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

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

Small Changes Can Make Big Happys

I’ve recently made some small functional changes around my home and, although I knew they would make life feel better, I didn’t realize how happy they’d actually make me. While I don’t normally blog about me and my home, I think many people can relate to this story and draw inspiration from it. Allow me to be your case study for no longer settling for the little things that annoy you around your home!

Change #1: The Shower Head
About 2 months ago, we changed out the shower head. The old shower head had terrible water pressure and was a little leaky. It had gotten worse over time until a shower felt like this…

After one particularly low pressure and unpleasant shower, I had had enough and marched myself to the bathroom showroom. After about $100 in an upgraded shower head and 5 minutes of labor, my next shower felt like this…

I’m not exaggerating. It was wonderful. The new shower head made me ridiculously happy.  The actual change is really more like this…

Change #2: Sofa Cushions
The current sofa is something we purchased prior to my embarking on the design gig. It’s before I had access to all the lovely showrooms and manufacturers that I now bring to my clients. It’s from a well-known retail store. While it looks nice and has a well chosen fabric, the quality is not of the highest caliber, particularly the cushions along the back of the sofa. Below is a cushion insert. It is a just bag of loose fiber-fill. The result was a cushion that drooped and looked sloppy and, more importantly, was unsupportive and uncomfortable.

For $200, I had new inserts made for the sofa back by an upholstery supply company. These are made as a good sofa should be – with a supportive upholstery foam, envelope-wrapped in a down or fiber-fill.

This little change has made me love the sofa all over again. The cushions now sit upright and look tailored and the proper back support makes it comfortable.

The shower and the sofa were two little things that annoyed me a little bit each day. Those little annoyances start to build until you are no longer enjoying your home. And your home is the one place in this world you should never be annoyed, but should find pure joy, peace and relaxation.  For $300 I was able to resolve these nit-picky items and fall in love with my bath room and family room again. These small changes have given me big happys in my home again.

What’s bugging you in your home? I encourage you to change it. It can enhance your life and your daily routine. And if I can help you with those changes, you know where to reach me.

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

Make a Statement with Upholstery

Customizing your upholstery is a great way to add personality to your home, whether you are ordering a new piece or reupholstering an existing item.  Too often people play it safe and select an overall neutral for their upholstery. This is "smart" in that the piece will be timeless. However, you can still have a timeless piece, while taking your upholstery out-of-the-box. Here are some tips for just that.

Tip 1: Use two fabrics on the same piece

This photo is from House & Garden UK magazine and features dining chairs with 2 fabrics - a timeless look, but more interest than one overall fabric.

Below is a Before & After of an antique fainting couch from a Beautiful Habitat project in Louisville, Colorado.

Before:

After:

We used both a solid black and a contemporary print from Kravet to customize the piece.

 

Tip 2: Use a Small Pattern
Small patterns can look like solids from a distance. This can be a "safer" alternative if you aren't ready to go bold. You'll still have interest and uniqueness in the piece, but it will not be too trendy.

This project is a home I worked on in Broomfield, Colorado. Here, the sofa fabric is actually a gray-on-charcoal dot pattern. It adds fun to this contemporary decor, but reads as a solid from a distance so it doesn't complete with the artwork and other fabrics.

Tip 3: Use a Big Pattern
A large and bold pattern can still be timeless. Here, elegant dining chairs have again been upholstered in two different fabrics. This  time a large embroidered pattern has been centered on the chair backs of each chair. The result is truly stunning.

This is from House & Garden, UK magazine May 2007.

So think out-of-the-box with your upholstery and have fun!

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

Home Office Design 101 - Function

"Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union." ~ Frank Lloyd Wright 
 

Home Offices are first and foremost functional spaces. I believe they can be more than just function, and we'll be talking about that in the next post. However, without function, a home office really does fall flat. Let’s cover a few basics that you need to have in place for a functional home office. I’ll be using examples from a client home office project to walk us through the needs and some possible solutions.

The Project:

Before:  

My client used a small corner of this music room/library as a home office.

The problems:

1. Not nearly enough work space. 
2. Storage was inadequate and hard to access.
3. Room located just off of the foyer in a very public area of the home.
4. Inadequate lighting.
5. Confusing purpose of the room (for more on the changes to the music room, see this post).

