Kathy's Remodeling Blog

2010 Trends — Is contemporary out? Already?

In 2008, I posed this question in a poll: Is contemporary style on its way out? My theory was that hard economic times would propel people into the comfort of traditional styles. I used this June 2008 photo from Architectural Digest to illustrate the shift. Notice the farm style table and warm floors to balance the chic chairs, range hood and metal stairs.

Many respondents to my poll said NO WAY are the sleek, spare lines of contemporary style on the way out. Some even suggested that this would be the "in" look forever more.

See the results of my Poll: Is contemporary style on its way out?

But, as you can see from the list of kitchen and bath trends below (if you believe this list), contemporary is moving out and traditional is moving up.

Here's a press release from the National Kitchen & Bath Association:

The results are in from a recent survey of designers conducted by the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) to reveal the key design trends for 2010. The results of the NKBA 2010 Kitchen & Bath Design Trends Survey confirmed the continuation of a number of existing trends in the marketplace, but also uncovered others that indicate shifts in the direction that kitchen and bath style will take this year. Below are 2010’s seven kitchen trends and four bath trends.

KITCHENS

1. Traditional is the New Contemporary

Traditional will continue as the most popular kitchen design style in 2010, with contemporary following closely behind, while the Shaker style is seeing a surprisingly strong resurgence. Shades of whites and off-whites will be the most common kitchen colors in 2010, while brown, beige, and bone hues will also be popular.

2. Cherry on Top

Cherry will remain the most popular wood for kitchen cabinetry, followed closely by maple, while alder increases in use. As for the finishes placed on those cabinets, medium natural, dark natural, glazed, and white painted will all be common. Other colors of painted cabinetry and light natural finishes are in decline, however, as are distressed finishes.

Hot or Not Hot? Brad Pitt Homes in the Lower 9th Ward

As you may know, Brad Pitt helped create the Make It Right Foundation, which has the goal of building 150 new homes in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The area was decimated when the defective walls of the Industrial Canal gave way after Hurricane Katrina blew past, making the destruction part of the worst engineering failure in U.S. history.

No one can fault Brad Pitt for his efforts. But when the first few houses emerged from the ground, eyebrows shot up. What are these things, some people said? These structures were designed by some really famous architects, and you get the feeling the architects were trying to express themselves. That's cool. I like to express myself, as well.

But some of the folks who were to move into these houses complained. According to an architect quoted in a New York Times article, the new owners may have been robbed of that feeling of "home" that they would get from homes in the historical New Orleans styles of creole cottages and shotguns houses. (See some old-school New Orleans homes here.)

So you hate to say anything negative about this Brad Pitt project. Few of us will ever do anything this powerful and meaningful. But as only a dozen or so houses have been built so far, it would not be too late, it seems to me, to change direction and build the rest of the houses in a traditional New Orleans style. 

Or am I being a fuddy duddy?

What's your take?

Poll — Top 10 green building trends for 2010

The Earth Advantage Institute has given this matter a lot of thought, and here are what it considers the Top 10 green building trends for 2010 (stop me if you've heard these before):

1. The smart grid and connected home.

2. Energy labeling for homes and office buildings.

3. Building information modeling (BIM) software.

4. Buy-in to green building by the financial community.

5. Rightsizing of homes.

6. Eco-districts.

7. Water conservation.

8. Carbon calculation.

9. Net zero buildings.

19. Sustainable building education.

See details on this list

What's your least favorite DIY task?

When I visited Arnie and Lily Richards at home in Downey, California, they were naturally proud of the new dining room they added, and the adjacent kitchen they remodeled. You can see it here and it's nice, isn't it?

And the couple did every single thing themselves, with their own hands — demolition (friends helped at the demolition party), foundation, framing, flooring, electrical, plumbing, drywall, cabinets, moldings, paint. Everything. It was a marathon.

There was only one thing Arnie really, really hated, and that was the plumbing. "I detest plumbing," he said. Beneath the counter, trying to install this or that pipe or fixture, he cursed so much that Lily threatened to call in a plumber. But no. Arnie declared he was not going this get the best of him. He finally finished the plumbing part of the job, though with anguish.

But over at Kristina and Dave's DIY remodeled kitchen, it was the cabinet painting that got to them, and if they had it to do over again, they would hire it out.

And that got me thinking about how most of us really detest some part of the DIY process. Does it make sense to power through it? Or does it make more sense to hire a professional and save ourselves the trauma?

