Bathroom Remodeling Trends

Expecting summer company?  Now is as good a time as any to take on a bathroom renovation!  Check out these popular bathroom remodeling trends before you get started:

Go Green: Conservation is cooler than ever and there is a slew of new products on the market to help you stay on trend.  To make sure you’re buying the most energy efficient products, look for the WaterSense label – the EPA’s water saving equivalent to Energy Star – on any new shower heads, sinks, faucets, or toilets.

Add A Pop Of Color: According to the color gurus at Pantone, Tangerine Tango – a reddish orange – is the color of the year.  Use it to add an energizing pep to your bathroom.  Are you looking for a more serene sense?  Go with a relaxing blue or green color – both are on trend for 2012 bathroom paint preferences.

Relaxation Vacation: Our homes are our havens, so why not turn yours into the perfect retreat?  Large, airy showers are replacing the compact, space saving ones of yesteryear.  For the ultimate in rejuvenation, opt for multiple shower heads, a rain shower, or a steam option.  Is a relaxing bath more your thing?  Consider replacing your noisy Jacuzzi with a soothing soaking tub instead.

Storage Solutions: Homeowners are recognizing the need for storage in all areas of the house, but particularly in the bathroom.  Not only are we seeing a trend towards additional storage – we’re also seeing smarter storage solutions.  For example, more homeowners are taking advantage of vertical space by building up in the form of stacked cabinets or storage towers.  Custom made cabinet solutions are also increasingly popular since they allow one to take advantage of previously underutilized nooks and crannies.

Share Free Zone: Everything your kindergarten teacher told you about sharing does not apply to the bathroom.  Couples and families alike are opting for dual vanities, allowing everyone to have their own prep space.

Are you ready to begin your bathroom remodel?  Contact us today to get started!

Bedrooms That Will Age With Your Child

How do you decorate when your child’s taste seems to change with the wind? While we unfortunately can’t help you get them to give up their love of Dora the Explorer, we do have some tips on creating a bedroom that will age with your child!

Avoid Themes: While your child might love Thomas the Tank right now, he might not be quite as enthusiastic of a fan in a few years. Instead of decorating with a specific character in mind, choose a few colors, textures, or prints from the desired trend to convey your child’s passions in a less permanent way. For example, instead of a themed wall mural, bold stripes in a primary color could provide the perfect background for themed prints and bedding, yet still be neutral enough to carry over into a teen’s room with different accessories and styling. When choosing paint for a child’s room, we recommend a washable finish – like a pearl or eggshell – that will hold up to any necessary wipe-downs but won’t show flaws like semi-gloss or high-gloss finishes will.

Invest In Items That Will Survive The Test Of Time: If chosen wisely, your child’s furniture can carry them through several room transformations. Invest in pieces that can age with your child. We recommend multifunctional furniture – cribs that convert into toddler beds or changing tables that evolve into dressers. Bookcases and storage units are also timeless features that can be used in the rooms of children young and old. If your child simply must have something themed on a large-scale, check out this furniture line from Nickelodeon Rooms. Featuring beds, dressers, mirrors, and desks, all the furniture in this line comes with interchangeable panels that can age with your child. Options range from fun characters and funky patterns to plain white.

Avoid Permanent Features: Another great way to play to your child’s interests while still avoiding permanently altering your space, is with the use of removable wall art. Easily taken on and off as your child’s taste change, vinyl decals are available in variety of styles.

Choose Easy To Alter Add-Ons: One thing that will surely change over the years is your child’s style. Take your kid’s bedroom easily from toddler to teen with easy add-ons. For example, festive and kid -friendly drawer pulls can easily doll up a young child’s space. These same drawer pulls can just as easily be replaced with modern, more stylish alternatives when your child is ready for an upgrade. Create the perfect drawing area for you little one today by painting a square of chalkboard or dry erase paint on the wall and framing it in a bright, bold frame (all the better to keep the crafting to the designated area!). That same creation station can easily be converted into your  teen’s to-do list or football practice calendar area with a different, more grown-up frame.

Remodeling With Your Pet In Mind

We build our homes to live in and enjoy with our families – every member of our families, including the four-legged ones.  In recognition of this, more and more homeowners are designing their spaces with their pets in mind.  In fact, a whopping 24% of Americans have invested in pet remodeling.  If you consider your pet part of the family tree, you may want to consider one of these tips for remodeling with your pet in mind.

Landscaping: Pets can wreak havoc on our lawns.  To make your landscaping more pet-friendly, line areas that you would like to keep pets out of – flower beds, gardens, etc. – with decorative trim or wood.  Also consider the materials being used in your yard.  For example, soft paws will prefer smooth flagstones and mulch as opposed to gravel or rocks.  Finally, if your yard is bare of shade, be sure to plant a large tree to provide a reprieve from the sun, when your pet is outdoors playing.

Flooring: Homeowners shouldn’t have to choose between a well maintained home and pet ownership.  However, they do need to choose flooring that holds up well to their animals.  While “hard flooring” such as laminate, wood, or tile will fare better than carpet, some of these harder materials can be prone to scratching.  Bamboo – the hardest of all the wood floors – fares great in high traffic situations as does stone, porcelain or ceramic tile.  If you do decide to go with hardwood or laminate floors, apply a few coats of industrial-strength polyurethane wood floor finish. Also, apply a protective wax to the floor. These products will help to make the floor scratch-resistant.  Color is also key – solid flooring colors will easily display any hair and dirt that your pet tracks in.  Choose flooring with a subtle pattern or mottled effect to best cover tracking.

