Delta revisits a classic

In the 1950s, the Delta Faucet Company introduced the first single-handle kitchen faucet. Back then, it was called simply The Delta Faucet. For a long time, this is what a kitchen faucet looked like. Times changed and tastes changed and Delta introduced a wide collection of other styles. They remained true to their roots and the original, single-handle Delta faucet never went out of production.

I grew up in a rambling old house in rural Pennsylvania. The kitchen in that house had been updated at some point in the 1950s and when I arrived in the 1960s, that same kitchen was still feeding our family and serving as our central gathering spot. I'm fortunate to have a lot of photos from those years and when I look back through those old black and whites a lot of them were taken in that old kitchen. From the background of some of those photos, I can see that we had a Delta single-handle faucet. We were hardly unique in our faucet choice. The Delta single-handle delivered tap water to a generation.

Well, rather than retiring the Delta single-handle, it's now called The Classic and Delta just announced The Classic's first redesign in its more than 50-year history.

Here's what The Classic looked like in the last model year.

That kitchen faucet has been in more apartments where I've lived over the years than I can count. And why not? It worked, it lasted a long time and it was an inexpensive faucet.

Here's what it looks like now.

Wow. The suggested retail price on that faucet is $133.50 but I found it for less than $90 on a number of plumbing websites. Double wow. You know, if you showed me that faucet and told me that it cost $400, I'd probably say something like, "Hey, that has really nice lines..." I'm telling you, that price point is proof that low budgets don't have to mean ugly outcomes. That Classic is an attractive fixture for any price point. What makes it beyond attractive is that The Classic is a value proposition all around. Check out the entire Classic collection on Delta's website.

Delta's update of The Classic isn't purely cosmetic, the lion's share of the development of this faucet is inside, where you can't see it. Delta threw out everything about how a faucet is supposed to work and re-imagined it from the ground up. The original single-handle had a then-revolutionary ball valve inside of it. It was an industry first that became an industry standard.

Well, Delta's making industry history again with the development of their Diamond™ Seal Technology. The Diamond™ Seal valve is leak proof, lead-free and will last ten times longer than the valve it's replacing. Here's a video that explains Diamond™ Seal Technology.





All in all it's a real winner and it's emblematic of the incredible things Delta Faucet has been up to in the last few years. Seriously, spend a little time on their website and see what Delta can do. Oh and fans of mid-century nostalgia will be happy to know that the ball handle is still available.

Silestone adds life

I was at my favorite counter top fabricator yesterday. Finding an interesting stone to use in a bath project I have cooking. I found the stone I was after, and then went into my rep Kelly's office to review some of the other projects I have in the works right now. While I was in there, I came across some Silestone samples in colors I'd never seen before.

At some point over the summer, Silestone introduced a six-color palette they're calling Life. I was really taken aback by them. I never think of Silestone when I'm thinking about edgy colors for a counter. Although I'm sure I will now. Kelly very diplomatically referred to the Life series as very "taste specific" and they are definitely that. I think it's interesting that in a time of a dramatic downturn in the housing and renovation industries, Consentino (the parent company of Silestone) decided to go wild with color instead of the expected darks and neutrals. Well bully for them. So without further ado, here they are:

Fun

Vital

Cool

Enjoy

Dream

Energy

So what do you think? Would you ever use any of these colors for a counter in your home?

When Franki met Thomas O'Brien

Franki Durbin, from Life in a Venti Cup, wrote yesterday of a dinner she shared with a couple of top-notch designers while she was in High Point last week. One of those top-notch was Thomas O'Brien. Well, Franki envied my spot at Fashion Week back in December, but yesterday was my day to envy Franki.

A Barbara Barry mash up

The first designer on the contemporary scene whose aesthetic I really fell for was Barbara Barry. She brought about a simple glamor and I'm convinced her furniture designs played a huge role in a renewed appreciation of mid-century modernism. There's a furniture store in my part of the world with a Barbara Barry showroom in it. When I walk into that showroom, it's as if I've walked into Lisa Douglas' Park Avenue apartment. It's at the same moment that I start thinking about Lisa Douglas that I start to realize that maybe Barbara Barry's not for me, lovely though it is. I'd never turn down a Barbara Barry chair, mind you but when it comes to furnishing my own living room, Lisa Douglas is not the image I'd like to project.

