Building Your Base: Decorative Floors

Too many of today's homes are just simply plain, a little too vanilla. Either through fear of something different, or through the readiness of inexpensive materials, it just seems that almost every new home has the same non-descript tile laid straight with 12" or 13" tiles. But let me open your mind to the use of accent tiles.

The simple placement of an accent tile can add the interest and impact to any floor, especially key areas. To me, these areas include the foyer, entertainment areas and bathrooms. Each room needs to have a presence and the use of accent tile helps to create that presence, but it should still be simple and subtle. I believe in using accent tile as you would salt and pepper - at the right time and in the right amount.

These pictures are from a new home in Houston where we did the tile selections and designs, the project included the Kitchen/Utility areas and 5 -1/2 baths. Each bathroom utilizes specialty tiles in various applications and relates to the overall interior design of the home. Let's take a look - in the Master Bedroom, we used a antiqued Spanish Gold tile, with a honey-onyx in a fish scale pattern. This home is quite grand, so the Master Bath needed to be in line with the vision for the home. The slight contrast of materials with the green tones of the Spanish Gold and the yellow/golden tones of the onyx is very sophisticated.

This daughter's toile bedroom ensuite lent itself well to utilizing a fairly basic 6" matte glazed tile with a 2" gloss inset tile - reinforcing the black and white patterning of the toile. A dramatic look with a economic tile.

This bath was for the son of the family. We were concerned with allowing the bathroom to grow with the son's changing tastes. Here, the Jerusalem gold field tile borders the 2" tiles set on a bias. Notice that the tile in the threshold to the WC has been cut to reinforce the architecture, creating a stronger composition.

Another daughter's room had a bit of glamour to it. It was also one of the larger secondary bathrooms, so we had the ability to work a "rug" pattern, reinforcing the colors found in the granite selections. Again, the rug shape reinforces the basic shape of the room, helping to complete the interior.

Our last secondary bathroom we used a standard travertine tile. With an emphasis on patterning in this home, to walk away and leave this bath plain would not have made sense. Very simply, we created a bordered tile effect around 4 tiles. This accent tile comes on a 12" mesh sheet, so the tile setter merely had to cut the tile into strips and lay the strips in. As a note, using AutoCAD, we laid this pattern out several different ways, working the best possible layout for the entry axis, the axis side to side and the axis along the center of the toilet. Seem a bit crazy? I don't think so, ever notice a bad tile job where too main points don't align. I do, EVERY single on of them.

Don't be afraid to use accent tiles. These tiles are more expensive but you use so few of them that the benefit will out weight the cost. It is also important that while regular tile is often stocked, accent tile is often a special order and could take 4-6 weeks to be delivered.

Building Your Base: Floors

When most people think about the structure of their home, they think about their walls. But really your rooms have 6 surfaces, 4 walls, the ceiling and the floor. Everyone thinks about the walls, but people are the most unwilling to change anything about their floors. Truth be told, it can be messy, it can take time and it does require moving a considerable amount of furniture. But here is the other side of that truth - IT IS WORTH IT! The extra time and thought you put into your floors is one of the details that create a luxurious home.

WOOD FLOORS

I love wood floors. I love everything that you can do with the floors and how they are finished. I do not hold much love for laminate flooring, although it does have its purpose. To me, it just lacks the sound, heft and warmth of wood floors. Then there are the repair issues. I've actually come around to the use of engineered flooring and the benefits of a pre-finished floors. Remember the mess I was talking about, these products so greatly reduce the mess, it is quite amazing.

For a good amount of time, the "hand scraped" look has been very popular, but it seems to be shifting. When considering wood floors, take a look at bamboo. In the last year or so, the colorways available in bamboo have expanded to blonde, carbonized (honey) and even the ever popular dark brown. You can also get this product in a horizontal grain, where you have wider strips of bamboo and can see the bamboo knuckles; or a vertical grain, which has smaller strips engineered together. Take a look at what this looks like for a contemporary interior. There are some environmental advantages to using this material as well.

This photo is from Bamboo Hardwoods, Inc (http://www.bamboohardwoods.com/), but there are several suppliers and distributors out there.

Another idea for wood floors, especially existing ones, is to add a painted treatment to them. This room graced the Jan/Feb 2009 cover of Veranda (http://www.veranda.com/). The room, designed by Mary Douglas Drysdale, is very traditional in nature, but what drew me to the photo was the intricacy of the pattern and the subtlety in which is was executed. Such a technique could be done with paint, or even a slightly different tinted finish. Painted wood floors is nothing new, but we often think of it being used in more country or beach settings, but I think this technique can even be applied in more modern interiors as well. In my head, I can see a small/med/large stripe that adds the most subtle pattern and motion to the floor. But imagine the pattern as a Greek key, or modified trellis - really you could have too much fun with this.

The last thing to keep in mind is that wood floors don't have to be run straight. Pattern works just as well, parquet has been popular for a very long time. Just think of a new way to achieve the look. Even for a modern interior, imagine larger scale parquet.

Don't be afraid to use the details to set your house apart from others. If you plan on staying in your home a while, then the investment is one you will enjoy and will add value to your home in the future. For more information or fabulous ideas on what can be done to wood floors go to the National Wood Flooring Association (http://www.woodfloors.org/).

Defining Your Luxury

Welcome! Have you been in your home for a while, but it still isn't pulled together? Or maybe this is your first home and you find that you need it all. Where do you start? Or, what worked in your home 20 years ago just isn't making it into this century.

Then this posting is the first in a series meant to help you to bring luxury into your home. Please take a moment to follow us so that you will get our updates. I have work in this field for the past 7 years, after a career in marketing and advertising. I joined this profession because like many of you, I love to create beautiful homes for myself and my clients.



The subject of luxury is incredibly subjective person to person, for a mother of two, it maybe being able to escape to a air-jet tub at the end of the day. For another, it may be the feel of a leather chair while enjoying surround sound in the media room. As Americans, this century has brought more selection, more design focus and more choices of what to spend our money one, enabling us to bring luxury into our homes.

However, with more choices, most of us are a bit overwhelmed. Because not all items are created equally, it is hard to ensure that the money we spend on our home is spent wisely. That means by a quality project, that will last over the coming years. It is quite the task to compare products and quality at more that one store. So how do we bring it home?

The first, and perhaps the hardest step - Define what you find to be luxurious. According to the dictionary, luxury is defined as "indulgence in something that provides pleasure, satisfaction, or ease". Luxury transcends all types of styles. It implies a level of quality and is personal to you. But luxury is also in the details. It is how many of us can differentiate a Gucci purse from a knock off. It is also how when you know the tools, you can fool the eye and deflect attention away from a distraction.

Luxury also relates to the senses - the touch of Egyptian Cotton, the softness of chenille, the expertly framed artwork, the scent of a reed diffuser all add layers to your definition of luxury. Then the home entices the senses through sight, sound, smell or touch, it cements itself into your memory and the memory of your family. So is a walk-in shower with a rain head and body sprays your luxury? Or is the induction cook top that boils water in 90 seconds, leaving you more time to be with your family your luxury? How about entertainment - reading a novel, watching the latest movie releases in the comfort of your own home? Where do you and your family spend your time? What do you love? What do you not like? All of these answers factor into your definition.

Next Posting: Keeping It Simple