Client and Agenda

The client, a watercolour artist of Dutch descent, saw photos of our contemporary Landsend Project in a magazine, and asked us to assist her in the renovation of the kitchen, dining area and powder room in her Kitsilano home.

She was looking for a contemporary design, a calm and uplifting environment with casual seating for 2 people. Due to the radiant heat in the existing floor we tried to avoid more than necessary disruption of the concrete slab in regards to changes to plumbing or electrical work.

Creating a space concept

The existing footprint divided the space into a small U-shaped kitchen and a small nook with a bay window.

We created variations around the theme of an L-shaped perimeter, with an extension of lower cabinetry along the bay window wall, seating for 2, and an island. The shorter leg of the ‘L’ was the perfect location for the tall cabinetry, the window area along the long wall was perfect to be the clean up area, and the remainder of that outside wall was destined to be the right location for the stove and hoodfan, as this made venting the hood one easy task.

Although this seemed to be a rather straightforward concept it took us a while to settle on the right solution for the informal seating and the island design.

As is typical for our approach here at THE SKY IS THE LIMIT we played with a number of different approaches ( 6, to be precise), and ended up with a 7^th final version.

This final version sports a floating rectangular countertop that shoots out from the bay window, and a corresponding 4′x4′ island, which sits on metal furniture legs on a ’sea’ of white pebbles submerged in resin.

 Selection of finishes

Working with artists is always very rewarding. The way they express themselves in their artwork already gives a lot of clues about their preferences in terms of hues, texture and composition.

Claudia’s atmosperic naturalistic watercolours exude a sense of energetic calm, and seeing them I knew we would be looking at a combination of tone on tone materials and a mix of soft textures.

The energy of the space itself seemed to ask for light colours, but in the midst of my mix of materials that I brought on site in order to play with them together with the client, both of us felt the need for an energizing element. Playing upon the clients Dutch heritage we found this super-juicy high gloss mango foil, which we decided to integrate into the cabinet fronts amidst the quiet cream faux wood and textured white laminates we selected first.

My approach to space organization and millwork design seems to lend itself for a deliberate mix of finishes and materials – in most of my projects it is always fairly easy to suggest a combination of finishes, which in my opinion helps to achieve a balance both in colour and texture. I admit I am influenced by the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui when it comes to balancing ‘elements’, and although I am by no means an expert in this ancient art I refer to Feng Shui’s cycles of elements when combining finishes.

Granted, one could just go for one finish alone ( and –honestly– THAT is easy…), and I will certainly recommend that route should the overall ‘look’ require a more uniform feel. Depending on the size of a space this could however create an overly stark looking environment. This look is often sought out for features in high end contemporary design and architecture publications, but it might not satisfy the need for the nurturing home environment many of us are looking for in reality.

Where or how do you start with the selection of finishes?

Well, that ALWAYS differs, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this.

There will be a starting point somewhere – you might fall in love with a particular product, be that what it may – flooring, backsplash material, a certain type of wood, a funky laminate, an area rug, a piece of art… The list is endless.

In this case we started with the cabinet fronts, and once we had those it became clear that we were looking at a Cape Cod/ Beach inspired palette with a blend of soft tones like dried grass and sand, white pebbles and clouds, light grey stones and some very soft shades of green.

I happened to have a beautiful soft grey commercial vinyl in my stack of products, which had an elegant shimmer to it, while also being reminiscent of a well done concrete finish – it just turned out to be the perfect choice for the floor throughout the area, and I didn’t even have to look far. This product is very soft to stand on, which is important if you plan on doing more in your kitchen than making coffee and toast, and super easy to maintain.

I also had a little darling sample ( I have those – little treasures that I just keep around in case I ever find the right home for them) of small white pebbles submerged in resin with me. It’s a product from an Italian company which ‘buries’ all kinds of stuff in resin – tiny shells and starfish for shower pans for example, or coffeebeans, which would make a beautiful choice for – yeah, how creative – a coffeeshop countertop!

The client loved it as much as I did, so we decided that we could put the island on legs for a more airy furniture feel, and accentuate that space under the island with that product. That idea again led to the decision to use the mango foil on the island, together with a product, which was the original reason for the client choosing me as her designer – a 1” thick textured glass counter from Thinkglass. The client had called me up after having seen a kitchen of mine in a magazine, that featured one of Thinkglass’ spectacular products prominently.

This island is a truely poetic statement – it looks like it stands in a lake, with the stainless legs almost creating a wavelike effect due to their design.

The ‘Pebblo’ texture of the glass intensifies the imagery of water, and the reflection of the potlights above give this glass top a glowing, almost ethereal quality.

We installed LED lights underneath to accentuate the pebble floor, and one can get almost transfixed staring at the optional colourful lightshow.

And don’t forget to check out the reflection of the glass on the ceiling!

Interstyle’s Icestix glass tile blend, which we used as the backsplash, with it’s glossy, matte and iridescent mix plays up on this effect just beautifully – although it is a mosaic made up of simple rectangular tile sticks it creates an effect like waves, with the iridescence introducing and reinforcing a variety of soft colours.

As for the remainder of the cabinetry – once we decided on using the faux wood laminate for the long wall, and a textured white laminate for the tall units, I knew I wanted to ‘hinge’ those 2 areas together with the mango foil – that way the island was not a total stand-alone, but had a companion which tied it in.

Another sumptious element which contributes nicely to the mix is the Zebrawood veneer ( the real one, not the manmade substitute) on the floating tabletop. I had used this veneer on a previous project, and we happened to have several strips of the product left over, so it was a perfect coincidence thatwe could use the remainder for this project. I learned to love the subtle yet very determined grainlines in this beautiful natural product – it doesn’t look anywhere close as busy as its manmade substitute…

There is a challenge combining natural and fake wood products, but I for one am very satisfied with this particular outcome!

Another intriguing choice was the product for the interior door. First I questioned the need for a door, but the client felt that when she was practising one of her many instruments that there would be a need to close the door for privacy.

We decided to enlarge the door substantially heightwise to correspond with existing structural lines in the house, which also made that door more of an architectural statement instead of just a trhough-way.

Another one of my little treasures is a translucent panel product, that has Magnolia leaves laminated between 2 layers of resin. That product put into a frame of 2” wide stainless steel made for a sensual yet modern alternative to frosted or clear glass. Clear glass might have been a bit of a safety concern, and frosted glass is always more cool in effect, so I appreciated it very much to have such a narrative product available to me. It was such a subtle, welcome addition to the whole product scheme.

A more tricky question was the selection of handles – as soon as you introduce several finishes on cabinetry one has to consider that they will need different hardware as well. The problem with that is that those different handles need to work together stylistically- details like the same type of metal finish or the shapes of corners and edges need to be looked at closely.

Due to it’s contemporary flavor and the stainless steel accents throughout I wanted to find a collection in stainless steel, and believe it or not – there is not all that much out there right now.

In addition to that I needed to find a recessed handle for the island ( I didn;t have a countertop overhang on the glass…), that was easy to grab – a lot of those recessed handles have either too small an opening, or are too harsh on the edges and therefore not nice to the touch. Or – if you have long fingernails – you end up scraping either the doors, or breaking your nails or damaging the lacquer all the time…

Anyway – we did find a line from a European manufacturer, that not only gave me the selection I needed, but also featured a handle just along our theme – one with a wave design! We used that one for the long perimeter wall cabinetry, and I managed to find a long handlebar for the tall appliances including the fridge, as well as a useful recessed pull for the island – yeay! Happy me…

For the powder room we obviously had the vinyl floor as a guidance, and then – along the way – both the client and I really liked a companion of the mango foil – in a light seagreen, which was thematically corresponding, and perfect for its water-themed location. We combined it with a light birch laminate for the tall cabinetry hiding washer and dryer, topped it with a delightful white cement based product with green glass in it ( the product line is called Icestone), and added mother-of-pearl finished glass tile mosaic for the backsplash. 

You see – we were totally consistent with our beach theme! But it’s subtle and elegant, quite urbane if you wish.

The client was very delighted and commented on the fact that she has never experienced a contemporary environment that was at the same time so calm, tactile and visually rewarding.

COLOUR ME HAPPY!

But how…

One top priority topic for most clients is the choice of room colours – our clients, most of whom are involved in a larger scale project like building or renovating, often raise this issue way ahead of time. Most of the time it is the female member of a client-couple who is popping the

C-question, which could either mean that amidst the flurry of technical considerations and the often overwhelming task of decision-making about the nuts and bolts of their reno they simply want to start dreaming about the feel and look of their new home environment, or it could also be that females are more emotionally affected by the effects of colour ( or at least they are more conscientious about those effects on their psyche).

