The colors we choose for our home speak volumes about our personality and style. When it comes to color, some homeowners are more adventurous while others lean toward hues that are mild and understated yet still convey individuality.

Color has a direct impact on our emotions. Some homeowners desire an overall neutral palette that creates a pleasing, tranquil space while others prefer introducing lively hues that provoke an energetic atmosphere. Whatever your preferred palette profile, there are many ways to introduce color into your home.

Clothing is the catalyst for residential color trends, working its way from fashion into our living spaces. For the past few years, gray has been a forerunner in the neutral color space, replacing browns and beiges that once graced the walls of many a Bay Area home.

In keeping with this popular color inclination, Benjamin Moore’s Color of 2019 is Metropolitan,  an adaptable, stylish, and understated neutral gray. The company also creates a coordinating color palette designed to work beautifully with their starring hue.

Says Ellen O’Neill of Benjamin Moore, “Metropolitan AF-690 emanates nuance, harmony and extravagant ease. Always adaptable, it softens to matte or shimmers with sheen. It’s neutral. It’s understated. It just is. This is color, off-duty.”

Sherwin Williams has traveled down a different path with their rich terracotta hue, Cavern Clay,  the earthy quality of which works well as an accent wall coupled with neutral tones or as a standalone color, infusing a warm sophistication to an entire room.

Pantone recently announced that their Color of the Year for 2019 is Living Coral, which they describe as “an animated, life-affirming coral hue with a golden undertone that energizes and enlivens.” Vibrant and at the same time soothing, Living Coral embodies our “need for optimism,” providing a sociable, spirited, and playful manner in which to invite connection and intimacy in our home environment.

Other color palettes are finding their way from the runway into hallways, kitchens, and livings spaces. Turquoise, navy blue, metallic including gold and rose gold, and matte black are trending in popularity as homeowners personalize with pigments in a myriad of manners. Adding vibrant pops of color is a great way to infuse character and playfulness throughout your home. Colored cabinets, entry doors, countertops, accent walls, and tile are all wonderful ways to introduce color.

“Navy and other blue tonal values are making headway especially when accented with gold,” explains Harrell Designer, Sara Jorgensen. “In the kitchen, painted cabinets are taking things by storm. Navy works beautifully as a cabinetry color especially when accentuated with gold hardware.”

In addition to navy, gray and white tones are popular palettes for kitchen cabinets. Islands offer an ideal way to introduce accent colors; wood tones are trending as popular ways in which to highlight kitchen islands.

As for metallics, while chrome and satin/brushed nickel remain much-loved among homeowners, brushed brass, rich gold, and the elegance of rose gold are finding a foothold in homes. Drawer pulls and knobs, lighting, and fixtures are classic ways in which to tie in metallic throughout your home.

“Tile is another way to pull in color and texture into a room,” says Sara.

Geometric tiles, especially in black and white, create a high contract focal point.  Tile backsplashes behind cooktops can be designed as a beautiful mosaic or a simply stunning accent. Shower niches are another way to imbue color into a bathroom that otherwise may embrace a neutral palette.

Your home is a blank canvas and the colors you choose for your living spaces are as individual as you. The design team at Harrell Design + Build has their fingers on the pulse of the latest trends. Armed with that information plus your personal preferences, we will make your home come alive with color!

Call us today to schedule a design consultation with a Harrell Designer to discuss your next remodeling project.

Focal point and pops of color are terms our designers use all the time. Both of these design aesthetics can be achieved in kitchens by incorporating colored appliances.

For most homeowners, especially those who prefer safer color choices and those who are remodeling with reselling in mind, sticking with stainless steel is generally probably the best way to go. The staying power of stainless steel is timeless and typically appeals to the majority of homebuyers as well as homeowners.

But for those who want to make a bold statement and achieve a custom design that showcases their distinctive style, colorful kitchen appliances are a great option. They add a unique focal point and that pop of color all in one fell swoop while also serving a functional purpose.