How about you? 

435-square-foot apartment feels airy and spacious

I'm enthralled with this 435-square-foot apartment in Greenwich Village, N.Y. It has only one window, in the living room, yet the space feels light and open. What you see here is the living room from each end, with the kitchen on one side, and the bedroom on the other side through glass doors. (Click photo to enlarge.)

The story in the New York Times says the couple — husband Suchitra Van is from India and wife Nette Gaastra is from Holland — bought the apartment for $296,000 and remodeled it with $26,000 they got from wedding gifts, along with $15,000 of their own savings. That's $41,000 to remodel a space just a bit larger than a two-car garage.

How did they spend the money? Some prices were revealed: a DeLonghi stove for $1,762, a G.E. dishwasher for $622 and a Hansgrohe shower faucet for (wow!) $670. The steel-framed doors into the bedroom cost $986 and were shipped from India and fitted with glass in Manhattan. And yet, the four Ikea cabinets cost only $141. The floor looks expensive, and the husband designed the porcelain enamel backsplash and countertop.

This place makes me want to declutter and lighten up.

See the full story and more pictures.

(Photos: New York Times)

Hot or Not Hot? Giant wall stencils

The New York Times had a pretty good concept for a series: Remake five rooms around the city for $300 each. In these times of job losses and declining prosperity, $300 is still a lot of money but not too much.

In a living room on Long Island, $250 of the budget was eaten up when a set designer stenciled an oversized pattern on the wall "to give the room personality," the story said.

Is it just me, or do these stenciled patterns look a little startling? A little jarring? Or is this look trendy?

We saw similar stencils on this blog previously, in David Kean's Los Angeles loft. I thought that project was much more subtle and elegant with metallic painted walls and burnt umber accents. See it here.

(Photo: New York Times)

Famous folks at home: quiz

This kitchen works for me. I could definitely cook next to a fireplace, couldn't you? So who lives here?

Here are some facts:

• The house, in the rolling hills of Montana, was built to look old.

• The stone around the fireplace and doorway is from Montana.

• Some flooring planks were salvaged from the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.

• The fireplace is doubled sided and also opens to a great room.

• The owner keeps horses on the 500-acre property.

Give it your best shot, then click HERE for the answer.

See more Famous Folks at Home.

Laundry room/bathroom combo a great idea

In a previous post, Andrew C. wondered how to best use the extra space on the ground floor of his Crofton, Md., townhouse. He wanted both a larger laundry area and a bathroom.

Several readers gave good suggestions. Helen thought up a different configuration for the space with room for a big bath and a bigger laundry room.

Readers Jose and modernemama each suggested a stackable washer and dryer to free up space for, perhaps, shelving.

But it was lil_gaucha who has my vote for this idea: Use all the space for a combination laundry room and full bath. Then, Andrew gets a nice big space to do his laundry, and when he sells the townhouse in five years, the appraisal will reflect that extra full bath.

After doing some Internet searching, I see this is not an uncommon use of space. At first it seemed a little odd, having a toilet in the laundry area. But after seeing a few photos, especially with the washer and dryer behind folding doors, I warmed up to the plan.

I was also reminded of Bethany Orlemann's brilliance when she incorporated the space of her service porch into the kitchen and then added front loaders under a counter. It made her Eagle Rock kitchen much larger and her laundry area is stylish.

You like the idea of a combo bathroom/laundry room?

(Photos: Bethany Orlemann)

Famous folks at home: quiz

Isn't this a lovely garden room? The owner calls it a teahouse and may not visit for months on end because of a busy schedule.

The garden was designed by Dan Bifano, who has also designed gardens for such high-profile clients as Barbra Streisand. The garden is filled with roses, wisteria, hydrangeas and plants like that. In fact, this little building was at first destined to be a flower-cutting space. But the owner decided it needed to be a sitting room.

"I chose the color of the grout," the owner is quoted saying in a magazine, "and I chose the particular kind of gravel that was right for the rose garden, and another kind for the pathways. Grout color and gravel size would drive most people nuts. But it's all part of the process for me."

Hint: Does this sound like a control freak to you?

Take your best guess then click here for the answer.

See more famous folks at home

Rate This Remodel: Carrie's 'Sex and the City' apartment

I guess the apartment where Carrie Bradshaw researched and wrote her columns in the "Sex and the City" television show probably did need a makeover.

