Oh my goodness, I am so in love with what you have done with your house. Your style is my style! We're trying to achieve the look you have withour putting too much money in our home. I love your glass upper cabs! i wonder if I should just take down some of my top ones and do what you did. I'm trying to find my way with my kitchen design.

What I do ABSOLUTELY LOVE is my tile floors. I saw it a year and a half before I chose it. Everyone tried to talk me out of it. I REALLY wanted polished cement floors, but couldn't find anyone around here that I could afford or if I could, I didn't trust their work. This floor called to me. Everyone hated my sample tile. I stood by my choice after bringing home tons of other pieces. We have it in our kitchen, down the LONG hallway and into the guest bath.

I chose Imola Micron tile in Dark Gray. It is a through body porcelein tile and quite modern. It comes polished and unpolished. Polished is much more expensive, but is to die for. I wouldn't want it, though, because I have a dog. I don't need one more thing to polish! Drips disappear and dirt doesnt' show. Here's a link to the site (my tile in link below main site http://www.imolaceramica.it/jsps/portal/index.jsp) and some pictures of it.

Kara is guilty of messing up the floor someimes, but she didn't do it this time. You hardly see the coffee drips that mom got on the floor.

Floor need mopping in last photo.

I do have to mention, that soon after we put ours down, I saw my tile in several commercial applications. The first was in Journey's shoe stores. It's in blue there. I don't like it. I also so it in a Mitsubishi showroom. They had many colors, and the grays looked the best! Then they redid our local mall and used the beige version in there.

I know I'm typing a storm here, but my husband didn't really like the sample, but loves the floor. Well he did until I got a new Toto Aquia (is yours the Nexus?) toilet and he had to drill six holes in it. He worked on it for hours before I came home from work. He went through several bits...it was that hard! We finally had to take Playdough, make a dam around the hole, and kept filling it with ice water to keep the drill bits from burning up. When he fixed our washer the other day, he didn't even blink about dragging it out to fix. He said, "Nothing is going to hurt THIS floor! He was right.

Here is a link that might be useful: Imola Micron Dark Gray

Kristen,

I love your house as well! The wood and tile floors are gorgeous. You've done a wonderful job.

I do like that tile. You are right...very modern. Do you know how much it was? Right now, the cheaper, the better. I keep adding onto what I want to do, which costs more money...It is beautiful and it is good to hear that it is being used commercially!

I love your kitchen. The cabinets are beautiful with the black granite. Also, I like your fireplace...very modern. This may sound funny, but I really like your dining chairs with the wood and blue. I wouldnt change your upper cabs. I got my kitchen at IKEA. I couldnt use regular upper cabs because of the blasted soffitt (which we cut back from THREE feet wide) and also because things were off center around the sink. I think I will put some zebrawood shelves to the right of the sink. I got the idea from my dream house (link below)

Your pup is too cute! She looks so sweet and innocent. I have two small parrots and they are messy as well, so matte may be best for me also. I will look into this tile and find out where it is carried in Phx.

Here is a link that might be useful: gorgeous house

Yes it is a toto nexus...big splurge for me, but I decided to get the nexus or the aquia for the master. I also bought two cheaper totos (forgot what they are) for the other two baths. The aquia wouldnt fit for some reason so I opted for the nexus.

Also, I almost went with polished cement floors. I thought that is what I was getting when I hired a ctr., but it turned out to be a microtopping. Well, it turned into a nightmare of an experience. It is so soft that quarters dropped on it leave an imprint. He didnt clean it when sealing it and there is hair and dirt stuck in it. I got most of my money refunded after threatening to pursue legal action. I had a well-recommended contractor look at removing it and sealing the natural concrete floors for a much cheaper price than tile, but he said it would mean 5 days of pure unliveable mess. He also said he couldnt guarantee the state of the floors..ie there would be marks etc. on the native floors. I decided to give up and just do tile.

Thanks for all of your compliments. My goodness, I LOVE that dream house too. I think that yours is just like it, or on it's way. Do you live in California?

I am the kind of person who never finishes decorating. When I took the pictures, we had just had Christmas at our house, and everything looked great so I said, better snap them now. I still want to paint some more accent walls, put up my pictures, add some panels of curtains for sound reduction on some of the windows, and add some walls units (probably from Ikea...love them!) What's so crazy about me is that I'm an art teacher, and right now I have nothing on my walls. I do all of my work for my kids at home and at school, and everything looks great for them. It's now time for me! I better get creating!

