Atelier 918

Some cement tile merchants

Just a couple that I've found in my research.

Art & Ciment

Original Mission Tile

Ponderings on the Master Bedroom

We are starting to toy around with some ideas for redoing our bedroom. The walls are pink and the carpet is beige, both from the prior owners. The walls are imperfect behind, covered with some 5 layers of wallpaper and below that is calcimine paint. I'm not sure we're up to deal with striping all that down. We might just wallpaper over it -- a new idea that came to us.

I haven't given the carpeting much thought yet. I do know that the refinished floors upstairs look gorgeous in my office and the baby's room. It might be nice to redo the floor in the master bedroom as well, and then buy a large area rug for warmth and sound proofing.

I don't know what colors to do yet either -- though not blue. We have already used too much blue in the house.

I found these two sites for inspiration:

Charles Burger -- fabrics from Paris

Thibaut - wallpaper and fabric

Here's a shot of the Charles Burger shop in Paris:

We've Commited

Yesterday we purchased our AGA Six-Four range from Albert Lee. We got an awesome deal on it, and here is why...

We were 90% certain we wanted the AGA Six-Four and then last week we went to go check on lead time and availability, as well as look at range hoods at the showroom. It turns out that LUWA, Albert Lee's distributor, is no longer carrying AGA at all. A very recent turn of events. Even the AGA site wasn't updated to reflect the change. This was an unfortunate turn of events as no replacement distributor was named and the closest distributor was in Vancouver, B.C. -- close in proximity but a different country.

The sales associate at Albert Lee looked and they had two AGA's still on hand, one Companion and one Six-Four, in Cream. Hmmmm... we were kinda leaning towards a Claret one to fit in our dark red painted island but Cream would look out of place. What to do.

Our research into range hoods for island installations was arduous but it seemed as though with a higher output gas burners you really need to have an overhead hood. Our current island features a Jenn-Air with a downdraft; adding a hood over the island would pretty drastically alter the perception of space in the kitchen.

We came home and I started thinking again. Why couldn't our stove go against a wall? Granted our kitchen had some limitations, and yes several people we had consulted with advised us to stick with our current layout, but adding in a huge range hood over the island just was making me depressed. I didn't want the same layout all over again. I've been living with it for 9 years and disliked our configuration. It wasn't just the choice of appliances and fixtures of the prior owners, the layout itself was just awkward. Even better cabinetry (the prior owners installed Ikea cabinets) wouldn't improve it enough.

I discussed it with my partner and talked to him about how we could move the fridge by the outer corner of the room and then add the range in the current fridge spot. We could change the cabinetry to the right of the stove to be smaller and this would open up the kitchen more to the dining room as there is a tall pantry cabinet that fairly closes up the opening to the room. The island could take on a greater storage role and would function better from all sides as an all-purpose prep and work area.

We invited friends over for dinner last Sunday, to review our revised plans and get their input. The AGA distribution issue was one factor, then there was the potential resale situation -- would the AGA make our house harder to sell (should we decide to within the next 3-5 years?). Since this is a dual-fuel range it isn't that much of an issue, other than not having one single large oven -- which people freak out about being able to make a single huge turkey in once a year. We have family in town so Thanksgiving is usually a two kitchen affair, but we could also just buy two smaller birds. The smaller ovens with a range of optimum cooking options, the lovely look of the AGA, and the similar output to other higher-end ranges seemed to make sense given the kitchen we wanted.

We thought about switching to a Wolf range off and on all week. I could live with it, if we had to, but it was a little less exciting for me. We were just going to have to go to the Albert Lee Bellevue store to take a look at the remaining AGA Six-Four. We finally were able to get over there yesterday after baby woke from his nap. The Cream Six-Four was lovely in person and it was half off due to it being a floor model with a few dings.

That sealed the deal, we were sold. And so we did it, the AGA Six-Four was ours. Here is a shot of it in the warehouse yesterday:

 

Kitchen Flooring

We've gone back and forth in our discussions about kitchen flooring. I want something that is comfortable underfoot and my partner wanted tile or stone. I was pushing for lino.

We have been out to a few tile stores, more looking for backsplash ideas, but also browsing for flooring. Nothing particularly jumped out at us. My partner wanted more of a traditional/French look, I wanted more classic looking.

