design

Making Your Finished Basement A Welcoming Space

April 11, 2019

What is the ambiance down in your home’s basement? Is it a place your kids and their friends use as the dark, dank dungeon in their imaginary play? Do you use it for laundry and random storage but not much else? In other words, is your basement a big waste of space? If so, it may be time to remodel your basement into a warm and welcoming space.

Re-Vamp Your Basement in Style

Taking your basement from “extra storage” to “new living area” will have a dramatic impact on your house as a whole. Depending on its size, your basement remodel can significantly improve your home’s livable square footage, notably improving your home’s market appeal and resale value.

With the right extra touches, the basement can also become a comfortable guest space, a potential source of rental revenue down the road and a wonderful way to get your kids and their friends out of your favorite living areas and into one they consider their own. On that note, here are some ideas for renovating and designing your basement space.

Take a family survey. Meet with your family and begin exploring the possibilities. If your basement must be used for storage (I still vote for renting a storage unit and getting more use out of that empty space) you may simply want to make your basement a laundry room, making your current laundry area available for an expanded kitchen, bathroom or other living space. Or, you might decide you want a full entertainment area, complete with a small kitchen or bar. Think about your household’s needs and lifestyle and brainstorm your basement remodel from there.
Clear the clutter. Not surprisingly, your basement overhaul is a fantastic opportunity to get rid of clutter, sort through old boxes and condense all that “stuff”.
Light and ventilation. The two most common associations with basements are “dark” and “musty.” Both are indications of poor lighting and ventilation. See if there’s a way to add windows to gain as much natural lights as possible. If not, freshening up the walls, using a light and neutral color scheme with pops of color, will help it to feel lighter and brighter. A new lighting design can work wonders to brighten your space with illumination that looks more natural. Odds are a professional HVAC contractor will be needed to expand your home’s current system to encompass the basement, and that will go a long way towards improving its ventilation and interior comfort.
Pay attention to the walls. Because the basement can be dark and gloomy, you want to pay very careful attention to the walls. There are pre-fabricated wall systems that can be put in place right over existing, unfinished walls. This is a great way to improve the energy-efficiency and insulation value in the basement while giving it a brand new appearance. Nice new paint or attractive wallpaper can finish the look.
Add a bathroom and kitchen. If the basement is going to be used as an entertainment area and/or guest space, try to incorporate a bathroom and some type of kitchen. Tying a sink and toilet into existing plumbing is rarely a major feat since plumbing is usually readily available in a basement location. A small kitchen makes it easy to store snacks, drinks and also facilitates cleanup. Plus, both those features will make it easy to convert your basement space into a source of rental revenue down the road if you choose to.

The Good And Bad Of Painted Hardwood Floors

April 11, 2019

Hardwood floors are beautiful – until they’re not. In many older or long-neglected homes, hardwood floors, nicks, scratches, stains, and years of accumulated life can make them decidedly unattractive. Then there are those times when you want a specific look for a room – and your hardwood floors don’t contribute to the vision. In any case, you can paint hardwood floors any way you like, but you’ll want to be aware of a few pros and cons.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly About Painting Hardwood Floors

While well-maintained hardwood floors are beautiful, floors that beat up look more like a gymnasium floor than they do a traditional hardwood floor may not be so appealing. In these cases, you may be searching for more creative options.

Some of the benefits of repainting hardwood floors include:

Ease and Affordability. Refinishing a hardwood floor is a costly endeavor. The wood is stripped, sanded repaired, and then finished – and all of this requires significant time and labor. It also requires a specific skill set, and it’s a rare DIYer who can execute a professional-worthy wood floor refinishing project. Experience, skill, time, and labor costs money. Painting, however, is much easier, it’s much cheaper and can easily become a DIY process.
You can get creative. There are things you can achieve with a painted floor that cannot be achieved using carpet, tile, or area rugs. Hardwood floors painted white will yield that homey, country cottage look. You can use any colors or patterns you want to create unique designs and specific patterns. None of this is possible with a stained wood floor.
The ability to highlight a specific living space. Area rugs can do this as well, but then you lose the hardwood below. If you want to keep the hardwood surface but would like to create a defined outline of space, perhaps a colorful border around the master bedroom, fun or funky space in a child’s playroom or an artistic shape or pattern that matches your design vision – all of that can be done using paint.
It can be used as an accent. You aren’t limited to refinishing or painting; you can have both. Some people opt to refinish and stain the main living areas so the beautiful wood grains shine through. Then, paint can be used as a fun accent in smaller rooms in the house, like the bathroom or laundry room, for a little something different.
They’re easy to clean. If they are sealed well, painted hardwood floors are easy to clean. The paint seals the grooves in the wood, making them more impervious to dirt, grime, and stains. They can be cleaned with less ceremony and precision than stained and finished hardwood, and they are much easier to touch up if an area fades chips or cracks.

