feedback...

I would really love some feedback from anyone reading this blog.  I have received some really great comments regarding the material on these posts and I want to open this up to anyone reading this blog.  I have heard that keeping the post short is appreciated as I know we all have a very limited time to read for fun.  From now on I will be attempting to focus the subject matter of my posts.  There is so much to talk about, and the subject matter can be completely intertwined, that sometimes the material can loose it's focus.


Also, I would like to start profiling people's projects.  How you interpret this is really up to what you are looking for as a user of this blog.  Have you completed a project and want to highlight your achievements?  Do have a home project you have been thinking about and are looking for free professional advice?  Are you somewhere in-between?  Don't worry if it's a small project or a big one.  You would be amazed at how simple (and cheap) some of your home design solutions can be.



Please leave any suggestions you have for adjusting the content of this site to better suit your needs in the comments section below.  I would much rather discuss design ideas about specific projects than my general thoughts on design.  The work is so much more rewarding when there is a real outcome involved.  If you do have a project you would like me to highlight or provide advice on, again, please leave a comment below and I will get in touch with you personally.

Thanks for stopping by.


Cheers,
Levi

opportunity knocks, on your garage door...




Nice garage adaptation with glass garage door.

I recently posted about adaptive re-use and utilizing under used space in your home to increase the value of your home.  Continuing this theme, and about adapting (or renovating) your garage specifically, there should also remain a sense of beauty in your house.  If you have a view from your garage you should use it.  The connection to the outdoors in our homes is vital to the value of our home, but also vital to our personal well-being.

Your garage conversion lends itself to great opportunity.  It provides the possibility to connect to your environment because the opening that has been created there is a natural place for accessing a view or creating a physical connection to nature.  In this pre-made structural opening you have a chance to create a place, not just a space for storage.

Ok...you want ideas.  Keeping the garage door is a completely viable option.  Be careful about the ceiling space this will utilize.  You will notice that there aren't any lights above where the door retracts so if you keep the door lighting from the ceiling will be an issue.  The other issue about your standard garage door is they are minimally insulated.  You may have to add insulation to make an inviting space to hang out in.  Also, the tracks and motor are not the most attractive pieces of decor for your house.  A glass garage door can be an amazing addition that provides a view and allows for an operable wall (essentially) when the weather permits.  Again the same issues as above, but lighting will be less of issue and the temperature in the zone will be more of an issue.  The glass garage doors are not exceptionally warm zones in the winter.



Anybody got any large wheels laying around?

 Another option could be simply to add some windows and a door, or a sliding glass door.  The post "adapt, re-use, increase the value of your home..."  had pictures from a project that used two large doors with glass.  These provide operable openings, but don't have the ugly track and motor that go with a garage door.  Another amazing, more expensive option is NanaWall.  NanaWall is a system that you see in many high end residential projects (see picture below) because of the seamless transition that can be created from interior to exterior (whether the doors are open or closed).



The key is to remember that the reason you are adapting your garage is opportunity.  The opportunity to create a beautiful additional space in your home for fractions of the cost to add-on.  The added benefit of having a structurally ready-made opening to your home and to your budget can be breathtaking at most, but at the very least can add value to your home while increasing your livable space.



If you have a view like this from your garage, we need to have a talk.



adapt, re-use, and increase your home value...

For the most part the value of your home is based on a pretty simple formula.  The first factor is mostly out of our control; the supply and demand of the real estate market around you is not something you can control.  Now the good news.  One great way to add more value is to use more useable space.  One way to do this is through adaptive reuse. 

Adaptive re-use is a term that gets used in the architecture industry a lot.  In my mind it essentially means to take space that isn't being used to its full potential, or in some cases not at all, and re-purposing that space into usable square footage that will have value.  While the definition of this concept are intended for much broader purposes in architecutre, I like to think the concpet can be used in terms of personal property as well.

