Reputable On Line - Photos & Ideas

Meoded Paint and Plaster roots began in Europe over 40 years ago, inspired by the Italian Renaissance and the master artisans of the period. The timeless beauty and lasting construction of the Venetian plaster materials of the time influenced Meoded’s move to the U.S., where we were the first to manufacture authentic lime-based zero VOC wet decorative plasters. Meoded’s growth in the decorative paint and faux finish trade continues to thrive by adding other unique products such as the Sapphire Metallic paint line, Crystal Brush glitter paints and Pearlas Velvet suede finishes. All of our products are eco-friendly and easy to apply. Our reputation is built on the word of mouth from loyal customers who not only trust the high quality products, but also enjoy the friendly environment and support from the helpful and talented team of experts on staff.

Encinitas Dream

TaylorPro Design and Remodeling, Inc.

"Since my husband works in the residential home building industry, our standards were very high on the contractor we chose to engage. Through referrals and Angie's List, my husband and I got a total of 6 bids from 6 different reputable San Diego contractors. We ultimately selected Kerry at TaylorPro Services for the following reasons: 1. His responsiveness. He was quick to respond on email and text, which is the format of communication that works best for me given that I'm a busy mom of two little kids and talking on the phone is challenging. 2. His detailed bid. A bunch of the contractors that gave us bids didn't include line item details but Kerry did. I knew exactly what to expect and what I was paying for. Before we engaged him, we sent him follow up questions to his bid and he answered them quickly. Kerry was also flexible in removing certain items that we wanted to do ourselves. 3. Price. While all the contractors came in around $15K of each other, Kerry was the lowest of them all. Kerry appreciated that we were priced in a $850K home and not a $3M Rancho Santa Fe home. I felt that he took our budget into consideration. Kerry's crew came on time daily to our house. Since we were living in the house during construction, I felt that they were very considerate to cleaning up and being there on time. Additionally, since I personally didn't have experience with remodels, Kerry and his crew were courteous and polite to me and answered all of my questions no matter how mundane or redundant they were. Going into the project, everyone (and their mother) kept telling me how (a) messy it was going to be and (b) how I would wind up hating my contractor in the end and feeling like I got screwed out of money. I can say that yes, it was messy because we pulled up 1200 sq feet of tile! and no, I did not hate Kerry at the end. In fact, I would highly recommend Kerry. His personality is suited well for this kind of stressful project and his honesty and attention to detail was extraordinary." ~ Carrie H, Client Photos by: Kerry W. Taylor

Creemore Kitchen

Meghan Carter Design Inc.

Example of a small transitional galley light wood floor eat-in kitchen design in Other with recessed-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, solid surface countertops, stainless steel appliances, an island and an undermount sink

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Napoleon Products

Living room - mid-sized contemporary enclosed dark wood floor and brown floor living room idea in Toronto with white walls, a ribbon fireplace, a metal fireplace and no tv

West Quebec

Two Fold Interiors

Large rustic brown split-level wood exterior home idea in Toronto with a metal roof

Keeping Clean Lines, Kitchen Renovation in Los Angeles, CA

Victory Home Remodeling

Victory Home Remodeling is one of the most reputed kitchen and bath remodelers in Los Angeles who has been serving the industry for over a decade with supreme quality kitchen remodeling services in Los Angeles and bathroom remodeling services in Los Angeles. Kitchen Remodeling in Los Angeles, CA - https://www.victoryhomeremodeling.com/

Kitchens by Main Line Kitchen Design

Bella Casa Design and Build

For fifty years the Panaccio family has been known as detail oriented builders and general contractors in the Delaware Valley. Alesio Panaccio the owner of AD Panaccio Inc began working in the family business 25 years ago. Today his company oversees a varied array of residential and commercial construction jobs. Yearly projects include major residential additions, kitchens, baths, finished basements, porches and decks, as well as commercial and handicap compliant contruction. Whatever the project though, it isn’t simply the fine craftsmanship that sets AD Panaccio’s work apart from the competition. It is the personal touch and availability of Al Panaccio himself and the other members of the Pannaccio team. This makes home owners and business owners comfortable during the construction process, and satisfied upon the works completion. This personal touch also accounts for the companies reputation and why they continue to receive 5 star reviews on various search engines, web sites and with Servicemagic. AD Pannaccio Serves Philadelphia and the Surrounding Communities Including: The Main Line, Upper Darby, Havertown, Broomall, Newtown Square, Bala Cynwyd, Merion, Narberth, Ardmore, Haverford, Gladwynne, Bryn Mawr, Villanova, Wayne, Paoli, Malvern, West Chester, and Media.

