A Light, Airy Kitchen by Fiorito Interior Design

Acquiring a new house is an exciting occasion but often has many challenges. So when my clients moved here to California from the east coast and purchased a home that was built in 1967, they came to me to help modernize and update the house that clearly had not been touched since the 70s. For the kitchen, we removed the dated orange oak cabinetry, tile counter tops (with pesky large grout lines), and cracked terra cotta flooring. This enabled us to start from scratch so we could create a light, bright kitchen in the soft fog and forest colors of the coastal mountain region of our area here in Northern California.

White cabinetry and light neutrals in the space create an airy, open feeling. European white oak flooring contributes to the organic feeling and grounds the space. New appliances (including a French-door Sub Zero refrigerator and a Wolf oven with coordinating microwave), hand-forged iron light fixtures, and a luxurious Crema Marfil marble counter and mosaic backsplash elevate this kitchen while the custom drapery panels, trestle table, and custom chairs in the dining area allow the kitchen to retain a casual, contemporary-California atmosphere.

All after photos by Bernardo Grijalva

Here is what it looked like before we gave it a new lease of life!

And here is the empty kitchen, just in drywall and ply sub-flooring, waiting to be made beautiful.

Do you have a dated kitchen that needs a lift? Call me!

Happy designing!

Michael Aram's Orchids By Artistic Tile

Every now and then, my design radar picks up a product that boggles my mind. And these three dimensional tiles are doing just that.

Based on Michael Aram's White Orchid Collection of dinner and housewares, these inspiring tiles he created in conjunction with Artistic Tile are simply jaw-dropping. Orchids are waterjet sculpted out of white Thassos marble and placed on a background of grey and white Bianco Carrara marble for a stunning look. While they are not suitable for wet locations like a shower, the tile could be applied to a vanity wall in a bathroom--or it could be used as a very special tile accent in a kitchen area.

I hope these tiles inspire you the way they have me.
Happy designing!

Rustic, Modern Master Bathroom by Fiorito Interior Design

Finding a home is not easy in a seller’s market in Northern California, but when my clients discovered one—even though it needed a bit of work—in a beautiful area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, they decided to jump in. Surrounded by old-growth redwood trees and a sense of old-time history, the house’s location informed the design brief for their desired remodel work. Yet I needed to balance this with my client’s preference for clean-lined, modern style.

Suffering from a previous remodel, the galley-like bathroom in the master suite was long and dank. My clients were willing to let me completely redesign the layout of the suite, so the bathroom became the walk-in closet. Then we borrowed space from the bedroom to create a new, larger master bathroom which now includes a separate tub and shower.

The look of the room nods to nature with organic elements like a pebbled shower floor and vertical accent tiles of honed green slate. A custom vanity of blue weathered wood and a ceiling that recalls the look of pressed tin evoke a time long ago when people settled this mountain region. At the same time, the hardware in the room looks to the future with sleek, modular shapes in a chic matte black finish. Harmonious, serene, with personality: just what my clients wanted.

All after photos by Bernardo Grijalva

Happy designing!

Slab and Template: Together Forever

I am currently working on a whole-house remodel for a client and we are in the kitchen phase. After we picked out our color scheme for the cabinets, counter, and backsplash, we set about choosing materials. I found a gorgeous backsplash made out of crosshatch pieces of light cream marble punctuated with decorative squares of variegated Dream Stone.

Since the feeling of this house is light, open, and calm, I wanted a counter material that would have very minimal movement in terms of a pattern so as not to compete with the texture of the backsplash. My clients prefer natural stone and one of the prettiest out there is Crema Marfil. This stone is a marble, and while I generally try to steer clients away from using marble in a kitchen setting as it can etch from acidic foods like vinegar and lemons, Crema Marfil is a little heartier. If properly sealed, and if you are the type of cook who cleans up as you go, then this marble could be for you. The cream color has beautiful clouds of tan and warm grey, making it a soft visual statement.

But choosing the type of material is only half the story. When buying slabs for a kitchen, I always like to bring clients to the marble and stone slab showroom so we can choose the exact slabs we want. Stone is a natural material and variation in color and pattern is an inevitability. So it is wise to have the slab warehouse open up what is called the "packet" (the bundle of stone slabs in their order of how they were mined from the quarry) for your inspection. After all, the sample you saw might be from a packet or bundle that was quarried years ago and the material being quarried now might not look the same in terms of color or veining.

My client and I went to the slab warehouse where they used a special mechanized crane to lift and lay out seven slabs for us to review. Only three are needed for the kitchen so we had a nice selection to choose from. Below you can see the rows and rows of slabs under the movable crane that travels up and down the aisles.

It's a delicate and dangerous operation as these slabs can weight upwards of 800 or 900 pounds each.

And here are the slabs, in sequence of how they appear in the packet, laid out for us to inspect.

After we chose three slabs, they were shipped to the fabricator for a template review. Larger marble and stone warehouses often only sell the material and do not act as fabricators (the ones who will cut the slabs up into counter shapes with properly sized holes for sinks and faucets, etc.). In this case, the fabricator is nearby so transport was relatively simple. If you choose your slabs from the fabricator, this step will obviously be eliminated.

Here are photos of the templates on our chosen slabs. A template is a pattern that is made by the fabricator of the exact dimensions and shapes of the counter top. Sink and faucet holes are cut on site to guarantee precision.

These are just a few of the many thousands of steps and decisions involved in a kitchen remodel. If you're thinking of a new kitchen but feel overwhelmed with the prospect, give me a call. I'm happy to guide you through it all to the kitchen of your dreams.

Happy designing!

