Paint, Highlighting & Brushing

High end custom cabinetry lines have been offering a brushed finish for years, but now some semi-custom cabinet lines are starting to offer the unique finish. Shiloh Cabinetry is one of those lines. And even better than just offering the finish, they offer it as a standard, no upcharge option.

The Brushing Technique is the newest addition to Shiloh's lineup of specialty finishes. The brushing is hand applied for an antiqued appearance. It is available in Polar White, Soft White, Eggshell or Ivory, with Cafe or Slate Highlight. Due to the hand-applied process, significant variation is common.

Read more to see the available colors.

Soapstone

Money Magazine declared Soapstone #1 in value when compared to Granite, Solid Surface, Concrete, Butcher Block and Ceramic Tile.

We have had a Soapstone countertop in our showroom for years and it still gets a lot of attention. People have a lot of questions about its durability and cost. Below are a few pros and cons of Soapstone just in case you are considering it for your kitchen. If you would like a closer look please feel free to stop by our showroom.

SoapStone is a soft stone found in Finland, Brazil and in the heart of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Below are some of the pros and cons of choosing this surface for your kitchen.

Pros:
• Its naturally nonporous (stain resistant)
• No fussy, vulnerable sealants; scratches can be sanded and oiled away.
• Prices out similar to granite

Cons:
• You can get any color you want, so long as it's green or dark gray.

Trends - 1" Thick Doors

Looking to create stunning cabinetry with substance?

Try using one of Crystal's 1" thick door styles. The thicker, heavier look of these styles creates dramatic depth and an element of quality and true craftsmanship. Available on inset construction only, you have the option of 3/4" thick face frames or 1" thick face frames.

Design Tip:
Use 1" thick door styles on a 3/4" thick face frame. This allows for an additional profile to be added to the outside edge of the door to enhance the depth even more.

Click "Read More" to see the door styles available at 1" thick

NARI President's Breakfast (August)

Latest News from NARI:
Join us for the August President's Breakfast. This free breakfast meeting brings together professionals in the remodeling industry to network and share their insights. There's no set agenda--just time to discuss what's on your mind.

Thursday, August 11, 2011
Time: 7:30 am - 9:00 am
Host: Architectural Ceramics
Location: 800 East Gude Drive, Suite F
Rockville, MD 20850
RSVP using this online form
 
Questions:
Contact June Stanich of the Membership Committee at (703) 591-7443 or by email.

Camping at Home - life at home without the use of your kitchen

When people tell me they are ready to remodel their kitchens, we have a lot of information to exchange. I want to know their needs and tastes, and they need to know exactly what the process is. One area that I find some confusion is the gutting part where they don’t have a kitchen for about 6 weeks. Many folks never thought about the fact that they would spend time packing up everything in that kitchen, have a contractor tear everything out often including the drywall, then proceed to rebuild it from the bottom up. This will take some time, almost always 6 weeks.

NARI - July Education Dinner Meeting Announced

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

What's your "X" Factor? How do you distinguish yourself from your competition when you meet with potential clients? Join NARI July 20th as Tim Nagle, Owner of Remodel Buddy, discusses how to create the ultimate marketing system. You'll gain a more in-depth understanding of what marketing truly is and how to develop a system for your success through the Art of Differentiation! You'll discover how to identify the important point of difference--one that matters to your ideal clients and how to promote it.

Concurrent Sessions will include:
- New Local Building Codes for Montgomery County: Are you current on the Changes?
George Muste, Manager of Montgomery County Residential Review,
Steve Thomas, Manager of Montgomery County Residetnial Ispections

- The Sale Beneath the Sale: From Kids in the Candy Store to Signed Construction Agreements
Jeff Nay, President, Sandler Training

Early Registration Ends July 15th.
Register Now to Save.

The Falls Church HS Senior Art Show

You're Invited!!!