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Millersburg, OH

Schlabach Woodworks21 Reviews

Franklin County's Reclaimed Wood Professionals

Ravine Rejig in Forest Hill

Eurodale Developments Inc

Cheap and Cheerful! This space was cleaned up, existing space sprayed white and a new laminate floor installed. Phase two will see this space fully waterproofed, underpinned and finished to match the rest of the home, but for now provides a great play and storage space.

Why Every Chicago Remodel Ends Up Debating the Same Three Slabs

safe ZOnea

Ask a kitchen designer in Chicago which countertop question comes up most and you will hear the same answer: white or off-white quartz, and which shade. Homeowners walk into showrooms with a photo saved on their phone, usually a bright, veined slab from a magazine spread, and leave an hour later realizing there are a dozen versions of that same look. The confusion is not about taste. It is about the fact that "white quartz" covers a huge range of patterns, undertones, and price points, and nobody explains the differences before the sale. Older bungalows and newer builds alike are getting stripped of their dated laminate and butcher block in favor of quartz, and the reasons are practical rather than trendy. Quartz does not need sealing, resists the kind of staining that granite can suffer over decades, and holds up to the freeze-thaw humidity swings that Chicago basements and kitchens go through every year. Once a homeowner commits to quartz, though, the real decision starts: which white, and does the pattern justify the difference in cost. This piece walks through three specific slabs that keep showing up in Chicago renovation projects, why designers reach for them in different rooms, and what actually separates a flat white surface from one with real depth. None of this requires a design background to follow. It is mostly about paying attention to how a slab behaves under kitchen lighting, how busy the vending gets, and how it photographs versus how it looks in person. Why White Quartz Took Over Chicago Kitchens Ten years ago, granite dominated Chicago kitchen remodels almost by default. It was durable, it looked expensive, and every fabricator in the metro area carried a wide range of colors. Quartz has since taken over that position, and the shift happened faster than most contractors expected. Engineered stone gave homeowners a more predictable surface, since natural granite varies slab to slab while quartz is manufactured to a consistent pattern batch after batch. The other driver is light. Chicago winters are long and gray, and a lot of kitchens, especially in older two-flats and courtyard buildings, do not get much direct sun. A dark granite countertop in a dim kitchen can make the whole room feel smaller. White and light-toned quartz reflects what little natural light comes through the windows, and it makes a galley kitchen or a north-facing space feel noticeably brighter without touching the cabinetry or the layout. There is also a resale argument that local real estate agents bring up constantly. White quartz photographs well for listings, reads as updated and low-maintenance to buyers touring in person, and does not compete visually with whatever cabinet color the next owner might prefer. It is a safer bet than a bold veined marble look or a colored quartz that might feel dated in five years. Arctic White and the Cost Question Among the flatter, more uniform whites, arctic white quartz price comes up constantly in budget conversations because the slab sits at a more approachable point than the heavily veined Italian-marble-inspired patterns. It reads as clean and bright without the busy movement that some homeowners find overwhelming in a small kitchen. Fabricators in the Chicago area tend to keep it in stock precisely because demand stays steady across both new construction and remodel projects. Part of what keeps this slab affordable relative to its heavily patterned cousins comes down to manufacturing complexity. A quartz surface with minimal veining and a consistent white base is simpler to produce at scale than one that mimics the irregular, high-contrast movement of natural Calacatta marble. That production difference shows up directly in what a homeowner pays per square foot, and it is worth asking a fabricator to walk through that pricing before assuming every white quartz costs the same. Homeowners planning a full kitchen, including an island, backsplash, and perimeter counters, often use a flatter white like this specifically because it lets other elements carry the visual interest. A patterned tile backsplash or a bold cabinet color reads more clearly against a calm countertop than against one already fighting for attention with heavy veining. Designers frequently pair simpler whites with statement lighting fixtures for exactly this reason. What Makes Calacatta Patterns Different Calacatta refers to a family of marble originally quarried in Italy, known for a bright white background broken up by bold, often gold-toned veining that moves in thick, dramatic streaks rather than thin gray lines. Natural Calacatta marble is soft, porous, and expensive to maintain, which is exactly why quartz manufacturers spent years developing engineered versions that replicate the look without the upkeep headaches. The challenge with any Calacatta-style quartz is getting the veining to look organic instead of printed. Early generations of engineered stone struggled with repetitive patterns that gave away the fact the slab was manufactured rather than cut from actual marble. Modern digital printing and layering techniques have closed that gap considerably, and the better Calacatta-inspired quartz lines now vary the veining across each slab batch so two counters in the same kitchen do not look identical. Chicago designers gravitate toward Calacatta patterns for kitchens