The Lure of Gray

The big annual KBIS kitchen and bath event took place in New Orleans last week. Growing in popularity, the color trend to watch encompasses all shades of gray. It's made it's way into the hearts of both kitchen and bath designers and it's easy to understand why gray has mass appeal. Nature serves it up in all varieties of stone, glass and clay, an earthiness that's comfortable in all styles of decorating from traditional to contemporary to modern. Peaceful as a morning mist or dramatic as a stormy sky, gray dishes out all kinds of mood and and lots freedom for self expression.

Charisma Sink Cabinet

Silver, moonstone, deep opal, metal details, and faceted crystals – these are the special versions of "gray, the key components that characterize Susan Goldstick designs. Knobs, pulls, switch plates, bathroom vanities, drapery hardware, you name it – these touches of gray are used generously throughout our line of products. Our silver offers the paleness of white with a metalic twist while moonstone has the depth of gunmetal. Deep opal is not really like the gem but best described as slate with bluish or greenish tints depending upon how it behaves in the light. Then of course our satin plated silver metals add a quiet gray detail while crystal offers hints of lead and brilliance in the reflections of it's facets.

Metamorphosis of a Jitterbug Dresser

I'm amazed at how many transformations our jitterbug dresser has undergone over the years. Even a desk has blossomed from the original form. One of our advantages of working with a cabinet maker is that we have the flexibility to change a furniture piece by tweaking it's architecture.  This is how many new designs are born of course.  Altering the height, width. drawer sizes, or even the number of drawers will dramatically affect the look and even style of the piece. And that's just the structure! Details such as color schemes and cabinet hardware also play a hugh role in the design scheme as well.

Jitterbug makeup station

As I was looking through my picture files the other day, I came across some custom projects that we've done for our customers.  A classic case of "out of sight out of mind",  I was happy to discover some projects that I had almost forgotten. Here I've selected two extreme modifcations of our fabulous Jtterbug. The first is for a commercial space where we stretched the height of the cabinet from 29" – 36" to serve as a makeup station. We also straightened out the back legs so the piece could rest flush against a wall.

Jitterbug small dresser

In the second example we squeezed the overall width from 42" to 26" to allow for a night table's tight space. To give it a little wonderland feel we embellished the small drawers with 2. 5" diameter knobs.

Art or Function?

I'm fascinated by the creative ways retailers use our decorative hardware for displaying merchandise. The other day, I was reminded of a buyer from a shop in Banff, Alberta who  turned our banister finials into mannequin heads. Far fetched and fun. 

I probably should have insisted on seeing some pics of the finished project. I always notice how visitors to our studio gravitate to a grouping of small mirrors that are suspended with chains from our knobs anchored to the wall. Although they appreciate the clever application of a decorative knob, I can see them thinking and wondering how they can use this concept in their own homes.

I thought it would be a good idea to offer some visuals on the subject. So I ruffled through my photos and put together some novel uses of decorative knobs and finals,  which by the way,  are easy to attach to drywall with the use of a plastic toggler or anchor that's inserted into the wall.

Pulls in all directions – Mapping handle placement

When we first introduced our handles I realized that unlike a knob, they offer an awful lot of placement options. You not only have to consider where you want to put it, but also the orientation of the pull itself.

Obviously if your doors and drawers are pre drilled you needn't be concerned unless you plan to fill the holes and redrill. Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, at the top of the cabinet, within the paneling or on the molding,  whether determing the direction of the pull or where it's situated, these are all decorating decisions that face the designer.

For those who see their cabinetry as a blank canvas, there's no right or wrong, but just a creative exercise where the outcome is ulitmately a personal preference. Of course our assymetrical pulls such as our eels and bundles offer even more design challenges.

Keeping all this in mind, I realized that a handle placement guide could help our customers understand their options and came up with a what I like to call a my handle placement cheat sheet.

