
(3) Quick Bathroom Updates Without A Renovation!
Is Your Bathroom Yearning For Some Love?
Our bathrooms take it on the chin from us every day. Probably no other space in the house that we use more. Show your bath some love with these quick updates that don’t require any renovation at all!

Living Small In Style
How Small Can We Go?
Do you sometimes wonder, or dare to dream, what it might be like to live in a smaller home…one with style! We are not talking about one of the tiny homes that HGTV tries to convince people are great to pull around from one friend’s yard to another. Not a teeny, tiny home that requires you to crunch down to the size of a flattened mouse to get to the loft bed. Or one that means a trip to the laundromat each week.
No, we are talking about homes so efficient and design-oriented that we forget they are only 700-900 sq feet! Homes enticing enough that we are itching to give them a chance to make a difference in our lives.
Small Homes With Style Have…
- Architectural Interest
- Creative Decor
- Efficient Uses of Space
- Specific Storage
- Fewer, Yet Finer Furnishings
- Space for Art and Collections
- Wardrobes that Work
- Easy Maintenance
- Are Located In Diverse, Engaging Neighborhoods

The Pros & Cons Of Smaller Appliances
Can We Live With Smaller Appliances?
Continuing the reveal of our new kitchen, today we share our decision to use smaller, euro sized appliances. For us, using smaller appliances has been more pro than con!

Undoing The “Must-Haves” In A Kitchen
“I Must Have Granite and Stainless Steel Appliances!”
Ok, all you real estate agents, and at home HGTV watchers…how many times do we hear these very words? TOO OFTEN! Today we share our own minimal kitchen journey to totally debunk these must-haves in our kitchen.
The Holdover Kitchen
The old saying in real estate of, location-location-location, finally resonated with both Mr. LBD and moi at the same time. For years we’ve known that walkable, city neighborhoods are our playgrounds. We’ve paid big bucks to “live like locals” for a month at a time in cities all across this wonderful world. Nearly a year ago, we successfully acquired a full-time residence in our favorite city. Within this home, we also were the proud owners of a 12-year-old “must-have” kitchen.
The photo above shows the small kitchen with updated paint, and those stainless and granite amenities all shined up. Due to the city’s strict building permit restrictions…this space was what we functioned in every day. Looked good but was not the best use of space for how we live. We cooked often before the pandemic and, well, I don’t need to tell anyone that kitchens have become even more important to all of us now!
The Kitchen The Day We Looked At The Unit

(3) Reasons Foodies Love Our Butcher Blocks!
Maybe we should rephrase this to say, “Happiness is a kitchen with a BIG heart!” Join us today as we share (3) Reasons Foodies Love Our Butcher Blocks!

A Minimal Kitchen Renovation
And By Minimal, We Mean “Mini”!
So many renovation posts begin with the before photo. Not this one! We are starting with the photo our contractor text us as he was leaving. This extremely clean (yes the contractor cleaned!) space is the beginning of the perfect minimal kitchen renovation.