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Want to avoid the common mistakes of remodeling? Let the experts at PlumbTile help! Give one of our experts a call to make your next project easier and receive a discount for calling! 1-866-369-8180 or www.PlumbTile.com
Regardless of whether you are replacing an outdated vanity or renovating the entire space, bathroom remodeling can be an expensive proposition. How can you avoid some common mistakes?
Overlooking your bathroom fan is a huge mistake. Sometimes people don’t install one or they don’t clean the one they have. Without proper ventilation, humidity builds up on surfaces, and over time this moisture will cause paint and grout to deteriorate and mildew to form. Vacuuming the vent on a regular basis will help keep the fan clean. To determine if your fan is overdue for a cleaning, turn it on and hold a square of toilet tissue up to the vent. If the tissue stays up on its own when you let go, air is still flowing.
Sometimes people think they can figure out what needs to be done as they go along, but you need a plan in place before you start any demolition. You should have everything sketched out ahead of time, from your budget, to your materials, to the question of who will be doing which parts of the work. Planning is everything!
Don’t lie to yourself and try to do a $20,000 renovation when you have only $10,000 to work. You’ll only have to cut corners at the end of the project and you won’t be pleased with the results. He suggests taking a careful look at your finances and getting a realistic number in your head. Write the number down, put that amount in your bank account, and stick to it!
As your renovation goes along, always fix mistakes—even the smallest ones—as soon as you notice them. If one tile isn’t exactly flush or your paint strokes are going in all directions, fix it right away. Don’t convince yourself you’ll learn to live with it. Those mistakes will always bother you, and if you can see them, then other people can see them too.
Many people, are excited about the renovation process at the beginning but lose steam as they approach the finish line. They might take forever to frame out the room, but by the end they’re so eager to see the completed room they start to rush. The problem here is that the finish work is extremely important to the overall look of the space. People should reverse the trend. Move at a steady pace at the beginning and slow down at the end to be sure everything is done correctly. Your patience will pay off!
Want to avoid the common mistakes of remodeling? Let the experts at PlumbTile help! Give one of our experts a call to make your next project easier and receive a discount for calling! 1-866-369-8180 or www.PlumbTile.com
Long gone are the days when kitchens were dreary workspaces, hidden behind closed doors. Today’s kitchens are central to everyday living and special-occasion entertaining, often doing double duty as family rooms, offices and media centers, as well.
“The kitchen is truly the focus of the home today,” says New York-based interior designer Andrew Suvalsky. “A great kitchen design will give essential clues to how the rest of the home can and should develop.”
To meet the growing demand for showstopping kitchens, manufacturers now offer cabinets, countertops and fixtures in all of today’s most popular design styles, from Old World to modern, city chic to country cozy. And your options aren’t limited to what you’ll find in the kitchen showrooms, either. Andrew and many other designers also turn to antiques stores, high-end furniture makers and salvage resellers when sourcing kitchen projects.
Whether you’re designing your kitchen to match the decor of other rooms, or planning your whole home’s look around the kitchen, you can make it a beautiful reflection of your personal style.
Open and inviting, country kitchens allow you to enjoy the feeling of a weekend getaway right in your own home — even if you’re smack in the middle of suburbia (Check out our Farmhouse Style Sinks by Bates & Bates). Farmhouse tables and furniture-like cabinetry are popular conventions, and an eclectic mix of finishes helps create a comfortable, lived-in look. Country colors range from primary red, yellow and blue to aged tones of cream and pale yellow; whatever hues you favor, mixing rather than matching is the country way to go.
Sleek, sexy and sophisticated, the modern kitchen is designed to keep clutter to a minimum. Reflective surfaces and high-tech materials are central to the most modern kitchen, and exotic woods add a touch of luxury without frills or fabric. Iconic midcentury seating, including Bertoia stools and chairs by Eames and Cherner, are often chosen for a classically modern look; seating made of Lucite and highly polished woods is often chosen for a more current interpretation of the style.
Whether the space is large or tiny, cottage kitchens are designed to feel cozy and enveloping. With their homespun touches and imperfect finishes, cottage-style kitchens are always one of a kind and serve as the perfect backdrop for offbeat art and collectibles (Check out our country style Kitchen Island by Lyn Design). If you’re an avid flea marketer, this style will allow you to turn your weekend finds into everyday pleasures. To marry serious cooking with whimsical style, look for high-end appliances in white or retro colors.
Where function meets family friendliness, you’ll find the contemporary kitchen. The look is a carefully curated mix of materials: new and old, casual and polished. And because cooking with company has replaced cooking for company as the entertaining ideal, today’s kitchen has plenty of room for hosts and guests to work and interact. Add gourmet cooking equipment, comfortable, durable seating and lots of open space for a kitchen perfectly suited to 21st-century living.
Imagine a small hotel in the South of France, or a contessa’s villa on the Amalfi Coast. The colors are sun-dappled. The surfaces are elegantly timeworn, and the atmosphere is pure romance. To replicate that Mediterranean ambiance anywhere, look for Provencal fabrics in rich tones of russet, cobalt and ochre, warm-toned wooden cabinetry, and handmade ceramic accessories. Rough-hewn textures, copper pots and rush seats add the final touches.