Says Harrell’s award-winning Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD) designer, Gloria Carlson, “I find a small population of clients decide to choose to include colored appliances in their kitchen but the look it achieves is so much fun and really speaks to their individuality.”

There are a number of companies that offer colored appliances. Price, color availability, and style vary to fit almost any budget. Most Many companies offer colored ranges, and others some also include refrigerators and other appliances in varying hues. UsuallyOften, clients decide to have the range as the focal point with all other appliances in stainless steel or having fronts to match the cabinetry.

Some of the colored appliance manufacturers Harrell Design + Build Designers frequently recommend include:

• Blue Star
• Dacor
• La Cornue
• Big Chill

“Whether our clients want a totally custom color, a standard or a professional-style range, or an appliance that is contemporary or really retro, we can help to find exactly what they want,” explains Gloria.

BlueStar specializes in ranges, hoods, cooktops, and refrigerators ideal for the serious home cook. These professional chef-grade appliances are available in over 750 colors as well as textured finishes. BlueStar will also match customer colors so if you have a favorite, they can make it happen! Their website allows you to configure your range, choosing everything from size, number and type of burners, trim, doors as well as knob and overall color of the appliance. As you “build” your range, you can see exactly how it will look in real time on their website.

American-made Dacor offers their luxury Heritage ranges in custom colors. Dacor allows clients to add that perfect splash of color with a few standard colors as well as hundreds of custom color options.

La Cornue designs high-end, handcrafted French ranges that are truly the “masterpiece of the kitchen.” These appliances are works of art and make a daring, everlasting statement while providing the ultimate in a professional-style range. Their Château and Cornufé collections each offer an incredible array of colors from which to chose, including one-of-a-kind hues. The options are endless, allowing homeowners to make an appliance statement that speaks volumes.

Big Chill is a great option for clients who are looking for appliances with a vintage feel. They also have a sleek, modern Pro line as well as a classic, industrial collection. Depending upon the collection, they offer either standard hues or as many as 200 custom colors in addition to a full line of professional grade appliances including ranges, refrigerators, dishwashers, and hoods.

Colored kitchen appliances can be used a number of ways, from being the singular focal point surrounded by a neutral background to making a bold statement by having all appliances a custom color. The options are endless and Harrell’s Designers are here to help you make these important decisions.

We invite you to schedule a complimentary consultation with a member of Harrell’s design team to help you explore your kitchen, bath, or home remodeling project.

It’s impossible to know when or where the first backsplash was included in kitchen design, however the why behind the beauty of backsplashes isn’t hard to decipher. Backsplashes are generally found between the sink and the wall, preventing water, grease, and spaghetti sauce from being splashed against the walls. Pretty soon, simple tile backsplashes were used as the best solution for wall protection. During the 1970’s, white and yellow Formica countertops included a sort of built-in backsplash to avoid mixing materials and designs.

Today, interior designers like Harrell Design + Build’s Gloria Carlson, take the backsplash into an entirely different level, maximizing the utilitarian tool as a great opportunity to create a distinctive focal point for kitchens with multiple materials and patterns.

“You need to have some sort of backsplash purely for protection. Historically, people used a basic four-inch backsplash to provide minimum protection and to just catch spills. But over time, backsplashes have been used provide protection and add aesthetic interest,” explained Gloria.

According to Gloria, knowing how to highlight the backsplash can be tricky.

“The backsplash needs to become part of the whole story and the whole palette. For example, if you have a busy countertop material, you want to use a simple backsplash design so the two don’t compete. The backsplash in that case highlights the countertop. On the other had, you may want your backsplash to be the focal point, in which case you want your countertop to be simple and not compete with it,” said Gloria.

