ASID Design Excellence First Place Residential – Kitchen and Bathroom: Michael Merrill Design Studio was approached three years ago by the homeowner to redesign her kitchen. Although she was dissatisfied with some aspects of her home, she still loved it dearly. As we discovered her passion for design, we began to rework her entire home--room by room, top to bottom.

Inspiration for a small transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile mosaic tile floor alcove shower remodel in New York with an undermount sink, raised-panel cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets and marble countertops

This property is an infill lot located on a dense residential street on Mercer Island. The Design incorporated a Mid Century Chic character with a North West Edgy Vibe and a distinctive architectural detail.

Home design - traditional home design idea

Home design - traditional home design idea

Here we have a six year old Indian Sandstone tiled floor located a property on the outskirts of Lancaster. Measuring 100 metres squared, the very large floor had under floor heating in the concrete sub base. The type of stone used inside the property is what we commonly refer to as ‘patio Sandstone’, a material which is usually used outside because of its very rough texture. It’s not particularly comfortable to walk across in bare feet, hence why many people consider it be impractical for internal flooring. Nonetheless, the property owner was keen to make the rough textured floor as feet-friendly as possible for people walking over it. At Tile Doctor we have developed a process known as milling, which utilises diamond encrusted pads combined with a weighted rotary machine to smooth the rough surface, leaving it looking and feeling a lot nicer and more practical to live with. The milling process is only done once, but while the Sandstone will still need cleaning and sealing in the future, it won’t be nearly as difficult as when it was rough. The job would take over two weeks to complete due to the fact that the existing grout needed to be removed and replaced with a flexible floor grout: a very time consuming process. As mentioned, the surface of the Sandstone was very rough, and so needed to be milled down to make it a lot smoother to look after and make it easy to clean and seal. This was achieved by using Tile Doctor’s 50 Grit diamond encrusted burnishing pads, fitted to a weighed rotary machine and run along the entire surface area of the floor. Through this process the stone became much smoother and more aesthetic – completing one of our main objectives for the customer. Next, we started breaking out the already loose and badly applied grout with our grout removal tools. The builder who had installed the floor had used a sand/cement-based grout which wasn’t flexible. As a result, it started to crumble and loosen quite quickly after exposure to the underfloor heating. We removed this and replaced it with a far more flexible grout. Once the whole area had been successfully milled and the grout replaced, the Sandstone floor was left to dry out over the weekend. Upon our return to the property, we cleaned off any dust and resin left over from the milling and grouting processes, before leaving it to dry for a further 24 hours. The next day we returned to seal the whole floor with two coats of our impregnating sealer Tile Doctor Colour Grow. The sealer fills the pores of the Sandstone to prevent ingrained dirt and stains, while also emphasising the natural colours in the stone. It also provides a robust matte finish, which is what the customer wished for. It wasn’t the easiest of processes to get the Indian Sandstone into a condition where it would be both suitable for internal flooring and aesthetically pleasing, but the results proved to be very much worth the time and effort invested. The customer was very pleased with the transformation. Russell Taylor Lancashire Tile Doctor

Kimberly Gavin Photography
Kitchen - contemporary galley kitchen idea in Denver with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, gray backsplash, stone slab backsplash and an island

Patio container garden - mid-sized contemporary courtyard tile patio container garden idea in New York with no cover

This is an example of a mid-sized modern backyard concrete paver landscaping in Orange County.

On the top floor Anna and Brian each have large offices separated by a Jack and Jill bath and walk in closets. The outdoor balcony on the second floor provides a sitting area with a great valley view and a quatrefoil opening at the end that targets the lush California greenery. Matching barbed quatrefoil windows are also to be found in the kitchen and master wardrobe area. Ceramic murals and pieces of Brian and Anna’s art collection are encountered at key points around the perimeter of the house and also within the house. The roof is a classic clay tile roof with half round copper gutters and round downspouts. The rounded entry turret has deeply inset windows reminiscent of early adobe construction. Chosen by the owners, a boutique in Santa Barbara carefully crafted the black wrought iron lanterns used throughout the house. Indivar Sivanathan

Small transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile mosaic tile floor alcove shower photo in New York with raised-panel cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets and marble countertops

The river rocks are embedded into the 12x12 sandstone using a 'cut out' method- that is not possible with all materials. Each tile and it's placement was selected to form certain patterns

Inspiration for a large contemporary backyard stone and rectangular hot tub remodel in San Francisco