go ahead and post an introductory thread for a Beach House DAT--we can launch the thread for posting designs next week once folks have had a chance to work up some designs.

  • purplepansies
    10 years ago

    Yay!! Beach house sounds like a great way to start - thanks, Cawaps, for getting this going again!

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