The Luxury of the Moon

A few posts were fluttering around twitter yesterday regarding the moon. One was a beautiful shot of one from my friend @maybellinete of the moon over a body or water. It occurred to me that I had not seen the moon in a while. Not intentionally, just hadn't stop to notice. Then another post from @CatherineGrison comes along about the Full Moon (last night) with a vlog from a Feng Shui practitioner in San Francisco touting the Yin properties of the moon (http://www.frenchshuicafe.com/). So I decided why not, I could use a bit more Yin. I went out early, around 9, and there was no moon to be seen. I thought that was strange. But it turns out the moon was not due to rise until 10pm. So I waited until 10:30 pm to go out and look for it. There was no doubt of it's location, as its glare forced its way through the trees. It turns out that the moon had a 97% illuminant last night (never knew they rated those things). I was absolutely beautiful, like a beacon and a mirror all at once. I had to stop and give thanks just for the beauty of it all. I watched it rise for quite a while, and yes even did the Feng Shui ritual. Why not? I was there, and like I said, felt like I could use some Yin. In case you missed it, here are some photos (and no, I'm not a professional, so excuse the lack of focus in a few) - Enjoy - ;)

Building Your Base: Floors

Last time, we talked about wood floors, today, it is tile's turn. Tile is probably the most universal material for your floor. You can choose any color and any size and put them in any pattern. Yet, the most readily used tile is the basic 12" tile. So many opportunities are lost when we only use a 12" tile, set on a straight pattern.

To begin with, there are a lot of different types of tile, including: Natural Stone, Glass, Ceramic & Porcelain. They have varied price ranges, but for the most part, I prefer to use natural stone, glass and porcelain. I also try to select a tile that has a range of tile sizes available. And although not exclusively, I select a tile with a rectified edge (meaning a straight edge, no chips or chiseling). These tiles provide us with the greatest flexibility of use.

We are seeing many new products that give more texture, more modernism and interesting variations to the tile world. One of my favorite lines is Pietre/2 from Casa Dolce Casa (http://www.casadolcecasa/) This specific line is a great porcelain tile from Italy that is very consistent in color. We used this in a contemporary master bath for a few reasons. We wanted to create a slab look to the floor and the shower walls to help expand the visual space of the room. The rectified edge also allowed us to get tight grout joints, furthering this effect.

Patterning is probably the next most important aspect to tile. How you treat your floors can help accent good architecture or even reduce distractions. Every choice we make should be based in supporting the overall interior.

For instance, here is an outdoor veranda area that is very long across the backside of the home. By choosing this pattern, we created larger groupings out of 3 differently sized tiles. Another reason we chose this pattern was to provide additional slip resistance to the surface as this area is prone to being wet. Granted slate is not as bad as a polished tile, but the smaller tiles help provide a greater surface area.

It is imperative to choose a tile that is appropriately sized for your room. A 12" or 13" tile in a room that is 15' x 17' is probably undersized and just as awkward as an 18" tile in a 3' x 6' powder bath.

If your unsure of ideas, stop by a Dal-Tile, Master Tile or American Tile showroom near you. These showrooms don't sell to the public, but are available as a resource to you for ideas and products. Additionally, Dal-Tile's website (http://www.daltile.com/) is very searchable for products.

That's it for the basics, next time we will talk about decorative and accent tiles.

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/).

Building Your Base: Walls

Building your base is a key component to developing a successful interior. There are 5 different elements to your base - Walls, Ceilings, Floor, Lighting, Architectural Detail. That seems simple enough, right? But there are many choices to make for theses 5 areas. They all relate to the structure of your room or home and when done right, your home will have "good bones".

Unless you have built your home and made selections along the way, you probably have a blank canvas. But some of the elements you are going to feel are unchangeable. But a lot of the elements are just waiting to be transformed. The first and most important step is moving past the builder tan walls. With a few exceptions, this color does nothing for your home. I'm not even sure where the color came from. Even when choosing lighter neutral colors, I've never seen a designer willingly choose this color - yet every builder puts it on the walls.

There are many techniques that you can apply to your walls, you could paint, wallpaper or apply a faux finish. Most often though we are applying paint. The choice of paint can be a perplexing one. When choosing your paint, think of it as the background that should highlight everything else you put into the room. This is just one layer to your room. You also need to consider the mood or feeling of your room. Are you needing to concentrate in this room (warmer colors) or do you need to relax (cooler colors)? If you already have furnishings and drapery in the room - try not to choose a color that "matches" one of those elements. Instead look at the color opposites. If your home has reds or burgundy, try looking at a green based paint. If your home has blues, try looking at a more yellow or gold tone paint (like below). When your furnishings are more neutrally based, you really can have your pick.

There are a few steps that can ensure success when selecting paints. The first is to test, test and test. This is the step that most people want to skip. But here is the reason for testing. The quality of light in your home changes 8 times a day. With out testing, you'll never know if that yellow or green shifts to a less than desirable shade. If the thought of paint swatches all over your home is not appealing, then create sample boards. But they need to be larger, I think 2' x 2' is ideal. And there needs to be two coats of paint. The truest color will be when there are two coats. And unless you are simply refreshing the color on the wall - always plan on two coats.

And as for quality I would recommend at least a Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore Quality Paint. In the age of more awareness of toxins and chemicals, Health Magazine (http://www.health.com/) published this chart, in April 2008 issue, as a comparison of the different low VOC paints.