Several years had passed from Carrie's life on the small screen to her promotion to the big screen, and we all need to evolve. Carrie's guests needed to stop sitting on the floor around her coffee table, right?

But I'm not sure the new apartment (see "after" photo above) is quite right for her. The apartment is attractive, no doubt about that. But it seems too streamlined for Carrie, too coordinated, too balanced. That's not our Carrie! And it doesn't look comfortable. And that big TV. What's that all about?

(Photos: Apartment Therapy, Chicago Tribune)

Poll: Is contemporary style on the way out?

As shocking as it may seem to fans of young, hip, cool, midcentury contemporary design, this style will not be popular forever.

Stick around on the planet for a few decades, and you'll understand all too well that today's "modern" is tomorrow's "hopelessly dated."

Whenever I find homeowners denigrating Mexican tiles or avocado green appliances from the 1970s, I caution: Think about your karma. Thirty years from now, in a kitchen remodeled today, a young person may gaze upon the stainless steel appliances, glass tile backsplash and sleek cabinets and declare them "totally gross."

I started thinking about the end of our contemporary era when I studied this photo from Architectural Digest. I'm using this luminescent white kitchen (which is in a New York penthouse) as inspiration for my own kitchen update.

Notice how the living room furniture and the railing on that staircase in the background are very contemporary. But look at the kitchen itself. The beadboard on the cabinet doors, the white-washed table and floor, and those metal, farm-style chairs look suspiciously country in flavor.

In another magazine, I read that poofy drapes are coming back into style. And another article asked if it's not time to reconsider growing herbs.

This is all starting to sound like Mother Earth News to me. And if we are headed for a transition from contemporary to earthy, this kitchen says it all.

Dispatch from New Orleans: The polls have closed; the ayes have it

The polls are now closed on this question:

Would following the restoration of an 1870s Katrina-damaged home in New Orleans be interesting to readers of this blog?

The votes: Yes: 89%; No: 11%

The ayes have it by a landslide.

Ariane Wiltse, the homeowner, is also setting up a blog so she can chronicle her home's progress in more detail than we can handle here.

This kind of reminds me of the 18-month-long Dream Home Diaries in the New York Times, which followed a Boston couple's building of a $1-million dream home on a small island in Florida.

The difference here is that this is not a new home and Ariane doesn't have $1 million. Her budget is more like a wing and a prayer. And all this makes for a more fascinating story, at least to me.

Thanks for voting. If you were among the 11% who indicated this story would not be of interest, I'd like to hear why you voted that way. What is your perspective?

As for the rest of you, welcome to this journey.

Dispatch from New Orleans: Do you care about this?

I had the occasion to visit New Orleans recently and toured a Katrina-damaged home that had been restored in a green manner, which I wrote about in a previous post.

I also toured the home pictured above, situated in the Holy Cross Neighborhood of the Lower 9th Ward, near the Global Green model home Brad Pitt is involved with.

I'd love to follow the restoration of this 1870s home on this blog. But I'm not sure if you would find it interesting and I need your feedback. I'm enthralled with this region and the fact that an estimated 50,000 storm-damaged homes need work. Whenever I see a 100-year-old home that needs help, I feel an almost irresistible desire to fix it up.

This home is a stone's throw from the Mississippi River and is now owned by Ariane Wiltse, whom you see above in the green shirt, talking with contractor Julie Groth. You can also see the trailer on the top left where Ariane will live until the house gets the prized certificate of occupancy.

When the storms hit in 2005, Ariane was in Florida in graduate school, studying to become a foreign correspondent. After graduating, though, she felt she needed to come home to New Orleans and be part of the rebuild. This house was a foreclosure listed for $24,000. A bit of a bidding war ensued, and Ariane got it for $40,000.

At the time, the drywall (which they call sheetrock in the eastern part of the country) was stripped off the lower four feet of the walls. But Ariane wanted to see what was going on with the entire structure, so she removed the rest of it. With a written home inspection and the advice of several contractors, she has decided to make all structural improvements before closing up the walls. Because flooding from the levee failure did not sit for weeks in this house (homes near the river tend to be on higher ground), there is not extensive mold damage and no mold smell.

I could go on. But should I?

I'm curious to find out: Would readers of this blog enjoy following along as Ariane restores this house? And to hear of her struggles as a community activist fighting against the area's rising crime? Or is this just too far from SoCal to be of interest?

Hot or not hot? Tin can wall covering

This wall covering made from tin can tops, as seen in the New York Times, has a certain appeal. But there's something a little creepy about it, as well. Or is it just me?

