What space is sapping your happiness?  We can help you defend it. We made a promise to our clients, to help them create spaces that are #NothingOrdinary, spaces they love, and don’t want to leave. But now you’re stuck.  You can’t leave. Daily life inside your home, ALL DAY, is crazy, strange, and, at moments, magically beautiful. Some of your spaces might be serving you and others irritating you. Happiness inside your home is possible. Cluttered spaces can steal your happiness, yet making a mess in your kitchen with your kids can revive it. Whether you need some new wallpaper to cheer up your laundry room, or have finally realized you need a bathroom space to retreat to, we’re here to help. We want your home to function and feel like #NothingOrdinary. With most of the country working from home, practicing social distancing, and under a shelter in place mandate, we want you to know that we are still here ready to help you design the home of your dreams.  Although this may look a little bit different, here is what you can do to begin the design process. Call or Email the Showroom: Here is our main showroom number […]

Recently we shared our design team’s favorite white paint colors and today we are back with a guide to sharing our favorite neutrals.  The list of colors is endless, so how do you go about choosing the right paint without searching endlessly for weeks? We are here to help you choose quickly and easily. With so many clients wanting timeless and neutral colors, we have lots of tried and true choices that we use over and over in the projects we design.  So here we go, our favorites! The Design Team’s Favorite Neutrals: Designer Jenny’s Go-To Colors: First, we have Designer Jenny’s choices for you, and once again several seem to be very popular with all of the designers.  These shades are sure to be lovely in any setting. Two are in the “griege” or beige/grey family and one is a lighter grey with a hint of blue. SW Useful Gray Sherwin Williams Rock Candy Sherwin WIlliams Pediment Designer Wendy’s Neutral Colors: Next, Designer Wendy picked some colors that were on every designers list, so we are putting the three most popular here. They are similar in color to one another, but have slightly different hues.  They will be perfect […]

Tile is a design element that can completely transform a space. It can make a room look classic or modern, like a farmhouse, or city loft. But with thousands of tile choices, what is up and coming, and how do you choose? We work with dozens of clients, and the one thing that we want to be real about with them is that it is OK to take some risks.  There are lots of trends happening in design, but they are always changing.  Trust your designer.  They are there to push you outside of your comfort zone.  If you choose a talented and respected design team, like Karr Bick, you will be thrilled with the results. Now let’s get started. While tile is one of the most impactful features in overall design, that’s not new.  But, it used to be that the tile choices were much simpler. The hard thing about tile is that once it’s there, you’re going to have to live with it for a while. Furthermore, no one wants to rip out an entire floor or wall, and more importantly spend a lot of extra money if they make the wrong choice, so do your research. Tile […]

We get asked all the time about how to choose paint.  You would think that this wouldn’t be too tough, but with thousands of choices in every color, it is much harder than you think.  We decided that we would help by sharing our design team’s favorite shades.  Today we are sharing shades of white that we use in many Karr Bick projects. White paint can range from bright white, to whites that read yellow or beige, to whites that read grey, with about a thousand variations in between.  But what are our favorites?  Here are some of our go-to shades that will be great in any project!. The Karr Bick Team’s Favorite Whites: Designer Jenny’s Paint Colors: Designer Jenny has some great go-to colors, and a few that seemed to be on the list with all the designers were: White Dove Benjamin Moore Shoji White Sherwin Williams Nebulous White Sherwin Williams White Dove by Benjamin Moore is a warm slightly off- white and a very popular, but truer shade of white.  Shoji White is a creamy off white, with a hint of beige. Nebulous white is a soft white with grey undertones. Designer Wendy’s Paint Colors: Designer Wendy also […]

One of our favorite parts of the design process is when we complete a project and get to overrun our client’s house to take professional photos. Professional photos you say? How amazing.  It sounds so glamorous, but, not so much. Photos shoots are NOT glamorous. They are necessary, and they are a ton of work, but they are anything but glamorous. This is typically how they go down. They take about 15 boxes of staging supplies, many bundles of fresh flowers, with 100 different vases because you never know what you’re going to need! The Photo Shoot Stuff You need a great photographer and we are so lucky to have one.  You need an amazing videographer, a meticulous director, the designer on the project, the social media guru following everyone, and most importantly, a really patient homeowner! The Photo Shoot Space We remove all of the owner’s décor, and add our own. Sometimes when clients walk in I think they panic a bit at the enormous mess that we have created.  But I promise, we leave it all exactly as we found it right down to the last flower petal picked up off the floor. The Photo Shoot Lighting We […]

