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I hear you, kl23! Function, function, function! I also live on a farm... in the woods... lots of mud, pine needles, animal fuzz... etc. I like the progression of your "stations." I'd add a sink for extra clean up capacity. as well. We're building a barn at the moment... and just yesterday, I had to come in and clean up tools and paint brushes, paint and mud spattered clothes and boots and keep from tracking it into the rest of our very small home... sigh. Our "mud room/laundry" facility could definitely benefit from redesign and expansion.
What do you do when you have NO entry? I tried to create one by facing the backs of two book cases towards the carport door. They do not go up to the ceiling, but I do use their tops for basket display. Just wonder what I might have done instead?
When I think about it, all homes will have certain colors in their whole-house color scheme simply because it's too expensive not to. Stainless steel appliances in the kitchen means grey must be included. White porcelain toilets mean white must be included. Wood furniture means some version of brown must be included.
I've been feeling sorry for folks with grey and/or white homes lately. Grey and white are beautiful neutrals but they apparently were overdone or used badly. I happened to have missed it, so I'm accepting all the critiques in the articles.
The new thing is "warm" colors. And I swear this must be some kind of cruel marketing ploy, because the major examples are yellowed browns and yellowed woods that look terrible with whites and greys.
Red is warm too. As caramels are muted yellow-oranges, mochas are muted reds. And mochas look awesome with greys and whites. How much kinder this industry would be if it featured different ways of adding mochas to warm up a grey and white house. Two of my favorite natural reds are rattan and dark oxblood leather that look fabulous with greys. Oh, and Jacobean-stained red oak so many bemoan also is a nice way to add chocolate and cancel the yellow to work better with cool grey.
I just realized the way to deal with a mix of woods you get when your floors and furniture and cabinetry are a mix of pine, maple, oak, and walnut is to treat them as colors: yellow, orange, and red. Then you can decide if you want to heat things up by adding brighter reds, oranges and yellow to fully embrace an analogous color scheme, or if you want to go for a split complementary color scheme by adding blue, or if you want to get really exciting with a split-split complementary scheme by adding periwinkle and teal. Why not mirror the full range of woods you have with the full range of blues available with periwinkle, teal, and blue in the middle? And of course you can tone them down for walls and ceilings while including accents in brighter colors. I may just head that direction in my living/dining room of antique wood pieces instead of staining the newer pieces.
After all these years, your stories are still my favorites! This home just looks like a big, warm, beautiful hug! 🥰
The thing i would be most concerned with when combining a real stone (quartzite) with a faux (quartz) is the finish. Your sample you have a high polished quartzite and the quartz sample if dull in comparison. The difference in the two is what is going to draw your eye and make the quartz look even more unreal than it does. To get that high polish found in quartz i would consider Porcelain counters if a faux counter is what you want. Quartzite is beautiful and in no world is it a downgrade from granite. That said the cost difference for your permimiter should be somewhat nominal as you do not have a ton of counters there. I would try to do one counter throughout. At the beginning of this thread there was recommendation to keep the granite and just change the backsplash, lighting and hardware and furniture. I still think this can easily lighten and brighten the space.
here is your kitchen just changing to a warm creamy backsplash.
here is your kitchen with the second slab you showed and a solid quartz on perimeter
Again i would brighten up your hardware, lighting and barstools. This is your kitchen and all that was done was changed the metal finished on what you have, replaced the backsplash and change the finish on your counter stools
My vote is this one from DIS…and with all the money you save with not doing new counters you can really splurge on great quality lighting and hardware:
When the bubble bursts on Taj Mahal, it is going to be staggering. It is already close to, if not already, a caricature.
Thank you for this article..I have a man that does that cedar 2 tone, or redwood, that I've talked to about making me a Kitchen Island on wheels. He said not a problem..so your article will help in figuring the correct measurements. Thank you!
Thank you so much for bringing these trends and advances to those of us who cannot attend these delightful shows. I am especially interested in the technological advances in lighting and multi-purpose furniture. I hope greater detail about the Lutron lighting systems will be coming in another article. How do they work? How do the affect the colors in the room? How can we choose colors to work well with the system?
I am delighted to see patterns in full appreciation and guidance on combining multiple patterns. Patterns and mirrors are such blessings to the young in their first spaces... before they have accumulated a lifetime of photographs and quality paintings and sculptures. Even more welcome to me personally is the celebration of textures that come naturally through materials like stone, wood, rattan and wicker, and through materials like glass (including beveled, etched and frosted), pottery, anaglypta, and a myriad of metals and their finishes.