My taste is very New York loft, but I live in a small community in Florida that does not lend itself to that taste. As I started to redo my pink, black, and gray 1988 house, we started with floors and painted the walls. Our old white plastic verticals (which we bought back then as a quick cover and left them up all those years) needed to be replaced, and after looking at panels, I decided to go for the plantation shutters with wide slats. I love them, but they changed the entire feel of what I was going for. Suddenly things became more formal. I think that since it takes me so long to decide, I finally just said do it on them. We bought our couches back in 1988 and actually had to travel to Miami to get good ones because you couldn't find the dyed through ones, only vinyl, here then. They have lasted so long, and are more comfortable now than when we got them. But after looking at your new one...our relationship is not as good now! My DH's black recliner is another story! Ewwww! We built our house to have a pool table, and got that back then too. It is black, gray felt, and brass. Like my fireplace, brass was "in" back then, but now, well you know. I have just given up and decided to mix the stuff. I know it not what people with money would do, but I'm not one of them. LOL I just got my dining set after 20 years of marriage. I could never afford what I wanted, so I waited. Then I got the poor shopkeeper to come down a lot. I feel bad that they're out of business now! It from Calligaris and it's the motion table with cherry and glass. The glass in a regular clear one, with the underside painted white. It has a light greenish blue tint. It looks darker in the picture It's my pride and joy. It pulls out and a cherry middle leaf pops up! I have my DH's grandmothers hutch from the 50's with it. It's very deco. I want to put some of the Ikea pull up cabs like you have above it. I think they might give me some displays for my dishes. Do you like them?

I would love your kitchen. I wish that I had thought more about replacing it with the Ikea. When we got our cabinets, they were "the modern thing". I asked for European, the simplier the better. I loved them. Now they are outdated, but I'm not sure that I want to spend the money right now to reface or change the doors. I'm thinking about just doing some sort of funky backsplash and hoping that if I pile up enough dishes and junk, no one will notice my cabinets!

Our tile floors were not cheap, but once again, I went to that store many times over a year and a half. After many times, I got him to come down on the price a lot. I think that the final cost was around $4.50 a square foot. I got the tiles from the Tile Market in Fort Myers, Florida. After looking at your dream house, have you thought about concrete floors? They can be very beautiful.

I told you I took long to decide. I literally but that sample at my feet by the sink and dropped things on it, dirtied it up, and then cleaned it as if it was my tile. I lived with it and knew that I couldn't live without it. When I almost got my soapstone, I did so because it felt like my floor, soft. The granite was a mistake. I listened to others on that one, and I shouldn't have second guessed my thoughts on it. I also wanted a gray countertop, but DH wanted black. It's never going to be my dream kitchen, but I'm going to try to make it one I like. Maybe someday, when I retire, I can build one like yours!

Good luck. I think I finally found someone who understands my decorating style and the dilemmas it can create (usually cost!). Have you noticed that simple is often expensive!

jennye I love, love, love your home. Can you tell me more about your bathroom cabinets/counters?

THanks hedgys! That makes my day! The cabinets in the master bath are dark (cherry? look espresso) by Brookehaven. The counters are white concrete. I dont know if I would recommend concrete. I am having trouble with them staining, although it is not all counters. I know some people do not have this problem and the ctr. is going to try to fix the stains for me. If I had to do it over again, I would use a different material. THe spare bath is Brookehaven as well, maple with a 4" thick concrete top. The sinks are kohler and the faucets grohe. I copied pieces of things I saw online and in mags. to put it together. The kitchen counter is also concrete, but again I am having problems with the island staining.

Kristen,

I live in Arizona (Phoenix). I'm with you! NYLoft style is the best. Clean and simple. Straight lines. No clutter.

I wouldnt change your cabinets at all. I love the white with the black countertops. I bet Ikea is not as good quality as yours. Also, your cabinets ARE modern and I see people adding them into contemporary homes all the time. I dont even think you need to add a backsplash, but it might be fun to do. Your kitchen reminds me of someone who posts on here...I think her name is Mindy. She has a beautiful IKEA modern kitchen very similar to yours. She added a glass backspash (too much $$$ for me unfortunately). I am also debating on a backsplash above the concrete backsplash. I am thinking of mosaic tile of tiny white glossy skinny bricks lined up in a row, not staggered. I have seen this somewhere.
LOL! I splurged on that couch (although it was $500 off) and now I dont like it! I just bought it and it looked so nice in the store. But its a good quality german couch.
BTW, I think mixing things is the way to go. It adds some color and texture. Also, who can afford to have everything be the same? I am constantly changing my tastes, and I would have to keep updating my house to go along with it. I really like mixing woods. Or I like how it looks in the magazines.
Yes, I like the glass cabs, although I havent put anything into them yet.I bought some bright red fat starbucks mugs to put in them. I want to put colorful items in them. We are still adjusting the cabinets. We still need to add a toe kick.
Like you, I have some of my grandmother's things...her retro hutch is in the living room. I love it.
I know what you mean about taking so long to decide. I am very indecisive with this decorating business, mostly because I cant afford any mistakes! Very funny about the artwork missing from an art teachers home! I just splurged and bought a couple abstract canvas paintings - one yellow one from a local artist and one copy by Ralf Bohnekamp (?) called Red. I am not hanging them until the house is done.