House Beautiful 500 Paint Colors

So my new favorite IPAD app is by Zinio, and for those of you who want to see the future of the publishing industry its there. This App allows me to read ENTIRE magazines, front to back, including ads, but not just a paltry few, a mind blowing array of titles from general interest to home decor. I can now safely go off to a restaurant to eat with 20 magazines safely downloaded to my IPAD and flip through them at my leisure, it's my guilty pleasure!

Anyway last night I bought on Zinio a bookazine from House Beautiful, featuring the favorite colors of some of my favorite designers. After skimming the pages I saw there was a quote there from my favorite designer of all....ME!

Her's the quote "I have one of those little green boxes from Laduree, the Paris pastry shop, on my desk. Turns out my client has one too, and we recreated that Laduree green on her Kitchen island. It's an incredibly complex color, a weird combination of yellow and gree with this red undertone. Beautiful"

In case you want to check out the color it is:

Fine Paints of Europe

P11130

It Is So Nice To Fall In Love

For years I have been reluctanat to use marble or granite for the kitchen counter---it felt like it was everywhere, in fact it was. Every kitchen advertisement and every HGTV show. I really like the idea that as soon as "everybody" is doing it, it is time for me to stop. There are so many wonderful options and I they are all worth exploring.

Recently, we were working on a home for a client to live in while we raze his current place and rebuild. The home needed a lot of work but since our client did not want to invest a lot, we put in a kitchen from Ikea. They really represent great value, for people on a budget, and they have enough styles to suit almost any taste. In order to jazz it up we installed Verde Fire Granite--the sample was so small but it looked really lovely. In application it looks Amazing, Astounding, Brilliant, Beautiful, Comely, Capricious---I could go through the alphabet with compliments! What I discovered is that really I hated the generic marble & granite which was so readily available but completely overused. A bit of exploration at your local stone yard will yield many wonderful options. It required that you be inventive and imaginative but trust me, it is definitely worth it. Here in LA, Marbles Unlimited and Walker Zanger are well stocked suppliers.

Something Just a Little Bit Different

Today I thought I would post an image that is just a little bit different. This is a Kitchen Hood that I designed for a family in Los Angeles. I had a fairly simple room, so I wanted something that was going to be a little bit more decorative than the normal plaster or stainless steel that you normally see.

This one is made from Tin and then painted, it gives the Kitchen a more old world kind of feeling I think, without getting too cutesy.

Other ways to introduce a little more style to a Kitchen could be:

• Try to find a liner tile with some great color and pattern to it, rather than a decorative field, sometimes just a liner is enough.
• Make the island an accent color, in this Kitchen we went with a steely blue.
• Keep the rest of the Kitchen as simple as possible, too many things of interest, become very distracting to the eye.
  

I Love Small Dining Areas

There is something very special about the family meal. It's such a great opportunity to sit and discuss your day etc. So it's very important that you create a space that really encourages that, and I think that smaller spaces do that better than larger ones.

This is a room that I did that was directly off the Kitchen, and i think its a great example of how a space can really be stylish but work very practically as well.

Here are some tips:

• Using a banquette gives you a lot of seating flexibility.
• A large table no more than 60" across will allow lots of people, but still enable lots of conversation, from side to side.
• Simple color scheme is good, since there will be a lot of visual chaos.
• Good lighting is essentila, a blend of surface mounted fixtures and downlights is ideal.
• This might be a good area for the Family notice board too.

Making the Kitchen, the Heart of the House

I REALLY love to cook, and for me one of the best things about cooking is the gathering together of friends and sharing the experience. The image above is one of the favorite kitchens I have ever designed. The owner was a retired chef and he would through the most terrific parties, where he would invite tons of friends over and we would all sit around the island (it sat 12) and he would cook and talk, and we would all eat and drink, it really was a magical place. Now, not all of us have a place where we can sit 12 people and cook at the same time, but I think there are some lessons that can be learned none the less. Here are some of my thoughts on how you might go about making the Kitchen feel more like the heart of the home:

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  Start with the backgrounds, paint the kitchen a warm, inviting color. Try to stay away from colors that are too cool, like blues and use earth tones, it will give the room an inviting feeling that will encourage people to linger.


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  It doesn't matter if its a modern or traditional Kitchen, the idea about colors apply to both.


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  Make a spot to sit for your visitors, it doesn't matter if its a chair or a stool, just make sure that they can sit comfortably and not feel that they are constantly in your way. So maybe put them on the other side of the island , but just be sure you can go from refrigerator, to sink to stove without asking them to move.


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  I am not a big fan of TV's in the Kitchen. They generate a huge amount of noise in an already hectic spot, at most some background music would be nice.


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  Try keeping either fresh flowers or living herbs in the Kitchen, its amazing what a difference this small gesture will do. Its a way of showing people that you care about the details.
  

Modern Kitchens

I really love to cook, so Kitchens are rooms that I really love to design. But aside from their practical aspects, Kitchens also function as the heart of the home. This is the place where, homework is done, kids are fed and stories are told. So it can be difficult when I get a request to do a modern Kitchen, because it seems to me that these can be the antithesis of this. The image above is a Kitchen I did in a house up in northern California in conjunction with a local Kitchen Designer. The family has young kids and this Kitchen can be a madhouse at times, so I think that the clean lines help to give the Kitchen a more straightforward, handsome look that a more traditional style might not.

Here are some ideas to consider if you are creating a modern Kitchen:

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  I like to use a combination of different materials to create a sense of warmth. In this Kitchen we used Douglas Fir doors wrapped in stainless steel, and then repeated the stainless steel on the island. It helps to create a nice rhythm.


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  One of the hallmarks of modern Kitchens is this idea of big splashes of one material. I like the idea for instance on the back splash, using a very simple color, like the sandblasted glass, but do it in a small tile, so that you still get some texture up there.


