Beautiful Habitat Wins at NKBA Peak Awards!

Tennille Wood takes home a 2014 Peak Award for Kitchen Design!

The NKBA Peak Award Gala was held last night (June 26, 2014) at the Mile High Station in Denver. Tennille Wood of Beautiful Habitat took home a peak award in the Small to Medium Kitchen category for a design  “Ascending Style and Inspiration.”

The Winning Design

The winning kitchen design is part of a complete townhome gut and remodel in Boulder, Colorado. This 1300 sqft townhome was built in 1976. It was in “original” condition when purchased by the clients. That equated to a kitchen that was dark and dated, very small and with limited function.  The project goals were to create a light, bright, inviting kitchen and maximize functionality within the small footprint. The primary challenge in this kitchen was the lack of space; both storage and work space.  The original kitchen measured only 80 sqft and lacked flow and efficiency. Tennille set out to overcome these challenges, with a number of creative solutions.

Kitchen Before

Kitchen After

 

Several foundational changes were made in the new space. The interior wall was moved 4.5 inches to the left. This precious space allowed symmetry along the back wall where the range is located. This created enough space to move the refrigerator away from the range, thereby improving the work triangle and adding prep space between the refrigerator and range.  The soffit was removed, making the kitchen feel more spacious and allowed for taller wall cabinets and increased storage. A peninsula was added, which extends down the hallway to create a beverage area. The result is a kitchen that feels doubled in size. The peninsula creates seating, along with much needed countertop work space. The bar area creates additional storage in base and wall cabinets. The glass fronted cabinets keep the former hallway feeling open and bright.

Additional space increasing elements were incorporated. Frameless cabinets were chosen, which provide an average of 15% additional storage space over face-framed cabinets. Many of the cabinet dimensions were modified to squeeze every last quarter inch of space from this kitchen.

The Peak Awards

The Peak Awards honor those in Colorado who have achieved excellence in Kitchen & Bath Design. Recognizing talent, creativity, and commitment to design, the Peak Awards is a distinctive opportunity to highlight and acknowledge work that ascends style and inspiration.

The NKBA

The National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) has been the premier association for kitchen and bath professionals working in North America since its founding in 1963. The Association has over 40,000 members in 11 industry segments throughout the U.S. and CanadaBeautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Love it or Leave it| Sofa at the Foot of the Bed

The bench at the foot of the bed - it's a staple in bedroom design, particularly in master bedrooms. It's the perfect spot to put on your shoes, decorative bedcovers can be folded down onto the bench, it helps to fill the space in larger rooms. I've even been known to add a bench in rooms designed by Beautiful Habitat.

via Beautiful Habitat

Lately I'm seeing the bench replaced by sofas, settees and chairs - furniture pieces with backs.

via Knight Carr

And then I started to see sofas morph into full seating areas such a this room below.

via Mrs. Howard Personal Shopper

What do you think of this trend? Love it - it's an out of the box use of the space; it creates more function; it uses the space better? Or leave it - it closes off the room too much; it distracts from the bed; I'm not holding board meetings in my bedroom? What are your thoughts of sofas (or other furniture with backs) and seating areas at the foot of the bed?

via House and Home

via Furbish Studio

via Design Shuffle

via Pinterest

via Design OCD

via Lonny

via Atlanta Homes

via House Beautiful

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

2014 | A Year of Living Awesomely

 The year of living awesomely... I love it! I've spent time reviewing 2013 and creating intentions for 2014.

The intentions boil down to a few fundamental desires: enjoy life, have fun and adventure, create, run a world-class interior design business. In order to run that world-class interior design business, I intend to make changes for 2014. Beautiful Habitat will be expanding! I've come to realize that I really can't do it all and, more importantly, I don't want to. I want to focus on designing solutions and amazingly beautiful rooms and spending time with my clients. In reality, I also spend a lot of time tracking products and bogged down in administrative work. It's time to add an assistant and expediter -extraordinaire to the Beautiful Habitat team.

 

My entire career has been blessed with wonderful clients, with whom I am able to develop a friendship and deeper relationship than that of client and service provider. I want to continue to build those types of relationships. In the process, I've been able to work on a wide variety of projects. However, a few projects have not crossed my path and I would love to face those new challenges in 2014. In particular, I'd like to work on a loft space, historical property, a modern kitchen and design more custom furniture.

Traditional Living Room by Spring Lake Design-Build Firms Degnan Design Group + Degnan Design Build

Industrial Living Room by Amagansett Interior Designers & Decorators Reiko Feng Shui Interior Design

Modern Kitchen by San Francisco Architects & Designers John Maniscalco Architecture

I also have several intentions for the design of our new house. I've made quite a bit of progress since our move in June, but there is more to be done in 2014. I have some beautiful visions to turn into reality and I'll be sharing those here. Perhaps a blue-lacquered library is in the works...
 

via

My other intentions are things that many of us need: more self-care, even when I feel I am too busy. That means always making time for my health (physical and mental) and time with family and friends. Too often these items are crossed off the list as soon as we become busy with work and responsibility. However, we've got to feed that well of creativity and passion to continue to be productive in this world. Two dates on the calendar that I am particularly bad about canceling:

Modern Kitchen by San Francisco Architects & Designers John Maniscalco Architecture

What are your intentions to make your 2014 awesome?Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Radiant Orchid | Pantone Color of the Year 2014

Radiant Orchid is the Pantone color of the year; the color experts have predicted that we'll see this color in design and fashion throughout 2014.
 

