Creative Backsplash Inspiration

What a coincidence...no sooner did I do a post on Decorati on alternative backsplash inspiration via decorative panels, than I see this post on Design*Sponge! It's a very similar, actually, identical concept, and a good one.

As we see on Design*Sponge famous for great ideas, it can be a DIY project or not. However you tackle it, it's different, it's creative, and it makes an alternative design statement with material other than tile, which is beautiful, of course, often stunning, but, let's face it, there really ARE more possibilities for the backsplash than tile.

Laura is the owner of Open Face Designs and this is a printed design that she created! Laura used plexiglass on top of her printed fabric, but I'd recommend that plexiglass not be used behind a cooktop or range. Glass is a better material, or, I could definitely see engineered stone or corian behind the cooktop to not clash with the beautiful pattern of the fabric. 

Think beyond tile...I think in this situation the backsplash looks warm, inviting, and "living room like." Don't you? 

Use any kind of fabric behind glass, decorative panels, yarns (wow, that could be amazing!) shade material, take a fuzzy throw blanket, the list goes on. What textures you could dream up! I want someone to put a chenille throw blanket behind glass and then send me a picture when you do, please! 

Dream Kitchens

Yay....Meredith has just reprinted, back by popular demand (so they say, but I like to believe it if you don't mind!) a previous version of Dream Kitchens. 

Here's a sneak preview....one of my kitchens is on pages 24-29.

These are just two of the many images you'll find of this kitchen...get it while it's hot!

Kitchen Design Inspiration at the Flea Market

I probably have access to one of the best flea markets anywhere, on the upper west side of New York in the mid 70s on Columbus Avenue, so there's not much need to do deep searching for great finds, I admit it! Regardless of my good fortune, it's worth it to do the searching at your local flea markets and garage sales to find those great deals on items that can give a fresh look to your kitchen.

Come on along with me to the flea market I went to the other day. You may have seen those very modern dish arrangements on walls, often using vintage dishes. Many of the dishes you can find are inexpensive - LOTS of bang for the buck. This table's treasures are from A Vintage Home.

Start a new obsession collection! My husband and I both enjoy our stop at the bottle man's table. You can get very old bottles for as little as $10, maybe even less. We have a nice collection now and purchased one at this last trip...this one with a top on it, unusual! Our collection used to be on the long window sill in my previous kitchen. In my new home, they are all on a tray in the dining room. Hmm, I don't have this contact at the moment. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll try to find it. I think there might be a website.

Here is a collection that you don't see every day...working vintage toasters! This is a small sample of what was on display. I think these are super cool, high art and functional all wrapped into one. They are beautiful pieces of history. Excuse me while I go put my gown and lipstick on...go to Toaster Central.

Another very fun kitchen find were these decoupage handmade tiles. These are tiles made from maps! I can see this in a retro kitchen, complete with soda fountain bar stools! They can be used as coasters, as they can also have a cork backing if desired. Not good for behind a cooktop or range, but elsewhere, they're fine. Contact: wendyola @ aol.com

Not really last, but all I have time for now is this fantastic exhibit of asian accessories, many of which can be useful in a kitchen or just for decorative purposes. I mean, here are your color accents! Here are your shapes and forms. Let your imagination run.

For another teriffic New York City source, go to the Housing Works auctions...see what are in the windows of the various Housing Works thrift shops. "Housing Works is committed to ending the twin crises of AIDS and homelessness. We believe that all people have the right to a rich and empowering life."

A great note to end on...shop on!

Granite Countertops - Light Colors?

An email from Jay:

I know that honey oak is not the thing now, but our cabinets are new and the budget is really tight. Can you suggest granite colors that would work with natural oak in a small condo kitchen with no windows and very light challenged?

CambriaYou had me at "no windows" Jay! Take a look at quartzite in a white. It's the lightest stone that is also durable. Ask for that. OR, get the classic black and white granite. I cannot think of the name, but it looks fine and is very inexpensive and has a light appearance. Quite "busy" however. There are also many cream colored granites which might fit the bill.

All that said, I'd prefer that you look at engineered stone instead. Caeserstone, Cambria, Zodiaq, are engineered stones that are more solid in color and perform better than most granites. While you're looking, also consider IceStone, which is made from 100% recycled glass or ECO by Cosentino, another eco friendly engineered stone material made of 75% recycled content.

Some of these materials look very close to granite, but in your case, the visual consistency of this type of material will work to your benefit, helping your kitchen appear more spacious....and just easier on the eyes overall in my opinion. Granite may be a knee-jerk reaction, understandably for many, but please be open to other materials for the reasons stated above. I am not sure if you can get some of these materials in 3/4" thickness, but that would help the budget.

