And by real, I mean REAL

For those of you out there who are curious about how remodeling works & the trends that drive it, you’re in luck.

Whether you’re a remodeling insider or a homeowner wondering about what’s happening in the trenches of the remodeling industry Leah Thayer’s Daily 5 Remodel is well worth a look.

It’s packed with information like

• project sizes (currently smaller)
• surveys of how strong/weak business is in 2010
• innovation (both materials and their applications)
• hot or not sectors (kitchen reno’s & additions are up in 2010 yay! HELLO! call us!!)
• answers: a place for remodelers to weigh in on questions like,  “What’s worse: doing nothing to be green, or greenwashing?”

This newly launched resource save us designers & remodelers a ton of time by doing the research for us.  The info at our fingertips from a site like this helps us make better decisions with more comprehensive info that we just don’t have time to dig up.

She even has a personal look into remodeling companies in the Snapshots section.  Here’s us!

Thanks Leah! [follow d5R on twitter @LeahThayer]

A good friend on twitter invited me to write a guest post for his blog over at Building Moxie. So I told the story of how I grew to love modern design.  The post ran yesterday, & it is here:

http://www.buildingmoxie.com/2010/09/becky-shankle-design-like-a-box-of-chocolates/

*Editor note: I couldn’t enable the comments on the original post, so I reposted it. Because I’m sure there are dozens of you out there who want to comment. But mostly because I didn’t want to be defeated by the machine gremlins.*

The Edges Matter. A lot.

I do a lot of thinking & looking as a designer, & have always appreciated things that lurk on the fringes of the spotlight. Whatever is loudest or most prominent not only might not be the best, but also might not be the true & accurate source. Or even the most interesting.

Those black things in the picture aren’t the camels. They’re their shadows. The camels are the thin, camouflaged shapes at the base of each shadow.  But the shadows draw the eye first. Or at least for first time viewers, they do.

Designers Need the Fringe.

If all is talked about is how much they want granite, we don’t focus on enduring design aspects that matter:

• locations of highly used appliances
• operational clearances of cabinet components
• where the dog, who is a regular in the kitchen, gets to have a hang out spot
• what is it *about* the granite that they like, & how likely is it that another cheaper/more durable/greener material couldn’t serve as well or better in its place?

The seeds of all good design solutions lie in the information that exists on the periphery; information that has to be uncovered to be put to use.

There is no other way to uncover that information without discussion & questioning & communicating, in short, LOOKING.  That, in large part, is what design *is*. That’s what you pay for when you hire a designer: their ability & skills at looking.

Caveat: To get the most out of your designer, you must also be willing to look, & share information, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. I welcome the client who is eager to explore their puzzle with me – that is the best part of design!

Opportunity Doesn’t Knock.

It taps you on the shoulder. Are you looking?

Wake Living Magazine, Fall 2010 Issue

We’re included in an article in the latest Wake Living issue. The article is called Builder Trends: Renovated Spaces. Here’s our contribution:

Greener living

Area experts agree that despite the economy, eco-friendlier living remains at the forefront of homeowners’ minds.

“There’s a definite demand for green materials,” says Becky Shankle, owner and chief visionary officer of Ecomodernism, a Raleigh-based kitchen design and installation business specializing in affordable green kitchens.

“People are very aware of the environment these days,” she adds. “Going green is one way to do their share for the planet, even if it’s indirect.”

While elements like bamboo, cork, quartz and recycled glass cost more, there are other ways to incorporate sustainability into the home, Shankle says. The company works closely with clients on eco-friendly, ready-to-assemble kitchens that can be customized to suit each family’s needs.

As for the future, she sees authenticity coming into play as more homeowners determine their unique style.

“Forget the Joneses. Make your space yours,” Shankle says.  “If you like white, then go with white. If you don’t like clutter, then give everything a place to store.”

Wake Living is a quarterly lifestyle magazine dedicated to covering the topics readers care about, from Hometown Stories and community spotlights to fashion, food, home interiors, and travel.

SM = Social Media.

As in Facebook, Twitter, and the like. First of all, online interaction *is* human interaction, especially through social media. After all, who’s pushing those keys & hitting “post”? Last I checked, I was human.

80/20

Given the recent articles about vanity & narcissim running rampant on Facebook, the #LetsBlogOff conglomerate is weighing in with their thoughts.

I love the 80/20 rule:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Let’s apply this to the latest theories about whether social media (Facebook in particular) is diminishing the depth of human interaction. By that logic, there IS a shallow, vanity laden quality of interaction on Facebook, and its presence is due to 20%  of the activity there.

Given the enormous user base of Facebook,  it may seem that an extremely high percentage of activity on Facebook is of a less intimate & more fleeting in terms of relationships.

But then there’s that other 80% of the users, who are not as insecure & superficial as the naval gazing ME ME ME population. Those folks are in it to promote business, catch up with old friends, and maintain an online presence on very high trafficked sites.

It’s the driver, not the car.

Or in this case the typer, not the keyboard. I can personally attest that easily the last dozen people I have interacted with through social media have resulted in valuable, genuine relationships. That goes not only for the ones I ultimately met or spoke with in real life, but also the ones with whom I now regularly communicate with online.

