nterior design selections such as tile, cabinets, flooring, and lighting correlate to your budget. To get the most out of your home renovation dollars, tile provides a blank canvas to get a distinctive look.

he best designer is the well-educated designer. The design world changes daily. It’s extremely important to us to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and products so we are able to help our clients make good design decisions. This year we attended Design and Construction Week (DCW) in Las Vegas! We went to informative seminars, saw some great design schemes and discovered the newest products hitting the home market, such as the lighting collection shown above.

An integral part of design melds various materials into an integrated whole. I love the dark stained shaker cabinets with the copper penny full-height backsplash and hand-selected pendants. Wall-mounted vanities are becoming more and more popular because of the sleek lines and ease of cleaning.



Faucets, faucets, and more faucets…We saw so many faucets at DCW. From a heavy industrial look to a feminine finish, there’s a faucet to compliment any design scheme. Faucets act like a piece of jewelry in the room. This adorable faucet from Kohler features two unique handles and comes in a variety of finishes.



Laminates have come a long way in the design world. Laminates now feature all kinds of cool and unique patterns that you can’t get with a natural material. Wilsonart (pictured above) now has a laminate that looks like wood. If you want the look of a wood counter top without the maintenance, this is the answer!



I love the way this designer added some personality to this white Mud Room bench with colored back paneling and unique door knobs for a hanging solution. This is such an easy upgrade and adds such character! If you like to go to yard sales or antique shops, you might find antique or hand painted door knobs to add a personal touch to your house.



Are you always wrapping presents or doing craft projects? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a dedicated spot for doing these items where you can leave them out all the time? This cabinet company set up a cute little area just for these sorts of activities.



I love the idea of having a one-of-a-kind bathtub that also brightens the room by acting like a piece of artwork! This picture above shows just this in a Kohler showcase entitled “Live Artfully” featuring the work of local Las Vegas artist Jerry Misko.



Some design trends come and go (like orange shag carpet), while others remain a classic (think white subway tile). We stay up to date with what's happening in the design world, to make sure our work stays creatively fresh. DCW, we'll be back!

o you have a Tupperware avalanche every time you open your cupboard door? Are you tired of fighting your plastic wrap? There are so many smart solutions to organize your life. Medallion Cabinetry and Crystal Cabinet Works are two companies that incorporate clever storage solutions into well-built cabinetry.



A pull-out spice rack works really well on either side of the stove for easy access to all those classic cooking spices. Another problem this cabinet can solve is storing and accessing your plastic wrap, tin foil and baggies. The lip on these shelves will keep those boxes in the cabinet, while still allowing you to use them.



An appliance garage is one of my favorite tricks to keep a kitchen looking clean and tidy. You can keep all those appliances in there that you use often and shut the door when you are finished. I use mine for my coffee maker and toaster. Another creative way to use this is to place one by your door. It serves as a charging station, a place to stash your purse and a family message center. It would be functional and out of sight.



Deep drawers are very popular because they are useful for so many things. It’s a great spot to store Tupperware, plates, pots, or towels. With Medallion’s custom drawer dividers, you can customize each drawer so everything has a place. For example, you can use dividers to separate the bowls from the lids.



Almost every client requests a trash can cabinet. Hiding the trash makes your kitchen feel cleaner and more streamlined. You can order a cabinet with a drawer above or maximize your trash can size with a full size door.



There are a variety of tall cabinets available, as well. Some cabinets have adjustable shelves, good for linens; other cabinets have roll-outs for pantry items. You can also get a broom cabinet where you are able to store a mop, broom or your vacuum. The tall pull out cabinet works great for cleaning supplies or pantry items.

onstruction documents (CDs) are also known as blueprints. They used to be called blueprints because the ammonia applied in the printing process gave the document a blue hue. They contain the information the contractor needs in order to build what you want.

The wall types and materials are drawn and given dimensions. Each window and door size is listed out and marked in the drawing. Every plumbing fixture, appliance, and piece of mechanical equipment is identified and listed with various requirements for each, so the contractor knows exactly what needs to be ordered, and what kind of hookups to install for each item. The different views in the set provide information on exactly how the building should be constructed. In short, CDs take the guesswork out of building.

These documents may seem like an extra cost at first, but they actually save you money in the long run and give you peace of mind during the construction process. Asking a contractor to bid your project with a few sketches and a description of what you want and asking him to build the same project with a set of construction documents yields very different results. Without documents, he can give you any number he wants, while with the CDs, he must estimate cost based on the drawings. The CDs allow you to go to several contractors for competitive bids, knowing they are all bidding on the same exact project.

Once you find your contractor, the construction phase is accelerated by the documents. They know exactly how much material they need, so they don’t over-buy and cost you extra, or not buy enough, and slow down the timeline while the materials make their way to the site. Everything is laid out, so they know where to locate the plumbing and other fixtures. You can go about your daily life while they build, rather than hanging around the site all day, making sure they put walls where you want them.

utodesk Revit is the drafting software we use to produce our drawings and construction documents. It creates the 2D construction drawings your contractors need in order to build and generates 3D drawings of your project for you to see how it will look from any angle before you commit to building.


Revit streamlines the entire drafting process. While I draw the walls, doors, windows, etc. in a 2D plan view, it actually models those elements in 3D. They have a certain height and thickness. Add a floor and roof, and things begin to take shape. The 2D drawings of plans, elevations, and sections that the contractors work with are actually slices cut through the 3D model.

A floor plan is created by cutting a horizontal slice through the building a few feet above the floor and looking down at the exposed walls and other elements. An elevation is made by stepping back from the structure and looking straight on (no perspective) at each side. This shows the exterior finishes and shape of the building. They tell the contractor how high to frame the windows, how high the walls are, and how much of each exterior finish will be needed. Sections are vertical slices through the structure. They show the height of the interior spaces, ceiling shapes, trusses, floor thickness, and how it should be constructed.

When we begin a new design, we still start with the floor plans in order to establish the layout of your project. When that is set, we move on to the elevations, sections and 3D views. The slice is made, the new view of the model displayed, and we can get to work on adding materials and details. In the days of 2D CAD, we would have to start by redrawing the walls from the outside, drawing in each window, the door, roof, etc. Then, we would start in on the details. If you decided you wanted to move a window 6 inches to the left or move a wall another 2 feet over, we would have to make sure to update in each view in which the modification appeared. Since Revit is always thinking in 3D, and each 2D view is just a slice through the model, the views are all automatically updated as the modification takes place. This saves a lot of time and eliminates mistakes. In this before and after example of a farmhouse addition and remodel, the clients were excited to see how their home would look with the new exterior materials, windows, and roof shapes. Revit was especially helpful when drawing the upper level of the 1.5 story house. Low, sloping ceilings and dormers would have been a drafter’s nightmare in CAD.

With Revit, we could draw the walls, ceilings, and roof, then cut as many sections as we needed to see the volume of the spaces. We could move the walls as needed in this view and breathe a sigh of relief knowing walls were moving accordingly in all the other views.