Archive for October, 2011

This week we enjoyed some pretty scary kitchen remodeling stories and tips from designers on how to avoid haunting your home. If you have a remodeling tip, please feel free to comment below. The last scary shot is of a shallow, small and unattractive sink from BLANCO Design Council member Susan Serra, CKD at www.thekitchendesigner.org. Help us Susan. What can we do about this scary sink!

Tip #5: Join beauty and function. Understated design.

According to Susan, “I mean, come on people – nostalgia is great and warm and fuzzy and all but, to a point, no? This lovely vintage sink/strainer ensemble has seen many hard (and depressing) working days at the sink, at least it looks like it! Buh bye – this kitchen is slated to change out to one designed for the 21st century. A modern, understated, sink design and faucet (yes, I do not think we will keep that faucet) is on tap to enable the chief cook and bottle washer to join together beauty AND function.”

According to designer Susan Serra, this scary sinks needs to go buh bye.

A BLANCO SILGRANIT SINK and Quadris Faucet featured in a Susan Serra designed Bornholm Kitchen island.

Scary remodeling story #4! This week is all about avoiding scary remodeling situations with good planning and advice from qualified design professionals. The BLANCO Design Council offers tips to help you sail through remodeling season without a fright.
This tip is from Cheryl Kees Clendenon of In Detail Interiors.

Tip #4: When you use a qualified designer, you can avoid layout nightmares.

According to Cheryl, “Here is a before and after of a kitchen I did for a returning client (was selling this house so he hired me to cute up whole house to try and sell) and the kitchen is horrendous as you can see. Scary: dishwasher a couple miles away from sink so you can drip all over your floor loading dishes….in the way of cook at the range…and the list goes on…..really poor layout. We barely had room but we were able to put it to the left side of sink and this allows a great working space in the corner! And yes, it is a Blanco sink…fancy that! I do not think we have used a non BLANCO sink in several years!!”

This is scary. A dishwasher miles from the sink. AGGGG!

New BLANCO sink and faucet - right next to the dishwasher. No more nightmares.

Scary remodeling story #3! This week is all about avoiding scary remodeling situations with good planning and advice from qualified design professionals. The BLANCO Design Council offers tips to help you sail through remodeling season without a fright.
This tip is from Gloria Graham, AKBD of www.kitchensforliving.net.

Tip #3: TWO WRONGS DON””””T MAKE A RIGHT!
“These two bulbous drawer cabinets were a creative effort to look cool and have great big deep drawers,” states Gloria.  “Instead they looked out of place and infringed upon the walkway between the island and the cooktop.  Eventually those big drawers began to sag too.  Here is our redo.  Sometimes simple is best.  We still have ample drawer storage as well as ample space between island and cooking area. There is even a drawer cut around the plumbing under the sink!”

Scary Kitchen Seeks Designer. HELP!!

Less is more in this beautiful "after" shot.

Scary remodeling story #2! This week is all about avoiding scary remodeling situations with good planning and advice from qualified design professionals. The BLANCO Design Council offers tips to help you sail through remodeling season without a fright.

This tip is from Vicki Payne, CEO/Producer of For Your Home.

Tip #2: Be prepared for hazards you cannot see.

According to Vicki, “The kitchen we just completed on FYH had lots of issues including lead and asbestos. But the scariest was what we found in the wall….mice.  You have to not only be a designer, contractor and magician to turn a kitchen from this into this…sometimes you also have to be an exterminator!”

The kitchen features a beautiful BLANCO faucet and sink. Tip 2+: Designers never skimp on the sink and faucet. The reason? The counter surface is always more expensive than the sink. Do not be tempted by free or cheap sinks. Once the counter is cut – it is more expensive to replace than that cheap sink that might rust out over time. Spend a little more on a quality sink and faucet! It is the most used appliance in your kitchen – and worth every cent.

Before Kitchen

Scary - behind the scenes.

A good sink and faucet like these from BLANCO can avoid scary situations later on.

Vicki Payne posing in the newly remodeled - and not at all scary kitchen.

It is that SCARY time of year. And we are not just talking about Halloween. Fall is a time when we hope to get those remodeling jobs done in time for holiday entertaining and guests. Remodeling horror stories unfortunately are all too common – but they are preventable with good planning and a little help from qualified design professionals. This week, our BLANCO Design Council members offer us priceless tips to avoid scary situations when remodeling. If you have a great remodeling tip, please feel free to comment below.

