Designer Bootcamp: Google SketchUp for kitchen and bath design

On May 26th, the great gang from Igloo Studios is taking their show on the road and they're coming to Orlando to teach a kitchen and bath design-specific course in Google SketchUp. On their way to Orlando, they're stopping in St. Pete to pick up me so I can help to teach this seminar.

We've been working on this for quite a while and the curriculum for the Designer Bootcamp is both Google- and NKBA-endorsed. We're offering 18 hours of instruction and the time you spend at the bootcamp qualifies for CEUs and educational hours. If that weren't enough, Google's offering a $100 off coupon for all registrants and your paid tuition includes a 1-month subscription to the Go-To-School SketchUp training website.

We have designers flying in from all over the country and as an industry function, our class days will be broken up with showroom tours, appliance demonstrations and a cooking theater presentation. We'll even feed you breakfast and lunch every day.

This is hands-on instruction with a heavy emphasis on practical uses for SketchUp and by the time the 28th runs around, you'll be a capable and confident user of a design tool that's revolutionized the way I do my job. To make matters even better, you'll be taught by Mike Tadros, the man who taught me most of what I know about this amazing software. Did I mention that I'm teaching this class too?

We'll be promoting this Bootcamp pretty heavily at KBIS next week and you can register through Igoo Sudios' website. Don't be left out!

Room and Board presents outdoor upholstered furniture.

This is Room and Board's new Brisbane collection. The Brisbane is upholstered furniture that's intended to be used outdoors.

Everything about the Brisbane's been designed with weather in mind. The frame is made from marine-grade laminated birch, the cushions are wrapped in a hydrophobic barrier and the fabrics are water resistant. The tailored slipcovers are made from either Sunbrella® or Outdura® fabric.

The slipcovers can be machine washed or just hosed off. Amazing. The stuff looks good too. I'll never look at a humble lawn chair the same way.

Weather-resistant though they are,  the furniture in the Brisbane collection should be covered or brought inside during winter or long periods of rain.

In a recent Ideas & Advice column on their website, they discussed this admittedly unscientific though still fascinating test of the Brisbane. Watch and wonder:





Check out the Brisbane and the rest of the cool stuff on Room and Board.

Lend Kelly a hand

My great friend Kelly Morrisseau is researching a new book and a new website she's launching this summer and Kelly needs your help.

Yes, this is for my book, but also for my new website coming this summer. (Didn’t know I was going to have a new website? Now you do. *grin*)

For those of you contemplating a kitchen and bath, I’ve got a couple of questions:

• If you’re just starting out, what do you want to know? What's overwhelming?
• For those already into the process, what do you wish you’d known at the beginning?
• For those of you who've finished, what do you wish you could tell your beginning self?

I’ve got a core go-to group that I’ve asked, and  now I want to ask you.  Some of their responses have been:

• Where do I start?
• Where can I get the most bang for my buck (and how do I compromise without damage?)
• How do I get past looks and hype to the reality?
• How do I get the Taj Mahal on a suburban budget?

Okay, I condensed the last one from about 15 identical responses and gave it my own twist. I think that title’s going in my book, right along with a chapter called “Faucet Wedgies, and Other Plumbing Mistakes.”

Yeeeesss, I could have said something about how the restaurant-style sinks and faucets don’t always fit in a regular counter depth, but why? (If you think this is going to be a serious book, you might want to move along. I think we should have some amusement with our information, no?)

I’m finding my experience a hindrance: what I think everybody knows, they don’t. I’m too far along to see what you need.

I'm going to leave this at the top of my blog for the next few weeks. Help, please.

So please consider heading over to Kelly's blog, Kitchen Sync, and letting her know what you think. Thanks.

Brizo has a new ad campaign

Our friends at Brizo have a new ad campaign and I'm smitten. Tell me, who sells faucets this way? It's a brilliant campaign. It's beautiful, it invokes the feel of the brand and it makes me want to run out and buy a Brizo faucet. Kudos to the Young and Laramore Agency for another great campaign and kudos to Brizo for letting Young and Laramore do what they do best.

I'm back, almost

Sociologias

I am stranded in Orlando. Cars break sometimes and sometimes they do so at really inopportune times and places. This is one of those times. The mechanic will weigh in with his final determination in the morning so let's hope that I don't need to have a Kitchen and Residential Design Telethon to pay him. Ugh.