Guys usually get more of a kick out of the before mentioned technical considerations, and gladly leave the decorative stuff to the girls – a fact that comes in handy when having to mediate between partners…

It never seizes to amaze me that there are actually designers out there who feel comfortable to select room colours for a client without being IN the space. Yes, of course it is super easy for someone who is experienced with colours to make a nice paint selection at their desk on a sheet of white paper. No big deal for a professional, really, and easily earned money…

But I bet a lot of clients go home and find that they don’t like those choices once they are on the walls.

How could that be??

Guess what – rooms themselves have personalities, and just like you yourself are not comfortable wearing colours which don’t suit your personality, so does your room.

I am not being mystical about this, I am simply speaking from years of observing this phenomenon – it’s fascinating, but for a professional also humbling. When clients go through my selection method with me they might be at first a bit flustered by the length of time I take to figure out the right choice, but while being there with me they develop an eye and a sensibility for the process themselves, and subsequently feel empowered to make their own choice, as it takes the mystery out of picking colours.

It doesn’t matter if a client is looking for a rather monochromatic look or really enjoys a colourful look – my approach to selecting the right colour, shade and hue will always be the same.

Lets look at the make-up of a colour first:

It all starts with the pigment, or HUE – yellow, blue and red. Those are the so-called primary colours, out of which all other colours can be mixed. I am sure you have heard of the colour wheel (as conceived by Sir Isaac Newton), that shows how they are arranged, with the colours that result from mixing one with each other in between – yellow – orange – red- red/blue (purple) – blue – green. The more sophisticated the colour wheel, the more shades you have in between.

Opposing colours on this colour wheel create a so-called complementary contrast – the most well-known one might be red/green, blue/orange is another one for example.

At university we were shown an experiment: if you use 2 dia slides, each one being tinted in each others complementary contrasting colour, and you would overlay them on a white wall, they would result in white again, and if you mixed those colours together as paint they would (ideally) result in black – however, in real life experiments that never happens – a murky, muddy, rather dead looking brown is all you will get, but you do get the point… (for gardeners – the same thing happens when all those colourful flowers go back to rich, dark brown compost)

A simple homespun test to find the complementary colour is to concentrate your gaze on one particular colour for a few minutes, then look away onto a white surface – your eyes will show its complementary colour to help the nerves in your eye achieve balance again.

Those opposing colours can bring the best and also the worst out in each other, so it’s important to know about this phenomenon and make good use of it.

More about this a bit later…

SATURATION is the next defining factor – how much of that pigment is actually being used to achieve the colour – think pastel shades versus jewel tones…

And then there is the actual shade or LIGHTNESS – how much white or black pigment has been used to lighten or darken the pigment?

In university we did a whole lot of interesting hands-on colour experiments, based on colour theories by Bauhaus members like Johannes Itten and Josef Albers, who again developed Johann Wolfgang von Goethes colours theories from 1810 further. It was fascinating training, and helps to develop colour sensitivity, but you don’t have to worry – you really don’t have to go that far to find YOUR very own colours!

It is indeed much easier than you might think…

I would suggest the following: with all those wonderful paint stores out there, be it at your local building supply center, or at one of the independent paint dealers, you have a huge selection of colour swatches (those sample cards with several colours printed on them) available to you.

Without putting yourself under pressure, take some time, poke around, and simply grab all the different swatches that appeal to you. Have fun with this, take a friend if you like! Don’t limit yourself from the start by fretting about the question if that colour works with your ……(fill in whatever comes to mind).

You might have one particular colour in mind – in that case I would recommend that you grab a whole variety of that colour in a variety of shades and saturations.

If you don’t have one particular hue in mind I would very much suggest that you go with the before mentioned approach and take home whatever seems to make your soul sing. Even better – sign out the fan deck and take it home. As mentioned before – rooms have their own sense of colour, and they will help you make a choice if you opt to listen.

No laughing matter – I have a lot of clients who can vouch for this.

When I am working on a colour selection in a clients house I bring my own colour fan decks from different manufacturers with thousands of options with me. We spread them out in the room, and start what I call ‘editing’.

Of course it depends very much what else is going to be in that room – flooring, tiles, cabinetry, countertops, furniture. Those items will sure have their own say in the colour selection, which could make the whole process either easier of more difficult…

But for the novice paint-selector it will be a great experience to see how easy it is to do that first step of colour editing – a lot of the colours on the fan deck will just do nothing for you and the space, and you will be able to put them aside very quickly.

The reason why I am able to say that the room will decide for itself has to do with the intrinsic quality of natural light in a space. Coming from a medieval small town in Germany, where the local building code only allows for slightly dull, powdery pastels on the exterior of the old houses I can relate to how much culture influences your aesthetic choices – but also how freeing it is to break out of that mold, and be influenced by different cultures and colour ways

.

It is so inspiring to recognize how much the quality of light influences colour choices – just think of the typical bright white and intense Lapislazuli blue of Greece, or the soft ochres, blues and yellows of the Provence. Think of the jewel tones of India, and the brisk fresh colours of Scandinavia. If you try to transport those exact colours into your particular environment it will most likely go horribly wrong – you have to adjust that colour to work with the particular light quality, and make visual corrections depending on the landscape. Evergreens, rocks and water in the landscape will have huge impact on what is going on inside.

Colour is energy, and stimulates the senses, and you want to use this tool well to make you feel good!

Going back to Operation Fan Deck.

Once you wiggled it down to the shades that seem – for whatever reason- ‘work’ in your room, you make personal choices – which of those remaining swatches do the most for YOU? Away with the rest…

And when you are done with that process – which of the remaining colours work well with your furniture, your area rug, the other finishes?

Is there a particular piece of art that is going to live in this room? Which hue works really well with the painting? Just hold the swatches up behind the frame, and you will see for yourself…

Make sure to do this process with another person, as you will/might need a set of hands to hold swatches up in order for you to be able to step back and get a good look.

By that time you might be down to 2 or 3 different colours – now it’s the time to put some double sided tape on the back of those cards and put them up on a wall. On a swatch card with a graduation of shades it will allow you to determine the intensity of the hue.

As always, make sure to look at the colours from a distance.

After that it would be the time for some hands-on home work: you could go and get small sample pots of the final 2 or 3 colours. Grab sheets of poster board and paint them up nicely. Put those larger samples on ALL the walls in your space, and look at how they change depending on their exposure to light. Give yourself 1 or 2 days at least to go through this process. You would want to experience not only the difference between day and night, but also between a sunny and an overcast day.

Be advised that the window wall is always the darkest of the walls, and the colour will also be influenced by the rather blue reflection on this wall. I had an extreme case where we wanted to paint the space a powdery rose colour – beautiful calm hue, but what a surprise when it turned bright pink on the window wall. We had to put a lot of tan pigment in it to achieve the desired calm effect…

If you find that your choices seem to be too loud, or in your face – then it’s time to utilize what you learned before about saturation of a colour, and select something that is dulled down a bit, or simply softer in shade.

And one tidbit of advice – colours are best looked at on a neutral white background. If you have already a colour on the wall that’s to be painted, then this underlying colour will have an impact on the appearance of your new choice! So make sure to keep this in mind, and if you think it’s necessary put a larger sheet of something white underneath!

See – that wasn’t too hard, was it? Just takes time, and deliberation – and it would take time for a designer to do that, too. There is no real magic in this process – not yet, that is, and not for a single room.

The magic will be necessary when you are dealing with homes that are supposed to get a lot of colour – 16-20 is actually quite often the case with my clients and I love those kinds of challenges!

By no means is the house supposed to look like a child’s crayon box – and that is where the artistic part of colour coordination comes into play.

More of that later – lets just finish your room!

So – what other surfaces will need colour in your space – of course the ceiling, then most likely trim (the wooden pieces around windows and doors), there could be potentially decorative paneling or wainscoting, crown molding, and of course the doors.

I had some of swatches of the new Martha Stewart Living colour collection in my hands yesterday – very interesting concept. I found that the line would not be working all that well here in my local digs, however, we selected quite a few of those colours for a job about 500 km from here in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. On the back of the paint chips they cleverly show you strips of complementing colours – one for the ceiling, one for the woodwork. Although the colour selection is beautifully executed, as are all of Martha Stewart’s professional endeavours, not all of them were sitting right with me. Some of the ceiling options would have been way to dark in an 8′ high room. However, I do invite you to consider using something else but white on the ceiling.

But that could be a bit tricky – as mentioned, you need to keep the room height in mind, and how the shade of a colour can affect proportion.

Oftentimes a ceiling should be like a sky on a day that is not particularly sunny, but also not overcast – just neutral, not asking for any attention at all.

You can get ceiling colours straight from the can, which is an option if you really don’t want to bother to much with the selection of off-whites.

Or you look for well-loved off-whites, which are part of any paint manufacturers collection. The staff at your paint store will be able to advise you on this.

