About.com - May Recap

I can't believe this is the last day of May! Time is going by so fast, we are officially half way through 2015...crazy! It's been a busy month for me and some of my About.com postings have been a bit sporadic. For whatever reason I didn't post at ALL the first week of May (bad idea), so I've been hustling to get all of my articles out. In fact I just posted my 8th and final article of the month about an hour ago. There's nothing like cutting it close...eek. But, I got it done and I'm pretty happy with this months articles. If you haven't gotten a chance check them out, the topics are all over the place, but of course centered around the best room in the house....the kitchen!

1. How to Integrate Pet Storage Solutions into your Kitchen

After writing about my experience designing cabinets for animals in this blog post, I decided to do  some research so I could show off additional ways you can integrate pet storage into your kitchen. All options are not only functional but so fun!

2. Color in the Kitchen

The opening picture to this article is a group of naked trolls with colorful hair. Do I really need to say more to encourage you to read?? OK fine....I'm talking color in the kitchen and my ideas don't involve being naked or dying your hair radical colors, so you should check them out!

3. Cabinetry Construction Styles 

The subject of cabinetry can be downright confusing and overwhelming, but you've gotta start somewhere right? In this article I explained the different cabinetry construction styles. Sounds boring and blah, but it's actually one of the most important things you can understand before you set out to design your dream kitchen. 

4. New Kitchen Must Haves

When I design a kitchen there are 4 items that rarely don't make their way into my designs. This article talks about these items and why myself AND clients love them so much!

5. Touch Faucet Love

Our touch faucet is truly one of our favorite features in our kitchen. In this article I'm sharing the reason I truly believe the Touch Faucet is worth every penny and will instantly become a kitchen favorite for any one who has one installed in their space.

6. Red, White & Blue in the Kitchen

For Memorial Day I posted a special article all about how to add a little patriotic flair to your kitchen! Lucky for us, American colors are classic and pretty and when done right a patriotic kitchen can be down right elegant! 

A little food for thought....This is the Brazilian Flag: 

While their futbol teams are unparalleled, their colors are a little harder to decorate around ;)

7. Outdoor Kitchens

I know you all know this outdoor kitchen of mine pretty well. In this article I talked not only about my own outdoor kitchen, but showed off some other really cool outdoor kitchens as a way to pay homage to the kick off of summer!

8. Meet the LeMans Corner Pullout

Corners in the kitchen can be a beast! The LeMans corner pullout is an accessory I put in so many of my kitchen designs. This article talks all about the many benefits of the LeMans pullout. 

As I always I would very much appreciate any feedback regarding topics I should post about. I'm all ears...no literally, my ears....their kind of Yoda like. It's cool, I'm OK with it. :)

The Little Bathroom That Could

I'm happy to report another room in our house is COMPLETE! 

The lucky space?? Our downstairs Bathroom!

This little bathroom is a pretty big deal... With the master bath upstairs, this space serves not only as our guest bath, but our powder room for visitors. Given the central location of the bath, and the number of people that would frequent this space, we knew this little bathroom needed to pack a big punch, aesthetically and functionally. I really wanted the space to feel classic and a bit dramatic, despite it's petite size.

Great things come in small packages, right!??!?! 

Dear Lord let's hope...

Let's start with the Before:

This bathroom was once the one and only of the house, so while it is not very big, it does have a full shower/bath that sits directly across from the vanity/toilet wall. While the room is small, the natural lighting is really nice and the space as a whole has great bones. All tile is original to the house and something I was excited to work with. 

Paint was the first item on the to-do list. I really wanted to paint the walls a dark color, as I said before I was looking for drama and nothing says drama like dark walls. The space is small yes, but I knew no amount of light colored paint was going to change that, so I decided to go for it and paint the walls Navy. Martha Stewart's Wrought Iron to be specific.

With the painting underway, it was time to figure out how to increase the storage capacity of this little space. With a tiny vanity and a mirror that doubled as a medicine cabinet, there was really no where to go but up from where we were.

