Pantone Colors of the Year & Your Flooring

The last couple of years we’ve shared suggestions for incorporating the Pantone Color of the Year alongside your floors. This year, Pantone did something different by blending two shades – Rose Quartz and Serenity – as their Color of the Year.

About Pantone Colors of the Year

As Pantone Color Institute’s Executive Director (Leatrice Eiseman) explains, "Joined together, Rose Quartz and Serenity demonstrate an inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace."

Who doesn’t want a soothing sense of order and peace throughout their home? The great news is Rose Quartz and Serenity are nice complements to various shades of flooring. In the photo above, for example, you can see how Lauzon's Travertine Hard Maple naturally fits with a suggested palette of Pantone colors. And here’s another example of Mirage's Maple Sandstone seamlessly blending with another of palette of Pantone colors.

Pantone Colors & Your Flooring

Looking for ideas to incorporate these Pantone colors with your floors? Here are a few suggestions:

1. If you really like flooring available in a complementary hue to (like the examples above), select that shade and then decorate the space with various Rose Quartz and Serenity accessories.
2. Depending on the room and the material you use, you could select floors in Rose Quartz and Serenity shades. Why not use marmoleum to make a fun design in a playroom, bedroom or bathroom?
3. Opt for an area rug that incorporates both colors, like the one on this website or the one on this site. Or, pick an area rug that features shades included in Pantone’s various palettes and then accessorize with Rose Quartz and Serenity paint, furniture, throw pillows and more.

When it comes to incorporating Pantone Colors of the Year with your flooring, the possibilities are endless! Make sure you visit our showroom if you want help finding the perfect floors to pair with Rose Quartz and Serenity; our experts are standing by to help. Don’t forget to contact us for a free in-home estimate, too!

A Beautiful Alternative For Lighting In The Bathroom

Bathroom designed by Carla Aston / Photo by Tori Aston

I do a lot of bathroom design. And if there's one thing I’m totally tired of, it’s...

The bath bar light.

I’ve mentioned this before; and I know that sometimes there’s just no way to get around using them. But I prefer to get a little more creative and atypical.

I love using sconces. However...

Sometimes there’s just no room in the width of the space; and it's soooooo hard to find good sconces with adequate wattage. So many that you see in bathrooms — those featured in beautiful glossy magazines — are, in fact, 40 watts, which is ridiculously low for putting on make-up or shaving. I have so often wondered why that is the case. (I know what I’ll design someday for a product line when I’m discovered for all my knowledge, experience, and expertise...but I’m not holding my breath.)

Until then, I just struggle to find the perfect lighting for these small spaces: something that is beautiful, stylized, slim, and bright.

One option I've started using is a pendant. It’s kind of nice to not have to worry about the positioning of the sconce on the wall. It’s quite different and can be used to visually add height to a room.

I used one here in a powder room:

Powder bath designed by Carla Aston, photo by Tori Aston - Click HERE to see more from this dramatic remodel

Pairing the pendant with a tall mirror heightened the space; and its reflection in the mirror automatically doubles the light in the room.

I used pendants in this master bath to add height, as well as to make a bolder statement with the lighting. Smaller, more insignificant sconces would have been busier and wouldn’t have made for such a dynamic, contemporary visual appeal.

Contemporary master bath designed by Carla Aston, photo by Tori Aston - Click HERE to see more images of this beautiful space

I always say that the architecture of the room will tell you what to do with space.

Enhance its attributes and work with its bones and you can't go wrong. Using pendants in these situations does just that. They brought attention to the height in each space, added drama, and more light was reflected in the mirror.

BTW: If you're looking for some hints on upcoming trends in bathroom design, I think these I posted last year are still going strong. I wouldn't change a single thing about what I shared then.

BTW x2: Stay tuned for my upcoming coverage of KBIS2016 in Vegas (the National Kitchen and Bath Industry Show). I'll be attending with BlogTourModenus later in January. I'm looking forward to sharing all the latest products and innovations in kitchen and bath design, just like I did last year!

DIY Fireplace Makeover

I’ve been living in my pajamas for over a week, I ate and drank too much between Christmas and New Year’s and only exercised once. I slept in late and spent time with favorite cousins, we played games and laughed, and it was just what I needed to end a really good year.

2015 was good for me, it was last year that I found something that I’d been chasing in my personal life: real balance. I’ll write up a more detailed post on it soon, but I will say this, most of what gave me balance came from first making an active lifestyle a priority. So much goodness stems from taking care of your body and this year I’m repeating the habits I maintained in 2015, so this morning it was back to a regular exercise routine and the fitness kickboxing classes I love so much.