One of the most favourite off-whites ever must be Benjamin Moore’s Cloud White – it is softer than a regular white, and blends beautifully with many colours…

If I am selecting colours for a whole house I select ALL my wall colours first before selecting a suitable white – reason being that I would prefer to work with the same white throughout the house to keep things a bit more simple.

But I would encourage you to consider different hues for a ceiling as well. I made really good experiences with very soft blues and blue-greens, which creates a Swedish freshness in a space.

I have also done very bold tones for confined areas in the entrance, and in dining rooms – small spaces can take strong colour, as can rooms that are mainly used at night.

A few of my powder rooms end up without natural light – in this case I make a point out of their mysterious ambiance, and a white ceiling would absolutely not work with this. I used a dark charcoal in one instance – it was a 42”x80” room, but with 9′ ceiling, and I needed to bring the ceiling visually down, and in another case I simply used the wall colour on the ceiling as well.

For another job with stunning all white glass tiles on the wall I considered painting the ceiling a hot orange or lime green – the verdict on that one is still open…

As for the colour for baseboards and casing – the easiest and most used approach must be an off-white. The advantage is that you don’t run into issues of transitioning from one room to the next.

Sometimes those pieces are wood anyways, so you just have to make sure that the wall colour complements the wood.

If you are asking if or if not to paint the wood – that’s a tricky question. Some houses seem to do better with wood than others.

But it’s not always about easy and most used…

A current job found me recommending black for the interior trim colour – picking my clues from the finishes on the floor tile, the cabinetry, countertops and the wall tile in the kitchen. This colour scheme, albeit very neutral, was so strong that we had to continue it into other areas of the house.

If you are looking to paint paneled walls then of course your options are wide open – you don’t have to stick with off white, or wood. Essentially you have to treat it the same way you select a wall colour, just in this case there is a second wall colour that needs to work with it.

2 nuances darker or lighter than the chosen wall colour might be an easy option. A complementary contrast colour could also be considered. A neutral other than white – lets say in the warm or cold grey spectrum – could also make a great colour partner.

This is where snippets from magazines, or the brochures from paint manufacturers come in handy.

OR – something that I would warmly recommend – you could go on your own quest to create something unique, and look someplace totally different for inspiration.

How about looking at a photo book on tropical sea life, or butterflies. Shells and flowers, fruit, bark, rocks and pebbles all make for great examples of perfect colour coordination. Nature provides you with great ideas both intense and subdued, but never ever boring.

Man-made products like graphics, fabric and fiber art, and area rugs are another good source. You might want to check out the works of Master painters and mosaic artists, too.

My personal colour journey took me from the rather grey pastels from my childhood town and the proverbial yet politically incorrect statement that ‘green and blue is only the shoemakers wife’ (Gruen und Blau ist dem Schuster sein’ Frau – which, I assume now, meant, she got beaten up by her husband on a regular basis – poor woman…anyhow, the essence of this proverb was that one just did NOT combine green and blue), to the paint colours of the Blaue Reiter movement, Kandinsky, Miro, Chagall, through wild brights and stark black and white patterns of a 1980’s design movement called Memphis, the then-outrageous colour combination of red and purple by fashion Grand Seigneur Yves Saint Laurent, to psychedelic candy colours and lots of black.

Throughout university I learned to appreciate the calming effects of natural hues, greens and blues, the subtle elegance of neutral and wood tones mixed with bold use of colours so noticeable in Japanese design, the colour blends of India, Russia, Sweden, Bali, and then of course the intricate colour schemes of the architectural beauties of the Victorian era in North America – the Painted Ladies…

Growing up in the 60’s, in a then-fashionable, but rather depressing beige household, the effects of colour on my psyche still amaze me. Upon coming to Canada, learning that wood can actually be painted – a sacrilege where I am from, as wood is to be left, or stained, brown -was a very liberating experience!

I would always encourage you to explore the effects of colour on your own life and psyche.

I firmly believe that a lot of mental illnesses could be remedied by simply un-cluttering the living environment and selecting healing colours! Even in the work environment, and for sure in hospitals and other health-related environments the mindful use of colour should be mandatory.

Choosing multiple colours for a home

When you apply the above mentioned process room by room you will end up with a whole range of those colour swatches. Lay them out on a flat surface, again on white substrate, and look at them together. They should come together like the colours of a painting, which will result in a visual flow when you travel from room to room. I am positive that you will notice if there is an odd colour out, or if there is something jarring. Having one colour standing out might be the little bit of spice that is not only acceptable, but even required to result in a, uplifting environment. Just make sure that that particular shade is used in a small amount, for example in a powder room, or on a colour-blocked accent wall, not on all the walls of the largest room in the house.

Again, look at flowers, for example – often they sport the tiniest amount of a very bright colour accent in their center – that’s the effect you try to achieve.

Cultural influences

The other day I had a colour consultation with a client, who just returned to North America from living in Indonesia for almost 2 decades.

Of course I had to attune to the fact that her colour sensitivity was strongly influenced by her long stay in this very different environment.

Because my clients usually like to take charge of their choices we decided for her family to go out to the paint stores and to bring back colour swatches that appealed to them.

We then took the 5 different shades of green they had picked for the dining room, and pasted them on the wall, so that the same values were all on the same level.

It was very obvious, that one particular value was the right approach for the room.

From then on we took at the hue – the bluest one was edited out, as it made the room temperature too cool.

The second one was too intense, thus removed from the options.

Next step was to bring a large painting into the room, that is going to live on one of the main walls. We tucked the 3 remaining swatches behind the frame, and edited out the third one.

The difference between the 2 remaining colours was the intensity. Obviously the client opted automatically for the brighter of the two – a very understandable reaction given their previous exposure to a different culture.

We discussed what would happen would she use this shade for her room – first of all her guests would more or less audible gasp upon entering the room, as their colour sensitivity would be more toned down. Secondly I would expect, that the family, after living in our city for a few month, will also adjust more to the local quality of light and colour, and therefore might also experience this colour as being too intense.

We agreed that the second option would be the right one – it was still a bright colour, brighter than I might have selected for a client without her personal history, but the colour will be in tune with the Asian influenced artwork and furniture, as much as with the Arts and Crafts style of the home.

As an exciting alternative we ended up choosing a blue colour for the ceiling! We started out looking at the typical off-whites, going to tan and wheat colours, even different shades of green, but nothing seemed to work with the wall colour, or just ‘do it’ for us.

I always look for colour combinations that ’sing’ – try that out for yourself! Once you find them, you will know what I mean…

This happened with the blue – I was simply holding up a swatch against the green, and we instantly knew that was it.

Coincidence that the very same colour combination was evident in the ladies’ dresses on the painting? Nooo…

Because we were in the groove and I had some time left we looked at colours for the living room as well as the entrance. We ended up with a stunning chartreuse tone for the entrance (a slightly fine-tuned version of the rather loud yellow-green swatch they had in their wish-list pile of selected paint), and a dark red-blue (not quite purple) for the living room.

After piling all of our choices up on the floor we looked over to the painting – guess what: all those shades were right in there. The colours combined beautifully, and are indeed asking for the introduction of some more shades in the red/orange spectrum – but we left it at that for that day, and the family has now the homework of looking at possible choices for the kitchen and the small office…

Can you imagine how great an effect it will be when the huge double doors between living room and dining room are open, and your eye wanders from the painting over to the living room, and detects the same purple shades in there?

The reason why these rather intense colours will work is the neutralizing effect of dark wood and strong textures of all the Asian artifacts.

Colour Blocking

On another project, where we ended up with a total of 16 colours throughout the house, the reason for success lies in the balancing effect of the addition of a lot of off-white and grey-brown surfaces to the mix, which makes for a modern, vibrant living space, just right for a family with 3 school aged children.

While I selected very soft off white laminates for the built-in cabinetry, accented with a greyish-brown wood veneer and quartz counter, the client made it very clear that she loved colours, and she wanted to see some on her walls.

It started actually when she rather jokingly mentioned that she ‘had threatened’ her husband she wanted to have an orange wall in the dining room.

Oh – I can do that!

Thing is – ‘orange’ can be a lot – rust-brown, intense orange like the fruit, or a soft mango-sherbet hue. For her personality it was more a kind of fruit punch that I wanted to achieve. While the main colour for the open plan living-dining-kitchen-home office are is an off-white that matches the cabinetry, the architecture allowed to pull out small defined wall areas, that were great for colour blocking.

The mango colour will adorn an area of about 10′x5′ above a built-in buffet, and there will be 2 wall sconces mounted on it, plus a painting, so the actual amount of visible colour will be rather small.

Same goes for the lipstick pink we selected after the client – again jokingly – mentioning, that her husband will be happy that we didn’t select a hot pink for the headboard wall in the master bedroom ( we chose a relaxing ocean-blue hue, and its lighter sibling for the en suite).

