Silestone Archives - The Curated House

THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE | WEEK SIX | THE BIG REVEAL!

Happy Thursday design lovers! If you’re new to The Curated House, you’ve chosen a great day to stop by as it is at long last time to share the “afters” for our project for this season’s One Room Challenge. Do the last six weeks feel like a blur to anyone else? What an adventure! I’m so excited to share my little Luxe Laundry Room project reveal with you.

Before I do, I need to say thank you. First and foremost, I need to thank my incredible husband who has tackled this room on top of his extremely busy job as a software executive, all in his “spare time.” His perseverance, patience, persistence and incredible work ethic are the number one reason I have beautiful “after” photos to share with you here today. I am incredibly grateful to him and for him, not just in this project but in our real and everyday life together. I love you, babe.

I’d also like to thank Linda from Calling It Home for creating such a dynamic event. As a designer I can say that we all need someone to light a fire under our behinds when it comes to completing our own personal projects, and the One Room Challenge is the perfect spark. I plan to fan it into a flame with the Fall 2015 edition, and I hope more of my fellow interior designers will join me in taking on this design dare once again.

Speaking of design community and lighting a fire, I’d also like to thank my friend Lisa Canning for cheering me on with this little personal project. For years I’ve worked solo and been very isolated in my design business. Now that I have a design sisterhood, there’s no turning back! You are a gift, my friend.

A HUGE, heartfelt thank you goes out to all of my incredible brand partners, all of whom I will list with much gratitude at the end of this post. Without your generous support, this project would not have been possible.

Thank you, too, to all of you lovely people for following along and commenting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and right here on the blog. I have loved having you weigh in on the selection details with me! You’ve made the process fun and engaging and I’m so grateful we got to do this together.

OK, so without further ado, here is our much awaited “after.”

Vases – Black Rooster Decor

Do you remember how dark and dreary our “before” was? The typical basement dungeon of a laundry room.

Well as Florence And The Machine would say, the dark days are OVER!

Now it is bright and pretty, happy and practical, full of storage solutions not just for laundry, but also for calligraphy, art, sewing, gift wrapping, painting and all kinds of other fun and creative activities. I now think of this space as my laundry-room-meets-arts-room in the storage sense of things, and I love how the TooFifteen bins accommodate everything with casual elegance.

Remember the problem of the furnace and water heater visually dominating the room? Such an eyesore! Not anymore. The incredible sliding door hardware system from Upper Canada Specialty Hardware matched with the gorgeous rift-cut raw white oak solid doors from Metrie mean that this now feels like a feature wall when the doors are closed, while still keeping the furnace and water heater totally accessible when necessary. These raw, rift-cut white oak doors add natural texture and interest while hiding a multitude of sins {including the rest of the floor tile yet to be installed on the other side of the floor-mounted track!}. I now love this side of the room – when the doors are closed, of course! – and it feels harmoniously balanced with the feature wall.

Two of the design decisions you so kindly weighed in on that I waited to reveal until today include the countertop selection and the grout colour. In the end, I chose Silestone’s Lagoon for the countertop, which led to the selection of Silver grout from Mapei to pull out the soft and subtle grey tones in the counters. I’m thrilled with the final result. The combination offers just enough contrast to be interesting without competing with the stunning statement floors, and somehow the palette speaks to a quiet femininity that just works for me.

Woven Ombré Towels + rose quartz Rock Soap – Anthropologie

Another of the decisions I kept secret until today was the question of which faucet would win the day. If you’ve been following along, I think it will come as no surprise that the Delta Trinsic was the right faucet for our space.

Cucina Hand Soap – Anthropologie

The champagne bronze finish of the Delta Trinsic is absolutely perfect with the gorgeous satin brass Lewis Dolin pulls from Upper Canada Specialty Hardware, don’t you think? This faucet is extra special in that it features SmartTouch® technology. The proximity sensor allows us to use the faucet totally hands-free when needed, and just a touch of the faucet also allows us to tap it on or off. We can of course just turn it on and off the old-fashioned way as well if we choose to!

I decided to have a little fun with the storage for my pre-soak stain removal detergent and picked up the black faceted geometric terrarium you see below on the right from West Elm. Paired with an antique silver spoon it makes stain removal seem almost an elegant affair, don’t you think? Perfect to use with our amazingly deep and functional Blanco sink from The Home Depot.

If you’re a detail freak like me, you’ll notice there are little touches that have yet to be finished {like caulking in the corners along the edges of the cut tile} but overall I couldn’t be happier with this dramatic transformation. From the floors and brass details adding sophistication, to the white oak doors and floating shelf adding a humble yet modern warmth, to the vases and bins adding a feminine edge and sense of style, this little laundry room has a new lease on life and has successfully converted me into a laundry lover after all!

A huge thank you to Ashley Capp for doing such a beautiful job of capturing the space for me – you are truly the loveliest!