 After: 

My client, an empty-nester, had 2 childrens' rooms turned guest rooms in the home. She has frequent guests, but rarely used both guest rooms at once. We decided that saving a guest room for 2 nights per year while she suffered with an inadequate home office for 365 days just didn't make sense. We moved the home office into the smaller of the bedrooms. What about the guests? We placed the furniture against the walls so that a queen air mattress could be used in the center of the room to easily accommodate extra guests.

Functional Needs in a Home Office

Let's break down some of the functional needs in a home office and look at the solutions we found for this particular space.

Functional Need 1: Adequately-sized area with some privacy

Functional Need 2: Adequate work space with comfortable and supportive seating

Functional Need 3: Adequate storage space

We included a generously sized desk that can accomodate multiple functions at once. An attractive filing cabinet is next to the desk for often used papers and supplies. Infrequently used items are stored in the closet.

Functional Need 4: Good Lighting

 This room has wonderful daylight with 3 large windows. Unfortunately, the night lighting was poor with no overhead fixture to provide lighting. We had to create specific lighting zones to suit the functions. At the desk, we installed an over-sized swing arm lamp. It adjusts in 3 places, so can easily be directed toward the task as needed. We also added a floor lamp with 5 different settings at the reading area.

And finally, if you are fortunate to have a large home office, it's nice to create areas for functions other than a desk and some filing cabinets.  This might include a hobby or craft area, or a reading nook.

A reading nook should include a comfortable chair, with extra back support, if needed, a table for drinks and books, and good lighting. 

The next post will look at adding on to the functionality of a home office with how it looks and feels. 
Stay tuned.
Other posts in the Home Office Series.

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

To Paint Or Not To Paint ...The Ceiling

While we're talking about painting tips and tricks this week, I'd like to share a favorite tip - adding color to your ceiling. I love adding a color to ceilings. It adds dimension and depth to a room. More importantly, however, it softens the harshness of a very white ceiling. Case in point is this music room, where the white ceiling absolutely shouted  and detracted much of the attention from the beautiful and unique room.
Before:

Our solution was to paint both the wall and the ceilings a different color. However, had we wanted to keep the red walls, the ceiling could have been softened with a complementary beige or gray. (If you'd like to know why we changed the color to a golden beige instead of the red, that is a whole other set of tips on paint colors. It's explained in a previous post Before & After: Choosing Wall Color.)
After:

A technique that I use very often is to choose the wall color (read this post on Choosing Paint Color), then have that same color mixed to 50% strength to use on the ceiling. This technique was used in the above photo of the music room and also on the bedroom below. The ceiling slopes upward and the lighter color is used in the center most ceiling section.

 Why a 50% tint? 
First, you know that the colors will work together and you won't have to worry about the undertones and selecting coordinating colors. Also, it is important to paint the ceilings a lighter color than the wall color. First, a lighter ceiling does help a room feel taller. Secondly, colors on a horizontal surface will always appear darker than on a vertical surface, particularly with the way that interior lighting hits walls and ceilings.  Again, looking at the music room, the ceiling paint is a 50% tint to the wall color, but it looks the same as the wall color in this lighting. Had it been a 100% tint, the ceiling would have appeared darker.

The 50% does not work well with very bold colors such as reds or blues, however. A 50% tint will give you pink or a light blue ceiling. In these cases you are better served by finding a neutral beige or gray to compliment the wall color. I'll be looking for more beautiful rooms with painted ceilings to share with you.

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

Nail Head Project Revealed

 I have been obsessing over nail heads for quite some time now. 
Latest Obsession: Nail Head Trim
Still Obsessing: Nail Head Trim
Latest Obsession: Nail Head Trim, part 3
Now I'd like to incorporate them into my own DIY project - the reupholster of a bench for the master bedroom.



This is the bench. I agree that it is in perfectly suitable condition as is. However, I want to add some personality to the bench and the bedroom.

Not to mention that the fabric and tufting look a little tired...

For that personality, I'm adding more interesting materials to this bench. Those include a very cool pearly ivory vinyl and, of course, nail heads. Vinyl can be a very fun material - it is extremely durable and cleanable for homes with pets and children. It also comes in endless patterns textures and colors.

 To work out the nail head design, I have created a few templates out of cardboard in 5 inch strips. Five inches is the height of the upholstered edge of the bench, which will receive the nail head treatment.

I have created a few possible designs, while looking back to previous posts for inspiration..