We recently travelled to France to visit family, and travelling with a 2-year-old necessitated frequent stops while touring around Paris -- at the city's plethora of cafes. I noted some interesting tile on the floor, but didn't think too much about it until we passed by this window one day in the Marais.

     

These lovely tiles are by Emaux de la Fontaine, a tilemaker from Crecy La Chappelle.

I'm really into the idea of using this cement tile on our floor now. We will have radiant heating installed which will help on the comfort factor -- right now the kitchen is unheated.

I haven't yet found any U.S. distributors of this tile, we might have to order it from France. I just need to research the color options as well.

Kitchen cabinets

My partner wants me to be in charge of seeing the kitchen cabinets order through for our kitchen remodel. We have everything picked out style-wise but just need to motivate the cabinet dealer to help us get it completed and ordered.

I think we just have to agree to the rough estimate and then they will come out to measure and look at our current uses and needs. Then the order can get placed. I think that is what needs to happen.

For some reason whfn the economy is slow we like to make larger purchases for our house. We got our washer and dryer and refrigerator in the wake of 9/11. I guess we will try to do our part again.

Interesting rainwater tank

I just came across this on a design email newsletter and thought you might be interested.

This design firm in Australia wanted to design a transparent rainbarrel so you could see when it was full but regulations wouldn't allow it. They changed their design so that the tank lights up when full. It looks pretty gorgeous, great for an urban garden.

Full Tank lights up with designer rainwater tank

http://www.fulltank.com.au/

White Paint

I'm going to try to tackle the final painting required to finish the bathroom project this weekend. I stopped by the paint store to pick up some white Fuller O'Brien paint as the crap can of white we had tried using just is icky -- it leaves brush marks that bug me. I also picked up another larger Purdy brush to help with the larger areas to be painted such as on the doors and baseboards, etc.

I should get cracking as my partner returns from Paris tomorrow night and I want to surprise him with the completed paint job.

Radiators need bleeding

When we had the bathroom radiator removed and reinstalled to allow for the laying of the new travertine tile floor earlier this year the plumber never refilled the radiator system. All eight radiators are 75-80% full of air which is surely not a good thing.

I called around and was advised by a heating contractor that it would be best to bleed them myself, it's a time-consuming job and not difficult to do. He advised that we turn the system on which would circulate the water, hold a container under the valve when we do it and start at the bottom of the system and work our way up. He said we might need to go around top to bottom more than once to get all of the air out.

Tracking down a radiator valve key was a little challenging but Ace Hardware carries them, though my favorite Ace store in Seattle --Tweedy and Pop's -- didn't have them in stock. They promised me that they would order one in for me and have it as soon as Tuesday.

The tub

Since someone asked, the tub is the MAXX Topaz. The company was recently purchased (in the past year) so some of the orders were backlogged. It is very nice though and we thought it worth the wait. This is the thing that got this project started in the first place.

We ordered it online and the tub was shipped from Washington where it is manufactured (the same state we live in) to New Jersey and then back. How lovely is that? We did try to see if arrangements could be made elsewise but it wasn't possible.

Give me a headache why don't you?

The tilers got the backing board down on the floor and the remainder of the walls yesterday and put down the pieces on the top edge of the tub surround. It will be really nice. What really gave me a headache, on top of the rare headache I had yesterday evening, was that my partner wanted me to plan some sort of decorative insert for the flooring. I should be able to do this, I went to art school and I'm a creative person. The thing is that he's been second guessing our wall tile selection, saying it is too expensive. Now how am I supposed to plan any decorative inserts if I don't even know what the accent tile might be -- if it isn't the wall tile then I don't know what else we would use. And do we really need a decorative inset?

I also looked online to see if I could find any other options -- how about buying the mesh and tile and setting up our own mixture? No, maybe that is what gave me the headache in the first place -- that would be amazing to get to do that but also an enormous amount of work and we have enough other projects going on in our lives.

So today at lunch we went out to Waterworks in Belltown (a downtown Seattle neighborhood) to look at their glass tiles. They have a smaller mosaic tile that is pretty nice and costs half as much. We brought home one sample and we have two other color options on order for later this week or beginning of next. The sample we have is golden, with some variation in hue from tile to tile, the tiles are about as big as my thumbnail. It would work with the travertine on the floor but it really changes the feel of the room. It might look gorgeous in the end but it wouldn't be the bathroom I wanted to design. We can and will figure this out.