And once again, a massive and heartfelt THANK YOU to all of my incredible brand partners for making this laundry room not only possible, but ultimately a gratitude project:

Subfloor R+ and SMARTWALL system – Dricore
LED pot lights – CREE Canada
Casing, baseboard and white oak slab doors – Metrie
Brass cabinet pulls and sliding door system – Upper Canada Specialty Hardware
Cabinet, wall and trim paint – Para Paints
Trinsic Faucet – Delta
Blanco Sink – The Home Depot
Silestone Lagoon slab for countertops – Cosentino
Bevelled subway tile – Creekside Tile Toronto
White + brass vases for flowers and brass jack – Black Rooster Decor
Tyvek storage bins – TooFifteen

Now it’s time for me to pour over the details of all of the reveal posts from these amazing talents!

Be sure to leave me a comment below telling me what your favourite details are from our little laundry room makeover. I’d love to hear what you think of the final reveal. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Now, off to do some laundry! *wink*

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|May 7th, 2015|53 Comments

THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE | Week Three Update | Gold vs. Brass

Hello lovelies!

I hope this finds you all happy and inspired now that Spring has finally shown up on the scene. My body has decided to continue to do some “Spring cleaning” of its own by way of the nastiest flu I’ve ever experienced. Yes, I mentioned we had it run through our household last week. Well, it decided it wasn’t quite ready to break up with me and came back for an extra special bonus round. So grateful I’m the only one its clinging to, but that said, I’m working on my harshest break up lines as we speak. It’s not me, Flu, it’s you.

Gratefully, my amazing husband is currently picking up our incredible floor tile which has just arrived! More on that next week once we have it installed. I. Can’t. Wait!!

In the meantime, let me update you on the current state of affairs.

STONE SELECTED!

First off, thank you for weighing in with your thoughts on the Silestone countertop selection via Facebook, Instagram and here on the blog! The decision has been made and with a 25 year warranty, it’s a countertop that will definitely stand the test of time. I can’t wait to reveal it to you on Week Six!

THE GREAT FAUCET DEBATE

The decision of the hour relates to the great faucet debate. It’s a battle of gold vs. brass by way of two awesome faucet options. On the left you will see the more gold finish of the Delta Trinsic, and on the right, the more brass {dare I say slightly coppery?} finish of the Brizo Solna.

This is what I call a good problem to have, my friends. I love them both! But I want to hear from you. Which one do you prefer?

Here are the amazing Lewis Dolin pulls from Upper Canada Specialty Hardware that I will be working with:

As you can see, much more gold than brass. I really think the hardware makes the decision pretty clear, but I’d love for you to weigh in. Do you like mixing various tones and hues of metal, or do you prefer to keep it all in the family so to speak?

I have to tell you that Don, Ed and the team at Upper Canada Specialty Hardware have been an absolute dream to work with, and they’ve been instrumental in helping me to create a most beautiful solution to the ugliest problem in the laundry room using a phenomenal sliding door system. I seriously can’t wait to get it installed. More on that in the next couple of weeks!

If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen the video I posted earlier this week showing how ridiculously easy the DriCore SMARTWALL system is to mud. We’ve just got a few seams left to mud, but here’s how the room looks right this minute with the ceiling drywalled and the DriCore Subfloor R+ and DriCore SMARTWALL systems installed:

I can’t tell you how excited I am to get to the pretty part! Here’s THIS WEEK’S TO-DO LIST:

* Finish installing our CREE LED pot lights
* Paint the ceiling and walls
* Install the track for the sliding door system from Upper Canada Specialty Hardware
* Seal the tiles
* Lay them out to ensure the pattern is correct and we have what we need
* Cut and install the tiles and let them set
* Grout the tiles
* Paint the MDF end gables
* Install end gables and base cabinets
* Get countertop templated

Sounds do-able with a wicked flu and only a week to do it all, right? SO much more to be done once we make our way through that list, but we are just taking it one week at a time, one day at a time. I figure I can rule the world from bed with my laptop and iPhone at my side, and the plan is to be back on my feet as of tomorrow so I can dive in with Graham into the tile installation.

Be sure to check out what the other designers and bloggers have been up to and let me know what your favourite projects are so far! Stay well and have a wonderful Spring weekend!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|April 16th, 2015|3 Comments

THE ONE ROOM CHALLENGE | Week Two Update

Hello friends and design lovers! How is it Thursday again already? Man, this week has flown by! I hope yours has been a bit less of a whirling dervish than mine. Mixed in with the flu passing through our household {it still hasn’t read its eviction notice properly}, we have been working hard at moving the needle forward on progress with the laundry room.