Ha – I had a blast with that one… “Well” I said, “ we COULD do pink at the end wall of the hallway!” I hadn’t thought of it before – that’s why I love clients input!- but this was a perfect space for a strong accent colour. It is only 3.5′x8′, so relatively small, and it will have a piece of art on it, which in itself will tone down the impact of the colour…

To round things off we added a beautiful lime green for the wall going down towards the garage and basement, and a, greenish blueberry shade for the built-out fireplace wall.

Doesn’t that just sound yummy – and it actually looks like you would want to eat it up as well!

To balance this colour scheme off we picked a sand tone for the guest bedroom (you don’t want to aggravate your guests, I would hope), and the overall finishing scheme for the guest bath is on the manly side – olive, charcoal, blue and taupe. It’s a family, after all, and although guys often pretend they don’t care about colour – believe me, it is not true. There needs to be balance, and throwing in some masculine elements will be good for all family members involved…

The kids were encouraged to pick their own favourites. Young humans tend to choose brighter, more saturated colours than adults, and although I take the kids’ selection seriously, I will pick a slightly softer hue of their choice. Usually they don’t find out about this – don’t forget, colours applied on a large scale will look different than on a small swatch. If a colour is too intense I would be concerned that they will get to agitated in their room. As it is often the same space in which they play, learn and sleep, the energy level in the room should accommodate all those activities, and not overpower their young brains.

I have been known to use 8 different colours in one children’s room alone – think soft easter egg colours, nothing loud. Indeed, the inspiration for that colour scheme was a decorative easter egg, that happened to be lying around in the kids’ room.

This colour approach works great, as long as you tone down the hues to be proportionate with the size of the space. In a case like this no single colour stands out alone – they are all the same value, thus blending together as one.

Other ideas for colour blocking are not so much walls, but small items like accent pieces of furniture, or the insides of cabinets and closets.

Imagine the jolt of energy you would get when you open your coat closet, or spice cabinet, and a brilliant red or orange or blue smiles at you!

Display cabinets also benefit from a colour treatment – look at the items you want to display, and chose a colour that brings out the best in your favourite pieces. White china for example will show way better when displayed in front of something other than white – and if you prefer it to be monochromatic, then at least consider an off-white to play off the crispness of the porcelain.

White on white, and other neutral insights…

You might not believe it, but the most difficult colour choice in my career was picking a single white colour for a penthouse overlooking Victoria’s Inner Harbour.

The client had a large contemporary art collection, and was looking for an art gallery type of environment, with the colourful paintings hanging on white walls.

It took me a full day to select 2 shades of white – one for the public areas like Great room, kitchen and offices, and the second shade for the private suites. The space had huge windows facing in all directions, and the reflection of the ocean as well as the red brick pavers on the exterior deck changed the whites to all sorts of other hues like pink, yellow and blue, which means I had to find a hue that neutralized all those influences.

On top of that I had to consider the cream and golden tones of the future furniture, which had been picked by a decorator down in Texas, the client’s main home.

When I sent my swatches to Texas for approval, the client was so unhappy with my choices that she flew the decorator in to make the right choice

The two of us spent the day at the condo together with a painter who rolled strips of paint on the walls for us in a variety of shades of white.

Guess what happened…We came back to the exact shade of white I had picked in the first place!

Never have I felt so ashamed and insecure about my ‘obvious’ inability to pick a white to a client’s satisfaction – the vindication sure felt very very sweet afterwards!

What you should take from that story you might ask?

As I said at the very beginning – never ever pick a colour with out being in the actual space. The light in Texas couldn’t be more different from our lush green and blue Wet Coast landscape, the brilliant sun, yet the often grey sky in the winter.

Let’s continue with the white on white look.

If you know that white on white works with your life, then by all means pursue it. If done well you can create a beautiful calm space which will be very restorative to both spirit and eye. But you want to avoid a stark hospital look under all circumstances.

Be aware that off-whites are created by adding a tiny amount of coloured pigment into white. When your eye gets finely atuned to off-whites, it will be able to read those shades, and you have to make sure that the different hues work together just like any other colour intensity.

The strongest difference in my opinion are between pinkish and yellowish whites – they just don’t look right in each others presence. Staying within one spectrum will be the better option.

Another difficult colour choice I had to make on a project was for a bathroom that sported a combination of Carrara marble for the floor and the counter top and a white glazed subway tile. Carrara marble is a greyish white stone, with a blue undertone, and the porcelain tile turned pink when installed on a larger scale. This was not visible from the sample tile we had picked, so the soft colour nuance came as a surprise when the tiles were being installed.

The client had requested a white-on-white bathroom, so figuring out the wall colour ended up taking me 5 hours…Did I mention that selecting white is the most difficult task of all??

What happened was, that whatever off-white worked well with the porcelain tile made the marble look very dirty or overly blue, and when we picked a white that brought out the best in the marble the wall tile turned awfully pink.

There is nothing else to do than to take the time and look at fan decks from different paint manufacturers until you find the right shade. With all those hundreds of choices out there, there will be eventually the right one in there for your particular scenario. In our case it was a white with a minute amount of grey-green in it.

The other secret to successful white on white it the layering of textures and patterns. This, and a combination of shiny and matte surfaces, will give your eye and mind food for thought, and your senses the comforting tactile experiences we humans seem to crave to feel balanced.

If you want to use white simply as a canvas for other colour effects, you might have to choose which way you want to go.

A black and white colour scheme can work very successfully, and it allows you to add a few strong punches of accent colour, which will result in a contemporary, perhaps even stark look. This won’t be everybody’s cup of tea, but the effect will be stunning!

By combining natural textures and shapes with white you create a calm, Zen-like environment. This is a good approach for a quietly uplifting space, and will appeal to many different personalities.

Successful layering of textures and patterns actually will be a topic in itself at a later point, so make sure to check back in!

Working with Neutrals

Aside from the typical while safe ‘Builder’s beige’ there is in fact a whole range of fantastic neutral colours out there, which will make a statement without overpowering a space. There is nothing worse than being un-deliberate. If you want to go neutral, do it well.

Going through spec homes often makes me wonder if those houses wouldn’t sell much faster if someone would show some guts and paint them an uplifting colour inside out…

If you are looking for an off white, choose one with a suitable pigment in it, that will make the colour appear in slightly different hues depending on where you are in the house.

Or try out the shade that is 2 tones darker than what you initially thought.

Have a look outside the window and understand, that a window in itself can take the place of a painting, which means you want to give your view an adequate grounding by choosing a wall colour that frames your vista well. Warm greys ( essentially browns that have a lot of black pigment added to it to dull it down), and mossy and grey greens (yes, I count the soft greens as neutrals, at least around here) for example work wonders here on the West Coast, as they pick up on the colours of the landscape, which consists of rocks, evergreens and Arbutus trees.

Dark chocolates are a sensual feast for the eye and will make you feel wrapped up in a really yummy brownie. Again, keep proportion and room energy in mind – it might be more adequate for a space that is used more in the evening, like a dining room, where you can add some sparkle with chandeliers and metal accents, or for a manly bathroom, or a media room.

I would like to vent about something that bothered me in university – the professor who was teaching colour theory had his own ideas about colours, and one peculiar aspect was his strong aversion to the combination of brown with pink. I remember some really derogatory comments of his about this colour combination. Poor fool. Can you think of something more sumptuous and pleasing to the eye than a Black Forest Cake, with its layers of juicy cherries between dark rich chocolate, topped by whipped cream? How can that colour combination be wrong???

But then again, he was not a sensual personality at the best times, so I guess Black Forest Trifle just didn’t do it for him…

Or think about cherry blossoms on an old tree – that brown bark sure looks awful with those blooms, doesn’t it??? Hope you can feel my sarcasm here! Nature is the single most important teacher about colour, nothing could be more artistic than her.

If you made it to here – thank you!

I hope I was able to get my point across – there is nothing to fear about colour. After all, it’s just paint, and you can always paint over it again. And choosing colour as a way of self expression is cheaper than paying a therapist.

Enjoy!

Grand Hoodfan Treatment

We made second place with our Oliver Project in the Medium Kitchen Category of the NKBA Canadian Design Competition 2010!

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

 A detour through a downtown mall today spurred a conversation between Ines and myself about the intrinsic value of objects.

Ines mused about the fact that most of the items on display, although at first glance interest evoking, are upon further investigation simply flashy and fake, without substance, and only an extremely minute amount of other items, often priced at a comparable monetary value, seem to carry in them an innate value that transcedes the mere cash factor.

As an artist good design for me is so much more than combining colours, shapes, textures and objects in a pleasing or -worse- merely fashionable manner.

