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  • Hi, I’m Emily

    Emily Fazio

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Ten Little Knives

October 1, 2012

To reward myself for staining our kitchen cabinets, I bought a new set of knives on fab.com – it’s the first matching set of knives I’ve ever owned, and although we have plenty of knives collected one-off from places like Marshalls, this non-stick all-black set seemed like it’d be a slick/sick/sweet complement to our newly finished cabinetry. Also, if you know Pete, you might be thinking that ‘they’re very Pete’, and that sentiment would be right on. He loves them.

New slick black knives from fab.com via Gela Global.

I can’t claim that these knives produced by Gela Global are the greatest quality knives ever (the set of 10 was only $28 on Fab, which equates to $2.80 per knife), but it is a fun assortment. Black knives are sexy and they know it.

 

Fab(ulous) black non-stick knives. That's right.

 

After seeing the knives in person and taking some measurements, we decided it might be fun/fresh/fabulous to display them openly on an open wall in the kitchen where they could be seen and accessible all at the same time.

We considered a few different locations – beside the fridge, below the shelves with the plates and bowls, and eventually, a narrow wall beside our microwave. This particular wall felt like the best place to feature something artful like our new black knives, the proportions were right on. The only issue being, we’ve had shelves filled with books installed right there for two years.

We're planning to remove a few small shelves in the kitchen in order to display the knives on a feature wall.

I have some touch-up painting to do in the kitchen, and doing so will require me to remove these brackets, so they’ll be coming down (at least temporarily) in any case. It only seems sensible to hold on painting until after new countertops are installed because the existing backsplash needs to be removed and that’ll inevitably cause some damage, but in the interim month between now and when that project takes off, we’re making sure we really like exposed knives.

I bought an IKEA GRUNDTAL magnetic knife rack because I really liked that the face was a solid stainless finish (no exposed screws, no exposed magnets), and it can be hung vertically and horizontally easily.

We hung the rack on the wall between brackets (sans shelves) to see how it looks and get a feel for using the knives in the open; like many other things, we’d rather test this out for a few weeks to make sure we really, really like it before ditching the shelves. So far, so good.

Testing out the new black knives on our kitchen wall.

For folks wondering if it’s going to be a safety hazard with a kid wandering around, we don’t expect it to be any more so than having a drawerful of knives beside the spoons. Julia knows not to fool around with knives, and they’re not all that easy to remove from the magnet bar unless you know how to grip and pull them the right way. Shorter answer: no worries.

Testing out the new black knives on our kitchen wall. See how we have some wall touch-ups to do?

P.S. The glossiness of the cabinets? We’re still questioning it. Food for thought: What happens when you go over a satin finish with a matte finish? Does it immediately take on the new matte finish, or would it look like a wonky mishap?

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Kitchen  / Organized

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. You can find me writing for HGTV and DIY Network, follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note if you'd like. I love notes.

5 Comments


Kate.
October 1, 2012 at 11:23 am
Reply

I like the glossiness of the cabinets particularly because they are so dark. They bounce a bit of light around in your space. If they were matte they might just soak up every bit of light and look heavy. Just my opinion! :)



    Emily
    October 1, 2012 at 11:40 am

    We really liked how subtle the sheen of the actual stain was on the cabinets, and maybe I’m still just a little stuck on how the satin finish comes across glossier than I expected… must live with it a little longer, you’re right, the matte might just not work well in the grand scheme.

Joe Smith
October 2, 2012 at 2:34 pm
Reply

You did good! I’m all about finding quality cheap knives.

Have you considered raising your shelves a bit, and lowering the rack, so you don’t lose the space?

– Joe
Cheap Knives



Heather
October 2, 2012 at 9:51 pm
Reply

I think the reason the glossiness looks slightly “off” is only because of the countertops. Lose the countertops for something new (which you’re already planning on doing) that’s more sleek, and I think the sheen will look great in the bigger picture.

Cool knives!



    Emily
    October 3, 2012 at 9:32 am

    The countertop is a huge issue. I can’t wait to have it updated. We’ll definitely leave the countertops as-is until we have new ones reinstalled (hopefully before the end of the year!). P.S. Your new site is looking great!

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