Spare Your Bathroom: Nothing dirties the family washroom faster than a muddy dog or stinky cat in need of a bath.  To take these troubles out of the family’s space, consider using the plumbing in your laundry room to install a walk-in pet shower.  Not only are pet showers less intimidating to your animals, they’ll also save your back as your dog or cat will not need to be lifted in and out of the tub.

Custom Cabinetry: Whether you want to showcase your favorite furry friend or hide some of their day-to-day supplies, custom cabinets can be used for either option.  House a litter box out of the way in a cabinet with an open interior and easy floor entrance.  Modify a standard kitchen base cabinet to house a dog bed.  Install a shallow floor level drawer that pulls out like a tray, complete with feed bowls for an easy feeding solution.  Simply close the drawer when your dog is done with dinner for a tucked away finish!

How To Choose Your Cambria Countertop

In our last post we revealed one of our favorite products –Cambria Countertops!  This week we wanted to explain exactly what you need to do to get your own Cambria Countertop installed.

Find A Location: While we like big box hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowe’s as much as the next person, you won’t find Cambria products at those retailers.  The Cambria company prides itself on establishing long-lasting relationships with a limited group of retail partners.  Our personal favorite such retailer is The Cabinet Store located in Apple Valley.  We love working with The Cabinet Store and our clients to create custom solutions.

Choose Your Aesthetic: Cambria countertops are available in more than 100 designs.  Color options range from calm neutrals to bright modern styles, creating enough variety for any aesthetic.

In addition to your color choice, you will also need to choose an edge profile.  As with other countertop materials, a choice of square, bull-nose or ogee edges are available (plus many more).  However, keep in mind that an ogee edge will be slightly more prone to chipping than the alternatives.

Get Your Estimate: To order your countertop, you will need the dimensions of your cabinet layout, information regarding backsplash requirements, edge profile selections, and the location and dimension of your sink and stove. Which of course we can help you with!

If there is any additional questions that you have about Cambria either give us a call here at Shaeffer Contracting or feel free to visit Cambria’s excellent Common Questions webpage.

Are you ready to purchase the perfect countertop for you?  Give us a call, and we will help you get started!

Product Feature – Cambria Countertops

Countertops can make or break a space.  Whether in the kitchen, the bathroom, or another room of the house altogether, out of style countertops can easily date a room.  On the other hand, a well coordinated countertop can tie a room together.  With such strong feelings regarding countertops, it likely comes as no surprise that we have a favorite product as well –Cambria Countertops.  We love installing Cambria Countertops in our own homes, as well as in the homes of our clients. In a nutshell, Cambria is a stain resistant, nonporous natural quartz surface that is harder, stronger, safer and easier to care for than other stone surfaces.  However, our love affair with Cambria is multi-faceted, but here are just a few of the reasons why we are happy to call them our favorite:

Cambria Offers A Multitude Of Stylish Designs: Cambria offers a wide array of designs, patterns, and colors.  Cambria now offers more than 100 designs, making their selection the world’s largest and most diverse. Click here to see all Cambria’s designs and colors.

Cambria Holds Up: Cambria surfaces are durable and stronger than granite.  In addition, Cambria countertops are NSF 51 certified for both food and splash zones and are nonporous, reducing the potential for bacterial growth and making them as safe as stainless steel for food preparation.

Cambria Stands Behind Its Products: Cambria provides a Lifetime Limited Warranty to the original owners of the installed Cambria that the product will be free from manufacturing defects for as long as the original owner owns the product.

Cambria Goes Green: Cambria prides itself on offering environmentally friendly products.  Cambria quartz is primarily mined in North America, resulting in lower transportation requirements than other quartz surfacing products produced outside the United States.  In addition, during processing, 100% of the water used in Cambria’s plant and fabrication facilities is recycled through a series of advanced settling and filtering techniques.  Lastly, all scrap material is collected and used as road base material on local construction projects.

Stay tuned next week for our discussion on how to select the best countertop for your home and our recommendation for the best place in town to find the right counter for you! Contact us for a free consultation and also for current promotions on Cambria countertops!

Seasonal Color for Your Home

Summer is a time of bright days and cheerful skies.  And with that in mind, we have color on the mind!  Color can be a powerful tool in your home.  It can set the tone for a room, it can evoke an emotion, or establish the ambiance of a space.  However, color can also be intimidating, especially if you are unsure how to use it.  Here are a few tips as well as our favorite color trends.

Rely On Neutrals: Color will always pop best when paired with neutrals (think gray walls with teal and cranberry accents).  Implement this summer’s color trends by using them as an accent to a more neutral backdrop.  Gray is currently considered one of the most popular neutrals as it is thought to be a color that will transcend time.

Use Accessories To Accent: Add color to your neutral backdrop through the use of accessories, art, and furniture.  Pillows, vases, a bold rug, or a statement chair are all great ways to add color to a room without overpowering it.  As an added benefit, when the fall comes and your color preferences change, you can easily adapt your accessories to welcome in your new “favorite” hue!

Draw Attention: Avoid the temptation to paint your favorite color on all four walls.  Instead use it to call attention to a key feature, an interesting architectural element, or focal point.  For example, painting your fireplace surround with your accent color can be a great way to feature your palette!

Summer Color Trends: So, which will be the hottest colors this season? According to the color gurus at PantoneTangerine Tango  will be this summer’s key color for design and fashion.  Benjamin Moore followed suit featuring their ownClaret Rose as part of their summer selection.  Green is also expected to be popular this summer, with hues on the lighter end of the spectrum, such as this hancock green, serving as an alternative for more traditional neutrals.