Find a kitchen design professional to help you with getting a quote for your countertop. He/she will handle all the details for you and make suggestions that will enhance the countertop design. Trust me on this. A kitchen design professional knows the little tips and tweaks that other sources for your product generally do not care about or know about. There will be a significant difference in the quality of the details and installation when the specifications are handled by a kitchen designer. 

I almost forgot...whatever material you are seriously considering, please do yourself a favor and get as large a sample as you can get and proceed to put food substances on it and let it sit overnight. Give it a variety of tests...food, scratching, etc. to understand the properties of the material under stress. 

This is Caeserstone, Champagne Limestone, which I love and have used before. 

5 Ways To Keep Excitement In Your Kitchen!

And you thought I was going to say "...in your marriage" didn't you??

Even the most perfectly designed, fully functional kitchen can feel just a bit tired at times. That's my theory. Doesn't matter how beautiful, how state-of-the-art it is, that feeling can sneak into anyone's thoughts in any kitchen, anywhere at anytime. BOREDOM!

How can we fight boredom so that our kitchens give us back new experiences, new joy? Here are some ideas on reigniting the flame of desire for our kitchens every once in awhile. A kitchen recharge may be just what the therapist ordered if you:

are cheating on your kitchen and order take-out a bit too frequently

allow disarray and disorganization to build up over time

use certain tools/small appliances until they are at death's door and barely functioning

do not use 50% of the equipment you have stored in your cabinetry

have other dysfunctional behavior not noted herein:

 I strongly recommend a renewed perspective. After all, it's spring! So, here are some tips to getting things cooking in the kitchen again, literally speaking! I will say that this post was totally inspired by two Mothers' Day gifts I received: a blender and a Le Crueset oven.

1. Buy a new piece or type of cookware. As I just mentioned, I was given a gift of a Le Crueset oven for Mother's Day. After the festivities ended, I began my online research, never having had a piece and feeling like a total Le Crueset virgin, wanting to find out what is so great about it.

After my incredible, restaurant quality bistro chicken with fresh herbs and many garlic cloves last night (which ended up spread on french bread), two cookbooks were ordered and I'm ALL OVER the Le Creuset recipes. I'm SO excited about cooking in an entirely new way! If it works for me, I believe it will work for you. Buy a piece of cookware you are unfamiliar with but curious about. Very simply, your cooking experience in your kitchen will be transformed, I promise.

2. Change a meal "habit." And this one is also about my own experience. I also received a blender (a classic Mother's Day gift no doubt). For decades, my breakfast of choice has been cereal, perhaps with fruit. My life has changed as of Monday morning when I made myself a smoothie! I'm ecstatic over breakfast now! It's a change, and in my world, change is usually good. Change a habit in the kitchen surrounding a meal, and the fun begins!

 3. Clean the clutter! This happens to all of us. Take a few hours and do not even attempt to restore order to the whole kitchen. Take it in pieces. Choose one or two cabinets at a time and clean them out...as if you were moving to a new home. Remove the items, clean the cabinet, consider alternative storage places for less used items and then put back the items, perhaps adding other items from another cabinet if the use is related, and arrange the items for easy access and in locations near appropriate appliances or work stations, which may snowball into moving items out of another cabinet. But, start slow, with one cabinet or one section. You will be surprised at how great it feels to have functional storage and easy access. Feels nice.

 

4. More about cooking - buy a new cookbook or 3! Experiment with another type of cooking or just catch up on the latest cooking trends. Read it as a novel and use it. I know it is hard to find the time, but, if one recipe is worked into the week, you know what? Dinner can become an event, and that's enjoyable.

5. Change your collections/artwork/decorative items/curtains! I've said it before and I'll say it again. I believe in change! Change is good. Change breeds creativity, excitement, fun, and more. Change something decorative. Anything. Several things. Whatever you've looked at for way too long. Move it, store it, get rid of it, but make a creative and decorative change. Bring something in from the living room that "shouldn't" be in the kitchen. Mix it up, change it up, creative something new. If you feel uncomfortable about it or are second guessing yourself, you're probably on the right track.

These are five ways, and as time goes on, I'll add more, as there are many more ways to get that old flame reignited in your kitchen! How about you? What do you do to mix things up a little?

2009 Kitchen Design Trends

Looking Into the Latest Kitchen Design Trends

By Paige Thomas

Thanks to Susan for so graciously letting me write a guest post on her blog. As a writer for my own home improvement blog I spend a good deal of my days in the office looking at Susan’s kitchen posts, and everything else I bookmark from my seemingly infinite roll of design and home improvement blogs.

When you spend lots of time looking at picture after picture of freshly remodeled kitchens, you start to pick up patterns. There are certain elements which keep popping up again and again, illuminating the trickle down popularity of certain trends in the design world.