In 2012 I posted about a bath remodel we did at Brent's old house. We were working with a similar medicine cabinet situation in this space. To up the storage and the aesthetic we removed the medicine cabinet and built custom shelves and added a mirror that slid from side to side with cabinet guides. 

We were so pleased with how well this approach turned out before, we decided to do it again in this space. Brent popped the old medicine cabinet out, framed up a new one, added guides and hung the mirror. 

For the mirror, we brought the one used in Brent's old house because it was his Great Grandmother's and has beautiful detailing. We went back and forth about what color to paint the mirror but ultimately decided to paint it Wrought Iron as well so it would blend with the walls. I love interest layered in through texture as opposed to color. 

For the vanity I designed a custom cabinet through the company I work for, Bell Kitchen & Bath Studios. We needed this cabinet to be as functional as possible so we made it as large as we could to allow the door to still open and close past it.  I designed the false front drawer to flip down to optimize storage capacity. 

We picked a beautiful remnant piece of white marble for the countertops from Construction Resources. In order to increase counter space we had the top banjo, meaning extend over the toilet to the wall. Not only did this increase the usable counter space but it elongates the room, making it feel deeper.

During this update whirlwind, we replaced the toilet (Home Depot), light fixture (Rejuvenation), faucet (Kohler) and sink (Porcher). We also added fluffy white towels and a soap dispenser (Target) as well as a fun shower curtain (Crate & Barrel). Things were coming together quickly and we were able to get the bulk of this space completed before we moved in, making this one of the most finished spaces of the house for a long time. 

The above photo represents how the bathroom looked for over a year. It was taken by photographer, Barbara Brown when she was at the house shooting the kitchen.

As much as we loved the space, there was one giant item standing between us and calling this bathroom complete....The window treatment. We loved the natural light that flowed in but for some reason our guests were averse to a bare window you could see straight through. Can you say high maintenance??? ;)

We needed a solution that would allow light to come in, offer privacy and be visually pleasing. Once we really thought about it we knew the answer was a stained glass piece. It just so happens Brent's Mom is a stained glass artist, nay genius. She is the name behind Cindy's Glasswork Designs and she does custom work all over the Southeast; in fact, she made the window we hung in the bathroom at Brent's old house. For this space we wanted something totally different and Brent came up with the perfect concept. He sketched the idea out and talked through the vision with his Mom/Cindy. 

Once the idea was transferred, things moved pretty fast. Measurements were taken, glass options were presented and the frame finish was considered.  A few weeks ago the piece was finished and Cindy brought it up to Atlanta to install.

 

Three panels were designed to virtually float between the frame. The panels are suspended from from springs, giving the piece an industrial - modern vibe. The frame was stained dark brown to tie into the vanity color.

It's unbelievable what an instant impact this stained glass window had on the room. Not only is it a bold focal piece, but it allows light to pour through (so much so that it's hard to photograph) and offers privacy - everything we were looking for and more!

We are so happy with how this space turned out. Not only do we love how it looks, but we feel we optimized every inch of functionality we could and really helped this little room be the best it could be!

Unless otherwise noted all photos are my own. 

I Spy with my Little Eye...

...all things kitchen and bath related! Seriously, everywhere I go I notice, I critique and sometimes I take pictures just for proof of how wonderful or terrible something is I come across.

It's funny how our individual careers are just one more reason we all see the world so differently. Take my friend Jackie for example, she's the international sales manager for CaseMate, which is a company that designs and manufactures fashion accessories for smart phones. Everywhere we go she's noticing phone cases, ipad covers, screen protectors, etc... She can take one look at a phone and spit out the make and model. Even more, she will literally take the case off her own phone(the technological equivalent of taking the shirt off your own back) without thinking twice if she sees someone with a sub-par case. She's the real deal and she sees the world with cases on the brain. So here she is noticing phone cases, and here I am noticing cabinetry and tile, both living in our own happy bubble where we notice things we love and are passionate about.