Good design must be embedded into a cultural and historical context to have meaning.

Good design must speak about, and address, true universal values, wishes, desires, fears and objections.

Good design expresses in three dimensional space nothing less than ageless philosophical concepts, it speaks of what is thoroughly valuable, and connects you to your greater and better self. 

In my opinion things that are ‘cheap’ were created simply to make a quick buck, and most of the time the actual price of those items is being paid by the exploitation of natural resources and human labour.

Think of those infamous ‘happy meals’, of the nowadays so quickly thrown- together condos, of jewelry (and not necessarily only the costume ones) and clothing…

For me this mindset is best expressed by this awful slogan “We won’t be undersold”.

Good things have their price – if you think you are getting a deal on something, you are most definitely wrong.

In the same way ‘cheap’ fast food weakens your body and affects your health in a detrimental way, the owner of ‘cheap’ things surrounds him/herself with stuff that doesn’t speak to the soul.

Be it design, food or tangible objects – truly good products and services draw upon a wealth of value, history, skill, knowledge, empathy, wonder and inspiration, and embody what is beautiful about life.

Good design, like a good life, is NEVER fun and easy – it is a constant struggle for excellence.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

Infinity Island

Inspired by the outstanding architectural design approach of Dan Boot of Studio DB3 in Sidney, BC, the kitchen’s layout consists of an L-shaped perimeter, a focal point island that I call the ‘Infinity Island’ and a sculptural eating bar.

 This highly artistic house frames incredible views of the Ocean and Piers Island, and the somewhat unusual materials chosen for the kitchen cabinetry have been pulled from the architectural language of the structure – concrete, glass, raw and stainless steel, copper and ‘wetwood’.

The perimeter cabinetry has been made from slabs of century old Birch, which has been reclaimed from the Great Lakes. On one end a tall appliance tower holds a stainless steel band of appliances – the Miele Speed oven, the wall oven and the coffeemaker, and on the other end is the Subzero fridge positioned.

Both tall units are being flanked by very special glass door cabinets – make sure to have a look at the frameless glass corner detail on them! This detail is an element I picked up from Dan’s architectural design as well, and the doors were certainly not easy to create.

Thanks to the committment of the builder Wilf Gorter, site foreman Walter Vanderkamp, very dedicated metal fabricators and the ingenious cabinet maker John Lavoie the crew managed to make my idea work, including floating glass shelves.

 The perimeter cabinets are topped with black Cambria Quartz, which beautifully reflects the oustanding landscape images flooding in through the huge windows.

Appliance tower with frameless glass corner endcabinet

The islands ‘theme’ has been inspired by the Infinity Pool outside, and the design of the stainless steel hood replies to the shape of a steel canopy which Dan designed for the barbecue area on the pool deck.

From this hood fan canopy the Thinkglass Pebblo Aqua glass runs down the wall, transforms into a 1 1/2” countertop and drops down to become a custom stainless steel prepsink at the end of the island.

The island carcass sits on a 8” high concrete base, and sports a row of wood drawers, with anther row of etched mirror drawers above it. The combination of those 2 materials allows me to emphasize the horizontal delineation of this island.

Concrete bar, copper cabinet door, steel I-Beam and Birch Counter

The sculptural bar is inspired by Dan’s design for the wood fireplace in the living room.

I chose to use concrete as the actual carcass of a bar cabinet (thanks for bearing with me, Wilf and Walt!), and behind the copper doors it holds liquor and bar paraphernalia. One corner of that concrete block has been spared out, and has been filled with illuminated stacked glass.

A solid slab of Birch was used for the bar counter, and it is supported by a piece of leftover I-beam from the barrel roof construction.

 As said before, my choice of design and materials was strongly influenced by Dan’s architecture, his strong sense of proportion, assymmetrie and balance.

View of Pier Island

I also wanted to invite the outside in, which is the reason behind the choice of glass counter – it looks just like a frozen piece of ocean, and with its flowing character, it’s watery texture and green hues wonderfully balances the concrete and the wood. The small amount of copper on the bar pays reference to the homes entrance door, and warms up the concrete base.

 You can find this particular project in our portfolio section under ‘Landsend’ in the Residential, Kitchen and Bathroom files.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

His oeuvre is incredibly varied, and spans everything from elegant fine art painting to Folk Art, from socio-political illustrations to designs for Amusement parks and Dark Rides, from theme store design, animated displays for trade shows and store windows to beautiful works of sculpture.

You will find that his mind is able to make visible the very best, and the very worst, in human nature.

FORTUNA

When Ines, after much self doubt and soul searching, decided to launch THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN I was inspired to create a painting for her new showroom.

I wanted the image to purvey the concept of accepting the unknown with grace, dignity and courage.

That concept for me is symbolized best by the figure of FORTUNA.

This Greco-Roman Goddess of Fate and Fortune (’Tyche’ in the Greek mythology) approaches individuals with the Gift of Opportunity. Should the person blessed with such an offer reject it nevertheless, punishment results – in general terms – in living in obscurity and perpetually having to deal with the question ‘What if…’.

My particular interpretation of this classical theme shows FORTUNA in a contemporary version of an ‘Ikona’, those works of art so typical for Eastern Orthodox Christianity. An Icon brings the viewer face to face with a symbol, which represents something of greater significance, and I have admired the graphic purity and unpretentiousness of this style of art for as long as I can remember.

FORTUNA is shown in 18th century attire, which symbolizes the rise of a new kind of sophisticated, energetic and powerful woman, who is ready and able to take charge of her own destiny (like Ines).

The bird represents the Gift of Choice itself – it comes at its own will, and if not acted upon quickly it will fly away, never to return again.

He holds in his beak the key to possible success, and brings with him a medallion, in which HIERONYMUS FISH is engraved, the mascot of THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN (see also the ‘About us’ section for a brief story on Hieronymus).

The tiles, light and dark, stand for the possibility of failure and success – life can always go either way, and FORTUNA’s sentiment is written as a poetic note to the reader on one of them.

My special Thanks and Acknowledgment belong to the late English novelist Mary Renault, who speaks to me through her wonderful and impressive books, as well as to the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, whose books I only recently discovered, but who already had a huge intellectual influence on me.

Fortuna, 2007

Latex, spray painted on wood

42”x 80”

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

I came in contact with Martin Zemp from Zee Design in Comox, BC in 2001, when I started working for a small Kitchen and Bath Showroom in Victoria.

Martin is originally from the village of Sissach in Switzerland, and came to Canada in 1990 to study English. Back in Switzerland he had grown up in his Father’s cabinetmaking workshop, and -if there is such a thing- was born with a cabinet making gene.

After officially immigrating to Canada in 1992 he worked for various cabinet and countertop producing companies, before going out on his own and launching Zee Design.

(Little sidenote here: my personal impression is that essentially none of Martin’s employers were up to his work standards, so he had no other choice than to take that step!)

For the first year my contacts with him were solely over the phone – he was an acquaintance of my then-boss, and every once in a while he would build the odd small custom cabinet or accessory for us.

I remember quite vividly my first phone conversation with him – I was supposed to tell him from my boss that we needed several lengths of a particular custom crown for a project, and Martin questioned the way we intended to attach that crown to the cabinet.

Of course, what he really wanted to tell me in his typical ‘Martin way’ was that none of us down in that fancy showroom in the big city of Victoria had given any thought to what we were asking from him, and that it was actually a rather stupid request…Oh course he already had a solution in mind, but I was quite intimidated by this first encounter!

Needless to say – this was also the early beginning of my life here in Canada, I had to speak English with him (although the German version of Swiss, and German itself look pretty much the same on paper, once the sounds come out of a Swiss throat I can hardly understand them…), I was still challenged with my English speaking abilities , and here I was trying to discuss intricate cabinetmaking details with him over the phone…

As you might guess we overcame that stage eventually (this phase took about 2 years, though…), but what I want to point out is that I consider Martin my most influential teacher in regards to all things cabinetry and millwork production.

He is certainly the main reason why I feel very competent when designing custom cabinetry nowadays, and when he gets me to design his newest kitchen project I know that I can take out all the design stops, as he will be able (sometimes muttering a lot of curses under his breath, though) to make them come to life.

The two of us have a bit of a weird long distance work relationship – up to this day most of our collaboration happens over the phone, resulting in hour-long conversations about cabinetry details, but because of his incredible sensibility, his sharp eye and attention to detail this way of working together has proven to be very successful.

I deeply respect his incredible skill, his willingness to endeavour into new one-of-a-kind designs, his sharp eye, his imaginative solutions, his acute sense of proportion, his elegant style, and the attention to detail and love for his trade!

Without him I would certainly not be the accomplished custom cabinet designer that I think I am today…

Thank you, Martin, for your most positive influence on my life!

Working with you is always exciting and a huge pleasure and privilege for me!

