Ray’s Favorite Things for the Bathroom

Our designer Ray loves exploring the technical aspects needed to design a space that is functional for homeowners. Below, learn a few of Ray’s favorite things that will make life a little more enjoyable in the bathroom.

American Standard H2Option Toilet

Conserve water and save money with every flush. The American Standard H2Option Toilet is a wonderful investment to help the environment and cut back on your bills. Ray just installed the model in his own bathroom and loves it. You’ll also enjoy the two button actuator on top of the tank. With it, you have the ability to save water with the flexibility to choose between a 1.0 gallon flush or the standard 1.6 gallon flush.

Warmstone Radiant Floor Heating Mats

There is nothing better than stepping out of the shower onto nice warm tile. By installing radiant heat mats underneath your floors, you also eliminate radiators from taking up too much space.

Kohler Inset Medicine Cabinet

With elegant bronze detailing around its frame, this wall-mounted medicine cabinet features a reversible door that can be installed with a left or right hand hinge. You’ll enjoy the storage it provides and how at first glance it looks like a mirror hanging on the wall. Inside there are glass shelves and mirrors on the back of the door and cabinet which come in handy.

Heated Towel Bars

If you should spoil yourself with anything in the bathroom, it is a heated towel bar. It is definitely a worthwhile investment and keeps your towels nice and warm for when you’re ready to dry off.

Tile

As a durable material, tile is an attractive investment in any bathroom. The material looks more high end than painted walls. You can even use tile for the floor, such as marble, which Ray chose to pair with tumbled marble subway tiles for the walls. Another wonderful thing about tile, is that you can use the electric radiant floor heat under it.

-Laura

Paint Color Trends for 2012

With spring upon us, many homeowners will begin to make design changes to their homes. This could be anything from a complete kitchen makeover to updating your bathroom’s sink. Whatever renovations you consider, be sure to freshen up your space for the new season.

One simple way to update any room is to paint the walls a new color. By adding a coat of paint onto the walls of your living room, dining room, or bedroom, you instantly redefine your space. The Paint Quality Institute has established the palettes that will be most popular this year. Today’s paint hues are drawn from the American landscape and bring the colors of the great outdoors into your home interior.

Explore these three popular color options for your home that will brighten up any room.

Blue

Blue isn’t only the color of the sky, but a beautiful option suitable for living spaces. It’s a color that has grown in popularity since 2011. As a natural soothing color, there are a variety of shades to select. Consider a turquoise dining room or a dark, strong cobalt blue for your library or study.

Green

As a color of many vegetables and plants, green allows homeowners to bring the comfort feelings of the world outside into the world within. Green is a popular hue for spaces that are natural spots, like the kitchen or dining room. It’s also a great palette choice for family rooms and bedrooms.

Violet

With its harmonious feel, violet combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. The hue provides a luxurious ambience, and can even add vibrant energy into any room when used as an accent color. Violet is a wonderful choice that can be a dominant color in a bedroom.

Kitchen Design: Determining Your Kitchen’s Hook

Several years ago, there was a commercial for Kohler that had two homeowners ask a prestigious designer to build their home around a polished chrome faucet. I’m sure you have seen the ad before, but you can refresh your memory with the video below.

What I love about this ad, is how the designer is challenged to create a home around one single item. The ad also showcases how vital it is for homeowners to determine the hook in their home. And like the home, every great kitchen should have one unique element that pulls you in. The options are endless, and could be anything from a hood to a sink. If you are in need of a little inspiration, explore some of these eye-catching features.

Colorful Kitchen Tiles

Your kitchen backsplash is the perfect location to grab someone’s attention. Be creative and use a variety of colors and shapes.

Stainless Steel Appliances

Whether it’s a refrigerator, dual range oven, or double drawer dishwasher, showoff your shiny high-tech appliances with today’s latest features.

Decorative Light Fixtures

Introduce a beautiful chandelier above your kitchen island that lights the room with it’s decorative design. It’s a wonderful modern or classic option for your kitchen.

Wall Decor

Have a empty wall? Consider decorating the space with everyday objects, like picture frames, decorative plates, or floating shelves for extra storage.

Pop of Color

Bring the wow factor into the kitchen by diversifying your cabinetry’s color scheme around the island or stove top areas.