Anyhoo. I spent last week in Las Vegas at the home we remodeled and finished up one last project so the home is at last ready to rent. We’re moving on to another house project soon so the plan is to move the furniture out and rent the refurbished home to a tenant long term. The final project that remained was to add tile and a mantel to the fireplace and I’m very pleased with the result!

 

I’ve longed to work with patterned cement tile, I had thought my first use of it would be a bathroom floor but it turns out that it was the perfect size and pattern for a dramatic fireplace focal point. Let’s go back in time, let me remind you of what I started with many moons ago, this was the dated corner fireplace that existed when we bought the house, note the odd niche and boring tile.

Today it’s a has a more modern look, after filling the niche and removing the drywall mantel, I tiled and grouted and Matt built a new wood mantel.

I could have chosen something basic but I couldn’t get this inspiration image out of my head and wanted to create a similar look. The gray and off white cement tile is from from Overstock, it’s a beautiful Moroccan inspired pattern that dresses up the room.

Three boxes arrived in perfect condition with no broken tiles, I was impressed. I didn’t order extra this time since they come in boxes of 12 and I only needed 34 tiles – I didn’t want to spend the extra 100 bucks, so I got lucky.

I had to map it out very carefully, the tiles are 8 x 8” and the width of the fireplace box is 41” so I did the math and figured out I could get 5 tiles along the top with ¼ inch spacers and the vertical tiles lined up really nicely too. 

The first complication we had to deal with was the gas line cap – it required a hole in one of the tiles. Matt purchased a really handy drill bit kit that did the trick. It’s a wet diamond hole saw that worked perfectly! I’m holding the metal cap that attaches to the gas line, you can see the hole saw was the perfect size for making the circular cut.

 

It has an adhesive rubber seal so you can create a mini water reservoir, then the diamond tip cuts the hole, this wet diamond saw is really great for cutting holes in tile for plumbing fixtures in showers.

The tile is very heavy so I had to use strong adhesive and in a thick layer applied with a trowel. (Hidden by my elbow is where the gas line cap is – see image below). I had already mapped it out on the wall and knew there was a small gap on the bottom so I placed a wood support there to support the tile and worked my way up the wall on each side during Downton Abbey reruns. SO excited Season 6 is finally here!

To support the horizontal tile I used a makeshift support created with scrap wood so they heavy tiles would stay in place while the adhesive dried.

I color matched the grout to Antique White but added a bit of Bright White to the mix since the Antique White grout was a hint too yellow. I used a grout float to apply it and a sponge to clean the tile.

With ¼” spacers I was left with a sliver of tile on the bottom, so rather than cut an uber skinny piece of tile we finished off the bottom with basic 3/4” trim.

Matt also built a basic wood mantel out of birch wood, he didn’t follow any specific tutorial, just read a few floating mantel articles online and built the box to fit the width of the tile using an inner support made with 2 x 4s.

The three sided mantel box has a hollow interior, Matt used L brackets with wood screws to keep the frame together and nails to attach it to the inner frame. The inner frame made with basic 2 x 4s is screwed into the wall studs.

I tried different stains but decided just to use a dark walnut paste wax on the wood instead.

The resulting hue is a close match to the porcelain plank tile floors we installed last year.

I love the new look! Here’s another side view of the before and after, this one with the past owner’s decor.

It’s a nice focal point looking from my fave teal blue sofa, the media stand is just to the right.

 

 

Happy New Year to you all! It feels good to be back! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments…

.

Designer Review: Holland Based Studio Marco Vermeulen

You might not think about getting design inspiration from climate change, but Holland based firm, Studio Marco Vermeulen, is challenging that idea.

Studio Marco Vermeulen is a “design office for architecture, urban design, landscape and research.” They focus on projects dealing with energy, water and raw materials, primarily in water safety and climate change. Their latest project is an 8-month renovation of the Biesbosch Museum in Werkendam, Holland. In this project we found a few eco friendly ideas you might want to incorporate in your own home.

To help you feel inspired for more eco-friendly design, let’s take a tour through their latest project.

The Biesbosch Museum

The Biesbosch Museum is the first stop when entering Biesbosch National Park. The museum had become outdated and unable to accommodate the increasing amount of visitors.

It is made up of freshwater tidal wetlands with rivers, creeks, and islands. The museum offers a permanent exhibit on the historical development of the region as well as a new wing that hosts a restaurant and temporary exhibition space.

