The chair rail. What ever happen to it? Once upon a time, it was seemingly everywhere. Today, it languishes on the bottom of interior design’s parts bin, right next to crown moulding. Perhaps we should give it another look. YOUR BASIC CHAIR RAIL In its simplest form, as a horizontal band running around the room, the...
As it turns out, there are multiple contemporary trim options for your home. In my last post, I explored designing trim details using applied trim compared to using reveals. As I worked on that post, I kept thinking about how the planes of the walls moved in and out beneath the crown moulding and the...
Using contemporary interior trim and reveals to design modern traditional interiors was the topic of my last post. While I explored the notion at a global level, but my curiosity was not fully satisfied. In this post, I investigate the concept up close and personal, asking the questions, “What works for me? What doesn’t work...
Modern interior trim details were in several images in our most recent post. The details were built around reveals used as transitions from color to color or material to material. For example, at PictureTel, we used a ¼” Pittcon reveal to transition from one color of Polymix to another. The reveal also served to break...
50 years of interior design, it hardly seems possible. Yet here I am, my wife and business partner Sally by my side. I invite you to join me as I look back and celebrate our years together. We each took different paths along the way to our careers in the business. Sally was living in...
Is it possible to design great looking modern traditional trim using classical proportions and guidelines? The short answer is yes. As it turns out, the long answer will take several posts.(As I prepared this post it became clear I could create so much content in response to my question I needed to write several posts on...
Kitchen trim was on the mind of kitchen designer, Scott Koehler, when he contacted me several weeks ago. He was designing a kitchen with 10’ high ceilings and wanted to make sure the crown moulding’s proportions were right. Drawing on my understanding of the Classical Orders and Proportion, could I help him make sure this...
Today, I will be sharing my top interior trim tips. This post was inspired by a conversation with a fellow designer who had questions about the proper proportion and scale for the crown moulding in a kitchen he is designing. While I have written previously about this topic, this conversation got me thinking specifically about...
When is a kitchen not a kitchen? That is the question I’ve been asking myself recently. It’s been prompted by several things. First, as consequence of the pandemic, we all have been forced to use our homes in ways we had never previously considered. For example, in my son’s family both dad and mom are...
Kitchen lighting is a challenge in the best of conditions. Lighting levels, fixture spacing, ambient lighting, task lighting and decorative lighting are all in play. In my last post, I alluded to a particular challenging lighting challenge relating to the placement of a soffit crown moulding above a row of kitchen cabinets. The underside of...