NOR Design Chronicles

May 21

Second kitchen island with walnut drawers and a light granite top in a Bridle Trails kitchen remodel

What you are actually paying for behind a cabinet door

By admin Cabinets

Two kitchens can photograph identically. Same painted inset doors, same white oak island, same hardware. Open a drawer in each of them, pull it all the way out, and you…

May 21

Love0

Espresso double vanity with a white quartz top and frameless mirrors in a Ravenna, Seattle bathroom remodel

How countertop materials age in a kitchen you actually use

By admin Materials

A countertop sample is about the size of a paperback, and it is always shown to you clean, dry, and under lighting chosen to flatter it. Five years into ownership,…

May 21

Love0

White vanity, freestanding tub and a frameless glass shower under vaulted windows in a Seattle primary bath

The bathroom decisions that come long before tile

By admin Bathroom

Almost every bathroom conversation we have starts with tile. Someone opens their phone, shows us a floor they have been saving for two years, and the whole project seems to…

Jun 10

Love0

Choosing colors that work in Seattle light

By admin Design

Four whites brushed onto a north-facing living room wall in July look like four versions of the same thing at nine in the morning. Come back to that wall at…

Jun 10

Love0

White and cream mood board with textured tile, plaster and stone samples

How to find a design style that fits the way you live

By admin Design

Most first design meetings start with a phone being turned around. There are twenty saved images on it, and about half of them disagree with the other half. A pale…

Jun 10

Love0

Design with the house you have, not against it

By admin Design

A homeowner arrives at a first meeting with two things that seem to be in conflict. On the phone, a saved image of a flat-panel kitchen with no visible hardware,…

Jun 10

Love0

White Woodinville kitchen with a granite island, black counter stools and glass pendants

How we layer light through a whole-home remodel

By admin Lighting

Stand in a 1920s Seattle living room at four o'clock on a November afternoon and flip the one switch by the door. A single fixture comes on, dead center in…

Jun 10

Love0

Freestanding tub, glass shower and white vanity against charcoal walls in a Ravenna primary bathroom remodel

What actually makes a bathroom feel calm

By admin Bathroom

Stand in the doorway of a bathroom that was remodeled two years ago and count what your eye lands on before it settles. In a lot of newly finished bathrooms…

Jul 18

Love0

Neutral mood board of ceramics, woven textiles and wood samples for a warm minimalist interior

Sustainable design that survives a Northwest winter

By admin Design

The first genuinely sustainable decision in a Seattle remodel usually has nothing to do with a material sample. It has to do with whether the house can dry out. We…

Jul 18

Love0

Open living and dining space with white sofas, a live-edge coffee table and natural textures

Furnishing a finished remodel without it looking assembled

By admin Interior Design

The week after a final walkthrough is a strange one. The house is finished, the light is doing what it was designed to do, and the sofa that lived happily…

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