The Falls Church High School Senior Art Show is running from May 20th - June 2nd. The reception is JUne 2nd from 6pm to 8pm at the Kleppinger Design Group Showroom at 2809-A Merrilee Drive Fairfax, VA 22031. For direction click here

Shiloh's Custom Paint Program

The inability to find your perfect color no longer stands in the way of achieving your vision. Shiloh Cabinetry is now offering the entire Sherwin-Williams color palette as part of their Custom Paint Program. With an entire palette of colors to choose from, the Custom Paint Program opens up a whole new possibility for color. Just visit any Sherwin-Williams location and choose your perfect color. Then let Shiloh Cabinetry go to work making your vision a reality.

A Fresh Start (Part 3) Craft Room Wrap Up

It seems as though we started remodeling the craft room in my house about 4 months ago, but I can now say, we are 99% finished. My #1 goal was to find ways to organize everything so I could find it easily. I also wished for a more attractive place to work in, with better light and restful colors. Additionally, I didn’t want to break the bank. 

Crystal Update

I just wanted to take a minute and share some news from Crystal. I spent then last 3 days up at the factory with 14 others designers from around the country, learning about upcoming product offerings, while at the same time they picked our brains for products and features we as designers would like to see. They have been fortunate to have seen growth in the last year, and were very sincere in passing on their thanks for our business. That growth has allowed them to develop new products, and expand upon existing ones. Coming this summer we will see several new stain colors for Maple, Cherry and Alder, new design options, expanded moldings and more. They are limiting themselves only to their and our imagination for products we can think of.

So check back in a few weeks as we get the official release of these new products.

Andrew

NARI President's Breakfast

Two President's Breakfasts Announced
 
Friday, May 13th and Wednesday, June 15th 
 
Join the National Association of the Remodeling Industry for two upcoming President's Breakfasts. At these free casual events, meet Chapter President, Jerry Levine, as well as others in the business. Members can bring guests. Anyone thinking of joining is welcome to come and talk to members about NARI and get membership information. Hope to see you there.

Upcoming President's Breakfasts:

May 13, 2011
Lutron DC Experience Center
Click here to rsvp.

June 15, 2011
Merrick Design and Build, Inc.
Click here to rsvp.

Furniture for the bath (Part 2)

Mid Continent's vanity program offers six different foot options to finish of the base of your vanity with style. They also offer different options for the exposed ends of the cabinet including flush finished plywood ends and matching false door end panels.

A Fresh Start (Part 3)

Craft room......nearly finished......3-29-11

My fabulous craft room is almost done. I can see the light, but I have some busy work ahead of me. The closet shelving is installed and primed. The crown moldings are up. The old desk has a coat of paint (but needs another). The hardware is installed. The glass has been ordered for the glass door cabinets. More sorting was done (buttons, ribbons elastic, lace, notions, beads and jewelry findings). I still have the rubber stamps to round up, and more storage bins to find and purchase, but the new countertop is installed and painted a color which looks amazingly like the brushed nickel hardware. (!) It still needs another coat, and 2 days to dry fully.

Maple has never looked more beautiful!

Crystal is pleased to introduce four new stains developed to create a clean, radiant finish for maple. Not only do they look fantastic on maple, they’re available on other Crystal woods too!

Fawn on Maple


Prairie on Maple


Praline on Maple


Toffee on Maple

NARI President's Breakfast

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry continues its Presidents Breakfast on Thurs. March 24th. If you're a member of NARI or thinking of joining you should really take advantage of this networking opportunity. These free breakfast meetings bring together professionals in the remodeling industry to network and share their insights. There's no set agenda--just time to discuss what's on your mind.

Thursday, March 24, 2011
Host:  Ferguson Enterprises
Location:  5650 General Washington Drive
Alexandria, VA 22312
RSVP using this online form

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Host: Sisler's Stone
Location: 7139 Lee Highway
Falls Church, VA 22046
RSVP using this online form

Questions:
Contact June Stanich of the Membership Committee at (703) 591-7443 or by email.

Color Trends

A few new color options from Crystal Cabinetry.