Water safety was the key concern for the museum overhaul. That’s when they reached out to Studio Marco Vermeulen!

In 2012, there were only 35,000 museum visitors. After the overhaul by Studio Marco Vermeulen, they saw over 30,000 visitors in the three months since reopening. Here are the changes they made.

Biesbosch Museum by Studio Marco Vermeulen

Water Improvements

In response to water safety concerns, the area was turned into a water retention zone. The museum was converted into a manmade island with the removal of the surrounding land.

An extensive filtration eco-system (using willow trees) was created for sanitary wastewater, allowing the willow trees to absorb waste substances as nutrients and then discharge purified water into the adjacent wetland and river.

A key benefit of the improvements to water quality and flow is that it’s creating an opportunity for the return of salmon and sturgeon that disappeared over the last century due to water quality.

In your backyard, you can create a similar water ecosystem with fish, greenery and clean water.

Biesbosch Museum by Studio Marco Vermeulen

Cool Eco Friendly Features

Perhaps one of the most attractive features of the renovation is the grass and herb covered roof. This was built in a lookout area and path across the top that leads to trails.

Studio Marco Vermeulen described this feature as “a sculptural object that reads as land art and, at the same time, manifests itself in the surrounding landscape.”

If energy conservation is important to your family, you can include some of these same elements in your next project. Examples include heat resistant glass, a grass roof that serves as insulation, and pipes in the floors for heating with a biomass stove and cooling with water from the surrounding river.

Biesbosch Museum by Studio Marco Vermeulen

The Biesbosch Experience

The ‘Biesbosch experience’ will be realized with the final implementation of museum updates in the spring of 2016. They will offer a scale model of the Biesbosch that will give visitors a hands-on look at the water management cycle, allowing them to experience changing water levels and to manually change the course of the water through various locks.

The Museum Island, as it’s called, will also open a freshwater tidal park. It will get its water from a newly dug creek which will produce a rich ever-changing variety of flora and fauna due to continuously changing water levels. Visitors will be able to experience the difference on every visit by strolling through the path that provides access throughout the island.

Biesbosch Museum by Studio Marco Vermeulen

If you want to see more interesting environmentally friendly projects from Studio Marco Vermeulen, check out their website.

See More Designers:

• Designer Review: Dallas Interior Designer Emily Johnston Larkin at EJ Interiors
• Chip and Joanna Gaines: Two Hearts, One Design
• Designer Review: David Bromstad

The post Designer Review: Holland Based Studio Marco Vermeulen appeared first on Passion for Home - Bestlaminate Blog.

Designing a Functional Home Gym With Style

It’s officially a new year and that means it’s time to make good on your New Year’s Resolutions!

One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is good health. If you’re eager to get in shape, a home gym might be a great place to start. It’s convenient, private and it serves as a constant reminder of your goal to get in shape.

While it might seem overwhelming and expensive at first, creating a home gym does not have to break the bank. It can be as small as a few pieces of equipment or as decked out as a full garage setup. To help you get started, here are a few tips to consider.

Location, Location, Location 

The first decision when creating a home gym is to decide where to put it. Depending on the extent of equipment and type of workouts you plan to do, you might be able to repurpose a corner in an office or a family room. If you’re planning on bigger workouts, you might need to use a spare bedroom or the garage.

Industrial Home Gym by Edina General Contractors John Kraemer & Sons

Functional 

A home gym does not need bulky or fancy equipment to make it functional and effective. Determine what type of workouts you’ll be doing and then research the type of equipment you need.

Keep in mind you don’t need to purchase all equipment up front. You can save and build your home gym over time. For now, start with the basic equipment. This can be as simple as a workout mat or weights.

Besides equipment, flooring is important for a home gym. Laminate flooring is a better option than carpet, which can absorb sweat and wear out more quickly. But be sure you don’t put your weights directly on the floor! Use a rubber mat to protect yourself and your new flooring.

Traditional Home Gym by Lake Mary Design-Build Firms Dave Brewer Homes

Organization Solutions

One key to sticking with your resolution and using your new home gym is storage and organization – especially if it’s a shared space. Here are a few organization ideas to get you started:

• Wall hanging hook to hang workout bands and towels.
• Metal or wicker basket for storing workout mats.
• Chalkboard or white board to keep track of workouts.
• Drawers (plastic or wooden cubby type) for storing weights and other smaller equipment.

Contemporary Home Gym by South East Doors Strada London

Style It

Just because it’s a gym space does not mean it needs to be a sterile cold environment. Since this will be YOUR workout space you can make it as simple or as stylish as you want. You can make it funky and high energy with vibrant colors to get you pumped or go with silver or neutrals to make it your Zen place.

