More modern baths

I'm turning into the busy designer guy all of the sudden. Believe me when I tell you that this is a most welcome development. I don't want to put a hex on anything I have going on now, but I'm coming out of the worst two quarters of my career. Go figure, I did the least amount of business I can remember but the business I did do was the best I've ever produced. There's a lesson there somewhere and some day, not today, I'll go back and figure out what that lesson is.

But in the meantime, I have a lot of work to do. Woo hoo!

I presented another lavatory design as part of a much larger project the other day and I like the direction it's headed in. This is yet another modern design for a small-ish powder room. There's a separate water closet so the primary part of the room is a rectangle that's only three feet wide and six-and-a-half feet deep. Since it's a powder room there's no real need to store anything in there so I want to keep it as open as I can.

Here's the actual lavatory I'm specifying. It's the Block from LaCava. This lavatory will hang on the wall directly with a mirror right above it. I'm looking for an oval mirror about 30" wide and 18" tall. Anybody have a source? I've drawn the shape I want, now I just need to find one.

The wall behind the lavatory will be covered from floor to ceiling with either this glass mosaic,

or this one. Both patterns are from Mirage Glass Tiles in New York.

I know I want a translucent glass tile because I want to make this powder room feel larger than it is. Between the seriously pared down lavatory and the translucent glass on the wall, this room's going to feel like it's ten feet deep instead of six-and-a-half. The floors are going to be wide plank, clear maple. Again, my goal here is to be expansive and light while staying true to a contemporary aesthetic. I say I'm well on my way. Boy oh boy is it good to be busy.

Life's too short for cheap hardware

I had a conversation with a client about hardware yesterday. Hardware in the sense of cabinet knobs and pulls, door hardware's another animal all together. Anyhow, I told him that if he doesn't know what constitutes "good" hardware he shouldn't learn or he'll never look at a cabinet knob the same way again. I was joking of course, I think everyone should have an idea of why things cost what they do and what separates the good stuff from the dreck.

There is a world of difference between a dollar knob at Home Depot and $30 knob from me. There's more to it than the fact that I have a dog in this race too.

Good cabinet hardware comes from foundries where solid metals are turned into art. Not good cabinet hardware is cast in a cheap alloy and then plated in whatever the finish du jour is. Trust me, that dollar knob only looks like brass.

I'm fortunate to sell good hardware from Schaub and Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Schaub designs and sells some of what I say is the best hardware in the business. Schaub doesn't shy away from getting creative and they do some really amazing and unexpected things with shell inlays and semi-precious stones.

This Branches series is from their Symphony collection. They are not for everybody, but for the right person, nothing else will do. Schaub uses black pearls and crystals in these handles and knobs and they have to be seen to be believed.

This series, also from the Symphony collection, uses shell inlays in a nouveau Art Nouveau style I like.

Here's a continuation from the same collection.

And a little more shell inlay here. The crab knobs are my favorite. What a great idea to use pen shell inlays to form a crab shell. Those crabs are gorgeous and light-hearted at the same time.

When I'm looking at the offerings of a hardware supplier, the first thing I look for is whether or not they work with bronze. I'm no metallurgist, but as I understand it, bronze is a more difficult metal to work with. Like brass, it's an alloy of copper and zinc, but bronze is a more dense metal. For my money though, nothing looks or feels like it. It's also nearly impossible to produce cheaply. The presence of bronze in a hardware collection is an indicator of quality.

Bronze hardware is usually really rustic-looking but it needn't be. Schaub just rolled out a new collection of modern-ish bronze handles and I think I'm in love. Again.

This is the co-ordinated knob. Ahhhhhh.

Of course, Schaub does a really good job with truly modern and contemporary stuff too.

I searched for years to find a good hardware supplier and I settled on Schaub and Company about two years ago. For my money, nobody else had as well-rounded a range and though no one will ever accuse them of being cheap, their hardware packs a lot of value into their price point. This is hardware for the long haul.

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Let there be wood

Wood floors don't figure into my work very often, but that's a function of where I live more than anything. A traditionally-built, wood frame house in Florida has heart of pine floors. In what's called a Cracker House, wood floors were necessary because Cracker Houses never sit on the ground. Instead, the floor joists rest on pilings that raise the house a foot or so off the ground. That the floor joists span the distance between pilings means that this construction method calls for a flooring material with a lot of give.

Believe it or not, this house is not sitting on the ground.

Building homes on concrete slabs started to catch on in the 1950s. With the arrival of the slab, terrazzo, stone and ceramic tile floors became the default floors in this part of the world. So while folks in more northern climates were thinking of tile floors as exotic, people here were looking for something new. Enter the wood floor.

Wood floors figure into around 10 percent of my projects and when I get to specify a new one, it's a bit of a big deal. I've been trying to find the perfect floor for a project and I keep coming back to walnut. Walnut's my favorite hard wood and a walnut floor is a thing of such staggering beauty it makes me... it makes me... it makes me stagger.

The floors I'm specifying are to come from Carlisle Wide Plank Floors in Stoddard, New Hampshire. Their website is beautiful and all of their offerings are gorgeous, not just the walnut. Carlisle Wide Plank Floors were unknown to me until a week ago and what a find. If you want to look at some great inspiration photos of some beautiful floors, check out their site. Better yet, if you're in the market for a new floor, consider Carlisle.

Dust off your Capezios

Is nothing sacred?