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  Once again, use different types of light so that you can create different effects, from bright utilitarian to a warm glow at night.


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  When laying out the kitchen, massing is very important. You want a modern kitchen to feel light and effortless, so try keeping all the bigger pieces (Refrigerator, wall ovens, pantry etc) grouped together.


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  When using a lot of material like stainless steel, make sure you balance it out with some material with a lower lustre, like slate, or else you will end up with a glary, shiny mess.

Good Luck, and Happy Cooking!

Thank You for the Recognition

I am always thrilled when I get noticed by other blogs. Today a glowing review of my Kitchens appeared over at Shakadoo (www.shakinstyle.com ) written by Susan Serra, an accomplished Kitchen Designer in her own right, that makes the compliments all the more meaningful. Thanks Susan. You can see her Blog at www.thekitchendesigner.org .

Kitchens

A lot of the projects that I do, are renovations of older homes that people have bought. I am a huge fan of these places, there is something about the scale and detail of these houses that make them very special. The challenge becomes, though, how do you make a room, like the Kitchen, feel like it is in context, while still making it modern enough to fit a contemporary lifestyle. For me it is important that this room feel like it is part of the original structure of the home, without feeling like an overly romanticised pastiche.

Here are some tips that you might find helpful in recreating a period kitchen:

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  Pick one or two decorative elements that evokes the style you are trying to create, more than that and it will look like you are trying too hard. Use these elements throughout the kitchen.


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  Try to use surface materials that are true to the style (very few kitchens of the twenties and thirties used granite), try looking for slate or stainless steel counter tops.


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  If Stainless Steel counter tops are out of your budget, then Stainless appliances will do the trick.


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  Try to avoid things that are very fashionable at the moment, like vessel and apron sinks, they will date your new Kitchen quickly.


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  Use a different material on the back splash, than on the counter top, this is very typical of the period.


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  Although recessed lighting is very efficient in this situation, try to use a couple of pendant fixtures too, especially ones that have a vintage feel to them. There is a great selection at www.circalighting.com .


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  Try to find something cool for the floor too. I am a fan of Linoleum, but in Kitchen above we used Terrazzo which is another old world material.


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  The Cabinet Hardware is another opportunity to create your style. I find a great selection at www.crowncityhardware.com try using butt hinges on the doors as they are more old world feeling than the modern Euro hinge.


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  Another interesting idea is don't paint the kitchen all the same color, maybe make the island another color. I use the rule of thumb, that if the Island is the same color as the rest of the Kitchen, I can change materials (maybe do a wood top), but if the Island is a different color, then the surface materials, remain the same throughout.


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  Years ago while reading a Martha Stewart Magazine, I read about a tip where you paint the inside of glass fronted and open cabinets a contrasting color. It makes the contents really pop. This has now become a staple for me that I have used to great affect.

Well, Good luck with your Kitchen adventures!

Painted Floors

One of the things that you do not see in Southern California a lot is painted wooden floors. Wooden floors of all types are common here, oak, walnut and mahogany are all popular, but they seem to be treated in a very special way. I know that they can be expensive, but like all other materials, I like to play around with them and see if you can get more decoration out of them, rather than just simply put them down, stain them and move on.

In a lot of older traditional homes they are painted, and I think this is such a great way to bring in color and pattern. In the image above you can see a kitchen that I did, where the floors were painted in a checker board. I think it gives such a great old world look.

Here are some tips and ideas on painting floors:

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  Don't limit yourself to a solid color, try painting in a border of another color


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  If free style painting is not your strong suit, then try stencilling, there are some great resources for these on the Internet and they can provide some great inspiration.


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  Be sure to layout the WHOLE design first, before you start to paint, it will save you from literally painting yourself into a corner!


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  In some rooms you may want to have a rug, but it might be challenging, fore instance, like in a Dining Room, where chairs can get caught on a rug. Find an image of a rug that you like and paint it on the floor.


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  One of my favorite libraries, was one where I created a Decoupage floor using, pages of books, it was a very cool installation.

Try and have fun with your floor, make it work for you, I would love to see some of your solutions.

Banquettes

As the weekend is coming up, my mind naturally goes to all those great get together's that will be happening, especially with summer right around the corner. I love casual entertaining, sitting with friends as we cook etc etc, and nothing is more conducive to that than the banquette. Made popular in the 30's and 40's as a space saver in the "modern kitchen", this handy device is making a great comeback. I have included two examples;

• The first is an old home that we renovated, originally built in the late 1920's, this space was the old Breakfast Room. I wanted to create an area for the whole family and their friends, so I thought that a simple banquette that wrapped around three of the walls would do the trick. The family can sit almost 12 people at this table when the need arises, far more than a freestanding table and chairs would ever allow, and it feels neater and tidier on top of that. Just as an aside, a cool thing to notice, the walls are upholstered, which cuts down the noise and provides a convenient location for bus and soccer schedules! Don't miss the center light fixture either, it was designed to hold the family gold fish, the best seat in the house.
• The second example is a bit more typical, using a spare corner, I created a curved seating nook, flanked by two chairs. This Kitchen had a bit more of a mid-century kind of feeling, so laminate was used on the table, with a stainless steel edge trim, that gives it a "diner" kind of feel. Upholstery is in vinyl, so it is stain resistant, and the color brightens up every morning.

Banquettes don't just need to be used in Kitchens; look around the house and see if there are any unused areas that could benefit from this handy item of furniture. Maybe a bay window, the foot of the bed (especially in a small studio type apartment) or even in your office for meeting space, where you occasionally need to be able to squeeze in more people. It offers flexibility, comfort and economy of size, all good things in my book.