The most widely used example of this practice is turning your garage or basement into the ultimate "man cave".  Or, in my future wife's dream, a craft room.  A garage or basement is a great space to easily turn an expensive storage space into useable square footage that will increase the value of your home for a fraction of the cost to add-on to your house. {source}

bathroom tile is not for the faint of heart...

Uses shower tile as an accent wall.  Design Winner.

Ok, so my mom was asking about ideas for bathroom walls.  Really, in my experience, when it comes to bathrooms tile is the right solution.  Know you don't have to tile every square inch of the room and please stay away from a niche theme.  What I mean by that is don't make your bathroom a trend that can easily be outdated.  There are classic ideas about bathrom design that hold pretty much true through the last 100 years.  I think neutral colors are best.  Stay with really light colors.  White or light greys are good.  If you have a color scheme that is important you can pick subtle pastels (not my first choice but they can work) that are closer to white.  The reason you really want to stick with neutral colors and fairly light colors are that bathroom usually have very little access to natural daylight.  Unless you are awesome and have a totally spectacular skylight or you are lucky enough to live in the tropics and have and ocean view from the throne you typically don't have a lot of daylight coming into your bathroom.  Keeping the colors light not only make your bathroom feel brighter, but a light colored bathroom also feels cleaner.  Of course, if you're not a big fan of cleaning the bathroom then you may just want to paint everything black and move on.



Combines light tile with the warmth of wood



So...options.  Like I stated, tile is really the best option for most people.  It is fairly inexpensive and gives you a wide variety of finished and sizes.  Alternatives to tile are acrylic sheet coverings.  This is basically a plastic wall paper (not exactly, but you get the picture).  These do the trick.  They are easily cleaned, non-porous material, and can come pre-molded to include shelves, soap dishes, etc.  These work, but also look pretty cheap (it's what I have in my bathroom and I so no judgement here, right).  On the other end of the spectrum you have stone.  Beautiful variations in texture and color and natural modeling.  However, most of us can't afford that sort of luxury in our bathrooms.  It is fairly environmentally friendly because it's not a processed material, but often times the cost to ship marble from Italy can use up a lot of dead dinosaurs.  So we come back to tile.  The best options is to tile your shower walls (floors and ceiling are ok too) and then pick a logical point along the wall to stop the tile and transition to a painted drywall wall.  The floor is great if you can tile the whole floor, but that's not always what people want or what they can afford.  The one thing you should do is this.  Wood flooring can be ok in a bathroom (not the shower though) but you will have to transition from one material to the other.  Transitions in materials are always tricky (think of the change from carpet to kitchen floor material) especially when you want to prevent the penetration of water through the floor.  That is the key issue with any material you put in your bathroom.  You need a material that can be easily cleaned, can withstand the cleaning process, and resists water penetration (because nobody wants to step out of their bath and through the floor).  One other note, when using drywall in your bathroom (non-shower areas only) make sure you are using "greenboard".  This is essentially water resistant gypsum board.  There is also cement board you can use which is better and more water resistant, but also harder to handle and more expensive.  Alright, I hope this helps.  And mom, if you want me to design your guest bathroom for you I know a great place to buy plane tickets to Arizona. 

If you have specific questions about your bathroom or want some design ideas, leave a comment in the comments section and we can chat about your project.



Modern bathroom with black tile.



cut out the trim..."reveal" some modern design

Here is a simple design approach to giving your home a modern look.  Fry Reglets have been a designer's staple for making modern architectural expressions for years.  These simple pre-fabricated shapes for drywall  construction can help you create modern interior expressions.  A contemporary expression of interior walls is to create walls that appear to "float" inside the room.  You can create this floating effect by creating reveals at the bottom and top of the wall (you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the linked "pdf").  Where traditional home design would have you use base molding and crown molding to cover up the imperfect transition from wall to ceiling and wall to floor, a modern design aesthetic would have this be a shadow line (i.e. reveal or open space) rather than a built-up assembly like molding.