It's Fireplace Weather: Terms To Know

Now that summer is officially over and we have begun our journey into autumn, it is feeling a little like fireplace weather. And over my decade of working in interior design, I have noticed that often people might speak about their fireplaces but don't know what to call parts or areas, while others use different terms for the same object. So in an effort to offer some clarity, let's walk through some of the major parts of a fireplace.

The central and most important part of a fireplace is of course where the fire itself is located, the firebox. This is sometimes referred to simply as "the box." Fireplace boxes can be lined with brick, fireclay, metal, pretty much anything that is fireproof (obviously).

The next area of importance is the hearth. This is the area in front of the firebox and it too needs to be fireproof if you have a live fire. This ensures that popping embers from the firebox will not start a fire. For this reason, a hearth needs to be at least 18" deep. If you have a gas insert instead of actual burning logs, the hearth should still be made of a heat-resistant material since many of today's gas inserts give off a tremendous amount of heat that can still cause damage.

A hearth can be flush with the floor or as close to that as possible. Or a hearth can be raised. In the case of a raised hearth, the structure can turn into a bench!

Now we come to the fun parts of the fireplace: the fascia of the mantel can be clad in a myriad of stone or tile choices (again, any non-combustible material that covers at least 6" from the edge of the firebox), and of course the mantel shelf (people often refer to this simply as "the mantel") can be wood or metal. The shelf is a perfect spot for collectibles, art, and holiday decorations. See my previous post about Mantel Inspiration for a brief overview of what can be done to incorporate rich design into your fireplace.

If you don't have a mantel, you can add a floating shelf which offers a very sleek take on a standard fireplace.

On very traditional fireplaces, the mantel sides can also feature carved or fluted panels which are referred to as legs or pilasters. And the last large piece of a fireplace is what is called the breast. This is the structure that covers the chimney and flue. This is another perfect area for some extra embellishmnet. Traditional fireplaces might feature a material on the fireplace breast that is the wall material in the rest of the room. But modern fireplaces can be clad in tile or stone, often all the way to the ceiling.

But wait, there are some areas of your fireplace that you can't see! The chimney is the structure that rises from the fireplace itself and the flue is the duct, pipe, or opening that allows smoke to rise up and out of your home. If you have a gas insert, the flue can be directed either up or off the side to vent outward but if you have a log-burning fireplace, smoke only rises, so it is imperative that your flue go straight up. You most likely also have a flue cover that allows air to flow up when opened. Because burning natural materials coats the inside of your flue with creosote (a tarry by-product of burning wood), it's good to have a professional chimney sweep clean your fireplace at the beginning of every cold season.

Happy designing!

Clean and Modern: A Fresh Bathroom Remodel by Fiorito Interior Design

When my client purchased his circa 1980s home several years ago, it came with this guest bathroom, seen below. He was eager to swap his brass accented shower doors, counter "bridge" spanning the toilet, wall-to-wall mirror, and terra cotta tiled floor for a sleeker, more contemporary looking room.

We gutted the entire space except for the tub which was in perfect condition and replaced the boring, square beige tiles with large format tiles of a subtle, threaded pattern. A decorative, highly textured band of stainless steel, stone, and glass runs through the shower and defines the counter of the new dark vanity which is now in scale with the room. New sconces in matte opal glass are twined with ribbons of forged iron. Walls are in a chic hue called Thunder Grey.

The modern sink hardware features a chrome trough spout and stylized square handles. The counter top, with its soft grey and blue-green clouds, is fabricated from a single piece of Sea Pearl quartzite.

The shower edges and niche are lined in a polished chrome detail for a clean, minimalist look.

And finally, the shower hardware with a bar and hand held shower head echoes the modernist approach to the space.

All after photos by Bernardo Grijalva

If you have a bathroom that could use a bit of updating, give me a call. I'd love to help!

Happy designing!

A Stunning Kitchen Transformation by Fiorito Interior Design

When my clients, a young professional husband and wife, bought their home, they knew it needed a lot of work. But the first night the wife spent there, she cried. She was pregnant with twins and I knew we needed to get them a fantastic, new kitchen as soon as possible. The original space was a cramped galley right off the front door—a wall visually cut off the view from the entrance to the rest of the house and felt unwelcoming. The kitchen barely had any counter space—or any space for that matter—and was in desperate need of a remodel. So we removed the oppressive wall and opened up the kitchen to the family room and the cozy adjacent fireplace. Then we expanded the new kitchen into the tiny eat-in nook that the former owners used as a dining room.

The result is a spacious kitchen full of light and life. Fresh white plays with wood tones for a pleasant, organic feeling. The new kitchen features a large island with a prep sink topped by LED pendants by Tech Lighting which sport a fabric shade and coordinating wood trim. The darker wood of this island grounds the lighter colored space and is topped with White Spring granite that brings in white, grey, and the warm burgundy of the wood while the perimeter counter top is a dark-toned Caesarstone to contrast with the granite. And Just in time for two adorable and hungry bundles!

We also overhauled the adjacent fireplace...some of you may recall the sneak peek of this entire space I posted here a few months ago. The previously dirty brick fireplace was redone with a new cladding of stacked stone by Sydney Peak Stone. A custom mantel and built-in entertainment center make good use of dead space next to it, continuing the fresh white color scheme into the family room.

The fireplace looks so much more sophisticated yet retains a casual, organic warmth just like the kitchen. We also installed recessed ceiling fixtures to wash light down the front of the fireplace breast, to highlight the beautiful rough texture and bring out the lovely, almost sparkly gold tones.

All after photos by Bernardo Grijalva

Dreaming of a new kitchen? Give me a call.
Happy designing!