Kitchen + First Floor Bath- Woodard

It’s FRIDAY!!! This week has just flown by with new client appointments and a very fun baby room + toddler room install that is so close to being finished. I’m going to share the design plan on those two spaces soon but won’t have any finished photos until my photographer shoots the rooms.

Last week I introduced a new spec home that I’m working on and today I have the plan for the kitchen and the first floor bathroom. When designing a spec home vs. helping a homeowner with their home, I don’t get too push the envelope as much, but I still try to select a few things that are special and memorable. This home is fairly classic in style but with a clean, modern edge to it as this is in a funky, up and coming area just North of the city. The walls throughout the entire home are a very light greige (gray + beige) color with a soft white for all the millwork. To give it a little more interest I’ve decided to paint all the interior doors + the island a soft shade of gray. Not too bold or taste specific, but not plain ol’ white either. While I absolutely LOVE lighter wood floors, I’ve decided to go a little safer with a medium brown, scraped engineered hardwood for throughout the home (except for the secondary rooms on the second floor which will be carpeted). We’re doing a farmhouse sink and a transitional faucet. The backsplash is this adorable mini herringbone tile which will compliment the honed marble countertops.

Because everything is fairly light in color, which is especially great in a spec home, I decided to offset it with black accents. The kitchen pendants over the island are these retro mod glass domes with a black down-rod that matches the hardware on the kitchen cabinets. Black is then repeated in the contemporary modern fixtures in both the dining + living room, which are the type of character pieces I like to add to a space. 

The powder room also has a few black touches, but because I love to mix finishes, I couldn't resist throwing in some brass as well. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the dining room fixture has a tiny bit of brass, which helps keep a home feeling cohesive. *Insider note- brass may or may not make an appearance in the master bathroom as well. I absolutely love to use unique mirrors in bathrooms for a more custom look and I love the look of a single bent arm sconce over a round mirror.

Because this space is not very large, I wanted to use a tile on the floor that could also be used in the shower, which meant I needed a smaller scale tile (you need smaller tiles on a shower floor in order to direct the water to the drain), so I went with a class white basket weave pattern with a small gray accent.  Since this will be a little busier, I went with a plain, larger format gray subway tile in high gloss. The faucet and fixtures are square but still have a softness to them so they don’t feel too contemporary. I’m still undecided on the vanity color, but leaning towards the same gray as the island and interior doors, but may do a little pop of color as well. 

Here are how the two spaces look all together. I think the entire first floor flows together nicely without being matched, giving it that custom feel. Overall a modern home with classic touches. 

That wraps the first floor details. Next week will be all about the secondary bathrooms upstairs and then the master bathroom. Have a great first day of fall… even if the temps still scream Summer!!

New Project- Woodard

Hi ya’ll!!! Sorry for the unintended hiatus, but it seems life was thrown off kilter after Hurricane Harvey came through Houston. We were so fortunate and our home never flooded, but co-workers of Ryan were not so lucky. Their stories, and those of so many Houstonians, are absolutely heartbreaking. Last week we drove through a neighborhood about 10 minutes from us that was heavily affected and it looked like a war zone. Every single house for blocks had piles in front of their homes with furniture, flooring and woodwork that was destroyed by flooding. It is, without a doubt, going to be a long road to recovery for these people and this city we've come to love. If you're able to, and feel inclined to do so, please donate to the recovery effort! I also want to thank everyone who reached out during that time to check on us. Nothing like a natural disaster to remind you of the great people in your life who care about you; we definitely felt the love!!! 

I’ll be honest, it felt wrong to start talking and blogging about things like interior design, which feels so frivolous when people around you are hurting. I guess it's a form of "survivor guilt" but someone shared with me that it's good that not everyone was affected by Hurricane Harvey because otherwise this city would never be able to bounce back and help others get back on their feet. So with that, I've decided to push forward and start to get things back to normal. 

I’m really far behind on sharing the progress on a lot of great projects I’m working on, so I’m going to start chipping away and getting everyone caught up, starting with a new project! For the past six months or so I’ve been working on a spec home that a client of mine is building. It’s a little over 3100 square feet and has four bedrooms and four baths, as well as a game/media room and a flex space on the third floor. We’re actually in the homestretch, BUT because I’m behind on blogging, today is all about the millwork.

When I was brought on to help with this project, the house was framed but no renderings of the kitchen or bathrooms had been completed, so I started by working with my carpenter on coming up with kitchen layout. The kitchen is fairly large which allowed for a nice size island in the middle. We also utilized large drawers whenever possible for more convenient storage. 

When designing a spec home, I generally keep the layout and design pretty classic in order to appeal to more potential buys, but I still like to add few custom touches to make it stand apart from other homes on the market. I decided to have my carpenter build a custom range hood, and rather than squeezing in a small cabinet on either side, I opted for floating shelves. 

I absolutely love how this turned out and how these small touches instantly make the home feel more high end. 

Off the kitchen, leading to the dining room at the front of the house, is the dry bar and pantry. The first picture shows the space before the shaker-style cabinet doors were added. 

To connect this to the kitchen, we've repeated the open shelves and the same backsplash tile will be carried into this space as well. The gap on the bottom is where the wine cooler will be located.  

The first floor bathroom has access from the main hallway as well as the attached guest room/office at the front of the house.

Upstairs are two more secondary bedrooms that are joined with a Jack and Jill Bathroom. The game/media room also has a small attached bathroom. In the laundry room we’ve added upper cabinets on either side of the window and a small base cabinet for folding off laundry off to the side.

In the master bathroom, the vanities are split but both have great size to them. The one closest to the window, we added a lower makeup counter. There is a walk-in shower with a bench and a separate tub. Next to the tub there was the perfect amount of space for a small built-in cabinet with a pulldown laundry bin.

Next week I’ll be back sharing the design plan for the kitchen and first floor bathroom. We have some really great tile and lighting planned for this home, and I can’t wait to see it all installed! Have a great rest of the week!