It may be a subtle effect, but in the picture you can see how the ceiling plane feels as if it is continuous and the walls seem to float between spaces.  This effect helps extend the feeling of an open plan and gives you a sense that the space you are in extends beyond the wall the separates the space.  By creating this "floating" expression you enhance the wall's presence as a planer object and make it appear not so much as a barrier, but more like something that is moveable or less permanent.  The great thing about this design approach is it is fairly easy to construct.  The one thing I would caution is that if you choose to go this route in your design you must commit.  This will have implications at doors and other openings so be prepared.  I can get into the specific solutions at doors in a later post.  As always if you have any questions about the concepts in this post leave a comment below.

What do you think?  Is this an aesthetic that appeals to you?  Is it to modern for your home?  Can this be implemented in a traditional home?  Where is it appropriate?  It certainly fits into its context on the picture above, but what about your house?  Why?


Cheers,
Levi

Get off the carpet! (carpet in the bathroom stinks)

Anybody else got that disco fever?

Ok folks.  Here is a post about a bad idea.  Whatever you do, please do not put carpet in your bathroom.  I know this may be obvious to most of you out there, but trust me, it happens more than it should.  There are plenty of opportunities for warmth and slip resistance in a bathroom setting other than carpet.  I don't care if you argue that it feels warm on your toes for your morning...ahem...routine.  You have to vacuum carpet correct?  You can't safely disinfect your carpet with bleach if you need to right?  Imagine, if you will, all the little things stuck between those fibers of carpet.  You wash your clothes when they get dirty don't you?  Your carpet in your bathroom is getting more...soiled...then your clothes are (I hope).  Now do me a favor and imagine trying to shove your bathroom carpet in your washer and dryer every week.  Sound like fun?

The issue here is really about mold, mildew, and bacteria.  Water is one of the biggest culprits to sick building syndrome.  Sick building syndrome is caused by many factors and can be the cause of many human health problems.  Viruses and mold can live in the fibrous materials in your bathroom carpet and carpet padding, and this can lead to health issues.  This is of particular issue in a bathroom where the bathroom environment is constantly exposed to moisture both in liquid and vapor states.  The carpet in your living room or bedroom isn't exposed to this persistent exposure to moisture (of course if it is you will have the same problems), and therefore mold isn't an issue in these areas.  So, for the sake of yourself, loved ones, and me if I ever come over for a beer, please don't put carpet in your bathrooms.  It just feels weird, and you might be exposing yourself to some nasty little presents.

Cheers,

 Levi

dont' sweat the small stuff (paint is easy)

Trust me, no one likes to paint, but when you consider what a new paint job does and how much it costs... it is well worth the price of admission.  I don't know how many times I've heard of people not buying a house, not like their living room, loose out on an investment because of finishes.  Ok folks, here is a secret.  Finishes are cheap (click the link to find a quick calculator for paint cost...assume $40 a gallon for good quality indoor latex paint).  Ok, not all finishes are cheap, but paint is cheap.  If you don't like the paint color, change it.  I promise you can do it.  Hell, if you want you can take the can of paint and throw it at the wall and you might have an amazing looking wall (think Jackson Pollock).  I'm not saying that everyone can afford granite counters, but I am saying that if you want the most impact for your dollar (and your interior needs it) a gallon of paint will go a long way.  

Here are two things to consider when painting a room. 

1) Light...I would say that most spaces feel better when they get enough (or more than enough depending on your taste) natural light.  Please don't paint your space black if you expect to get any light into the room.  The simple thing is this.  Dark colors soak up natural light.  An accent wall or an accent trim piece is perfect, but if you paint all your walls forest green you are in for a surprise.  It's called a cave in some parts of the country.  

2) Color...related to number one indeed.  Color can be scary.  It can be fun.  It can make or break a room.  This one is tricky so if you have any specific questions regarding color please ask in the comments.

Just remember, if you are renovating the house you own or looking at a house to buy.  You have to remember that paint is easy.  You can do it in a weekend.  Painting your living room will take some work, but it will have an enormous impact on the "place you live".  If you are just looking for a "space to die" then go ahead and leave it that 70's pea green color.  I'm sure your friends don't mind.