Nice rooms, but all except two are some variation of white. My personal preference is to have color in a bedroom, which can still be soothing and appropriate for a retreat space.
Thanks, Ediz. I am in the US on the east coast. I just placed an order with Lamps Plus shipping from the west coast. https://www.lampsplus.com/p/lite-source-sappho-72-inch-black-finish-led-torchiere-lamp-with-down-light__69f89/
They market lamps from all over. I never had torchiers before and am anxious to try them. The light I want to get from Vakkerlight is a downlight I want to pull over to a puzzling table when needed and otherwise highlight a step down from my dining room to my living room. I will check out the names you mentioned. Thank you. I absolutely go nuts over artistic lighting design. In my recent upper level renovation I think I've been happiest with these lights. The idea was that they are the bottoms of dandelions and the anaglypta on the wall represented grass.
I would place the dramatic fixture over the dining table. In an open-plan room, that gives the dining area a clear focal point and lets the fixture relate directly to the wood table and green velvet sofa. The island already has a disciplined row of three clear-glass pendants, so I would keep them if they remain visually quiet beside the new piece; replacing both sets with equally expressive fixtures could make the two adjacent zones compete.
For the table, look for a composition with enough horizontal presence to anchor the tabletop, but leave comfortable visual breathing room at both ends. Since your references derive much of their character from mixed forms, asymmetry and color, decide whether you want the light itself to carry that color or whether the green sofa and accessories should do so while the fixture contributes sculptural form.
Here's a sculptural lighting design from our GREYGE.com collection, just as a visual reference. CALLA is an artistic lighting object offered in white or dark anthracite, with 135 cm and 190 cm formats. Its sculptural composition could provide the bold gesture you want, although it should not be treated as a confirmed color or scale match until the table is specified: https://www.greyge.com/product/modern-chandeliers-for-living-room/
What will the dining tabletop’s length and width be? That will determine which CALLA size, if either, would be proportionate.
I have used trees to block unsightly views from the house.
I've seen both a printer and a shredder that are small enough to fit in a large purse. If you need file cabinets, that's a whole different flower pot.
Yes Simone Whittle. At work I am completely digital. I currently am shopping for a scanner to run everything through. The tough part for me is starting analog and developing an entire analog system and THEN having to digitize it all. I can't wait to scan all my slides and records and organize it as well as it is at work. Retirement will be a matter of constant cleaning, scanning, organizing and the best part...tossing!
Hanging files and envelopes - how quaint! I'm all-digital but have enormous amount of gadgets and cables to replace the old paper, so still need lots of space.
@Shazia I do wish I felt better about your repeat renovation. But I am so worried about the main cause of the water line breaks not being addressed, or at least I don't understand how you addressed them.
Sorry Shazia...I understood you to say early on that you were on the black gumbo soil notorious for breaking pipes run horizontally under houses. Perhaps I misunderstood.
Well that’s a winner winner chicken dinner! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you give such an emphatic yes so I feel good. The movement on these is really pretty!
Yes to all you’ve said for prep! 2 slabs will literally be the whole slab (island and backsplash).
They have 5 slabs in the bundle left so I’m going to pick out the best quality ones and then we’re a go!
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼💗💗💗💗💗
Number seven is a knockout. What a cozy comfortable living room. It checked off all my boxes, job well done.
Most home offices these days have monitors, keyboards and docking stations. I wish we had more examples of how to include those elements and make them still look nice (cord control, etc.).
On a separate note, we are fascinated by the daily light show of our upper hallway. It changes with the seasons and currently is giving us a a lot of fun at around 5:30 pm when the setting sun hits the top of the acrylic stair rail, lights up the whole tube, makes the bottom glow like a flashlight and then spreads huge concentric circles on the wall opposite. We had no idea... When our grandson visited in August, he lit it up with a flashlight, but we didn't know the sun would be able. Between the light shows, the light fixtures, the anaglypta, and the colors, I don't see any reason to decorate the upper hallway with hanging art. It's my favorite new space. The only item I am considering is one or more sculptural doorstops (like the snail).
Our hallway continues to amuse us as the sun shifts is angle through the year. Here is the latest.