that function as the visual centerpiece of an open floor plan, which describes a large share of the gut renovations happening in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park, Roscoe Village, and the North Shore suburbs. When the kitchen island is visible from the living room and dining area, a dramatic veined surface becomes part of the home's overall design language rather than a purely functional work surface. Calacatta Arno Under Kitchen Lighting One of the more popular options in this category, calacatta arno quartz, balances a warm white base with soft gray and gold veining that avoids looking too stark under the cooler LED lighting common in newer Chicago builds. Homeowners touring showrooms sometimes make the mistake of judging a slab entirely under warm incandescent lighting, then get surprised when the same surface looks slightly different once installed under their kitchen's actual fixtures. What separates this particular pattern from flatter competitors is how the veining clusters rather than spreading evenly across the slab. That clustering mimics the way real quarried marble forms, with denser mineral deposits in some sections and cleaner stretches in others. Fabricators cutting a large island slab from a single piece will often orient the pattern intentionally so the busiest veining lands somewhere visually interesting rather than getting cut off at an edge. Because the background reads warmer than a stark white, this pattern tends to pair well with brass or matte gold hardware, a combination that has been showing up repeatedly in Chicago kitchen remodels over the past few renovation seasons. Cabinet painters report a similar trend, with more clients requesting warm white or greige cabinet colors specifically because they complement this kind of veined quartz better than a cooler, blue-toned white would. Silestone's Version of the Calacatta Look Manufacturers compete directly in this Calacatta-inspired category, and silestone eternal calacatta gold represents one brand's specific take on the pattern, distinguished by richer gold veining set against a brighter white base than some competing slabs in the same family. Silestone has built a reputation around anti-bacterial surface treatments in addition to the standard quartz durability, a detail some homeowners specifically ask about for kitchens used heavily by families with young children. The veining in this particular slab tends to run in longer, more continuous lines compared to the clustered pattern found in some other Calacatta-style options, which gives large island surfaces a sense of visual flow from one end to the other. Fabricators working with bigger islands, the kind increasingly common in open-concept Chicago remodels, often favor patterns like this because there is less need to worry about seams interrupting a busy, disconnected pattern. Price positioning for this slab tends to sit toward the upper end of the engineered quartz category, reflecting both the brand's manufacturing process and the complexity of replicating that continuous gold veining consistently across production batches. Homeowners weighing this option against other Calacatta-style quartz should ask their fabricator directly about batch availability, since premium patterns sometimes have longer lead times than standard stock colors. Living With Quartz Day to Day Beyond how a slab looks in a showroom or a listing photo, the daily experience of owning quartz countertops matters more once the renovation dust settles. Quartz resists scratching far better than laminate and holds up to the acidic spills, hot pans, and general abuse of an active kitchen without the sealing maintenance that natural stone requires every year or two. That low-maintenance reputation is a large part of why quartz overtook granite in the first place. Heat resistance is a detail that gets less attention than it should. While quartz handles moderate heat well, manufacturers generally recommend using a trivet or pad for very hot pots straight off the stove, since sudden temperature shock can occasionally cause stress marks in the resin binder that holds the engineered stone together. This is a minor precaution rather than a major limitation, but it is worth mentioning to anyone assuming quartz is entirely indestructible. Cleaning routines stay simple across almost every pattern in this category. A damp cloth and mild soap handle daily messes, and the nonporous surface means wine, coffee, and tomato-based sauces do not soak in the way they can with unsealed granite or marble. Homeowners moving from an older stone counter often mention how much less they worry about everyday spills once quartz is installed, which is a quality-of-life change that rarely makes it into the initial design conversation. Choosing Between the Three There is no single correct answer among these three slabs, and that is exactly why they keep coming up together in the same design conversations across Chicago renovation projects. A flatter white with minimal veining suits kitchens where other elements need to carry the visual interest, while a bolder Calacatta-inspired pattern makes sense when the countertop itself is meant to be the centerpiece of an open floor plan. Budget matters too, and it is worth having a direct conversation with a fabricator about where each option lands before falling in love with a specific slab in a showroom. Lighting, cabinet color, and how the kitchen connects to the rest of the home all play into which pattern will actually look right once installation is finished rather than just in a photo. Whatever direction a homeowner leans, seeing a full slab in person under actual kitchen lighting remains the single most useful step before signing off. Photos only go so far once the countertop is sitting in the room it will live in for years.

The Lakebreeze // 104 Burnet Street, Oakville

DCAM HOMES INC.