Remodeling Tip #1: Cardboard Mock Ups help Fine Tune the Final Design

Leslie Clagett of KB Culture tells us to make a life size mock up in cardboard before you approve something that is custom or unique. Here is a photo of her full-scale cabinet mock-up. According to Leslie, “If you are going to do something that is really different from the existing condition, it is a good idea to live with a cardboard or plywood model so you can fine-tune the final design.”

This cardboard mock up helped Leslie Clagett fine tune her kitchen design.

BLANCO appoints talented kitchen and bath designer Nick Lovelady to the BLANCO Design Council. The panel of elite bloggers and residential designers serves as an industry design forum and influential resource for homeowners with makeover aspirations. Through their network of blogs, including BLANCO’s www.blancobydesign.com, the Design Council provides the latest updates in products news, support tools and inspirational ideas.

“We are very excited to welcome Nick Lovelady to the BLANCO Design Council,” states Christy Emens, marketing communications manager for BLANCO. “Nick will bring a great deal of value and insight to the Design Council on many levels given his depth of industry experience, knowledge and social media influence.”

Hailing from a family of well-known southern cabinet designers in central Alabama, Lovelady helps run the family owned business Cupboards Kitchen & Bath, a popular retail cabinetry company with high style and southern flair that has been around for years.  Using a no-nonsense approach to design, the highly regarded designer has become an invaluable resource over the years to many of his clients, customers and friends. His passion for residential design can be attributed to constant involvement in his parents’ home projects while growing up in Alabama.

In addition, the progressive cabinet guru maintains a strong and loyal following for his blog The Cupboards Blog, which brings readers daily inspiration about kitchens, bathrooms and gives professional tips for homeowners remodeling their homes. When Lovelady is not helping to design cabinets, he enjoys tailgating on football Sundays and riding his Harley in his spare time.

The BLANCO Design Council is an elite group of professional design bloggers that offer valuable and in-depth insights into the world of kitchen and home renovation.

BLANCO launches a new Color App for iPhone, iPad and Android that helps designers and homeowners match on trend BLANCO SILGRANIT II kitchen sinks with popular countertops. The intuitive dashboard makes it fun and easy to find the perfect sink and counter combination with a selection of 63 different BLANCO SILGRANIT II color sinks and 26 popular counterstones including manmade, CaesarStone and Zodiaq designs. Users may enhance the collection by taking a photo of any counter and adding it to the App. The selected sink and counter combinations appear together as they would in a real kitchen and may be saved to a Favorites Folder to share or come back to later. The free BLANCO SILGRANIT II Color App is available for download on iTunes (iPad), iTunes (iPhone) and Android Market.

“The BLANCO SILGRANIT II Color App is really a passkey to creating exciting sink and countertop combinations in just seconds,” states Tim Maicher, Director of Marketing for BLANCO. “Nowhere else can you imagine your sink and faucet design and actually see it. This is an indispensible, free tool for design professionals and tech savvy homeowners craving inspirational kitchen ideas,” continues Maicher. For more mobile kitchen design ideas, homeowners and designers should also look for BLANCO/House Beautiful’s 500+ Favorite Paint Colors available on iTunes (iPad). “Homeowners and designers are so often asked to make important color decisions when outside the home. These unique BLANCO Apps help put the pieces together – especially when you can immediately take a photograph of a sample and coordinate it with other elements right on your phone or tablet device,” concludes Maicher.

BLANCO SILGRANIT II Color App Details:

-       Easy and intuitive iPhone/iPad/Android App lets user mix and match BLANCO SILGRANIT II color sinks with countertops to find the perfect match

-       9 different styles of SILGRANIT II sinks in 7 different color variations

-       26 colorful countertop choices

-       Ability to search by sink or counter to start

-       Ability to photograph a counter and add it to the App (for devices with cameras)

-       Users can store designs in a Favorites folder to share or save for later

-       The Store Locator function allows users to locate where to purchase a BLANCO sink by simply entering their home zip code and connecting with a retail outlet where BLANCO products are available

-       Users may also connect with www.blancoamerica.com to learn more about their selected sink options

-       Available free on iTunes (iPhone), iTunes (iPad) or Android Market

The BLANCO CULINA™ Semi-Professional faucet is up for a Best of Year Award from Interior Design Magazine!

Vote today for your favorite design elements – and ours! Voting ends October 10th. Here is the link to vote now: http://www.interiordesign.net. CULINA is listed under Kitchen Fittings/Fixtures.

Thank you as always for your interest in BLANCO and we hope to bring home another Best of Year Winner!!