-Laura

The Modern Traditional Kitchen

When it comes to renovating a kitchen, some homeowners may be torn on which style to choose. Some enjoy a modern kitchen for its wide range of sexy and sleek elements. However, some homeowners prefer a traditional kitchen that can feel classic, cozy, and warm. Today, it has never been easier to blend modern and traditional looks to reinvent the heart of your home.

For more than a year, the “modern traditional” look has been on the rise. It generally incorporates two cabinet colors; often one is white and the other is either black or a dark rich wood. Many designers like to use sleek modern cabinets either in a flat slab door style or a simple recessed panel, and pair it with highly decorative mouldings or carved architectural elements.

You can continue to make this style work in your home through lighting. The lighting should revolve around neutral tones like silver metals, white shades, or hanging crystals. If you really want to bring personality into the kitchen, hang a giant traditional crystal chandelier over the island. You can then use other spaces to install geometric modern hanging pendants.

The main trick to designing a modern traditional kitchen is to keep the colors neutral in shades of white, black, and brown. The effect will be classic, chic, and sophisticated; and surprisingly comfortable and soothing considering two of the most different design styles will be combined in one space!

-Laura

Kitchen Renovations: Prioritizing What Matters to You

Let me just start off by saying thank you to everyone who visited CCW at the Great Northeast Home Show last weekend. As always, it’s a pleasure to meet homeowners and learn how they want to redesign their kitchens to fit their lifestyles and personalities.

During the Great Northeast Home Show, we enjoyed having our chief cabinet officer, Evan Levey, present a seminar on kitchen renovations. Evan is passionate about kitchen design and planning, and shared with homeowners the importance of identifying the components of a renovation, asking yourself a bunch of questions about each component and then prioritizing which components are most important to you. This will ultimately help you choose the trades best suited to work with you on your project. Overall, we were glad to hear that people found our seminar to be informative, and welcome you to read Evan’s presentation to gain insight into a successful renovation.

Kitchen Renovations: Prioritizing What Matters to You 

View more PowerPoint from Columbia CabinetWorks

If you’re in the Albany area, I welcome you to visit our main showroom on Route 4 in North Greenbush, and see how we can help you create your dream kitchen.

-Laura

Kitchens in Red

This Valentine’s Day made me reflect on the power the color red can bring to a home. As a designer, red is not the first color I may recommend for homeowners to consider in their kitchens. But today, we love how people want to express themselves throughout their home, especially in their kitchen. Depending on how you use it, red can add a sense of heat and interest to your kitchen design.

Red grabs our attention like no other color. It reminds us of love, desire, speed, and strength. As a versatile color, red can be elegant, nostalgic, trendy or retro. Red will make a statement in your kitchen, for sure. With a variety of design options, you can introduce the color into the heart of your home through custom cabinets, painted walls, or accented decors.

Installing red cabinets makes a huge statement in your kitchen. The color is powerful and fits well into modern decors. If you are designing a space that has a cozy, cottage feel, have a kitchen hutch customized with the eye-catching shade.

Today, kitchens are all about layering, and homeowners are wanting a wide variety of finishes to break up the room and add warmth. Consider adding a bold color to diversify your kitchen with a red kitchen island. The red will go well with a white and black color scheme.

Break up the traditional look of your kitchen with an accent wall. The red will draw attention to a particular section, such as a corner banquette or kitchen backsplash. Just be sure you choose a shade that will compliment the other walls.

Dare to be different and incorporate the enticing color into your countertop. I know we have some lovely options for red in quartz, granite, soapstone, corian, and glass CT.

-Laura

Designing Today’s Modern Kitchen

With a new year comes new design trends for the home. This year, homeowners are opting to renovate their kitchens with a more modern design than in years past. They are moving away from the traditional styles and designing unique spaces that fit their everyday lifestyles. For today’s hottest kitchens, consider these five trends to help you achieve a contemporary and functional design.

Glass Kitchen Cabinets

Move away from cabinet doors that hide what is in your cabinetry, and install frosted or stained glass doors. The design trend is perfect for above-the-counter cabinetry. It’s a beautiful look that opens up your kitchen and will display the items in your cabinets.