Using The Backsplash As A Central Theme For Kitchen Design

For example, one Bay Area family came to Harrell-Remodeling to redesign their kitchen to accommodate a steady docket of formal dinners and lively entertaining events. But more importantly, the family also wanted a gourmet, multi-use kitchen where entertaining and serious culinary skills could be employed without the interference of casual but valued guests. Gloria created a beautiful cooking area and a more social gathering area where people could mingle without bothering the cook. To accomplish this, she created a fun, socially focused fountain soda bar that also included a fully equipped bar gun with lots of soda flavors. Using the backsplash as a way to highlight the design, Gloria successfully punctuated the soda theme by using the backsplash as a conversation piece and created from vintage bottle caps. The hundreds of bottle caps were individually placed in the backsplash to resemble tile, and create a fun place for people to gather away from the prep and cooking area.

“The family entertained a lot, but they didn’t like when people could just walk into the middle of preparing a meal. So I used the backsplash as a focal point of my design. In this case, I a neutral, solid color for the counter top in order to make the backsplash a focal point to draw the attention of the eye,” said Gloria.

Consider Different Materials For Your Backsplash Beauty

Long gone are the days the four-inch Formica backsplash. Today, designers are taking the backsplash as a way to make a real design splash in kitchens. The boundaries for backsplash designs are being pushed to include modern materials and visionary shapes and sizes.

Today, Gloria includes materials that range from colored glass or tile to stone slabs. In addition, many homes now include backsplashes that run all the way up the wall to the bottom of the top cabinetry to provide maximum impact.

“Depending on what else is happening. You have other when you’ve got a whole kitchen with multiple materials: you’ve got a floor, you’ve got cabinets, you’ve got countertops, you’ve got all those things that you need to have cohesive. You want to make sure that you don’t have too much going on or too much competition and you don’t know where to look. The backsplash can be one of the opportunities within that palette to make a statement. Personally I love it when people aren’t too safe with the backsplash, because it can be so effective when you want to add something striking,” said Gloria.

When it comes to a kitchen remodel, cabinets are a prominent part of the project. They are visually dominant, play an important role in storage, and must coordinate with all other components in the kitchen to create the desired look. Depending on the homeowner’s style, the right kitchen cabinets can vary widely in materials, finishes, and in the type of framing, door style and special features.

Cabinet Finishes

One common consideration for Design + Build contractors is whether to use paint or stain for the finish. Wood cabinet finishes are sanded, stained and sealed with a finish coating on top. Stain can alter the hue, but preserves the effect of the natural grain. Another option is paint. Choosing the right paint color can completely change the look and feel of the kitchen. Traditional colors tend to complement a more traditional cabinet style.

Open or Closed?

The style of the cabinets doesn’t have to be uniform throughout the kitchen. Some areas may be better suited to open cabinets, while the contents of others prompt the necessity for doors. Consider some glass- front doors to showcase special items. A careful inventory of different items for storage, from food to dishes to small appliances, can help determine what type of door style is best.

Cabinet Construction

Framed or frameless cabinets have a distinctly different look. A framed cabinet is considered more traditional and has either a door that sits on top of the cabinet frame, or is inset to the frame. Either way you “see” the frame of the box. Frameless or unframed cabinets tend to be a more contemporary look as the door fully overlays the cabinet box. Either option can be chosen when considering kitchen remodeling in the Bay Area.

Hardware

The presence of hinges and knob or pull hardware can also change the look of cabinets. The hinges can be concealed from view, and the cabinet hardware can be recessed into the door design or attached to the outside. Hardware is often made of metals like brass, copper, iron or stainless steel; more atypical options like glass, ceramic, bronze and porcelain are also available.

Getting Organized

Part of the purpose for replacing the cabinets in a kitchen remodel is to make them more functional and effective. Identifying the function for each cabinet helps to maximize the efficiency of the design. For example, the home cook should be able to see and access all of the choices in the spice cabinet, whether it’s through a pull-out or folding solution. Lower (or base) cabinets might have a roll-out shelf to maximize space and for easier accessibility. Some items are better suited to drawers than shelving, such as placemats and silverware.

Whether your new kitchen will be contemporary or traditional in style, knowing the stylistic and functional aspects of cabinet selection will make your project even more successful.