Zee Design – The Workshop

I am a big fan of any sort of workshop and manufacturing plant.

Part of my university education was a mandatory 3 months stint in a cabinet makers workshop. It was a bit boring for me, though – of course those professional tradesmen were afraid that I (a woman…bless their hearts, but gender equality takes hold rather slowly in those parts of life, especially in a small Bavarian town) could sever some part of my body during that time, so I wasn’t really allowed to touch anything really important, especially not the huge machines.

I helped sanding, assisted in the spray booth, and was sometimes allowed to help with cabinet assembly and lamination.

When Klaus and I started creating phantasy store settings things got a bit more interesting – we did a lot of the work ourselves, and worked hand in hand with cabinet makers to create our merchandisers and display props, and I became a very good acquaintance of the large beltsander…

So going into any cabinetmakers shop is quite a wonderful experience for me, and I always try to encourage my coworkers and especially my clients to go and have a look themselves. The amount of machinery and the intricacy of tools will astound you, and there is an inherent beauty in a well run shop.

Martin’s shop is especially picturesque – in true Canadian West Coast style it’s located somewhere in the woods of Comox,BC on Vancouver Island.

To get into his shop you have to make your way through a group of Highland Cows, you are being chased by geese and dogs, and his goats will search your purse for edibles (when they are not busy jumping onto his worktable, or your car, that is).

The shop is very beautiful (in a workshop kind-of way), spacious, organized (of course), with the newest project propped up somewhere, plans mounted to the walls, equipped with exquisite (often German and old Swiss) machinery.

My only problem with Martin is that he is always superbusy creating something, so in case you are interested in working with him you have to make sure that you get in line well ahead of time.

You should realize that good things take their due time, and are worth waiting for!

And it helps to have a slightly unusual project – I think Martin really enjoys a good challenge…

You will find him here:

Martin Zemp

Zee Design

1845 B Knight Street

Comox, BC

phone 250 339 6028

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

Its content is important to designers who are fairly new to the process of cabinetry planning, but it is also helpful information for the home owner who wants to embark on a kitchen renovation.

No matter if you work as a designer for a bigger cabinetry supplier or design custom cabinetry, technical knowledge is essential for a successful, long lasting career in the cabinetry field.

Nowadays I work about 99% of the time with custom cabinet makers, which allows me the full flexibility of a customized design, and- contrary to popular notion- custom cabinetry is not necessarily much more expensive than working with a large supplier.

On a personal level I also prefer to support the small businesses in my community, I appreciate the individual level of craftmanship and attention to detail executed by the cabinet makers, and I enjoy nurturing the relationship between client and cabinetmaker. Not only do we bring clients to previous jobsites, so that they can get a feel for the work of a particular cabinet maker, they are also always invited to go and see the cabinet makers workshop to experience the skill, effort, machinery and knowledge that is required to create the pieces which are going to be an integral part of the client’s life.

I plan on writing more about different appliance brands, my experiences with them, and customer feedback over time, so make sure to check back in!
I will also introduce the cabinetmakers and their shops to you in the near future…

A designer’s take on appliances

Kitchens are the most complex and intricate part of a house, and a successful design requires a combination of both creative and analytical skills. Each and every job will expose you as a designer to appliances you haven’t worked with before, and their specification sheets are your most important source of technical information.
NEVER start without studying them carefully!

With all this state-of-the-art equipment being an integral part of the kitchen we planners/designers need to know how to deal with it.
Due to inconsistencies in specifications, especially with high-end models, often the cabinet makers I work with request to have the actual appliances in their workshop before they begin to work on the cabinetry. This request will certainly have an impact on the timing of a kitchen remodel, so make sure to allow for appliance ETA’s in your work schedule.

Ideally, I talk with clients about their wish list of appliances before they go out and purchase them, as their choices of appliance types will have an impact on the positioning of the workstations in the kitchen.
This has nothing to due with personal preference of specific brands -it’s the technical and functional considerations which will have an effect on the design and use of space, and vice versa.

As a designer I want to make sure my clients understand their options, and the consequences, before spending a considerate amount of money on appliances.

Refridgerators

Fridge depth:

When I started designing kitchens in Canada I worked with what I call ‘big box’ suppliers – companies that produce cabinetry with standardized dimensions, with a set amount of door style and colour options.

I noticed very early on that the standard industry standard of 26 inches for a standard fridge gable was falling short of the typical 28 inches required to cover the carcass depth of a regular (non-countertop-depth) fridge. This bugged me to no end – as a designer you go through lengths to create a beautiful space, and then I have to look at 2 inches of a black fridge carcass?

When you look at the specifications of a fridge, notice that it will give you a number of different dimensions for its depth- one for the carcass only, one for the carcass with door, one for the carcass with door and handle.

If you want to cover the full carcass of a fridge, you have a number of different options:

One approach is to order a deeper gable. This adds to the cost, however, and manufacturers are resistent to this request, as customization is contrary to their standardized business approach. Modification can also lead to ordering or manufacturing mistakes quite easily. If you use a deeper gable, you would also have to adjust the depth of the upper cabinet above the fridge (should you have one), as this cabinet would either have to be build out from the wall to be flush with the gable front, or you would have to order yet another customized, deeper cabinet.

Usually, a better way to save a few inches is to move the refridgerator back into the wall. This is an easy step if you are dealing with typical wood stud and drywall construction. You have to remove the drywall behind the new fridge location, cut out the two or three studs in that area either fully or at least by half of their depth, and then either install a 5/8″ plywood backer panel (when you take out the studs completely), or 1/2″ drywall.

This process will gain a minimum of 2″, which might not sound like much, but- believe me- in a typical kitchen setting 2″ mean a lot.

The only time I would caution or even advise against this method is, if you are dealing with an older home from the first part of the 20th century, which uses lathe and plaster construction. The vibrating of the cutting action on the studs will loosen the brittle plaster, thus resulting in cracks, especially on the other side of the wall. Be sure to never undertake this step without prior approval of the homeowner – they are the ones who will have to pick up the bill of potentially necessary plaster repair work.

In new construction, or on bigger renos, I generally ask for a niche to be framed in for the refridgerator.

The 2×4 studs in that location are either being turned sideways, or completely left out, and the back will receive a plywood backer panel for stability.

Don’t forget to consider the location of the refridgerator receptacle carefully.

If you have an outlet right behind the fridge the standard electrical plug will add at least an inch to the fridge’s overall depth. You could have the plug changed to a flat unit (consider the warranty issues, though), or move the receptacle out of the way, either further up or off to the side, accessible through the cabinetry.

Fridge height:

For a reason that is beyond me, manufacturers can’t or don’t want to agree on one or two standard fridge heights. If you are dealing with a big box cabinet supplier you will find out that they typically offer only one standard height for the cabinet sitting above a fridge. This usually results in a rather large gap between that cabinet and the fridge. The solution for this is either to order a custom height fridge cabinet, or you can use a face frame filler strip to bridge this gap.

Even if you work with a cabinet maker and custom made cabinetry, you might still run into issues. Cabinetry that’s suppossed to fit like a glove around the fridge can easily be too tight. This has usually to do with floors and/ or ceilings which are out of level.

On one of my jobs the overall height for that upper cabinet couldn’t be adjusted, and then the floor right underneath those 3 feet of fridge space was ? inch higher on one side than on the other. Even when we dropped the fridge down to it’s lowest level, the hinges, which sit on top, were still 1/8 of an inch too high!

Luck was on my side with a Jack-of-all-trades kind of cabinet installer who had previously worked as a delivery person for an appliance company. He invisibly carved out the plastic cover plate of that hinge just a tiny bit – it worked…

Ever since that incident I request about ? inch of extra clearance above the fridge- you can always raise the adjustable legs on the fridge to make up for this.

Side Clearance:

Another refridgerator-related issue is the side clearance.

In order to get the crispers out, modern refridgerators require at least a 90 degree opening of the doors. If you have the fridge positioned perpendicular to a wall or cabinetry, you will have to allow for the thickness of the refridgerator door, plus a possible plant-on door panel (should you have one), plus the fridge handle.

This can result in a required space of 2 3/8 inches and go up to 4 inches!

If the specs are unclear about this – which they often are – make sure to go to the appliance dealer to have a look at the fridge yourself.

Don’t ever assume that a fridge will just fit in it’s allocated spot!

Fridge door panels:

If you don’t want to look at the large front of a black, white or stainless fridge, plant-on doors are the way to go.

Now, with many fridge models you have to consider the fact that not all fridges are made to be equipped with these kinds of doors. Many an experienced designer and cabinet maker has encountered the problem of the panel weight.

As a customer you would want to discuss with your appliance sales person what your expectations and plans are in regards to the finished look.

