Recently I found myself with mixing bowl issues. For years we used the glass nesting bowls from Williams-Sonoma. They’re pretty and there are ten of them, so you’ve got all the sizes you need. They were great, until they started breaking. I guess at some point they just had too much wear or something, and started shattering. They’re made of tempered glass, which means that, when they break, they break into 3 billion one-centimeter-square pieces. Two of them had already broken when, last fall, the boys were at Sutswana’s and Zuzu was napping, and I was happily cleaning up the kitchen, when all I did was pick up one of the bowls from the dish rack and it exploded all over me. So I spent my two hours of kid-free bliss cleaning up tiny glass shard squares from all over the kitchen. I’d had enough.
I found some colorful plastic Kitchenaid bowls at Target, but the first set got oddly discolored after three uses, and the second set broke when I dropped one (isn’t the whole point of a plastic bowl that it doesn’t break?), and I won’t return something more than twice.
FINALLY, I found these great Architec bowls at Le Roux. They are much thicker plastic than the Kitchenaid ones are, but, even better, they’re actually sort of sculpturally interesting and attractive. When they’re all nested they look a bit like a flower about to bloom. I’ve been using them for about 6 weeks now, and I love the size and the shape. Perfect! And no more glass bits all over the kitchen and in my hair, thank you very much.
We got this almost identical set when we got married (in pink though- not white) – http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/white-melamine-mixing-bowl-set/?pkey=x|4|1||4|mixing%20bowls||0&cm_src=SCH- and they are fantastic- I use them every day and have considered getting another set.
Oh, those are nice too! And I like that there are FOUR bowls! Nice.
Of course, 50% of my attraction to the Architec bowls was that they come in the green colors that I am obsessed with. (I’m sure 10 years from now I’ll look around my completely-green house and wonder what I was thinking.)
Big shock – love love love the colors! If only I had room in my cabinets for them!
So funny, I just discovered some architec bowls too! They’re more like prep bowls though. Smaller, but with equally interesting shapes and gorgeous colors. I’m attracted to the blues so got three different shades of blue. Naturally, after I paid $12 for 3, I saw them at T.J. Maxx in sets of 3 for $3! But the colors weren’t as good so I didn’t feel as bad. Now I’ll have to get the mixing bowls too.
Where did you get the prep bowls, Stacey? Not that I need prep bowls. They are really pretty, though.
The same thing happened to me with Williams Sonoma’s largest of their glass mixing bowls! I had shards everywhere in the kitchen! They shot up in every direction. And covered the entire dishwasher.