Before & During: Playfully Mixing it Up with Stripes

By Tammy

The busy family is still going strong with the home remodel / style updates.   We finally have our daughter's play room painted.  If you recall, I posted a contest to see what color palette I should use.  Refer to my Fun with Color post here.

Many thanks to everyone's comments via the blog, Twitter and Facebook.  The close winner was "D."  What a beautiful color palette.  The playful stripes adds additional pop of fun color.  My stylist was right on with these suggestions.  However...

The client always wins!  Yep, you guessed it.  My daughter would not budge from the purple and pinkish combo of "A," which is Mysterious Mauve SW6262, Refresh SW6751 and Ruby Shade SW6572.  And in reality, it is her magical room.  You know what though?  It turned out stunning.

Would the client change anything?  The client got her way, but we had to limit the use of the stripes.  She has requested and continues to request that we run the stripes around the entire room.  Not!  

For all the DIYers, my husband picked up some FrogTape with paint block to assist with the stripes.  It didn't completely work, but it worked good enough.  We didn't need to touch-up, so it was worth it.  But then again, it could very well be a user error.

So what's next?  We really need to find a desk that would fit the room without taking up too much space.  And, I've been eyeing some lounge seating to make this play room easily adaptable to the not so far off Tween media/hang out room.

At the moment, I'm kinda drawn to the eggplant color and silver shown in my solo pin.  If anyone has any suggestions or possible pins for my Pinterest board, please feel free to drop me some comments.

Remodeling when time's not on your side

By Gale

Meet my dear friends, The Procrastinators (most of us know who they are and sometimes we are all just like them). They are filled with good intentions and great plans, but they never seem to find the time to actually move ahead with their objectives. As a consequence, things look a little worn out at their home. The cabinet doors do not shut; some of the hardware is non-functional, two burners of the cooktop stopped working some time ago. Let’s not even talk about the countertop, which looks like it has been through a war and then some.

Their biggest problem is simply finding time to get these projects done. They want to fix up the kitchen, for example, but are afraid that any disruption will mean they cannot continue to use the room. We had a heart-to-heart talk recently, and I point out that if they focus on the parts of the kitchen that need to be upgraded (or replaced altogether), then the actual process of remodeling will move along smoothly.

If you are simply replacing appliances or cabinets without moving them around, then the inconvenience time is reduced to just a few days (not weeks or months as they imagined), that is, assuming you have a contractor who can come when you plan. But surprisingly, even a countertop replacement takes only a day of inconvenience. The fabricator measures the space and then brings the new countertop two weeks later. In the meantime, you have use of the kitchen.

They were relieved and headed off to look at all their choices. I gave them a new mantra:

“To make it work easily and quickly, simply find products that will fit into the same size space in your existing room."

The second piece of advice is even less complicated: Always have a tape measure available, along with a little notebook with your measurements written down. When in doubt, measure and remeasure.

In defense of the underdog

by Mike Ferrara, The Lazy Homeowner

Hello there. I just read the Consumer Reports story on kitchen countertops. As always, they do a good job of covering all the options. However, as a person who's done his share of kitchen remodeling, I have a few 'bones' to pick over some of the statements made about the perennial stepchild of this subject, laminate.

Consumer Reports starts out well when it states in their Granite section that: "It's still what you'll see in magazines and real-estate ads, but fancy faux materials are giving granite serious competition." That's for sure. Any remodeler on a budget can see why...using the new high-definition laminates will give you the same look for less than half the cost. And without the yearly chore of resealing.

The report states that laminate shows seams on the front edge and elsewhere. This is old information. When you combine laminate with a custom edge, there is literally no 'brown edge' to be seen. And a good fabricator can make sure you don't get any obvious corner seams as well.

Now the editors get into trouble when they claim that laminates are "no longer trendy..."After looking at just some of the newest stone, marble and granite patterns at my local home center, this statement couldn't be farther off the mark. Kitchen trends come and go, but the current trend toward natural materials is being met quite well by the newest laminate designs. And when the current trend is replaced by something else, the good news is that with laminate, you're not looking at taking out a second mortgage if you want a new countertop!

Lastly, Consumer Reports says that laminate is easily "scratched and nicked..." Just about any countertop material, including natural stone and recycled glass can get scratched or nicked if you don't employ common sense and use a cutting board or a hotplate.  The newest laminates from Wilsonart are infused with a high-tech aluminum oxide finish that is very resistant to wear, and keeps the countertop looking new for a long time.

So maybe I just have a soft spot for underdogs, but in this case I needed to speak out...let's not keep repeating old information and state the clear fact that the new generation of laminate is a viable alternative to granite.

Mike Ferrara, also known as The Lazy Homeowner and TechnoDad, has spent the last 20 years covering the home and garden industries, serving as a magazine and newspaper editor, TV personality, and most recently as a blog editor and public relations consultant to Wilsonart International and other home improvement companies.  His views are his own.

An open mind about an open kitchen

By Gale

Opening your kitchen up is much more convenient for the cook as well as everyone else who enjoys being there. It also requires planning ahead to make sure that what you see from the next room is what you want your family and friends to see in the kitchen.

Stand or sit in your family room or dining area and imagine what that will be before you open up the walls. This little step may affect your plans for an open space kitchen. Here are three visual solutions to consider:

This birch kitchen design by KraftMaid Cabinets in birch in Prairie finish illustrates how the space was created to feel open but allow the cook to have some privacy. The multi-level island adds more storage as well as serving space.

This open-plan kitchen resolved two problems: where to eat casually and merged a color scheme from the nearby great room into a new kitchen with an extended countertop.

The choice was a countertop pattern with multiple colors that blends with the wall color and fabrics. Find more blending ideas by visiting WilsonartHD.com.

The Urban Pioneer: The Kitchen Should be Condemned

by Andrea, The Urban Pioneer

Oh the Kitchen. When I purchased my little piece of urban heaven, I turned a blind eye to the kitchen. The location, the charm, the garage all won me over and allowed me to forget about the kitchen.

So what makes it so bad? Well, take a look at some of the pictures.


We'll start with the lighting. You could put Heidi Klum under these lights and she would look like a troll. Not only is the lighting bad, the refrigerator blocks what little natural light comes in from the north facing window.

The cabinets are in sad shape. The sink was apparently used for paint clean up and someone forgot to clean it. And the floor sticky tiles keep peeling back.



And oh the countertop...we are talking late 70's early 80's yellowish laminate, the cornerstone of every girls dream kitchen, ha!

So what's next? Deciding if this kitchen can be saved or needs to be completely gutted. What do you think?