You also might consider adding an attractive wall hanging mirror that can serve two purposes: one to let you check your form during your workout and two to open up the space by giving the illusion that its bigger.

Contemporary Home Gym by Long Beach Architects & Building Designers Kollin Altomare Architects

Personal Touches

Last, but not least make sure to add personal touches to your home gym. This will help make it a space that inspires you to get your work out in.

For example, add motivational quotes or pictures that inspire you. If your children are your biggest motivator to get in (or stay in) shape then hang their smiling faces on the walls to cheer you on during every workout.

Traditional Home Gym by Easton Interior Designers & Decorators Sara Hopkins

Want more decorating tips like this? Sign up for our newsletter.

Design More:

• 10 Quick DIY Home Remodeling Projects to Transform Your Home
• DIY Kitchen Remodel: Money Saving Tips You’ll Be Glad You Had
• 5 Bathroom Remodeling Ideas You’ll Swoon Over

The post Designing a Functional Home Gym With Style appeared first on Passion for Home - Bestlaminate Blog.

New Year Resolutions – With a New Year Comes a New You

With a New Year comes a new you!  Now is the time to make all of those changes that you have been thinking about. Maybe you want to join a gym, eat healthier, or just be a better person.  The first step is realizing the fact that you want to be a new you in the New Year.

Now that you have realized you want to make some positive lifestyle changes in the new year, it’s time to commit. Oh yes, that dreaded word commitment! Make a commitment to yourself, your spouse, or a really good friend. This way you have someone to hold you accountable.

Exercise

So you want to join a gym, sounds pretty simple right? Well, the first thing you need to think about is when you will fit exercise into your schedule. Many gyms are now open 24/7, which simply leaves no excuse for you to say, “There is no time in the day that I can go to the gym.” Check out their rates and keep in mind, many gyms have great specials to kick off the New Year. They recognize the fact that many people are looking for a change once the New Year rolls around.

If going to the gym isn’t your thing, purchase some dumbbells and take up running outdoors. You don’t need big fancy equipment to get into shape. With the evolution of TV workouts and Youtube, you can bust a move in your own living room and get fit doing it!

Mediterranean Home Gym by Littleton Home Builders Celebrity Communities

Eating Better

Eating healthier can be easier than you think. There are many small things you can do to make the process become part of your routine:

• Plan meals ahead
• Batch cook your favorite foods and stick them in the freezer for your own microwave meals
• Make a grocery list and stick to it
• Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach
• Don’t deprive yourself of the things you love
• Remember that food is what helps your body function properly. Food is not evil. Calories are not bad. Food is what keeps you living – plain and simple.
• Make healthier swaps in your favorite recipes (example: plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream)
• Ask for help – There are online communities such as CalorieCount and MyFitnessPal which allow you to connect with people to share experiences and get tips from people struggling with the same problems as you.

Rustic Kitchen by Malibu Interior Designers & Decorators Shannon Ggem ASID

Volunteering

Being a better person is something many of us want to achieve. Volunteering is a selfless way to give back to your community and to other people. Check out the local newspaper or turn to the internet to see where your talents and time can be used to help those around you. Pick something that you can feel passionate about. If you love animals, see if the local Human Society needs help. If you care about children, see if there is a youth program that needs volunteers. You can also go to local retirement homes, or even a hospice center, to see if they need someone to keep the elderly company. The possibilities are endless. Go out and do something that gives joy to others as well as yourself.

Contemporary Landscape by San Francisco Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Randy Thueme Design Inc. – Landscape Architecture

From exercising, to eating better, to being a better you, this year is going to be a happening year for you! Once you make the decision to lead a healthier lifestyle, you will begin to see many positive changes happening around you. Just remember that change doesn’t happen all at once. Be patient with yourself. You can have a New Year and a new you so long as you keep your goals in mind.

Learn More:

• Vegan BBQ Tacos with Cauliflower and Chickpeas
• Breathing for Better Health
• Stop Using These Excuses and Try Yoga [illustrated with GIFs]

*This post was updated from 2011 to give you a better reading experience and better tips on how to keep those New Year Resolutions!

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What We Have Planned For 2016!

Happy New Year! It’s that time of year when goal setting and New Year’s resolutions are high up on most people’s agenda. Whilst we don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions, we’re definitely big goal setters when it comes to renovating our home and this year is no different. It’s our way of keeping an... 

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