Decorative Air Grilles

How many of you have one these unsightly air grilles in your home? Just about everyone I imagine. These are always an issue in interiors because they are so visually intrusive in a space, especially when a dark color or finish is used on a wall. In new homes, architects and builders can locate supply and return air grilles in less conspicuous places as the home is designed (if they are sensitive to that), but in remodeling there's not much you can do with existing locations.

I'm so excited to be using these wonderful air grilles on a project now. From Patterncut, they come in a multitude of sizes and patterns. You can get them in oak, maple, or cherry, sanded ready to paint or stain, complete with screws. The patterns are laser cut and start at $30 a grille. They have louvers in a separate plate behind the grille, so you can adjust the direction of your air flow.

There are many more patterns to choose from, even round ones. Here's the adjustable louver plate that fits behind the grille.

The product below is from Worth Home Products. They make these lovely wood return air louvered grilles that are paintable so that they just disappear into the wall.

The typical ugly return air grille as seen in many of our homes.

Viola!

Here's how the filter fits behind the return air grille in the Patterncut product. Worth also has a place for a standard filter behind their louvers.

I love finding unique ways to solve problems on a job. I think these products are wonderful. No one wants to see an ugly plastic air grille right above a beautiful piece of art hanging on the wall.

patterncut.com

worthhomeproducts.com

If you have a design related question or need some advice on any aspect of interior design, e-mail me HERE. I might feature your question in a special Q and A blog post!

My New Office

My New Office!

We've been moving in since the end of February and are really settled in now and feeling quite at home in our new office space. We're located at 26202 Oak Ridge Drive in The Woodlands, one block west of the southbound feeder of I-45N, south of Woodlands Parkway and north of Sawdust Drive. It is convenient to the freeway and for running down to Houston and still very accessible to The Woodlands.

The exterior of our building! It's brand new and there are businesses still moving in. It's a nice group of people and we all love it here. I'm down on the first floor with all those nice windows running down the length of my space. It's very accessible for us, being on the first floor. We have ample, close parking and can zip in and out easily with samples and shopping bags all day long.

Here is the view looking down to the back of my space. I wanted a loft type look, nice and open, with lots of lay out surface and open storage. I got to design my space and they built it to suit, so it's a designer's dream.

Here you are looking up to the front of the space with the conference table in the front room. I have no closed offices, which is a nice way to let all the light in through the whole space.

This is my front reception/conference area. I used all creamy white to have a nice light backdrop for all our work. I love my floors, a special concrete finish that lets me roll my desk chair around my work space and is easy to keep clean.

Here's my sample area and a coffee bar. We have all the major fabric lines and are well stocked with all kinds of products and catalogs. Our clients love visiting us here for meetings and to work with us on their projects.

We love it here and know this was a great move for us!

Call us to stop by and have a look! 281-364-6633

Back to the Powder Bath

after

after

before

Here is another powder bath remodel that shows the personality of the homeowner. This client loves blue and has many shades of it throughout her home, however one was missing, this deep, rich indigo. Of course, the star here is the vessel sink. It was definitely the inspiration behind this design.

The white marble countertop and curved splash frame the sink and really set it off. The indigo walls are rich and bold and the faucet is unique and interesting. This bathroom is a lovely surprise.


Linking to:
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Friday - At The Picket Fence

No More Pink Toilets!

No More Pink Toilets!

This powder bath had a color problem. Pink fixtures! Nothing dates a bathroom faster than colored plumbing fixtures. I almost always do white or bisquit, unless it is a special sink that makes a statement. Black toilets are particularly bad for me. Okay, I'm gagging right now.

In this powder room remodel, the color had to go and a neutral, classic style was put in it's place. The homeowner wanted the look of a beautiful, boutique hotel. We had a very tall, narrow space at the vanity and I chose to accent that by locating two sconces beside a slender mirror. The walls were painted a dark neutral and then the vanity, countertop, and wall behind the mirror were a contrasting light neutral. This served to highlight the tall, narrow, dramatic space. I pushed for the expense of having the marble tile all the way up the back of that wall, I felt it just gave a sense of quality we needed in there. Extending the countertop material up the wall again just emphasized the tall, narrow space and added a sense of drama and elegance.

Powder Rooms

Powder Rooms

I do lots of powder room remodels. It’s a smaller project and easy to include with a kitchen or master bath remodel. If you are going to have all those trades in your house, you might as well get this small room done while they’re around! I’ve only done one powder room as a separate project and it takes just as long to do as any other project because you go through the same process and same consecutive steps in construction. You might as well select the plumbing fixtures for the powder room while you are doing the master bath or the kitchen faucet.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be showing a few powder room remodels. Most are pretty simple. The basic rule for designing a powder room is to keep the focus on one element in the space. These are small rooms and too much going on will look busy and be unsettling. I like to have some wow factor in there, after all you have a captive audience in the powder room, you might as well make an impression.

The powder room before and after above is a dramatic change. This was an older house, with dated wallpaper and fixtures. The homeowner liked dark, rich colors and traditional style, kind of a Ralph Lauren look. We kept the base cabinet, painted, added a new remnant granite countertop with a vessel sink, changed out the wall sconces and mirror and got a brand new powder room! I think the wow here is the mirror and the vessel sink and sconces play a supporting role.