I am attempting to work with some curved designs as well, but I'll tell you now that those are very hard for the novice upholsterer! I have tremendous appreciation for the skill and work used to create the pieces I've shown in previous blog posts!
I'll keep you posted on the progress in working out these designs. Perhaps a vote for the final design...

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

Before & After: Choosing Wall Color

This room is one of my very favorite Before & After transformations. It's also a fun room in general. It is off of the foyer of my client's home and intended to be the study. Because they are empty-nesters, the office spaces have moved into other bedrooms to create this music room/library. It's a fun, yet sophisticated space.

Before: 
The room has beautiful built-in shelving and wood frames around the windows. It's hard to find such beautiful detail in architecture these days. The window valances were well chosen for the room and windows. But there were some minor problems with the room, and it wasn't making the WOW statement that it potentially could.

The first problem was the bold red wall color. Now don't get me wrong, I love a bold wall color. But this wasn't the room for it.The red actually competes with the color of the woodwork. Because those two darker elements are competing, your eye actually goes straight to the white ceiling, which seems to glow next to the darker walls and woodwork.
The next problem is the area rug, which nearly blends into the carpet, not really adding any value to the room.
Another problem is the arrangement of the bookcases themselves. See this previous post for tips on how to arrange a bookshelf for maximum impact.

 After:
 The wall and ceiling color were the biggest changes made in the space. We went with a golden tan on the walls, and painted the ceiling the same color, at a 50% intensity (A GREAT tip that I frequently use on ceilings). This color now draws all the attention to the amazing woodwork. The ceiling technique softens the harsh transition from the woodwork to the ceiling. No more glowing ceiling.

Next we brought in an area rug that coordinated with the window treatment colors.It adds more contrast to the floor and creates a focal area and flow around the piano.We added a cozy chair for reading or listening to the piano.
Now it's a more relaxing space to be in, while also making a great first impression to visitors.

I'll have more tips on choosing wall and ceiling paint. Stay tuned!

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

Before & After: Window Treatments 4

Happy Friday! I'd like to close out this week of window treatments with before & after's from one of my favorite transformations.

Before:
 My clients had just replaced their windows with energy efficient upgrades, leaving us with a blank slate. The windows are truly unique in this home and nicely trimmed in wood. Sun and heat control were an issue.

The goal was to provide protection, and emphasize the tall ceilings and unique windows.

The adjoining dining room needed to coordinate with the living room, while also providing a flexible solution to block sun, while still allowing opening the treatments and taking advantage of the view.

After:
We added functional cellular (honeycomb) blinds to help with heat and light control. The blinds could be pulled up completely, making them practically disappear into the woodwork.
For soft treatments we added tall (12ft) curtain panels to emphasize the height of the ceiling.

The curtains are staionary (aka "dummy panels), meaning they don't move, but are in place purely for aesthetics.

We used two fabrics in the panels - a multi-color stripe and a solid green. This green was used throughout the entire first floor of the home and the stripe took our color up a notch.

In the dining room we added a cuffed valance in the same green and striped fabrics. Using only a valance softens the angles of the window while still keeping the  view fully visible. To provide the light control, but access to the view, we opted for the Privacy sheers from Hunter Douglas.

All sewing work in this room and the others highlighted this week, was completed by Artisan Concepts.

Beautiful Habitat: Interior Design  www.beautifulhabitat.com

Before & After: Window Treatments 3

Window Treatment week post #3 will focus on children's rooms. Often when I am called in for children's rooms, my clients want something that has a young and fun feel, but that will also continue to grow with the child. They do not want to redecorate the room with every phase of the child's life, but just to change out a few pieces. This room is no exception. But today, I'll be focusing on the window treatments.

Before:
This room was a fairly boring guest room in a new home. When I got there, the window treatments were the disposable temporary paper shades from Home Depot.

After:
We livened up the whole room and windows with color. The child was just under 3 years old at the time we created this room. A primary consideration with the window treatments for kids is safety. It is best to have shorter treatments the cannot be grabbed and pulled down, and nothing long, in which a child may get caught.Safety first!

We opted for valance treatments and wood blinds.The valances were created in a faux London blind style. They are meant to look like the fabric could cover the whole window and is lowered and raised by the ribbons.It gives a gathered look at the bottom.

We chose a colorful striped fabric. Other elements of the room can easily be changed out as she grows, while still coordinating with the window treatments because of the many colors within the fabric.

Have you seen great window treatments in a kid's room? Email me and I'll post them here!

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