Many refridgerators are sold as ‘panel ready’, but once you read further you notice a disclaimer that the fridge hinges can only handle a ? inch flat panel in the cabinetry finish, which then sits inside a narrow metal frame. This will never look the same as the cabinetry finish, and in my opinion you rather totally forego
the idea of a plant-on front in this case.

I might have some news for the manufacturers of such fridges – hardly ever is that what my clients or a designer are looking for!

A raised panel wood door the size of a fridge door is REALLY heavy, and the hinges of the fridge doors have to be able to support that extra weight without sagging over time – otherwise your fridge won’t close properly after a very short time.There is a possibility that as the designer you have to find out how much your particular choice of doorstyle weighs, and then discuss the issue with your client.

Been there, done that – even though we paid attention to the weight issue a fridge door started to sag very soon after we installed the plant-on doors. Interestingly enough that very manufacturer offered very shortly afterwards a new model with French doors instead of the single door model my clients had purchased.

Built-in versus Integrated

Built-in appliances are a pet peeve of mine. How misleading do manufacturers want to be?

Typically this term relates to fridges, compactors, dishwashers and warming drawers. The most important fact every kitchen designer should know about this category is that ‘built-in’ does NOT mean that the appliance, once equipped with the plant-on door panel, will blend in seamlessly with the rest of the cabinetry.

In fact the plant-on door will stick out ? of an inch from the face of the cabinetry!
Would you have expected this from a built-in anything? I certainly didn’t…

If a client is looking for an appliance that sits totally flush with the rest of the cabinetry they have to look- and pay- for the so called Integrated models.

With compactors, warming drawers and dishwashers a designer can adjust the overall depth of the base cabinetry to accommodate the additional depth of a built-in kind of appliance. You can either pull the base cabinets away from the wall by an inch, or simply order deeper cabinets.

But remember, this also means that your countertops will have to be an inch deeper, which might have an impact on the amount of material you will need, and on the cost.
Also, make sure your installer knows about your plans, and be aware that your plant-on side gables have an allowance to accommodate the additional depth as well.

You can’t take this approach with fridges, though! Built-in Fridge doors need to protrude past the cabinetry doors in full- otherwise you won’t be able to open them… ( i tried it- doesn’t work…)

If your client is really set on not seeing the fridge at all, they will either have to spend their money on an integrated model, or they have to consider purchasing a European model like a Liebherr fridge, that can sit inside a cabinet.

Make sure to discuss those issues with your clients up front, don’t rely on an appliance sales person to educate a client- many appliance people are not aware of the implications either.

To this very day I am haunted by the memory of my first encounter with this Built-in issue.
I designed a very elegant kitchen with a long wall of tall units, which included the fridge. The client had purchased a rather exclusive appliance package before they even spoke with me about the design, so I simply took what I was presented with and followed the instructions for the door panels per manufacturer’s specifications.

The kitchen turned out beautifully, with many special and well thought-out details, but the refridgerator door stuck out by 3/4″, which totally spoiled it for the client.
I was blamed for not pointing out this fact to the client in the first place…
The homeowners would have rather spend another $ 5.000,- on an integrated fridge model, than have the door stick out.

You can bet I never received a referral from this client!

Ovens and Cooktops

Nowadays we have a very wide range of cooking appliances at our disposal, which can be incorporated in our layouts.

In addition to slide-in stoves, free standing ranges, rangetops and cooktops there are various kinds of wall ovens, steam ovens, speed ovens and microwaves.

For cooktops alone you can choose from electric, gas and induction heat, go with glass surface or sealed burners, or create your own cooking surface made from individual cooking elements like Griddles, Woks and Teriyaki elements.

One of the easier appliance to plan for is a slide-in stove.

They tend to be fairly straight forward, although you should determine how far back you can actually push the unit, which is important when templating for the counter top.

The best way of dealing with these ovens is to allow for a filler on either side of the stove to create air space. Depending on the model a convection oven needs side clearances due to the extreme heat during the self-cleaning process, which could singe the side of the cabinetry. Allowing for a minimum ? inch of air space is mandatory for a lot of those models, and even if an existing stove doesn’t require this clearance, i would always allow for this space in case a client ever wanted to exchange their stove for a different model.

The advantage of a slide-in stove over a freestanding range is its cleanliness.

Freestanding units and rangetops always have a tiny gap on either side of the counter, in which crumbs gather no matter how meticulous you or your housekeeper are.

Another consideration is the controll panel on the standard freestanding stoves, and the splash guard on the exclusive gas ranges – if positioned on the back of a stove this panel will take away from any decorative backsplash option your client might want to have.

Some Rangetop models require to sit up about 3/8 of an inch above conter top level – make sure that your client is educated about this, otherwise they might think it’s a planning mistake!

Also, be sure to understand how far out those range panels protrude out from the counter top edge – especially the models with those very sought-after big controll knobs. These controlls could potentially impede the opening function of perpendicular positioned cabinetry, especially drawers.

Another concern is the clearance issue to combustible surfaces around gas burners. Make sure to perform due diligence on this topic, as building inspectors are quick to cite even the smallest clearance infringement.

In one kitchen design I had very confidently allowed the typical 36 inches of clearance overhead, only to be reminded by a luckily very attentive cabinet maker that we were dealing with a special sealed burner unit, which required 42 inches!

With the upper cabinetry only going up to 84 inches, which would have resulted in a rather unuseful upper ‘cabinet’ height of only 6 inches above the range, and it would have ruined my whole design idea.

The solution was to make the underside of those upper cabinets non-combustible.
This can be done with tile, glass, stainless steel, concrete board and laminate, to name a few.

I designed a panel made out of a stainless steel frame with an insert of frosted glass as the bottom panel for those upper cabinets, which does double duty as a light panel at the same time.

Ovens

There is a myriad of great appliances out there now, with dozens of new products coming onto the market each year.

Steam ovens are a big favorite in my native Germany for example, as they offer fast and healthy cooking solutions for a wider variety of foods.

The multi-purpose units, for example the Miele Speedoven, are a very interesting trend as well.

If you are really passionate about cooking make sure to visit appliance showrooms that offer presentations and cooking classes prior to making a decision on which appliances to purchase.

Another issue to consider is appliance packages from the same manufacturer.
Different brands use varying types of stainless steel, not mention the various shapes of handles and designs of control panels.

If you have a number of stainless steel appliances close to each other in your kitchen a consistent look would certainly be of advantage, and give you a nicer overall look.

One of my favourite appliances to plan with is the Sharp Microwave Drawer. It comes in 2 sizes, but the 24 inch version should be totally sufficient for the regular homeowner.
If you want to integrate a microwave into your kitchen, a Microwave drawer certainly provides easy access to all family members, and it is very comfortable to operate as well with its tilted controll panel and push-button soft opening, and easy on the lower back.

In smaller kitchens, where space is at a premium, an Over-the-range microwave/ hood combination is a very great space saver. You would only want to combine this with an electric stove, though, NEVER with a gas unit!

However, the one thing that really bugs my designer’s eye is that those units have a carcass depth of more than 13 inches.

In addition to this is the thickness of the microwave door, which can’t be covered on the sides, because it houses the venting grilles.

Overall the microwave will protrude from a standard size 12 inch deep upper cabinet by at least an inch.

Taking the same measure as on the lower cabinets, you can always ask the installer to pull out the upper cabinets to cover the microwave carcass in total, but you have to make sure that your plant-on panels, which you might use on the side and on the bottom, have been ordered oversized to allow that step.

Otherwise we are back to working with extra depth custom cabinetry.

Alternative locations for conventional microwaves depend on the lifestyle of the clients.
Clients with school aged children seem to like the under-counter height, so that the little ones can warm up their milk, or make their own pop corn.
Parents with toddlers however tend to request a higher location, perhaps right above the countertop.

For those clients who would like to hide their microwave behind one of those sleek European lift-up doors or stainless steel tambour doors – Designer beware!

Hard-wired appliances inside cabinetry could potentially be illegal in your Province or State, so make sure to check your local building code, and discuss potential insurance issues ( fire hazard) with your client.

Overall is the idea of a clutter free counter always very appealing, but in my practise I always discuss the pro’s and con’s of receptacles inside appliance centres with my clients, and make their choice their responsibility.

Of course it seems logical to have receptacles inside an appliance cabinet, but I would then specify that plug to be connected either to an interrupter switch, which works with the door mechanism on that particular cabinet, or to a pilot light switch outside that cabinet, which indicates via a red light that the receptacle is ‘alive’.

I would wish magazines would point out potential legal issues around such devices, when they feature fabulous space saving design ideas. Quite often a good time of my consultation is used for telling clients what they CAN’T have…

Venting

Venting happens either up or down.
You can use so called downdraft systems, which pull odors and fumes away right at the source, and vent them either directly out through the back of the stove, or down through a vent and out between the floor joists.