I see it happening with others, too. There are many lasting relationships just within the interior design communities that have congealed on Twitter. Look at the bonding that has happened from Brizo Fashion Week events.

That’s not to say there aren’t less deep interactions between people, even within communities that have developed through Social Media. I’m sure that within the growing medley of organized chats on twitter that both shallow & deep relationships occur.

It’s really up to the individual that has moved beyond the blingy dazzle of online publishing & social media & recognizes it as an extension of our social worlds, not something separate.

And just like in real life, we bump into the I-Love-Me’s occasionally. Se la vie.

For many more interesting thoughts & angles on this round of #LetsBlogOff, hit the Let’s Blog Off site for a list of posts, & settle in for some compelling reading from my non-shallow SM comrades!

Family Includes the 4 leggers

Anyone who shares their home with a dog knows that wherever they are, so are the tail waggers.  Especially if it’s in the kitchen. (What dog doesn’t like food?)

But a dog or cat in the kitchen can also get underfoot easily. We’ve had many a screeching cat from stepping on a tail.

The way to keep creatures out of the way, but still in the room is to give them a comfortable hangout. It avoids spillage while tripping over them plopped down in what they think is a good spot.

NEWSFLASH: Compromise is possible!

How about designing a nook for a dog or cat within the kitchen space?  Humans & pets can coexist without inconvenience to either. An out of the way place for a bed, and an area just for them to eat & drink can make everyone happy.

It’s no secret that dogs especially love cave-like dens.  Most crate trained dogs prefer to continue sleeping in them even when the door is left open.

These guys have king’s quarters: plush bed, secure box, food,  toys & water.  All in a spot that they know is theirs. The envy of a street dog, for sure!

Out of the way, but still in the action. Perfect.

How it’s Made

A website called Quirky.com crowdsources the design of things.  The average viewer can submit input on how to make a product idea better. They can even commit to purchasing it if it gets enough votes to go into actual production.

What do you think?

Being a kitchen & modular designer, I notice things pertaining to both.  On Quirky,  this Click N Cook spatula set caught my eye.  I think  I like the handle & spatula heads themselves.

I would add 2 features:

• a second handle, so I could use two utensils at once, and
• a way to hang an easily cleanable component storage bar on a wall so it didn’t take up counter space.

What do you think? Like? Don’t like? Would you use it? Is $35 a reasonable price?

Quirky pros & cons

I like the concept. It takes advantage of many minds to look at the design from as many angles as possible. Especially the user angle. It’s common practice in Japan to start all new hires in the sales/helpdesk department. That way they get firsthand info from the user. Same thing here.

It’s also great that Quirky shares the product development process with videos of the actual teams thinking through the product.   It lends credibility to designers of all kinds by shedding light on how much work & thought is involved in making something.

The one thing I wish was stressed more on Quirky was closed loop production.  For all I know, it may be, but here are some thoughts:

• What happens to the product when its useful lifespan is over?
• Does the manufacturer take the spent product back?
• Does it get reintegrated into new products?
• Is the manufacturer resource conscious with both energy, water, and raw material?
• Also, does it source material that are considered another product’s waste stream?

Ornament or Instrument?

We all know of someone who has something just for looks. When I was a kid, the neighbors 2 houses down had a baby grand piano. They never played it. They just liked how it looked, all polished & imposing.

All the kids in our family took piano lessons.  I couldn’t understand why someone would have a piano they didn’t touch except to dust.  Couldn’t they find something to spend $10,000 on that they could actually use?

Pianos, Kitchens.

I’m writing this because a friend of mine told me earlier this week that some friends had just renovated their kitchen. She said it was a masterpiece, but they would never use it.

People.  Do not do this.  Do not be a poser. Have some courage & be authentic.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Blum’s new catalogs graced my mailbox today.  I love these things! So many good ideas for applications come from just flipping through them. The average bear would look at them & go into a coma from boredom, but not me!

B is for Beefy.

I’m so nerdy about drawer slides that I take one with me when I go to meet my clients.  It’s easy to see & feel which of these slides is better quality, carries heavier loads, & has a longer lifespan.

They’re not gorgeous by any stretch, but you don’t see them. You just want them to work  - every time & for a long time.

Are you averse to particle board?

We are happy to announce that we now offer plywood cabinet boxes in addition to our current particle board option.

Particle board is dismissed more harshly than it deserves. Until I visited IWF2010 a few weeks ago, I had no idea that some particle board grades were almost as dense as MDF. And let me just throw in a knowledge tidbit that plywood comes from virgin trees, not wood waste from that already harvested.

When people produce the assertion that particle board is like a sponge, I always respond:  ”If you have THAT much water in your kitchen, you have WAY bigger problems than your cabinets.”  Here’s a test that my designer friend Paul Anater did last January on how both plywood and particle board hold up to water exposure.

While particle board is the better choice for cost, consistent thickness and warp control, it has its limitations, as does any other material.  Still, I recognize that some folks just don’t like it.  Period.  Fair enough.

Plywood, please

Just let us know you prefer plywood & we’ll serve it right up with your design!