Sometimes life is all about a fresh start.  Sometimes all one needs for a new perspective is the inspiration of another person’s actions.

One glance at Gaspard Tiné-Berès’ design work caught my attention, but it was as I learned more about his Short-Circuit trio of appliances and the affirmative business plan behind them that inspiration came.

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Seattle, WA may be a Mecca for coffee lovers, but there’s so much more to the city than that.  It’s also a hotbed for sustainable business ethics and the development of a low-impact lifestyle, both of which mesh nicely with this week’s featured company, Viola Park.

But to tell their story it’s necessary to back up a bit. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I no longer provide full service residential design, I do consult on projects for several general contractors and architects.   One such contractor I LOVE to work with is Wes Harding of Harding Construction and Sustainable Solutions.  His clients love him too, hence him and his team (including moi) being invited to a client’s house for dinner to celebrate a recently completed kitchen remodel.  And celebrate they should, because look where this project started…

This is before.  Isn’t that a weird location for the sink?  Not to mention the majorly blah nature of that white and beige scheme!

So look what we did….

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Shhhh…

Hear that?

You don’t?

Perfect!

Milano Wall

That sound you don’t hear is Zephyr’s new Next Generation Europa line of range hoods.

Napoli Island

The reason you hear hardly a thing isn’t because the hood is so loud it drowns out your smoke alarm when you set the bacon on fire (come on, it’s happened to all of us, right?).  No, it’s because these range hoods are equipped with Zephyr’s DCBL™ Suppression technology.

What’s that you ask?  Well, let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?

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This weeks terrific guest blogger is award winning kitchen and bath designer Susan Serra, of Susan Serra Associates.

I endorse the concept of reuse so very much that I want to provide more ideas on the topic of designing a kitchen with a reuse philosophy. Let’s go through some creative uses for items which might be cast off otherwise.

Furniture – I’ve used a sofa in two of my kitchens for seating at the dining table, both of which had been recently put out of use elsewhere in the home. The sofa must be elevated to be at the correct dining height. A new use for a sofa which may not fit elsewhere due to a recent move can add great comfort in the kitchen. I will never not have a sofa in my dining area; comfort in the kitchen is a requirement for me. And, of course, it does not have to be a sofa. Oftentimes, there is room for an upholstered chair of some sort in a lovely nook. Refinishing family heirloom dining furniture and chairs is a great way to keep green. I used my mother’s mid century Danish modern dining table in my breakfast room for some years and felt warm and fuzzy every time I looked at it, also admiring its authenticity. Read the rest of this entry »

We are so pleased to welcome this weeks guest blogger, award winning kitchen and bath designer Susan Serra, of Susan Serra Associates.

I am honored to be a guest blogger for The Interior Revolution, and the area of design that I specialize in is kitchen design. I am especially excited to talk about greening one’s kitchen because there are just so many interesting and innovative ways to create a green kitchen. Today, I’d like to focus on the philosophy of reuse.

I have personal experience designing an entirely new kitchen with a (mostly) reuse philosophy. Reuse, to me, by definition, means thinking creatively, first and foremost. You tap into a part of your brain that may be programmed by default to “buy new”. That IS how most of us are programmed! You change that preprogrammed channel to “reuse”, you open yourself bit by bit to finding useful AND creative solutions for your kitchen design, and miraculously, the solutions appear! Read the rest of this entry »