"The color for 2014?  The captivating, magical and enchanting Radiant Orchid. An invitation to innovation, modern and versatile Radiant Orchid encourages creativity and originality. Imbued with a harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and its rosy undertones emanate great joy, love and health."

See more about the Color of 2014 and previous Colors of the Year at Pantone.

Inspiration for using Radiant Orchid in your Home

Radiant Orchid pairs so well with a number of colors. It can enliven a neutral on its own, or mix with other colors beautifully. On the warmer side, it pairs beautifully with oranges and it's sister-tone pink. On the cooler side, it looks beautiful with blues and teals or even a deep green. I've actually used a touch of this color in my home office recently. Using this beautiful fabric on a valance.
 

via Caitlin Wilson Textiles

via Beautiful Habitat (apologies for the iPhone photography)

This otherwise neutral Living Room is enlivened by the bright pops of Orchid.
 

via Elle Decor

This Library has taken the very bold route with Orchid lacquered bookcases. Wow!

via

Although a fashion example, Radiant Orchid pairs beautifully with a pale green.

 For even more color combinations, look no further than the color experts at Pantone.

What do you think of Pantone's choice for the 2014 color? How will you be using it?

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Beautiful Habitat Has Moved | Sneak Peek

We've moved! To a new house, that is. You'll still be able to find Beautiful Habitat right here and on Facebook and Twitter. You may recall my post about the new house and all the photos before renovations began. Well, some renovations are wrapped up, others haven't yet begun, but we are now residing in the new abode. I wish I had photos of the final beautiful rooms to share with you. Alas, we are living like this in more than one room.

Time and hard work will continue to pull this beauty together. And you can rest assured that I'll be sharing with you as soon as it's ready! Until then, here is a sneak peek. Enjoy!

 New Kitchen Cabinets and Hardware

Do I see Open Shelves in the Kitchen??

New Carpet - a custom dyed shade of gray. When they don't have a color you like, custom dye is always an option.

Gold On The Ceiling... Because Gold is staging a comeback and I am embracing it!

New floors - ebony-stained wood with a new graphic rug (and my camera-shy pup/assistant.)

A few finishing touches are in place, but much more work to do. And a coat of new paint - Sherwin Williams "Anew Gray".

To see more about the journey to the new home:

• Designer's Home| Welcome to My New Digs
• Things I Really Love About My House

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Two-Toned Kitchens | Love it or Leave it?

Whether it be different colors for Base cabinets and Wall cabinets or switching up the color for the island, kitchens with multiple colors of cabinetry are all around. Do you love it, or would you leave it?
 

via Better Homes & Gardens

via Beautiful Habitat

via Pinterest

via Home Bunch

via Pinterest

via Southern Living

via The Marion House Book

  Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com

Beach Bathroom Quick Makeover

Fun beach theme bathroom
 As I mentioned last week in How Do You Spa?, for many years my friend and I would frequent a spa with a coastal/beach theme. In many ways I associate a beach theme with relaxation and pampering. When there was an opportunity to create a beach theme in one of my bathrooms, I did, but I added more fun than spa.
 
This is a bonus 3-piece bathroom in our home. It's a bonus in that we don't need the extra shower on this floor, but we do use it more as a powder room.

 

Beautiful Habitat

The beach theme all started with the things we inherited in the house - a simple vanity and shower tiled in travertine.

 

Beautiful Habitat

The jumping off point for a beach theme came from the Travertine tiles, which reminded me of sand.

The builder-basic mirror and lights were beyond boring and there was nothing beachy, relaxing, or fun in them.

 

My first order of business was to add interest to the lighting. I painted the basic fixture silver with a can of spray paint and creatively engineered the galvanized buckets over the glass. TaDa - Beach lighting! I added colorful accessories which, together with the fun new lighting, take the focus off of the boring, frameless mirror.

 

Beautiful Habitat

The toilet has it's only little nook, which also needed a little something beach-inspired. My vision was to build a mini beach hut in the nook out of corrugated metal. I envisioned the corrugated metal behind the toilet and wrapping around the 2 sides, with a sloped roof and a marine-inspired light. These photos are a bit of the inspiration.

 

While I was getting the toilet-nook-beach-hut design in order, I did install one piece of corrugated metal wall treatment behind the toilet as a place holder, along with a beach print we picked up on a trip to St. Thomas. (Now just envision the metal wrapping around and above - so much fun)

You'll notice that I refer to the toilet plan in past-tense. It "was" because we are now moving. I'm a little sad that my toilet beach hut will never be realized. it was going to be adorable. However, I've enjoyed the beach bathroom for the last 5 years. it was a quick and easy makeover to an otherwise bland space. Have you done anything fun in your space? Share your fun rooms with us here or on Facebook.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design & Decoration www.beautifulhabitat.com