Some of the downfalls of painting hardwood floors include:

Cracking, chipping, flaking. Your painted floors will be much more likely to paint, chip, and flake. While it’s relatively easy to fix, it might become an irritatingly constant “to-do” on your list.
Buyer appeal. Many buyers will view your painted wood floors as an expensive restoration project to bring back the natural wood aesthetic, which may affect their interest in your home or the final selling price.
Sanding and refinishing will cost even more. Should you decide later that you want to sand and refinish your floors back to their natural look, the process will be even more complicated, lengthy and expensive.

Choosing Flooring For Your Home, Style And Everyday Use

April 7, 2019

The standard home flooring (in the last few decades, at least…) has been: carpet in the main living areas and vinyl or tile in the kitchen and bathrooms. In this model, you chose one carpet color and that was the mainstay throughout the home. Now, however, homes can have as many as three or four different flooring options, depending on the homeowner’s lifestyle, use and style preferences.

Flooring takes a beating for the very fact that it is trod upon daily by both feet and paws. Some traffic areas experience more action than others, some rooms require easy clean-up more easier than others, and some household occupants may be much more sensitive to allergens than others.

All of these factors and more require consideration when it comes to choosing the flooring for each room in your home. So, let’s do a blanket list of “flooring considerations” to help you narrow your options. Once you have this part covered, choosing colors and patterns will be much more straight forward, especially if you work with a professional interior designer.

Who lives here? If you are a retired couple who has very few guests and older grandchildren – you have entirely more freedom when it comes to flooring materials than a busy family or a couple who entertains on a regular basis. You could carpet your entire household and hardly have a care in the world.

Busy households need to focus on durable materials that are easy to maintain: hardwood, tile, stain-protected, low-profile carpet, linoleum or cork, etc. These surfaces are much more children, pet and high-traffic friendly.

Warm or cold? Here in the bay area, the mornings can be quite chilly – even in the summer months. This may inspire you to use carpet in bedrooms and/or heated flooring in the bathrooms – making sure bare feet are comfortable year-round.

Wood tends to be warmer than tile, so that is another consideration. And, of course, area rugs are always available to add both warmth and softness as well as texture and color.

Low- or High-maintenance? Kitchens and bathrooms tend to be higher-maintenance spaces and that will drive your flooring selections. Firstly, water is an issue. Water and carpet don’t mix well; an occasional water spill in the living room can be dried up, the perpetually moist environment in the bathroom is a breeding ground for mold. Similarly, kitchens are prone to water splashing, spills and high-traffic around the same pathways, so you want a flooring that can be cleaned and dried easily.

In liquid-happy spaces, no-slip hard-surface flooring is the priority. This can range from sand-and-finished hardwood and engineered hardwood that is pre-finished and ready to install, to vinyl, linoleum, cork and the like. Tiles are a favorite option as well, but they can be pretty slippery. If you choose tile flooring for kitchens or baths, make sure you’re viewing samples that are designated “no-slip.” There are plenty of stylish options out there.

Design tip: If you like the look of hardwood but are worried about maintenance or sun-fading, consider high-end tiles with wood-specific patterns. You’ll be amazed at how like real wood they appear.

What’s your overall style? Your interior design style is most likely conducive to certain flooring choices. For example, traditionalists tend to like all hardwood flooring or a combination of hardwood and carpet – with carpet being used predominantly in bedrooms or perhaps a living room.

On the flip side, modernists tend to forgo wall-to-wall carpet altogether, choosing hard-surface options for every room in the house. In that case, you can turn to area rugs to add warmth, comfort or color.

Allergies, anyone? If anyone in your home is prone to allergies, I recommend minimizing carpet altogether. It is a harborer of dust, pollen, dander, dust mites and other common allergens. Even the best vacuum cleaners in the world can’t suck it all out of there.

Hard-surface flooring is the best option for those with allergies; a low-pile carpet -such as a Berber – is the ideal way to go if you’re committed to carpet.

The good news is that there has never been a better time to shop for flooring. Today’s choices, colors and pattern availability are unrivaled.