Here are three trends that seem to be everywhere in kitchens these days. Take a peak and maybe find some inspiration for your own home:

Open Shelving in the Kitchen

The new chic way to create storage in the kitchen isn’t by refinishing your cabinets, it’s by getting rid of them all together. Open shelving in the kitchen encompasses cabinets with no fronts, or simple long shelves for stacking your kitchen gear.

I’ve heard lots of pros and cons on this kitchen design option. Some people love it, some people hate it. I think if you have great dishware, and you’re organized, why not try it? But I know for me, and my yet to be replaced collection of secondhand college dishes, I couldn’t bear to put anything on display. I might consider a combination of both: some open shelving to display my pretty pieces, and some cabinet type options to tuck away my strictly utilitarian ware. Having open shelving as a focal feature over the sink could be a good option for trying out this trend.

Farmhouse Kitchen Sinks

I grew up with a stainless steel double basin sink. To me, this was the perfect kind of sink: one side for washing dishes, and another side for rinsing. It was the epitome of practical. That sink wasn’t a big focal point of my parent’s kitchen. It was just there to do its duty, to get the dishes clean.

These days, however, choosing a kitchen sink is just as important as any other part of a new kitchen design. While the stainless steel sink is still around, it’s no longer the sink of choice for homeowners. While the choices are endless – ultra modern sinks with space age faucets, concrete sinks, aerodynamically thin looking prep sinks – the ultimate trend these days is the farmhouse sink.

Large white, farmhouse basins are practical. They are big and heavy, and give your kitchen a rustic, cottage charm. Plus, their size makes it perfect for washing big dishes easily. If you entertain regularly, or have a large family, these large sinks will likely be on your shortlist of options. Farmhouse sinks offer more charm than other stainless steel or modern options. And one cannot argue that the look and feel they create will truly make your kitchen feel like the heart of the home.

Buy Locally

I love handmade things, and I love being able to support businesses and people from my own community. Luckily I’m not the only one. The popularity, and economic success, of handmade shopping sites like Etsy are proving that people want to support local artists and craftsman. You can easily be a part of this trend by simply taking some time to research your local options for different aspects of your kitchen remodel. Looking into local options may surprise you with the range of talent in your city, or even in your own neighborhood. Plus, you’ll be helping the local economy and supporting a local business that you know will put the money back into your community.

One of the other great things about this trend is that it’s affordable for anyone’s budget. You can buy something as small as a print or poster from a local artist to hang on your wall. There is always something, whether a big-ticket item for the renovation or some small decorative or functional objects, that can be sourced relatively near one's home.

Whether you love or hate these trends, designing a kitchen is ultimately about what works for you. Use the trends to guide you, not define you. When you’re designing your own kitchen, worry less about the trends, and more about making your kitchen a reflection of your own personality.

About the Author: Paige oversees all things Editorial at ReliableRemodeler.com a nationwide contractor matching service bringing together homeowners with area contractors for free estimates on home improvement projects. She writes regularly for the company’s home remodeling blog posting on a wide range of topics including the newest home improvement trends, the latest in remodeling news, and the growing green building movement.

Kitchens From KBIS09

I always love to look at kitchen displays at KBIS, naturally. It's a study in trends and an attempt to interpret where the looks are coming from, what is the message of the style. 

The message this year was one of diversity, appreciation of wood, deep, rich browns, the occasional black, but neutrals as a rule. Soft modern design, yes, and where traditional design was seen, the lines are ever cleaner than in recent years. 

The shift is toward simple, classic, classic modern, or a green theme as seen in the Jenn Air booth, designed by Fu Tung Cheng, always an inspiration. The name of the exhibitor can be seen when the mouse hovers over the small image. Is an Asian theme creeping into the 2009 design consciousness? I did get that sense.

But diversity and choice is king, that's for sure. I've witnessed THAT concept, as more and more manufacturers are widening their product lines to incorporate modern styling, if they were previously traditional, to cover more bases. One example, is the introduction of numerous Rohl products in a modern theme.

KBIS Product Sightings

Here are more (and no quick 1-2-3 roundup for me-too much to show you) truly fabulous finds that I'd like to share with you.

And, for the uninitiated...here's how I handle the products from KBIS. I'm not in a rush. Over several weeks' time, maybe months, I'll be bringing you products that I have found at KBIS that need to be noticed. Some will be newly introduced, some will already be in a product line for some time but deserve to be brought to the forefront. It is not only new products that should be mentioned!

First up is Texas Lightsmith, a little booth way at the end of the convention center in no man's land (that's where many of the best exhibitors are, scrunched together in a bunch of aisles).

Texas Lightsmith manufacturers lots of things - sinks, hoods, metal panels for cabinet door inserts, lighting, and more. I loved this display for apron sinks, but I'm sure these patterns can be used for other purposes.

Being a bit more of a modern girl myself, I particularly like the third up from the bottom.

Kohler's new stunning (I've been using that word quite a bit during this show) finish, Vibrant Moderne Gold, really took my breath away. You can find it on a variety of products, even on the very sexy Karbon faucet.

