If you want granite but worry about the cost, here’s how you make it more affordable: 1. Use granite in one place only, like on the island, rather than in the whole kitchen. 2. Use granite tiles with a wood edge, rather than slab granite with bull-nose edging, which is very expensive. As setting tile…
If you’ve got some extra cash in your jeans, you could do worse that giving yourself a kitchen remodel that’s also an artwork, like this beauty I visited in San Luis Obispo. The owner is a collector of local art, and works with the local art museum, so it was natural for her to hire…
Once upon a time there was a young man named Ian who lived in a cute house in Culver City. One day, Ian decided to build his dream kitchen. In his mind, there was a butcher-block counter and a sink with a huge faucet and hose sprayer, the better to fill his enormous pasta pots…
I drive all over Southern California looking at remodels — from Los Angeles to San Juan Capistrano to Lake Arrowhead to Santa Barbara and all points in between. And here’s a curious thing I’ve noticed. Half the time when I see really great cabinet knobs, the homeowners got them from the same source: MyKnobs.com. So…
The fact that Judy and Roy Uehara’s dingy, cramped 27-year-old kitchen and adjacent family room were transformed into a luminous, elegant, granite- and maple-infused great room is a triumph of sorts (as, indeed, are most remodels). The first hurdle was the sensitive timing of the renovation, which, for financial reasons, had to be done after…
If you bought a GE diswasher of a certain model between 1997 and 2001, and you are a fan of liquid rinse aid, you may have a problem. According to GE: In the affected models, the rinse aid can degrade the insulation on the wiring inside the door, which can cause an electrical short, overheating…
I came across this kitchen at the Sherman Oaks home of actress and furniture designer Amanda Pays and her husband, actor Corbin Bernsen. Here was the couple’s dilemma when they bought their latest fixer-upper: They wanted to move themselves and their four sons into a clean, stylish house, but they weren’t ready to add the…
Here’s the best-looking DIY kitchen I’ve seen yet. No offense to the other DIY kitchens I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. They all had their charms. But this Los Angeles kitchen is so luscious. So strikingly handsome. The project took Liese and David 18 months, which is an awful long time to wash dishes in…
What determines trends? Is it what the manufacturers are selling? Or what the designers are designing? Professional Remodeler magazine asked a different question: What are the homeowners choosing? A recent article, Kitchen and Bath Trends, is based on a survey of remodeling contractors across the country, who revealed these trends: — Oak cabinets are out,…
Have we fallen out of love with granite? I would never ask this question except that an article by Liz Pulliam Weston on MSN Real Estate titled “The Hottest Remodeling Trends for 2011″ suggests that, yes, granite is old school, so 1990s. It states that people once liked the sleek hardness of granite, but now…