(Photo: New York Times)

Kim Myles: Do you like her show now?

Yesterday we saw another segment of Kim Myles' new HGTV show "Myles of Style" and I'm wondering: Do you like it now?

So far here, we've had more negative than positive comments.

Carmen wrote: "I think the show stunk with lack of know-how and class." (Read full comment)

Keri wrote about the first episode: "Off white, silver, red, mint green, teal blue. Blech! I hope the next episode is a little better or perhaps I'm just too conservative." (Read full comment)

RLS wrote: "Maybe she 'choked' the first time out. The final product was really bizarre. I wish her better luck next time." (Read full comment)

And today, Jennifer wrote: "If I see another tacky color scheme with cheap-looking painting stripes I may just have to read several design magazines to get that bad taste out of my mouth!" (Read full comment)

So now I'm wondering what's wrong with me. I missed the first show, but since then, I like what I've seen and wish I had the courage and creativity to do what Kim does. Did you see the portable side table made from a luggage rack and a spray-painted cookie sheet? Sweet!

What do you think?

Which is your favorite magazine cover?

Ever dream of being a magazine editor? Now you can experience what it's like to choose the cover of a magazine. This Old House is inviting readers to vote on one of these four covers for the June issue.

Which do you like best? Vote here and see how others voted.

The four cover images are from the same home in Southlake, Texas, which won the TOH Remodel Contest as determined by the site's visitors. The house and the family who renovated it will be featured in a 10-page spread in the issue.

Also, if "None of the above" is your answer, please explain below.

(Photo: This Old House)

EPA issues new rules to protect kids from lead during remodels

Sixteen years ago, Congress told the Environmental Protection Agency to do something about the lead-tainted dust that seeps into the air during renovations of houses built before 1978.

Perhaps spurred on by recent recalls of lead-taineted toys from China, this week the EPA finally issued new rules requiring contractors to take additional precautions when it comes to the lead-tainted dust in renovations where kids under 6 and pregnant women are living.

According to an L.A. Times article, "Exposure to lead is especially dangerous to young children, because it can damage their developing brains, causing learning disabilities and behavioral problems."

The new rules apply to work done in residences, child-care facilities and schools built before 1978, the year lead was banned for use in housing.

The new standards were praised by advocacy group Alliance for Healthy Homes, according to an Associated Press article, but its executive director, Patrick MacRoy, said: "In the 16 years since we've been waiting for this rule, at least 17 million children have been exposed to harmful levels of lead unnecessarily."

The alliance also said the rule should have stricter requirements such as banning "dry-scraping" of lead-based paint, which creates more dust.

Other critics, including presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, say the rules should have been stronger, requiring more testing after remodeling to make sure there is no lead left, and should have affected more homes.

According the L.A. Times, "An EPA analysis estimated that the cost of home renovations would rise by $500 million per year but that the regulations would save as much as $5 billion a year in children's health and education costs." The AP story says the regulations will add $35 to the cost of a remodel.

And, oh yeah, the rules won't take place for another two years.

Read the whole AP article, and more in the L.A. Times.

(Photo: Marin County)

Sprinklers running in the rain? Mushrooms growing in your yard?

High-tech wizards have tried to get us to use our computers to control so many mundane daily tasks: opening and closing the drapes, turning on the hot tub, setting back our thermostats.

But so far, we've resisted, finding a quick yank on the drapery pull easy enough.

But here's a device that might tip us toward high tech: a computer-controlled and weather-report-influenced sprinkler system.

Here's how the Cyber-Rain system works: You program into your computer how much water and when you'd like each zone in your automatic sprinkler system to get. What are your zones? You name them in the software so you can recall them easier, such as the "side yard near Bob and Jean's house." Or the "strip near the street."

The Cyber-Rain Access Point gizmo (which attaches through a USB port to your PC) sends a wireless signal to the controller telling it what to do and when. And it keeps track of water usage. And it adjusts for Daylight Savings Time.

But here's the cool part: The software checks the weather report each day through your computer and, if rain is indicated, it'll shut down watering for the following 24 hours.

According to the company: "Nearly 70 percent of landscape watering ends up as runoff contributing directly to pollution and water waste. The EPA ranks urban runoff and storm sewer discharges as the second most prevalent source of water quality impairment in our nation’s estuaries."

The system costs $349 and the company claims it will likely pay for itself in seven months because of decreased water usage.