11 Great Design Tips You Might Have Missed This Week
Swap out your light fixtures, choose dovetail drawers for heavy dishes and know where to stop your kitchen backsplash
Mitchell Parker
June 10, 2017
Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative trends, breaking news, industry analysis and humor.
Houzz Editorial Staff. Home design journalist writing about cool spaces, innovative... More
1. Paint your interior doors dark. If your home has white walls and ceilings and you’re looking to add a little character to the interior without repainting the entire home, consider painting just your doors black or charcoal gray, as was done in this charming Nashville, Tennessee, home of former Paramore guitarist Josh Farro and his wife, Jenna.
We’ve written before about reasons to consider painting your interior doors dark, but to recap: It adds instant elegance and contrast and helps highlight other black accents in the room, if you’ve got them.
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We’ve written before about reasons to consider painting your interior doors dark, but to recap: It adds instant elegance and contrast and helps highlight other black accents in the room, if you’ve got them.
See more of this home
2. Use reclaimed wood for an island kick plate. Kitchen islands are busy hubs that have kids and adults bellying up to work, eat or chat with whoever’s cooking. But if you’re concerned about the inevitable kicks scratching and chipping away at your island, consider wrapping the seating portion of the island in reclaimed wood. The material won’t show dents and dings as prominently, and it’s a great way to add warmth and personality.
See more of this kitchen
See more of this kitchen
3. Consider a window backsplash. If you’re looking to get more light into your kitchen, and if your budget and home structure allow, consider punching as many holes as possible into a cabinet wall. Here, window slivers above and below the hanging cabinets and a large window behind the range create a cool effect that brightens the industrial space.
See more of this kitchen
See more of this kitchen
4. Swap out your light fixtures. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive and easy way to bring style to your home, try swapping out your current light fixtures for something a bit more dramatic. It’s a pretty straightforward DIY project, though you must use caution when doing any kind of electrical work and always make sure you turn the power off. Lowe’s has a pretty simple guide to follow for changing a light fixture.
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See the rest of this home
5. Don’t discount plywood. These white-stained plywood walls in a Swedish home show how powerful simple materials can be when thoughtfully designed and implemented.
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See more of this home
6. Vary your flooring materials. This London kitchen features a lot of bold style choices, but the mix of floor materials is definitely at the top. Hexagonal encaustic tiles wrap around to delineate the kitchen and dining area, and then, through a dappling effect, transition into antique parquet flooring in a herringbone pattern that leads to the living spaces.
See more of this kitchen
See more of this kitchen
7. Get to know marble contact paper. There’s no shortage of DIY magic you can do with marble-patterned adhesive paper. In the Washington, D.C., studio shown here, homeowner Liz Fassbender used the material to elevate the look of an Ikea coffee table by applying it to the bottom shelf.
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See more of this home
8. Grow herbs in the kitchen. Blessed with a sunny window in your kitchen? Consider growing herbs and other edible plants that you can use to garnish drinks and meals.
See more on growing food indoors
See more on growing food indoors
9. Know where to end your backsplash. It’s a dilemma, but designer and Houzz writer Yanic Simard breaks down what you need to know about where to stop your precious tile material. It depends on several factors, including ceiling height and where your cabinets and countertops end.
See where to end your backsplash
See where to end your backsplash
10. Get down with durable dovetails. Deep drawers are great for easily accessing kitchen items in lower cabinets. But without proper construction, those drawers might not be able to bear the weight of heavy dishes. Talk with your cabinetmaker or kitchen designer about dovetail drawers, or another durable construction method, to handle heavy loads.
See more of this kitchen
See more of this kitchen
11. Consider a convertible coffee-and-dining table. Space is often hard to come by in New York, but that doesn’t mean you need to give up the comforts of more spacious living. In this 400-square-foot apartment, the homeowners used a table from Ligne Roset that can be lowered to coffee table height for everyday use and raised to dining table height for meals.
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I love the idea of a window backsplash! You can also use floating shelves over a window to create a sink view that also has storage! Mandi @ Dura
I have utilized two of these ideas, first the drop light which is a conversion light from Home Depot and second, all the doors are painted charcoal. The magenta wall is an accent wall in the hallway as seen from the living room.
We added larger windows and turned them into cabinets. Glass shelves & glass sliding panels on the inside to keep the glassware clean. There is a tower of glass vases supporting the middle of the shelves, and I filled them with corresponding colored glass gems. We wound up adding mesh shades inside to cut the summer sun since these are south & west windows. The windows store a lot and add sparkle to the room.