2013 New Year Resolution - Idea Boards

As much as I recognize the lure of the idea boards on both Pinterest and Houzz, I've been a little reluctant to delve into the latest trend in social media.  Not that I'm dragging my feet, because it is a bit of work. But I finally decided to take the plunge.  Our glass switch plates were the motivator that prompted me to create my first idea board on Houzz. Since glass tile walls and backsplashes are the latest fashion rave in kitchen and bath decor, customers often want our help in choosing glass switch and outlet covers.

So I started with a google image search for tiles that are compatible with our deep opal decora plate. I refer to our deep opal as a decorator color because it works so beautifully with modern color schemes. One of my favorites, it's best described as slate with a bluish greenish tint.

Amazed at how many beautiul glass tiles are in the marketplace, I had to narrow my focus and chose the mosaics for this blog. Although the exercise was a challenge, it was time well spent, as I found I was building my repetoire and now feel more educated on glass tiles and manufacturers. Needless to say this won't be my one and only shot at creating an idea board. Hot on my agenda for 2013, I imagine my next one may be about choosing knobs and pulls for princess girl bedrooms or matching drapery finials and fabrics...wow the possibilities are mind boggling!

Annual Holiday Sale 2012

Every year Sally Socolich, the San Francisco Chronicle's Bargain Hunter's writes up a juicy column on all the yearend sales events happening in the bay area. She focuses on  home decor industry manufacturers and we're happy to be among her select list. Our annual inventory sale  is coming up next weekend in Sausalito. So here's a sneak peek at some of the fantastic merchandise we'll have on sale this year.  But first the details-

Annual Holiday Sale
Sat Nov. 3rd 10 am - 5 pm
Sun. Nov. 4th  11 am - 4 pm

465 Coloma St.
Sausalito
415-332-6719

This year's super selection of cabinet knobs and pulls offer lots of choices for kitchen and bath remodels, built-ins and furniture makeovers. Switch cover inventory includes painted glass switch plates,  a perfect accent for glass back-splashes. Markdowns are 20 - 50% of all sale inventory including prototypes, designer overruns and seconds.

Knobs and pulls $12 - $25 (retail $24 - $50)

Switch and Outlet covers $20 - $30 (retail $28 - $42)

Shopping the Web for Wedding Gifts

It was a customer call from a bride to be that piqued my interest last week. She was putting together her bridal registry and wanted to add our cabinet knobs and pulls to her list for a kitchen makeover. I would imagine there are a lot of engaged couples  who already have fully equipped kitchens complete with espresso makers and state of the art wares. So why not put something out of the ordinary  on the gift wish list? There's nothing like getting a little help with a home decor project and it doesn't have to be limited to the kitchen. There are a fair share of decorating tasks for bathrooms and closets that could also use some updated decorative hardware.

A lot has changed since I got married in the low tech age before on line shopping. As much as I love the experience of roaming through the fine china section of Bloomingdales, the convenience of shopping on line coupled with the vast venue of merchandise offered up on the internet has hugh appeal.

Move over Major Retailers

But I have to admit that I'm mostly familiar with retail store resgistries. Realizing my experience was limited, I decided it was time to broaden my horizons. So I did a search for on line bridal registries and sure enough the first thing that came up was myregistry.com, followed by weddingchannel.com, eregistry.com, etc. As I did a little more probing, I noticed that expectant moms were also in on the wave of on line registry action. And then another discovery - baby furniture has a hugh presence on wish lists.

Knobs and Newborns

It's probably no surprise to anyone that I've given Susan Goldstick knobs as baby shower gifts. But making the selection  is not always easy. The hard part is not choosing the little boy blues or little girl pinks. This is especially true since we so often know the sex of the new baby and may even be privvy to the colors and design plans for the nursery.  It's the count that alway gets me baffled. Not knowing the number of drawer or doors is kind of tricky. It seems like a 6 or 8 drawer dresser should be ample enough for an infant's wardrobe. But is it? This is where the registry makes the purchase so much easier. I even got a flavor for the latest fashion and trends in nursery furnishings. Needless to say I've fast become a fan of on line gift registries.