Some ranges have an integrated downdraft system – I know from my customers feedback that people either love those models, or totally despise them. Fact is that the grille will gather a large amount of residue, which looks unsightely, and it is constantly in your field of vision when you are around the stove.

An sleeker option is a pop-up downdraft, and by now you have the choice of 2 different heights.

First of all- a pop-up only works in conjunction with a cooktop, as the vent unit requires cabinet space underneath.

When you are not cooking, all you see is a band of stainless steel, about 2 inches wide, running along the length of your cooktop in the back. When pressing the ‘On’ button this unit lifts up and starts venting. Currently there seem to be 2 different general height options available – for an electric cooktop a lift of about 8 inches suffices, but if you want to combine a pop-up with a gas cooktop you should look for a model that rises about 12 to 15 inches up. That way you avoid that the flames are being drawn towards the vent, which results in an uneven spread of the flame, and uneven heat.

The use of a cooktop in combination with a pop-up vent is very useful, when you want to cook on an island, or a peninsula, without having to deal with the visual impact of an island hoodfan, or if you want to enjoy the scenery outside a window without disrupting the view.

Updraft systems give you a wider range of design options – like contemporary stainless steel and glass options, seriously commercial looking stainless units, including a high stainless backguard complete with warming shelf, a discret narrow band of stainless steel mounted on the bottom of an upper cabinet, which pulls out only when in use (ideal for a small apartment kitchen), or power packs which sit inside a decorative hood made from wood, cast stone or various metals.

Determining the right amount of airflow is critical.

A typical hood fan might have a CFM rating of about 350, but power pack systems can easily go up to 1200 CFM. 900 CFM’s are recommended for gas ranges, but there are 2 things to consider when dealing with higher rated exhaust systems – noise and make-up air.

Noise can be dealt with in form of an exterior blower. This is a box-shaped device mounted either on an exterior wall or on the roof. It will require certain clearances to allow for sufficient air flow, so make sure to educate yourself about it before considering it for your project.

The effort of dealing with make-up air depends largely on your local building code, and your particular jobsite.

In older homes, which are naturally drafty and often still sport single paned windows, you might be able to get away with a few additional dryer vent sized holes drilled somewhere in the basement wall, to allow for additional air intake.

This approach does not work in new construction, though – make sure to discuss the necessary steps with your mechanical engineer and/or your contractor, as you might have to integrate a small furnace into the system, or heat up the incoming air in another way.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.

The general idea for the blogs of THE SKY IS THE LIMIT will be to showcase current projects that are in the making, Before and After’s, discussions about new products on the market, and we might also look into technical issues of renovations in general, lighting, appliances, effects of colour and space on the human psyche…

We are open to suggestions, so feel free to write us a note about a subject of interest!

For today’s introduction I will present a renovation which lately has earned us several prestigious Renovation and Design Awards, and which is being featured in a number of magazines in 2010.

It’s a single family home, built most likely in the 1920’s, 3 houses away from the ocean, in a very nice residential neighbourhood.

This was the view from the main entrance – to the left was a space for dining, then the kitchen, and at the end of the long hall was a small home office hogging the nicest view of the garden.

To your right would be the living room, stairs, a small hallway towards the guest bath and guest bedroom, and a closet to the right of the back door.

This is (obviously) the ‘After’ shot, taken from the same vantage point.

After gutting about 75% of the main floor we reconfigured the space, but in a way that looks totally natural for a home that age.

The space on your left is what we call the ‘Games Room’ – a place to hang out and play board games in, read or write, even watch TV. It can be also used as a formal Dining Room.
The wall unit serves as a bar with storage for liquor, glasses and all the necessary acutrements for entertaining, as well as a pass through from the kitchen and display area.
Note the ceiling treatment – the light Greyish-Blue and the Limesickle Green add an almost Swedish flavour to the place!

This shot was taken looking through the pass through into the Games Room.
We wanted to create a defined entrance area without closing off the Games Room too much.

The other necessity was to create proper closet space for a family of 4, with lots of sports equipment, school stuff and all the other things we humans need to store in the entrance…

A tiled area rug design, made out of 2 colours porcelain tile, glass and granite, and the very special ‘Pebbles in Resin’ accent ( which scratches easily, so buyer beware – it totally depends where and how you want to use this tile!), defines the space nicely. A hige Thank You to Guenther for this fabulous job!

We positioned 2 large closets on either side of the living room, connected by an archway, and defined the Glames Room with posts and ponywalls, to keep the space breathing, but nicely enveloped.

If you look closely you will see that the openings, although centred onto each other, differ in width – the space between the 2 posts is actually wider than the the archway, which gives the living room more privacy, and adds dynamic to the space.

In order to avoid too much white on the cabinetry we added a beige for the paneling on the hallway units, which makes for a great combination with the light blue ceiling.

This was the old kitchen – although the large windows would usually be a nice assett to have, the view of the neighbour’s fence didn’t quite cut it …

This is the same location after the transformation.

Our plans asked for clerestory windows as an integral part of the hoodfan design – this way we get the effect of natural light, and a visual of the sky, without being bothered by whatever is going on at the neighbour’s house…

The grand hoodfan treatment ( based on the idea of a typical British Hob), is being flanked by tall units – left being the Kitchenaid fridge, and on the right the Appliance /Baking Centre, hidden behind retractable doors.

Because of the necessary depth of those units we were able to pull the work areas out more then usual, and give the homeowner a raised shelf behind the stove, which is great for having a number of spice bottles handy without giving up counter space.

The backsplash is a custom blend in blue and green crackled glass tiles from Sonoma, combined with 3 ‘pictures’ made of pewter and bronze relief tile.

This is the new informal seating area.

Remember that office space I mentioned earlier, with the nice view of the garden?
Here it is – integrated into the space the family hangs out in most of the time…

Again, we reconfigured windows – higher ones on the side of the neighbour, tall ones, that max out the available space, to look out onto the garden.

Just envision yourself lounging there on that comfy bench (storage included underneath), having the gas fireplace turned on, and watching the birds (or TV)!

The Oak table was existing, but we stained it black, for graphic impact, and to match the colour of the Add-On Island.

This was the original view from the back door towards the front door. On your right the entrance into the office, on your left you (barely) make out the closet, and then the stairs…

This is the same view now, including the wonderful family canine, who was my (and the trades’) trusted friend and helper during the reno, and a constant source of joy…(sorry, no names due to privacy concerns) – love you, C!
Great colours – don’t you think?!
Not always am I blessed with a lively and daring client like this one!
By the way, the blue is actually not quite as bright as on the photo – it’s more like a jeans blue…

The island is 14′ long – we had intensely discussed all the various design options for this long room, and the client decided on a continuous stretch of island.
In order to make this island more manageable we broke it up into 3 sections -
remember, lots of continuous counter is not necessarily a good thing, a lot of people simply start cluttering it up despite their best intentions!

The main island is 9′ long, stained maple in a jeans blue, with a black Cambria quartz counter top with brown flecks in it.
BTW – the bronze faucet is the reason why we introduced the bronze relief tile in the backsplash!
The whole area is for food prep and clean up, with a compactor and the dishwasher facing in towards the stove area.

The black portion is what I refer to as the Add-On-Island – it’s 4′ long, with the black quartz countertop dropped just by the thickness of the counter on the blue part.
It houses a 24″ Sharp microwave drawer, and features a curved door, to ease the transition between island and eating area.

Curves have been used to assist with the flow, and to introduce some dynamic to an otherwise very long and rectangular space.

The spectacular red stained, extra fat, custom made post from Old Country Woodproducts in Victoria, BC is the finishing highlight on this unusual island.

This area especially showcases the fantastic cabinet work of Martin Zemp from Zee Design in Comox, BC!

This is the desk/ message centre/ pantry part of the kitchen. It is actually wrapped around a structural post in the right front corner – but nobody could possibly guess…

That’s it for this project…

We used the following suppliers and trades:

Lighting
- Mclaren Lighting, Victoria BC
- Illuminations, Victoria BC
Appliances – Kitchenaid, through Sears
Countertops – Colonial Countertops, Victoria BC
Cabinetry – Zee Design, Comox BC
Turned posts – Old Country Woodproducts, Victoria BC
Colours - Benjamin Moore
Tiles – Decora Tile, Victoria BC

Hardware – Cantu, Victoria BC

Many thanks to the client for this wonderful project…

Happy Renovating!

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT DESIGN is a national and international award winning, full service architectural and interior design firm. We service Vancouver, Kelowna and the BC Mainland, Victoria and Vancouver Island, Seattle and the Gulf Islands as well as international clients. Principal Ines Hanl and her team specialize in the creation of artful, bespoke interiors in any style for their discerning clientele.