As with real life, it has not been without its challenges. The plumbing was a fairly tall order as we had to remove all the old copper pipes. Let’s just say it proved more of a chore than anticipated and we actually had to move the back wall in a bit to accommodate some of the “choices” made by the previous home owner that could not be changed without ripping up the concrete. That said, my super-hubs got it done and we were able to check that off the list. We are just waiting for the electrical inspection and then we can check that off the list as well, which will be great as I can’t wait to finish the drywall and get our Cree LED pot lights installed…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Right now, we are still very much in the early stages of construction. The amazing DriCore Subfloor R+ is in, though, so although the space doesn’t look glamorous yet, it feels so much better. By that I mean it is so much warmer.

The Subfloor R+ comes in square tiles that click together, making the installation super fast and easy, and amazingly it actually raises the temperature of the finished flooring by up to 5.6° C {10.6° F for all of my American friends}. That is so important in basements, especially when you aren’t splurging on radiant heat. Bye-bye popsicle toes, hello happy feet!

Hello cozy toesies!

The only thing to slow us down with finishing the installation of the subfloor was our vintage 1969 concrete foundation which is ridiculously hard and dense. The older the concrete, the harder it is, which wouldn’t be a big deal if we weren’t tiling. But tiling means securing the Subfloor R+ with tapcons drilled into the concrete to stabilize it so the tiles won’t crack. Let’s just say getting those suckers into the concrete was a little bit like trying to nail jello to the wall. We had to go up a size in tapcons before we could get them to stop snapping off at the halfway point. And by “we” I mean Graham. And by “snapping off” I mean making Graham lose his proverbial jello.

My involvement in said scenario was making the run to the Home Depot to get bigger tapcons when the first ones failed completely. That and offering lots of words of encouragement to the hubs as he wrestled the concrete into submission. Gratefully, Graham can now add “concrete tamer” to his resumé and our Subfloor R+ is totally stable and secure and ready for the tile to be laid.

We {aka Graham} have also been working away on installing the DriCore SMARTWALL system. Smart is an understatement. This product is like the superhero of basement refinishing, and it will make you feel like the superhero of your basement reno.

Of all the jobs involved in finishing this space, the drywall would be what Graham likes the least, mainly because of the mudding and taping. If you have ever tackled this task yourself, you will know that it is something of an art form. A very messy, very challenging art form. Looks easy, really isn’t, and looks terrible if you get it wrong. Not only that, but there are several time consuming steps involved: 1. Install insulation and vapour barrier, 2. Attach drywall to the studs, 3. Mud and tape the seams, 4. Wait for the mud to dry, 5. Sand that down, 6. Repeat the mudding with a feather coat, 7. Wait for that to dry, 8. Sand again… You get the idea.

Well, not so with the Smartwall system. Here’s a side view of the product so you can get an idea of the anatomy:

SMARTWALL is brilliant because it allows you to install your insulation and drywall all in one fell swoop, but that’s not even the best part! The panels click together {just like the interlocking Subfloor R+ system}, and the very small seams are then filled with a simple-to-use putty that takes the mess out of the usual experience of mudding. Hello! Happy, insulated, drywalled walls in a fraction of the time it would take to accomplish traditionally. Thank you DriCore!

We hope to finish installing the SMARTWALL panels over the weekend {remember that part about the flu slowing us down?} and I will be sure to share a photo of that stage of things next week.

In the meantime, I would love your input! I am trying to decide between two similar but different-enough-that-it’s-a-decision choices for my countertop. Both are amazing engineered quartz from Silestone, and both are in quiet grey tones. Weigh in with me? Which one do you like better?

The top one is called Lagoon, and the bottom one is called Helix. I like the subtlety of the tones in the Lagoon, but I like the movement in the Helix. What do you think? I feel like they both do a great job of replicating natural stone and I love that Silestone is perfect for a high-traffic laundry room with its stain resistant, scratch resistant, bacteriostatic technology. This is truly a win-win decision I have before me! Can’t wait to see where it lands. Cast your vote in the comments to help me finalize the decision!

That’s it for me this week. Be sure to go and check out what these amazing creatives are up to and get inspired by their progress:

Coco + Kelley * Jana Bek * Autumn Clemons * The English Room * Vanessa Francis * Greige Design * Hi Sugarplum* I Heart Organizing * Jenna Sue Design * Stephanie Kraus * The Pursuit of Style * Julia Ryan * Savvy Home * Simple Details * Simply Grove * 6th Street Design * Jill Sorensen * Swoon Worthy * Waiting On Martha * Kimberly Shlegel Whitman * and my friends and linking participants Lisa Canning and Abby M. Interiors. Go to Calling It Home to check out all of the 150 Linking Participants for the April 2015 edition of the One Room Challenge!

I absolutely love the Moroccan-inspired wallpaper that Vanessa Francis is using in her bathroom update. The art addict in me is all over what is happening over at Waiting On Martha, and the pattern play of fabrics in Cassie’s design plan over at Hi Sugarplum is totally my cuppa. Which projects are getting your creative juices flowing? Can’t wait to hear from you all this week. Here’s to less flu and more follow through!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|April 9th, 2015|5 Comments

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