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What do your sink and your mattress have in common?

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I've been doing a lot of consulting on kitchen design lately...helping clients navigate choices in countertops, cabinet colors, sinks, and appliances.  Everything comes in a color!  Flooring, walls, plumbing fixtures, hardware...all of those choices need to be made with an eye to balanced, harmonious color.  Some of you are starting from scratch, working with a blank slate.  Others may be updating an existing kitchen, and how you combine the old and the new can make all the difference.

Anyone who's ever chatted color with me for more than a few minutes knows that I am a big believer in function.  "Beauty without function is not beautiful!"  So, in addition to helping clients navigate their color and finish selections, I also speak often and enthusiastically about why things work and what happens when they don't.

So, how is your sink like your mattress?  You know how they say you spend one-third of your life in bed, so you'd better invest in a good mattress?  Well, the same is true of your sink and especially your faucet.  Appliances are the Big Investment Pieces and oftentimes, the sink and faucet come last, almost as an afterthought.  

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But, think for a minute about how many time a day you go to the sink -- to wash a piece of fruit, rinse your hands, get a glass of water, soak a dish -- not to mention full-on cooking and all it entails.  So, the case I am making here is that you spend one-third of your life in bed and one-third of your kitchen time interacting with the sink.  

Rather than ending your kitchen design process with the sink, let's bump it up in the queue....give it the attention it deserves, and YES even spend up a bit on a sink that functions and a faucet that really REALLY functions.  This means a faucet that feels good in the hand, that operates smoothly, that pulls out easily and maybe even turns on with just a touch.  It may also mean paying for a better design that stays cleaner by not having those nooks and crannies that attract gook.  And getting a more durable finish that looks good longer.

I'd love to see you spend a few hundred less on your oven and divert that money to a much better faucet.  The difference between a $1000 oven and a $1300 oven will hardly be noticed in the long run.  But, jumping from a $200 faucet to a $500 faucet will improve your life in the kitchen at least a dozen times a day. I am not asking you to buy any particular brand or style....just asking you to think about the faucet/sink combo in a new way, giving that decision good thought, enough research and careful attention.  I bet you'll thank me.

When you think of your sink, remember your mattress! 

   

Looking for Undertones when selecting Wood Flooring

This week, a client asked me what I meant when I'd said to her during a color consultation,

"Make sure you pick a wood flooring material that is neutral." 

She will be replacing almost all of the carpet in her home next month and wants to make her investment a wise one.  So my advice, good as it is, needs some clarification....preferably with pictures!

The backstory is that in 2002, I bought a house in Florida with almond colored ceramic tile and off-white wall-to-wall everywhere!  Pulling it all out and replacing it was our first big project....and let me tell you, they used a jackhammer on 700 square feet of that tile.  I can still hear it today!  

Bamboo was newly in style and I thought it was pretty cool, semi-tropical and environmentally friendly.  Of course, this was years before my IACC color training and I didn't know what I should be looking for when I made that choice.  

I think many homeowners hold the common misconception that Wood is a Neutral. And as a neutral, it should go with everything.  Right?  Well, after my beautiful bamboo flooring was installed, and it came time to paint my walls, I realized that the floors were yellow.  

Very yellow!  

Not that there is anything inherently wrong with yellow, but I just wasn't prepared to figure that much yellow into my color equation when decorating my home.  So, in an effort to save my clients and readers from the same surprise, I have pulled a few photos of common flooring materials and their finish colors....so you'll know what to look for when you invest in new wood floors. 

In the top row, notice how the first example looks very reddish, the second leans quite orange and the last one on the right is a bit yellow.  Remember -- what we know about wall colors and sample chips is also true of any other material used on a large surface.  When the surface area grows, so does the intensity of the color.  So, that slightly reddish tone of the Gunstock stain on the left may leave you with a room full of red.  Same goes for the orange. And you already know what happened to me with the yellow!  

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The way any material reads will depend on the lighting, what else is in the room, etc. but to be on the safe side, I always recommend choosing a floor color that doesn't suggest any particular color at all.  Notice the examples below and compare them to those above.  There is still a dark, medium, light variation going on, but without nearly as much pronounced color.  Of all three of these last samples, I think I would choose the Rich Oak.  It's not to dark, not too light and my best guess is that it's not holding any surprises!

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So, the bottom line is, choose your flooring wisely so that you:

1. Get the most out of your investment

2. Simplify your decorating choices after the floors have been installed, and

3. Ensure more flexibility in paint color by NOT putting too much color on the floors! 

I hope this was helpful and I welcome your questions and comments.  If you have a story to share -- good or bad -- about your own color choices, I'd love to hear from you!