Well, the holidays are over and the New Year is upon us. Take a deep breath, you made it through! It seems that with the new year comes a sense of re-grouping, purging, organizing, and de-cluttering, not to mention all the weight-loss resolutions I keep hearing about.
This new year, I invite you to focus on your home for a few moments. Think of how entertaining went over the holiday – do the holidays bring your family a little too close together? Was your kitchen cramped with more than one person in it? Were you seriously short on dining room space?
While it is still fresh in your mind, make mental notes of what worked and what didn’t work in your home, including whether you need more space to prepare and serve meals, or more room for overnight guests. Now is the time to objectively assess your needs in detail before the barrage of home shows and expos, (that way you can go to the shows prepared and armed with a list of realistic and practical ideas).
Are your cabinets outdated? How are the floors and countertops holding up? Do the light fixtures provide good ambient and task lighting or do they only serve to illuminate the cracks in the ceiling? Did your family flow easily from one room to the next, or do bottlenecks abound?
*If you are having trouble with this type of analysis, feel free to schedule an appointment with one of our designers to walk you through the process.
Then bring you observations to us and we’ll help you formulate a plan! For more than 30 years this family-run business has encountered pretty much every remodeling challenge, providing personalized, responsive solutions. We guarantee quality craftsmanship and a quality outcome.
We have just received our copy of Green Builder Magazine’s second annual sustainable construction guide, a fantastic resource giving you the information you need to understand the basic principles of sustainable design, planning, and construction. The guide is short and concise – an easy read and quick reference. We have a few copies here at our office/showroom if you would like to see it in person.
I would like to highlight their Green Building Pyramid:
Green Builder Magazine has successfully broken down, by difficulty, all the steps you can take to creating an eco-friendly home.
First and foremost is Education: “If you don’t understand basic green principles, you’re likely to make decisions you later regret”. Green Builder College has courses you can take, but there are things you can do locally as well. Just reading the handbook will give you a great start! The Northfield Public Library has several wonderful books on green building and remodeling. We are also fortunate enough to have two colleges with many resources.
Secondly, if you are building a new home, consider Location, Siting, and House Size. Controlling house size is one of my favorite aspects of being an Interior Designer. In most house plans there are so many missed opportunities for saving space. I love to find ways to increase efficiency and function, while maintaining the proper scale and proportions of the home. With the economy the way it is, people are demanding (and rightly so, I believe) more functionality out of less space.
Cabinets, flooring and counter-tops installed. Finishing up moulding and paint. Next will come appliances and a final clean!
Win a Wellborn Dream Kitchen Makeover! Wellborn Cabinets, Inc. will award a check up to $12,000 to the winner of the Wellborn Dream Kitchen. Come to our Showroom at 1325 Armstrong Road, Northfield MN 55057 to enter, Or stop by our kitchen display at Rooms by Tagg 2 downtown Northfield on Division Street and enter there.
Register September 1, 2011 – February 17, 2012
A photo update from our previous post showing the cabinets installed and the drywall and lights in the new dining room (previously the attached garage).
Be sure to check out our galleries for updated kitchen photos and our before & after page for the full effect of the remodel.
This kitchen remodel included light maple cabinets, laminate flooring and counter tops, new windows and fresh painting.
One of our current projects is a Northfield home remodel, including a new kitchen, siding, windows, detached garage, and conversion of the existing attached garage into a dining room, rear entry and laundry closet. The photo above shows the house before we began work.
Kitchen before shot above.
The existing garage did not provide enough space for our clients’ cars and storage needs. The kitchen was in good shape, but outdated and was not functional or efficient in its layout. There was no existing dining area save a breakfast nook with bench seating.
We added a two-car detached garage on the side of the lot at an angle to maximize yard space and lessen the severity of the view from the curb. The existing attached garage was converted into a spacious dining room with large windows and open flow from the adjacent kitchen and living area. There is also a laundry closet to provide the owners an option for aging-in-place/all on one floor living, as well as a rear entry area and closet with access to the backyard, side patio and new garage.
The next few weeks will bring the finishing touches to the project and we will be sure to post more pictures showing the interior design services we provided for these wonderful clients. (Cabinetry, counter top, flooring, and paint selections).
And now for the in-progress pictures. Be sure to check back for finished photos!
Tomorrow is the last day to take advantage of several special promotions we are running for Wellborn Cabinetry Inc.. Check out the Wellborn page on our website for details on each sale!
Hurry!!