A hint of color adds a little zing to any room. Three popular colors emerging are— green, gray and blue. These colors have a soothing and calming affect because they remind us of earth, sky and water and also blend well with warm wood tones.

Crystal’s greens are: Basil, Mohr Green and Sage; grays are: Overcast and Stonebridge; and for blue we have the versatile stain: Cape Cod.

Try them with different color highlights or glazes and get an entirely new shade! For instance put black highlight on Cape Cod for a cool blue, or Van Dyke Brown on Overcast for a warm gray. Mohr Green in a Rub-thru finish over Umber stain with black highlight creates an appealing, organic combination.

For more on Crystal's color options visit their website.

Closets, Pantries, Garages, oh my!

In the next few weeks we'll be introducing you to our new custom closet line. Our website will let you explore all the unique door styles, finishes and accessories. And best of all, they offer solutions for offices, pantries and even garages. Stay tuned...

Furniture for the bath (Part 1)

Mid Continent Cabinetry has created a great vanity program designed to provide furniture quality cabinetry for the bath. They designed the program to offer the utmost in choice and flexibility. The Program includes:

• Bath vanities
• Tall storage cabinets
• Wall and mirror storage

Tales from a Kitchen Designer (Part 4)

Okay, a lot has happened in the past 12 days. I am not quite sure where to begin. I left off with us installing the cabinets. It only took 3 days total. Two days to set the cabinets and one day for us to install moldings, panels toe kicks and put all of the shelves, doors and drawers back in. That alone took several hours. All in all, everything went in pretty well, which is good since my wife was starting to get tired of the dust and is ready to be done. I was a little short on crown molding, and had missed a shelf on one of the base cabinets.

3 great cooking apps

Anyone that enjoys cooking has loads of cookbooks and recipe cards. Many of us even have a cabinet or two dedicated to storing our cookbook collection. But with the rise in smartphone use its definitely worth mentioning a few of the best cooking apps available. Here are our top three.

Is your refrigerator running? Let me check my computer and see.

We'll all be hearing a lot about "smart appliances" in 2011, and Control4 is just one of the companies interested in home automation. They have partnered with Sub-Zero and Wolf to make appliances more energy efficient and easier to program. While the system won't let you refrigerator order more milk just yet, it does offer some energy saving modes and worth while alerts that can easily be accessed by way of mobile devices or other computers.
The full press release is included below.

Tales from a Kitchen Designer (Part 3)

It’s amazing what can happen in a week. Last Friday the cabinets arrived, and boy did they. We had boxes everywhere. In the kitchen, dining room, living room, sun room. I almost put some in our boys rooms, but they wouldn’t be happy with that. I was able to get the kitchen painted prior to the cabinet delivery, and then again after they arrived. The color that was agreed upon turned out to be a little too blue for my wife. She was looking for a greener color and what was on the wall was not that. After a last minute review of the color chips we had, a new color was selected and by the end of the weekend, my painting was done, (at least everywhere cabinets touched), and a few of the cabinets were unboxed, and staged to be installed. My wife happily helped do a little of that, just so she could get a glimpse of her new cabinets.

Tales from a Kitchen Designer (Photos)

View photos of my kitchen remodel currently in progress. The most recent photos are at the top of the page.

Tales from a Kitchen Designer (Part 2)

Well, Valentines Day came early to our house. Last week our contractor called and asked if he could start our project sooner than we had planned. Originally he was to start on Monday, Feb 14th. That would allow us a week to clean and pack after the baby shower my wife was hosting. After talking to her, we decided why prolong the inevitable, so we decided that Monday Feb 7th would be D-Day. as soon as the party was over Saturday night, we frantically started packing up our kitchen. While plates, dishes and breakables were carefully wrapped and boxed, the kid’s plastic plates and Tupperware went flying.

Bubble Wrap: A Tale of 2 ladies.

About a year ago, I got a call from 2 nice ladies who said they had a client who wanteded her kitchen remodeled. They were referred to me from another client. This is the kind of call I love to get.

