The most important question to ask before embarking on a kitchen renovation and the 3 biggest ticket items…
Read MoreA Ranch Kitchen Renovation: Before and After
At a recent visit with a friend, I finally got pictures of this kitchen project from 7 years ago…it has aged well!
Read MoreRenovating a Small Kitchen for Maximum Impact
We’ve been working on a small kitchen Reno this week…here’s the project outline and where it stands…
Read MoreHow to Plan a Kitchen Remodel: A case study Part 1
We’ve all been spending WAY more time at home than we planned. Undoubtedly, like me, you have been frustrated by some aspect of your home…and unless you have remodeled or built it recently, that aspect is probably your kitchen…you know, the room from which ALL the members of your household are trying to extract 3 meals a day and satisfy an assortment of eating binges? The place where your freshly sanitized and hard-won groceries are disappearing at an alarming rate? Right. THAT room.
Read MoreTop Tips for Remodeling a Kitchen
So you want to remodel your kitchen. Where do you start? Should you just roll into a kitchen cabinet showroom with some rough room dimensions and let them order you a room full of cabinets? You could, but it probably wouldn’t be the best approach.
You may not actually need all new cabinets. Or you…
Read MorePlanning a Kitchen Renovation
What is the MOST important thing when planning a kitchen renovation? Space planning. This is THE most critical aspect of design. – especially for renovation projects. it’s kind of like putting lipstick on a pig to put
Read MoreSeen Around Town: New Tile Showroom
Just a quick post to introduce the new and improved Fitzgerald Tile showroom! The huge warehouse and showroom recently moved
Read More3 Tips for Creating a Dream Kitchen
Updating a kitchen is on my mind lately…I’ve had the privilege of helping many clients create their dream kitchens over the last 20 plus years. Researching new trends and gaining knowledge about the latest available options is one of my favorite pastimes. And my own kitchen saga taught me a few things early on as well.
Read MoreKitchen Remodeling Decisions
A kitchen HAS to be a functional space, but it should also bring you joy – even if you DON’T love to cook. Everybody has to eat and food lives in the kitchen so by definition, you will spend time there, regularly…it is probably one of the hardest working and most used rooms in the house. It is also one of the most expensive to remodel, so making good choices is of the utmost importance –
Read MoreTransformations: How this kitchen went from tired to timeless
Frustrated with her dark and dated kitchen, our client knew it was time for an overhaul. Traveling extensively for her job, and short on time, she wanted her kitchen to be a welcome retreat for cooking, not an exercise in perseverance when she was home.
The first step to change is identifying the problem, and this kitchen had several
Read MoreTrade Secrets: Four Tips for Choosing Stone Counters
Selecting stone countertops
There is nothing as beautiful as natural stone countertops – and there are almost as many options as there are kitchen renovations! Kitchen counters are one of the most important and perplexing decisions to make ... you must factor in look, feel, color and function ... and it is a decision you will likely live with for a long time.
Some things to keep in mind when selecting stone:
1. Choose a good fabricator
Most fabricators can get stone from a variety of sources for you – choose someone knowledgable who delivers good service and cares about what YOU want, not just what they need to sell.
2. Look at the actual slab(s) you are going to buy
Looking at samples in a showroom is a good start and is essential to narrow down the types of colors and ‘movement’ (how swirly, streaky, or speckled the stone is) that appeals to you. However, do not EVER plunk down your hard-earned money without seeing the actual piece of stone your counter will be made from. Stone is a product of nature and as such, the colors that are most pronounced and patterns inherent in the stone are dependent on the environment in which it was created and where in the quarry it was harvested. Every piece is unique so unless the sample came from the ground right beside the slab you are buying, it may look quite different. Uniqueness is part of the beauty of stone. If you want perfectly uniform pattern and color, either choose a more solid color stone or stop looking at stone altogether and choose a manmade product instead.
3. Consider your lifestyle and personality
Different varieties of stone have different properties and different maintenance requirements … the “patina” that a Carrera marble inevitably develops with use might be a highly desirable attribute for one personality type and a maintenance nightmare for another. There is something for just about everyone from limestone to quartzite depending on the look you want and the way you want to live with it.
4. Have someone oversee the templating
Once your stone is selected and purchased, the fabricator will come to the installation site and create templates of exactly the shape the stone will be cut. Back at the shop they arrange these templates on the slabs like a giant Tetris puzzle. If you have particular sections of the stone you wish to highlight or mitigate, be sure someone you trust is there when they decide what sections will be cut from what parts of the slab. You can buy a slab that has one place you really don’t care for in the midst of stone you love and template in such a way that the undesirable section gets removed for the sink cutout, for example.
This stone has a lot of variation and on the template shown above, these two sections were to meet at a seam on the center of the sink. The templates were laid out so that where the seams met, they would not have an obvious contrast. In addition, we were able to locate the sink cutout on an area that didn't have a part of the pattern we wanted to highlight. The installed pieces, shown below, look just beautiful!