Vivid Colors

Neutrals continue to be popular, but consider adding a burst of color with either your dishes, a rug, or napkins. The pop of color delivers the perfect fresh and crisp look to a modern kitchen. If you’re brave enough, you can incorporate bold colors into your cabinetry and countertop.

Contemporary Kitchen Decor

Today’s modern kitchen design is all about simplicity and bright cheerful prints. You can even bring a new look to your kitchen with vivid wall paint or pair contemporary tiles for a backsplash. Adding a few open shelves either for display or for everyday use is appealing and modern. Small changes like cabinet handles that are more modern, or even hidden, are popular now.

Eco-friendly Devices

Save money and energy by installing a wide range of today’s top kitchen technologies in your home. It’s hard to not purchase an energy saving freezer-bottom refrigerator, water saving faucets and eco-friendly dishwashers.

Modern Kitchen Furniture

Blend the look of your kitchen and living room to create one open floor plan. This growing trend helps to elevate comfort in the kitchen. Today, the kitchen is no longer just a place to cook, but also to entertain, work and unwind. For smaller kitchens, consider adding a small sofa in a nook for watching TV, reading or homework.

Great Northeast Home Show 2012 Seminar

With the Great Northeast Home Show just one week away, we’re excited to announce that our very own chief cabinet officer, Evan Levey, will be presenting a seminar on kitchen renovations Saturday, February 11th at 12 PM. Evan will be discussing how to outline components of a kitchen renovation from timeline to budget, from environmental concerns to functionality. Attendees will gain an understanding on how the priority of these components play into critical decisions a homeowner needs to make throughout the renovation process.

We hope you all will attend CCW’s seminar on February 11, at 12PM, at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Home Show!

Evan Levey’s Bio

-Laura

The Beauty Behind Maple Cabinets

Cambridge Maple Cabinetry in a Vintage Finish

One of 2012′s hottest trends in kitchen design, maple is becoming an increasingly popular material choice for homeowners as they renovate their kitchens. Maple wood has been used for generations for its traditional and warm appearance. People are aware that cabinets can last a lifetime, so maple’s timelessness is important.

Heartwood Maple Cabinets in a Stain Finish

Maple is a versatile material, and looks great in a wide variety of decors. Whether you want your kitchen to be contemporary or traditional, maple can fit right in. It is also durable, especially in the kitchen where high temperatures and heavy moisture are a factor. When you choose maple for your kitchen cabinets, you’ll get a sturdy wood that can resist almost anything.

Sturbridge Cabinetry in Maple Wood with an Heirloom Finish

What I love most about maple wood is how flexible the color and stain options are for homeowners. With a little imagination, you can create natural, light maple kitchen cabinets, or maybe even the look of rich cherry.

With maple, you can truly create your dream kitchen.

-Laura

Should You Paint the Kitchen Cabinets?

Recently, our chief cabinet officer, Evan Levey, was advising some homeowners about a kitchen renovation. The homeowners felt the cost of new cabinetry was out of their budget and chose to look into other options. They were curious about painting their somewhat dated and tired wood cabinets. Evan advised them that, although it is a quick fix, painting your kitchen cabinets will not look right and can show more smudges and fingerprints than other finishes. The process involves a lot of work and expense to prep and paint the cabinets for a small result, especially if you hire a professional who must strip your cabinetry. Some homeowners opt to do the project themselves, but you run a risk of over-sanding or accidentally damaging your cabinets.

Evan and I both agree that painting your cabinets, whether by spray or brush, is a bad idea. And while paint can improve the look of your cabinets, it cannot hide all faults. Also, the paint will begin to chip over time and can lead to more upkeep than the average homeowner expects. One of the biggest reasons to not paint your cabinetry is that it can be a turn off for potential buyers. If you are trying to resell your home, it can diminish the overall value in the speed of a brush stroke.

If your cabinets are structurally sound and not to displeasing to the eye, we would recommend new countertop. Remember, once the countertop has been installed, you won’t want to change the cabinets anytime soon, so be sure they are structurally sound. You could also change the hardware on the cabinets. With a variety of wonderful countertop and hardware options, you can give your a kitchen an effective and beautiful makeover.

-Laura