What use is creating an incredible design, if you can’t see it? Choosing lighting can be a daunting task. The choices are endless, as well as the styles. How do you begin? Where do you look? I imagine that your first stop is probably Pinterest or Instagram. You screengrab countless options and load them into a board. It’s a jumbled mess. You choose all sorts of different styles, but one of the problems is that you can never remember where the lights came from that you saved. So, you have this board filled with gorgeous photos, but you are no closer to figuring it all out than you were before. It is great that we have so many platforms to research options. However, it can also cause us to be seriously stressed and overwhelmed. The overall lighting in a room can dramatically affect how the room feels and looks. It can even change the perception of how large a room is, so choose your lighting wisely. Now to the tough stuff. How do we figure this all out? Here are some things to think about to help you in the process. Types of Light to Consider: Task Lighting is used […]

  Farmhouse sinks have always held a popular spot in kitchen design. Everyone loves the look. From the sturdy apron front, to the industrial stainless-steel updated models, apparently homeowners can’t get enough. But recently the “Farmhouse” style has exploded. From Instagram to Pinterest the most shared photos are those that highlight the modern farmhouse design. But not all farmhouse sinks are created equal. In 1897, Shaws of Lancashire England, introduced the first, original, and one of a kind, apron front fireclay farmhouse sink. So why are these sinks so special? Their quality is unsurpassed. Every single Shaw’s sink that Rohl designs is created the same way it was done over one hundred years ago. It is hand poured, shaped, and stamped with the name of the individual artisan that creates it. These stunning apron front sinks resist acid, alkali, scratches, and impact. These designs are timeless and compliment any style. Rohl has also added a commercial grade stainless steel apron front model for the homeowner who is looking for the same quality construction, but with a modern flare. Shaw’s Rohl Farmhouse sinks, faucets, and accessories, are committed to using local artisans to create every product that is produced. From towns […]

Hello, friends! We’re back with another addition of “Friday Favorites.” We get asked all of the time about how and where to buy the best bar and counter stools, so today we are tackling the subject. When we are working on a design project, the bar stools are what complete the look. They are the shining beacon added to the island that says, “alas the project is complete!” What a sigh of relief when we get to this point, and I think that our clients would agree wholeheartedly. So, where do you begin?  There is such a vast assortment of stools out there that it’s hard to know what to do. Here are some great tips and tricks for choosing the perfect seats for your space. WHAT IS THE PERFECT SIZE FOR MY BAR STOOLS: The standard height of most kitchen islands is thirty-six inches high. When choosing your stool, you will want to go with a seat that is 24-27 inches high. This is a counter-height stool. Going with anything higher is going to be uncomfortable and look awkward in your space.  If you are choosing a seat for an island that is higher, such as a standard pub […]

What is the kitchen work triangle? The kitchen work triangle is a term created to define the efficiency of the kitchen.   Traditionally, it measures and suggests the relationship between the sink, the stove and the refrigerator which are the primary work centers in the kitchen.  The work triangle consists of three imaginary straight lines drawn between these work centers to form the shape of a triangle.  The legs of the triangle should measure no longer than 9 feet and no shorter than 4 feet. In today’s kitchen, the addition of other commonly used appliances (dishwasher, microwave, etc.) presents the opportunity for secondary work triangles. When was the kitchen triangle invented and by whom? The idea of a more efficient kitchen, surprisingly, began in the 1920’s.  Not surprising, it was a woman by the name of Lillian Moller Gilbreth who first thought to pay some attention to the workhorse room of the house.  Lillian is considered by many to be the first “superwoman,” filling both the role of mother and having a full-time career outside of the house.  Despite being the mother of 12, she admittedly didn’t cook.  An industrial psychologist and engineer, she spent most of her time in the […]