The 7 Elements of Design

March 27, 2019

Each interior designer has his or her own personal flavor that gets added to the mix, but when it comes right down to it, there are seven basic principles by which we all operate. Whether you’re thinking about changes to make on your own or would like to brainstorm a few ideas before you meet with your own interior designer (always a great idea), these 7 elements of design can facilitate your interior design process.

7 Elements of Interior Design to Enhance Your Living Spaces

The following principles work together to complement one another while allowing just enough contrast and juxtaposition to create interest and drama.

Space. The space, of course, is the room, area or building you will be working with. If you’re building a new home, you have the luxury of designing a completely custom space. If you’re working with an existing space, you may have the freedom to change a few things but the basic shape, size and proportion will be taken into consideration when envisioning the whole.
Light. Light is so instrumental in the design process and is often overlooked by DIY designers. Attractive fixtures are important, but the lighting design begins with the space. How is it oriented? What natural light does it receive throughout the day? What activities take place there (i.e. how do we balance task and mood lighting effectively?) How does the light affect the mood of the space in the morning, mid-day, late-afternoon and after dark? Answering these questions will help you create a more pleasing interior space.
Form. This is also referred to as proportion. Small rooms typically require a different approach to the following principles than large rooms. You will want to consider the angles and planes in a room. You can echo them to increase this aspect or counterbalance them with softer, rounder furnishings and fixtures. Larger spaces may require larger furniture, art and/or furnishings to avoid a cavernous look or feel while smaller spaces require a different approach to keep the space from being cramped or cluttered. Echoing architectural form with similarly shaped furnishings is another way to think about form.
Texture. Sometimes a room is decorated beautifully but lacks “a little something”. Often, that something is texture. This is another thing that design newbies can overlook – the importance of balancing hard and soft, smooth and rough. You want to introduce different textures to keep things more visually interesting and layered. A shag area rug on a stained concrete floor, or a wood or stone coffee table in an otherwise plush room, for example. Typically we use rugs, window coverings, upholstery and other textile accents to lend texture although there are many other ways to go about it.
Color. The colors you select change more than just the “looks” in a space; they are also used to create a specific mood or energy. Is this a room where you want to add vibrant energy or is it a space where you want to invite a more relaxed and restful mood? Again, how you and your family use a space will determine the colors you use to set up the tone.
Furniture. These last two, furniture and objects, are often the last pieces in the puzzle, although there are certainly situations where a killer furniture piece is the focal point that drives the rest of the room’s design. Your furniture should be chosen primarily for function and aesthetics are an immediate second.
Objects. Objects are often the most personalized design points but should still be used to tell the rest of the design story in a cohesive way.

In most cases, you’ll find that you have a knack for at least half of these elements but could use a nudge in the right direction when it comes to the others.

Choosing The Perfect Kitchen Backsplash

March 25, 2019

They’re easy to admire in photos, but can be infuriating to design on your own.

Backsplashes are more than just an extra layer of protection for your kitchen walls. They are also the means for some serious design impact. Color, mosaic work, continual expanses of natural stone – whatever your tastes, choosing a backsplash for a kitchen remodel should not be a last minute decision.

Standard Backsplash or The Whole Shebang? What Makes the Most Sense?

One of the decisions you’ll have to make in regards to your kitchen backsplash is whether or not you should tile the entire wall or go with a standard height version. Typically, a “standard” backsplash is about 4-inches high, although you are free to go a little higher. Often, clients who opt for this style will use 6-inch or 8-inch high options, so keep those heights in mind when reading “standard” or “partial” in the considerations listed below.

There are a few considerations that come into play when choosing a full or partial backsplash for your kitchen remodel:

Budget. Not surprisingly, the more materials you use in a remodel, the higher the price tag. Thus, a full backsplash will cost more than a partial version. If you have splurged on your cabinet and countertop materials and want to save a little, choosing a partial backsplash will help, especially if you want to match your backsplash to expensive countertop materials. You can meet a little in the middle by putting a full backsplash in a section or two and leaving the rest at standard height (more on that below).

Aesthetics. What look at your going for? If you have a formal kitchen design or a very modern kitchen design, a full backsplash might be the best look for your overall presentation. It creates a very regal and clean aesthetic, streamlining the finished design.