Whether you live at the beach or just wish you did, you can count on cool shades of blue, green, white and sand to create a vacation-time mood. Seagrass and wicker seating are casual, comfortable and coastal. Fabrics and flooring (Get the look! Check out our natural stone flooring by Agora!) designed to stand up to wet bathing suits make coastal-style kitchens easy to care for, and window treatments that allow for maximum sunlight will have everyone in let’s-get-to-the-beach mode bright and early.
If you yearn for a time when materials were solid and craftsmanship was king, Old World design will embrace you in history and luxury. Look for dark mahogany finishes with lots of carving and detail, countertops with ogee or bullnosed edges, and stone or wooden floors. Add historical accessories and heavy fabrics, and enjoy time travel comfortably in your own home.
Turkey on Thanksgiving, ham on Christmas Eve and chocolate chip cookies after school. A traditional kitchen is the perfect backdrop for a life that centers on family, friends and holidays — but its clean, comfortable look is welcoming 365 days a year. Paneled or glass doors on cupboards contribute timeless style, and latched or icebox hardware is often added for period detail. White tiles add a clean look and help reflect light, and artisanal or vintage-look light fixtures add special touches.
Ready to start your next kitchen project? Let the Experts at PlumbTile Help! Give one of our experts a call at 1-866-369-8180 and receive a discount on your purchase! Also visit us at www.PlumbTile.com!
You don’t have to do a total down-to-the-studs bathroom renovation in order to update your stuck-in-the-80s bathroom. Homeowners may have a more extensive number of options when it comes to updating a bathroom, but even if you are a renter, there are numerous, affordable ways you can transform an outdated bath into a modernized space.
1. Paint
You can always rely on a fresh coat of paint to revitalize everything from a small side table to an entire room. Choosing a trendy color can wake up a tired bathroom. Painting the ceiling a complementary color that is a little lighter than your walls will make a small bathroom appear more spacious. It has become increasingly popular to choose something more interesting than white for the color of your ceilings.
Red walls take this bathroom from boring to bold.
2. Wall decor
After you paint your walls, you don’t want to put back the same boring, outdated wall decor that you had. One of the most eye-catching pieces of wall art in your bathroom can be a mirror (view our mirrors by Fairmont Design). Splurge a little and get a modern style mirror or a spectacular vintage mirror that will complement a modern decor. As for any other wall art that you hang, make sure it exemplifies the simplicity and sophistication of modern design. Keep in mind that glass shelves can be a functional form of wall art in an updated bathroom design.
3. Lighting
With all of the modern and contemporary bathroom lighting styles that are available, you can easily find some that will fit your budget and your decorating theme. Replace your current, unattractive lights with modern style lighting (view our large selection of bathroom lighting). You might even find new areas in the room where a wall sconce or mini pendant light can draw attention to a previously unnoticed area of the room.
4. Clear the clutter
An incredibly inexpensive way to modernize a bathroom is to remove the clutter from your counter top and all other areas of the room. If you browse through photos of modern bathroom designs, you’ll see that there are few items on the countertops and what is there, is neatly organized in some type of storage container. You can add some freestanding or wall-hung shelves to your bathroom as part of your updating plan. When you add open shelving, it’s imperative that you keep those shelves organized, not cluttered.
5. Details matter
Removing old towel racks and replacing them with more modern style options is a quick and easy project. You’ll also want to replace worn out, unattractive towels with more luxurious, trendy towels to further improve the appearance of your bathroom. Removing outdated hardware on your cabinets and replacing it with a more modern option can instantly modernize your bathroom. By directing your attention to small details such as vent covers and switchplate covers, you can add visual updates that will have a significant impact in the overall appearance of the bathroom.
6. Floors
If you have the option to do so, updating the floor in your bathroom is a project you should move forward with. This could mean replacing the floor with bathroom tile or painting an unsightly wood floor a color that is compatible with your updated decor. If you rent and can’t alter the flooring, you can rely on a rug to hide an ugly, outdated floor covering.
7. Special features
Modern bathrooms are all about personal style and comfort. Waterfall faucets (Check out our widespread faucets by Graff Here!) and rain-style shower heads (Altmans Rain Showerhead) can enhance the elegance of you bathroom. Heated towel bars can elevate the luxuriousness of your bathroom. It is currently trendy to take steps to bring elements from the outdoors into your modern home design. Adding a few lush green plants to your bathroom decor is a great way to celebrate nature and beautify the room.
Ready to refresh your bathroom? Let the Experts at PlumbTile Help! Give one of our experts a call at 1-866-369-8180 and receive a discount on your purchase! Also visit us at www.PlumbTile.com!
Galley kitchen remodeling can be a great way to take a kitchen space that’s already efficient and functional and add elements that increase both its utility and attractiveness.
In general, galley kitchens are smaller spaces, which can be a great benefit to anyone involved in cooking or food preparation. The famous “work triangle,” which co-locates the refrigerator, stove and sink, offers maximum efficiency with minimal steps between the various components. The tradeoff is that sometimes the space can feel cramped, dark and not terribly welcoming to guests. A galley kitchen remodel can address all of these concerns via some simple tweaks, many of which can be achieved on a budget or even without raising a single hammer. Continue reading →
This week we are featuring Watermark Linear shower drain and how to install them. See below for step by step instructions and video.
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