As it turns out, this was not what they do every day, but in fact they apparently often do just about anything their clients ask of them. Their names are Patti Beck and Mianna Harlepp. Their company name is “Bubble Wrap” which I thought was unusual for my industry, but we proceeded to meet and plan for the new cabinetry to be made.

Tales from a kitchen designer (Part 1)

T-25 days until work officially begins on remodeling our kitchen. Given that we have been in our house 9 years, my wife can hardly wait. While we have talked about it for years, the funds to actually proceed with the project as well as my urge to do it came to reality about six months ago when I made an innocent little comment. Something about “if we are going to spend X amount of money on the house, I’d put into the kitchen before I spent it on flagstone steps and landscaping.” That of course led to the question of how much will our kitchen cost? Well, four months and about a dozen designs later (yes it took that long to figure out my own kitchen) we finally had a plan and idea that we both love, and it fits into the price range we could afford. About mid December the cabinet order was placed, and on January the 4th, the cabinets went into production. Since that time, my wife has done holiday baking, birthday cakes and treats for our two young sons, and we entertained her family for Christmas, (as a fitting send off, my brother-in-law cooked a fabulous Prime Rib in our old and aging Hot Point oven) and at every step she was imagining where things would be in the new space.

A Fresh Start (Part 2)

We are well into 2011, and despite my attempt at getting my new craft room finished for the New Year, we are pitifully behind schedule. All of the pieces of cabinetry I had designed for the room has not yet arrived. (The Winter Holiday is the time for cabinet factories to shut down completely and for all the employees to take deserved vacation time.) I still have yet to get the wallpaper border removed. The Christmas decorations have been taken down and tossed in there and the door closed to keep the cats out. Oh well.

A Fresh Start (Part 1)

It has become clear to me that I have a major design dilemma at my house. I used to love to sew when my daughter was small. (She’s 26 now) At that point in my life, I also wasn’t as busy and had more time for this relaxing pastime as well as so many other crafts I enjoy. I realize even now, I could be enjoying it more if I wasn’t inclined to avoid this messy space.

Mid Continent Updates

Mid Continent is a production line of cabinetry that we've used for many years. We've seen them expand their offerings over the last decade and continue to maintain a very attractive price point. In a letter we just received from the Vice President's of Sales, Jack Laninga and James Buller, it looks like Mid Continent will continue to bring more new products to market in 2011 while maintaining good cost control.
 
Some of the new product offerings we saw in 2011 included:
·         Ten new door styles
·         Five new finish options
·         Hundreds of new cabinet types, sizes, and accessories
·         New programs including custom backs for islands and a new vanity program
 
Mid Continent will also continue to offer their promotions and incentive programs through April 29, 2011:
·         APC – 33 percent off
·         Decorative doors – 15 percent off
·         Free Glaze finish
·         Solid Center Panel doors – 5 percent off
·         As always, standard paint colors have no up charge

If you are interested in seeing a full array of Mid Continent products please stop by our showroom in Merrifield Virginia.

LuxGuard by Crystal Cabinetry

Exclusive to Crystal, Lux Guard is the new top coat with enhanced depth of color durability and a touchable silky feel like no other. Crystal has been hard at work along with Valspar to develop a coating that gives their finishes a hand-rubbed effect with more depth and luster. The new coating offers a better coverage than ever before, increasing the actual thickness of the finish - you can really feel the difference! The LuxGuard coating is applied to all of Crystal's stains and Signature paints in standard or flat sheen.

New Slate Stain - Crystal Cabinetry

Looking for a unique stain color? We are excited to introduce Slate, our exclusive new stain for maple! The stain has a gorgeous, dark-grayish tone, giving the wood an almost silvery look! Available in all product lines for every budget!!

Crystal Cabinetry continues to develop unique stains that are also eco-friendly. They have also recently introduced 4 new lighter maple stains - Fawn, Prairie, Toffee and Prailine. We will be getting samples of all the new stains for our showroom soon. Until then you can have a closer look at the Crystal website.