Kitchen wear and tear. How much do you use your kitchen? Who uses the kitchen and what’s their cooking style? If you have a busy kitchen, filled with boisterous chefs and/or assistants who aren’t always careful about where the sauces, dishwater, pot splatter, etc., lands, a full backsplash might be in order – particularly behind the stovetop. You will appreciate cleaning last night’s dried marinara sauce off of a smooth tile surface rather than a textured wall surface. Plus, you’ll mitigate potential long-term damage to the wall, which may eventually need to be resurfaced or replaced if cumulative damage causes dents or a cave-in.

You can have both! Keep in mind that you don’t have to pick one or the other. In some households, full backsplash areas are installed behind the stove, sink, or any major food prep areas where food or liquids are more likely to infiltrate the permeable wall surface. The remainder of the kitchen can have a standard backsplash height.

How often do you change your color palette? This can be an important factor. If you are someone who really enjoys changing your interior color scheme every few years or so, I recommend going with a standard backsplash height. That will allow you the freedom to paint, paper, stencil, or generally get creative on the wall space between the countertop and upper cabinetry. This is much, much simpler, not to mention more cost-efficient, than ripping out and reinstalling new tile work. It is also preferable to living with tile work you wish you could change.

Working with a professional interior designer ensures you think about every aspect of your interior design – even the seemingly insignificant details – so you can enjoy a completed remodel that balances function and aesthetics for your household.

What are we talking about? Kitchen backsplashes, of course. The more interesting, dynamic, and complex you want the backsplash to be, the trickier it is to design. So, what’s the best way to choose a backsplash that fits your kitchen design?

5 Tips For Designing Your Kitchen Backsplash

Believe it or not, the main point of the backsplash is to protect the less-durable drywall beneath from the water, steam, grease, and general food splatter that abounds in the kitchen space. Its secondary role is where the real challenge lies.

Do you want it to blend in with the design? Or do you want it to make a statement? Is it a standalone feature? Or do you want it to transition the color/style differences between the countertop and cabinetry?

Use the following questions to help guide your way through the seemingly endless options available in the backsplash department.

Full or partial backsplash? One of the first things you’ll need to decide is whether you want a full or partial backsplash. If you’re on a budget, partial backsplashes may be the best way to go – especially if you’re splurging on granite or higher-dollar countertop. Standard backsplashes are typically around 4- 4.5-inches above the countertop, although you can add extra inches to that. If you can afford it, I recommend going with a full backsplash because it yields a cleaner and more luxurious look. It is also more popular with future homebuyers.
Blend or Pop? What effect do you want your backsplash to have? Should it blend in with its surroundings or pop? If you’re aiming for a timeless design, plan to sell your home in the next few years, or are someone who likes to redecorate frequently, I recommend choosing something that blends. You can still work with fun or different layouts to create a bit of interest, but you won’t be stuck with something that is so stylized that it falls out of style anytime soon. If you want the backsplash to pop, look for pre-made mosaic strips or patterns that are easy to install but can be matched to your countertop.
What Material is Your Countertop? Your countertop material may be the deciding factor in the type of backsplash you select. For example, if you’ve selected a bold granite or quartz slab, you may find it’s best to either continue that material up the wall or choose a matching, monochromatic backsplash. Trying to coordinate a patterned or multi-color backsplash that matches a bold countertop pattern is nearly impossible. Then again, if you’ve chosen a very understated stone slab, it’s much easier to select stylized or multi-colored backsplash tiles that work.
Are You Using the Backsplash as a Transition? Are you using a mix-and-match motif, rather than a single color? These days, many homeowners opt to have multiple cabinet finishes. If your upper-cabinets are a different color than your lower ones, the backsplash should ease the visual transition. You can choose a color the finds the middle-ground between the two finishes, or you can choose a multi-color pattern or layout that incorporates both colors and also blends with the other kitchen finishes.
Which Material Makes the Most Sense? Again, this will be decided by your budget as well as your countertop material. In most cases, clients with granite, marble, or Corian opt to continue the same pattern through to the backsplash for continuity’s sake – although not always. The most popular backsplash choices are:
–Ceramic/porcelain tile. They are affordable and come in an incredible array of options, but the grout can be problematic so keep that in mind.
–Glass tiles. These can add a lively, luminous quality to the backsplash. Make sure your installer knows what he’s doing, however, as the adhesive is visible through the tiles.
–Metal tiles. Metal accents are increasingly popular because, in addition to being durable, they have a fun, reflective quality.

Working with a professional kitchen designer is a smart way to choose a backsplash that will enhance your kitchen design, and add a little extra via texture, color, or pattern.