While all design related items grab my attention it's cabinetry that really makes me look twice. To me, the cabinets really define a space, not only layout wise but style wise as well. Cabinets come in all shapes, sizes, colors and wood species, but it's the actual construction of the cabinet that I want to talk about today. There are two basic types of cabinetry construction - Framed & Frameless with the main differences between these two being aesthetics and accessibility.

So, let's dig in......

Framed Cabinetry:

Inset Cabinetry:
Inset Cabinetry is the creme' de la creme' of framed cabinetry....



This project is from the 2011 FoxHall Show House.
Cabinetry is Bell Custom.

Above is an example of inset cabinetry. Notice how the door sits within the face frame of the cabinet, creating very clean lines.



This is another shot of an inset cabinet, but this example showcases a bead around the opening of the cabinet.

Follow my ghostly white hand to the bead I'm referring to.

Inset cabinetry is the most expensive cabinetry construction. The expense comes from the skill required to build doors and drawer fronts that fit snuggly between the rails and stiles of the face frame. At the end of the day the door either fits in the opening or it doesn't, and there is very little room for adjustment, ergo the expense. This type of cabinetry construction hearkens back to the furniture craft which is what gives these cabinets that timeless look.

Overlay Cabinetry:

Overlay cabinetry is another type of framed cabinetry construction and probably what most people have in their homes.

The above cabinet is on display here in my office at Inspirations Design Studio and showcases a partial overlay cabinet ( 1/2" overlay to be exact.) Notice how the door sits on top of the cabinet box.

My ghostly white hand is back and is pointing to the cabinet box in which the door is sitting atop of. This type of cabinetry construction is referred to as a partial overlay because that 1/2" is showing on either side of the door.

This cabinet is an example of a full overlay cabinet. Full overlay is still in the framed cabinet family but is different from 1/2" overlay in that the door takes up nearly the entire face frame with very little exposed face frame on either side of the door...see below...

Full overlay cabinetry is going to give you more seamless look, where you will be seeing far more of the actual door than you will of the face frame of the cabinet box.

Framed cabinetry, regardless of the specific type (inset, partial overlay or full overlay) is a traditional American method of cabinetry construction. While the different types of framed cabinetry vary aesthetically they have accessibility in common, but let's talk more about that after we go over frameless cabinetry.

Frameless Cabinetry:

Frameless cabinetry is also known as European style cabinetry. The cabinets are constructed where the door sits directly on top of the cabinet box, creating a very sleek and seamless look as seen below.

Remember this little guy from my facelift series a few months ago?? He's frameless too!

Photo my own. 

Notice in both pictures above all that you see are the cabinet doors, there is no face frame showing. While both cabinets have a shaker style door, please know this type of cabinetry construction can be done with both traditional and contemporary door styles as well.

One of the main advantages to frameless cabinetry is the accessibility. Unlike framed cabinetry, there is no inside edge of a frame that is partially blocking the perimeter of the cabinet opening. Frameless drawers are also larger because the framed cabinet drawers have to be made smaller to fit through the face frame opening. 

Above is an example of the full access you get with frameless cabinetry. Are you acquiring an abundance of extra space? No, but every little bit counts especially in rooms where storage space is slim.

The price of frameless cabinetry can really fluctuate depending on where you purchase the cabinetry. Because a lot of American based cabinet makers have their machines set up to make framed cabinets, many of them do not offer frameless and if they do it can be expensive. However, other companies like the one I work for offer both frameless and the 1/2" overlay cabinetry and both are priced the same. 

Here is the typical  cabinetry construction price break down from highest to lowest:

• Inset
• Frameless/Full Overlay (Framed)
• Partial Overlay

Well, there you have it, now you too will be noticing cabinetry construction every time you come across a cabinet! Now that you know the differences you will have to try and spot the various construction types and get your hands and eyes on them to see which construction style you prefer. I hope that your new found knowledge also helps you in future kitchen and bath endeavours. With the long list of decisions one has to make as they prepare to start a kitchen or bath project, I always suggest starting with the construction of the cabinetry. This decision will define not only the look you are going for, but also the price point.

Unless otherwise noted all photos were taken from the Inspirations Design Studio showroom.