Well that's where Thomas O'Brien comes in. O'Brien refers to his aesthetic as Warm Modern and I can't disagree. He invokes a lot of the icons of modernism in his furniture and furnishings, and he does in a studied and orderly way. I think it's his studied orderliness that appeals to me. It's almost as if he took a thread also followed by Ms. Barry and butched it up a little and came up with something that's wonderfully, uniquely his. Franki titled her blog post about her meeting with him Thomas O'Brien: The Thinking Man's Designer and it's the perfect descriptor. Under all of that seemingly effortless design flows a sea of planning and thought.

It's beautiful, all of it. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I would put in other peoples' homes. In order to do that, a lot of times I ask myself "If this were my home, what would I do here?" But I never stand in my own living room and ask myself that same question. When I get around to it for real, part of that answer is scattered around this post. Without all of the clutter of course.

This small space is brought to you by Houzz

I found a terrific new website for design inspiration and like just about everything I find these days, I found them through Twitter. Houzz is home to 15,000 design photos and what's cool is you can save any of those photos in your own idea book on the site. It's sort of like an electronic clip file. Houzz calls them idea books.

The photos are credited to the designers who created the rooms so from whatever idea book you assemble, you can always tell who designed the room you admire.

Houzz goes through their collection and assembles idea books in advance too. There are idea books that contain only images of small kitchens for example. There are also idea books for color and pattern, or green architecture, or landscaping. Their collection is always growing, and it's a terrific place to go to find inspiration for your next project.

There was a project by Bosworth Hoedemaker in Seattle on Houzz last week and it really got my pulse going. I love older homes and I love clean designs. Bosworth Hoedemaker renovated a kitchen and bathroom in a Mt. Baker bungalow and the results are everything I try to have my designs be. These two renovated rooms honor the architecture of the house in the sense that they use it as a starting point to construct modern spaces. Despite the modern twist on the final designs, they never lose sight of the structure they're surrounded by, nor do they add anything that doesn't belong.

Here's the slide show from Houzz:






This kitchen is perfect.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

The sink wall is particularly beautiful. I love the windows and shelf in lieu of wall cabinets. The room is flooded with light and to me at any rate, it seems that standing at this sink and scrubbing pots would be a pleasure.

The side opposite is pretty slick too.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

Check out the great use of marble tile on the wall and the niche behind the range. It's clean, efficient and just beautiful. My only criticism is the Viking range. Why not just buy a Hummer and be done with it?

The bathroom is every bit as great as the kitchen though.

Bosworth Hoedemaker

This is a case study in how to make a small bath seem downright huge. Hats off the Bosworth Hoedemaker and to Houzz for bringing this great project to my attention.

Just doing what I do

LC Neill, Still River Studios

I wrote a post on 15 September and in it I told the story of a client who was panicking about a back splash that was being installed. She was regretting her decision to follow my suggestion and she had a melt down. It happens. Sometimes, people reach a breaking point and they can't handle any more renovation-related aggravation. I don't take it personally, and I see it as part of my job to walk people through episodes like that.

When I design a room, I see it as mine. It's my vision after all and since I'm responsible for it, I consider it to belong to me until it's completed. As the job progresses, I start letting it go and by the time I'm doing my final walk-through, I've let it go completely. That may sound odd, but that's the process I usually go through during the course of a renovation. I tend not to go back to see them after my clients have moved back in and settled their stuff into whatever it was that just got renovated. It's odd, I really lose interest in them as soon as they're not mine any more.

There are a handful of clients I've had over the years who have evolved into friends, but for the most part, I never hear from people again after I leave for the last time. That's OK too.

Anyhow, from time to time a client will reach across the distance I put between myself and their completed job. One such client was my hysterical homeowner from September 15th. I received this in the mail yesterday:

Dear Paul,

Thank you so much for my beautiful kitchen. I'm really enjoying everything in it. You wouldn't believe the people who've been in our home. My friends here ask if they can bring their friends or families over to see our kitchen. People from Pittsburgh, Ohio, New York and Canada have said it's absolutely beautiful. Most people said the design and cabinets are high end. My one friend said the back splash is to die for!!!

Thank you again,

I cannot tell you what a day brightener that was.