Blanco, one of my favorite "no brainer" sink recommendations, has just come out with Silgranite II. What you are looking at in the image is a Blanco representative simply wiping off the metal shavings from the fork that I used to try to sratch (VERY hard) the surface. The material already had one whole day of people taking out their frustrations ahead of me. I saw zero wear. Get this sink.

It's funny because my husband and I also talked about a motorized flat panel TV lift...and there it was at KBIS by Hafele! It holds up to a 27" tv and disappears via remote control. Our use for something like that was going to be in our otherwise lovely breakfast room which my husband, anyway (I don't care) wanted this type of mechanism, which would take the tv up into the attic.

Funny ha-ha or funny hmmm?

I was REALLY surprised when I saw this new remote-controlled prototype mechanism at the Rev-A-Shelf booth on Saturday. In fact, I couldn't believe it!

I wrote to Rev-A-Shelf in December 2007 to ask if my idea for a strictly vertical shelf-lowering mechanism was something they could think of putting into their line, as I thought it would be very useful for everyone, not just me.

Here's an email I sent a month or two later, after Rev-A-Shelf asked me for more details, and I think I must have sent my original email into their website comment box.

From:Susan Serra, CKD [mailto:sserrackd@gmail.com]
Sent:Wednesday, January 16, 2008 3:49 PM
To:Ward, Kevin
Subject:Re:
Kevin, I believe I gave some information on dimensions, but if I didn't, I will again. First, take a look at my blog:http://www.thekitchendesigner.org/journal/2008/1/14/the-kitchen-walls-came-down-my-apartment-remodel.html Look at the oven/refrigerator wall since it's been opened up. I will be getting a smaller refrigerator, a sub zero, built in. The microwave will go away from that spot. I'll be getting high end appliances. I'll have about 54" in width between the wall and the refrigerator. I want that 54" to be perfectly flat, one material, no cabinet doors, just something decorative. The hood I will get will be like this, very minimalistic to keep this sleek theme:http://www.faberonline.com/cristalhc.html I'll end up having around 24" in width between the new refrigerator and the hood. Since I'll have no doors, I'd like some sort of storage solution that will sit up in that area, able to be pulled STRAIGHT down and back up again, of course, as easily as possible. I think this could be a very innovative design and storage solution.

The response I received from the Product Development Manager was that they currently do not make anything like this. I knew that. And, here is what I saw at the show. I mean, I can't help but wonder!

 

First Product Roundup at Kbis 09

There are always neat discoveries to make at KBIS, always. Without further ado, take a look at some images of some wonderful new finds. These are the first of a bunch of products I'm going to share with you, outside of products I've already showcased on Twitter: 

Distressed copper hood by J.Tribble below:

Terra Aqua, fabulous sinks, below:

Look at these appliance handles by Vincenza, below: 

New to the industry! Lansen sinks flush edge with solid surface material, below:

KBIS 09 Impressions

Just back from KBIS and I'd like to share a few impressions. I've gone to KBIS for 18 or 19 years (I'll assume 18) which gives me an interesting perspective.

My first observation was "hmmm", when I asked the hotel clerk at the Omni, across from the Atlanta convention center, on Friday, if I could add a night if we wanted and he said, sure, they have rooms available. I thought that was odd for that hotel in that location to have rooms available.

My first stop on Saturday was the press room. Here, I was very surprised at what I saw. There were many empty boxes (freestanding shelving with square openings on both sides for press kits.) There were far fewer press kits than at previous shows. Strikingly so.

The difference was felt on the show floor too. Far fewer attendees. Perhaps by close to half. Far fewer exhibitors. No question. The exhibits were smaller. There were fewer events, cooking demonstrations, fewer fabulous exhibits. The whole show was a huge step backward, at least in regard to glamour and excitement, which, after all is fun to be around. The high energy in the air was gone. It felt like a Monday morning rather than a Saturday night! It was a vastly different show than last year or any recent year.

I think the party's over. I think one must take one's medicine, keep a stiff upper lip, carry on and all that.

That was my next feeling after absorbing the contrast of last year vs. this year. So what? This year's show should be considered an anomaly, and that's ok.

The companies who were not there made the right decision for their company, since I'm sure finances were the reason they were not at the show. That's being responsible, and hopefully, when they recover, they will again come to KBIS in a stronger position all around, having cut the fat from their expenses, product lines, whatever. That's a good thing.

It's also good for the companies who exhibited at the show. With less people at the show, there was more time to form relationships and explain their products, which probably meant a better show than in years past. And, it was easier to get their products noticed by attendees and media.

It also made the show much more manageable for attendees. I certainly did not see a shortage of innovation or creativity, and I'll talk more about that this week.

But, I sure did miss the "glam" part of KBIS. Such a pity...