Hello again! I had another meeting this week with my design clients. Things are starting to move forward. They found a tile guy who did a GREAT job removing the damaged saltillo tiles as well as replacing cracked grout in between–it really looks great. Now kitchen and entry hall floors are done.
They found a wood floor they really like that is the dark stain I wanted for the great room and den. It has to be an engineered floor instead of solid hardwood because they have a concrete slab. That means it has to be glued instead of nailed–which requires engineered product. The floor is hickory which they were told (and tested) is very hard and scratch resistant. It’s about $4 a sq. ft. The standard way to estimate the cost of installing is to double the cost of the floor itself. For their 800 sq ft–total will be about $6500.
It was a great meeting. They had starting to get a little nervous about the overall layout inbetween meetings, so we took some time to review all the ideas and moved some things they already had around to show how the new layout will work. That really seemed to help. People are reluctant to move things sometimes, but when you are working with budget constraints it can help you decide where the new items will look best and how big they can be BEFORE you buy them. They have also decided not to have a desk in the new space. I’m all for that–the less that goes in to each area of the great room, the more open and spacious the whole room will feel. We’ll have a reading/loungs area by their big window with floating shelves that dispaly pictures and objects on that end’s short wall with their long thin table underneath to hold there favorite picture books. Then in the middle is the entertainment TV watching area. Instead of swivel chairs–the want to have a couple of classic modern lounge chairs–or at least knock-offs of them. The goal: to have chairs that are sculptural, architectural and beautiful from all sides–LOVE IT. They are starting to get into the process now–which means it’s getting even more fun than it was before.
On the far third of the room, we are keeping the tulip table, looking for comfy chairs–Crate and Barrel has some we love but they are $249 each and we want 10 of them, all the same, so they can move back and forth between the great room (for poker night) and dinner parties in the kitchen eating area. To much cash, so the search continues. Still haven’t found the dining table yet either, but we’ve narrowed our search. We want one that without leaves can be square (for Mah Jongg games) andthen add leaves for parties.
Also looked at paint colors. For the kitchen we want a warm color that enhances the lighter cabinets and complements the saltillo floor. Our favorite was a Martha Stewart color called toasted coconut, but it’s a little too dark for a room that faces north, so we’re going to continue the same non-pink, non-yellow, not-too-orange search. Man do I love those little paint sample bottles at Home Depot–at $2.94 each you really get a feel for how the color will look in the room without wasting money on quarts!
For the livingroom/great room we found a color we liked from my Sherwin Williams color deck–Kilim something–it’s a light, warm taupe. We want a neutral background in there with some contrast to the off white trim to show off all their artwork and simply warm up the room some because it is so large.
In the den, found a beautiful soft medium spring green which they haven’t decided upon–they like, but living with for a while.
Next steps: having the rooms professionally measured for the flooring AND having the walls of mirrors removed in the entry, around firplace and large wall in small den.
I actually have 42 comments from this series of blogs so far! Can’t tell you how much each of your comments mean to me–and not one negative one in the bunch (altho one was spam).
Thanks for reading
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