With more remodelers than ever taking the Do-it-Yourself route in managing both small renovations and large projects this question is asked over and over when the decision is made to make changes to a space. Following are some suggestions and considerations to keep in mind when making the decision to hire an Interior Designer or not. Our belief is that if you plan to stay in the space for awhile and many of us plan to do just that given the nature of the housing market and the economy, it might be a good investment to spend a little up front to ensure that your project comes out exactly as you want it to.

There are three main questions we hear when customers ask us the question about whether or not they should hire an interior designer. Here are the questions and our suggested solutions:

How do I know that a designer’s design style will fit what I want to do in my home?

Start off by reviewing the design portfolio of interior designers you are interviewing to see first hand if their projects and experience are a good fit for what you want to accomplish with your project. As an example, you wouldn’t want to hire an interior designer who specializes in modern and contemporary lofts if your project is closer to a mid-level suburban home with a more classic or traditional look.

Locating and interviewing prospective designers

Begin your search for an interior designer by visiting the website for ASID located at www.asid.org or, better yet, visit the website for the local chapter of ASID in your city to get a list of members in your area. Many local ASID chapters are hosting “Meet the Designers” events this Spring where designers attend and show off samples of their work. You can meet the designers and see visuals of their work to see if that designer will be a good fit for you.

What will hiring a designer cost?

There is no standard wage scale for interior designers. Most will charge depending on the complexity of the job, the variety of materials desired by the client, and the designers projected time commitment to the project. Fees may normally be quoted in one of three ways:

* A Flat fee – what is covered should be negotiated between the client and the designer

* An Hourly fee – fee normally determined by the time commitment required of the job

* Cost Plus – instituted when the client desires the designer to locate and purchase materials on their behalf. The designer will place a percentage markup over cost as the fee for their materials selection services

With thousands of product lines and finishes to choose from, and technology that changes everyday, an interior designer can be a valuable resource to draw upon for those taking on a remodeling project.

We are happy to be able to introduce our newest line of glass mosaic tile products as coordinating 1” x 1” blends that match our Solana 3” x 6” Glass Subway tiles. Our new Solana Glass Mosaic tile blends come in a 1” x 1” size, they are mesh mounted for easy installation by the Do-it-Yourselfer or the professional alike and they are in stock today for shipment right to your door.

There are six blends colors available and four of the blends colors – Meadow, Smooth Grey, Sand Dune, and Blue Lagoon coordinate colors with our Solana 3 x 6 glass subway tiles. So now, customers of ours for example who are installing our glass subway tiles in their showers can integrate our Solana 1” x 1” glass mosaic tile blends in a shower shampoo niche or as an accent stripe along the back and or side walls of the shower.

Customers installing a kitchen backsplash can also create an accent stripe as needed or use the Solana 1” x 1” tiles as “corner cut outs” when an accent piece is desired in larger backsplash areas.

And for the glass mosaic tile blends colors such as Latte and Cabernet that were not made to coordinate with our Solana 3 x 6 glass subway tiles these colors are very rich and beautiful to stand on their own. Consider using the Latte color as a design accent with our Bamboo 3 x 6 Chestnut color tile for a glass mosaic tile accent with Bamboo subway tiles. The cool part of these new glass mosaic tiles is that there is no limit to the possible design combinations using tiles right from our own product portfolio.

Have a look at the newest addition to our collection of glass tiles as we welcome our first Penny round tiles to our online tile showroom. Our popular Kawaii Recycled glass tiles are now offered in a Penny Round size and come in fifteen colors which are all in stock and ready to ship.

Penny round tiles mostly in ceramic materials have been around for years and were in great demand in the early part of the 1900’s for residential construction projects in those days. They lost favor for a period of time among the home design set and have only recently in the last 5 – 10 years gained a following once again for mainly bathroom installations.

The fact that we can provide penny round tiles in our Kawaii recycled glass tiles series just makes this new product collection that much more exciting. Samples of any of the colors can be ordered online and ship out usually in 24 – 48 hours. Contact us anytime with questions you might have about these new tiles or any of the other fine tiles offered by our company.

Anyone with some left over money on their Christmas gift cards, here is the gift every DIY’er always wanted. Yes, you read the number right – an $85,000 toilet!

This toilet is of course fully functional and of course as you would expect is lined with pavé-set crystals and accented with rubies. The bowl is coated with diamond dust which consists of finely cut crystal and reflective metal. The toilet was recently ordered for the presidential suite of a boutique hotel in Hong Kong in case you want to try before you buy. The lead time is six months for those waiting for their Q1 bonus check so only one or two are made per year. There are also matching soaking tubs, tiles, bidets, shower curtains, lighting, towel racks, and other accessories. For a complete suite of matching products the tab would set you back only $500,000. Whhheeewww!!!

For those ready to buy, operators are standing by if you phone Jemal Wright Bath Designs…….quick.

Many of our customers select our various Subway tiles for design projects in their homes. Some of the most popular uses of subway tile continues to be for kitchen backsplashes and bathroom showers and in both cases subway tile is a timeless choice that will never go out of style. However, there might be one other area of the home where subway tile would make a nice design addition and that is for wainscoting for a bathroom or powder room.

Using subway tile as the wall covering for the lower half of a wall in a bathroom or powder room with a nice paint color on the upper half of the wall is a relatively cost effective way to add a unique design element to any home. The use of subway tile as wainscoting was a common design element in Arts & Crafts homes in the past. Subway tile was a good fit with this architectural style and with the large number of homeowners acquiring and remodeling these homes in the last ten to twenty years, they have in large part driven a revival in the use and acceptance of subway tile.

Installing subway tile in the standard running brick pattern is clearly the pattern of choice for those using subway tiles as wainscoting. However, interior designers have been telling us lately that some of their customers are “stacking” the rectangular tiles one on top of another to create a new twist on the more traditional look of following the brick pattern when using subway tiles. Whichever pattern you choose, consider using subway tile as wainscoting around the wall areas of your bathroom as a classic upgrade that certainly will stand the test of time.

I have always been in the camp of those who felt that remodeling and improving my home shouldn’t be considered an investment. However, given the performance of the stock market for the better part of this decade and even with home prices falling in much of the country as they have, I am starting to re-think how I feel about my home as an investment. Among other things, Remodeling magazine’s annual cost vs. value report factored in to my decision.

I know Warren Buffet may disagree with this but for us stock pickers with track records a notch above pathetic, putting money in to your home might just be the smartest thing one can do. Investments in many cases (can be) bought and sold with such regularity that placing one’s primary residence in to that category has been hard for me to do. But with the economy teetering on the brink the past six months, treating and managing my home as an investment is starting to look better and better each day.

Home prices have declined in my area much as they have in the rest of the country. But with the poor economy taking it’s toll on each and every one of us I find that I see more of my neighbors because they are always in the yard working, painting, repairing, and driving back and forth to the hardware store to purchase whatever items they forgot on the last trip. When asked why they are spending more time now than ever improving their home, most of my neighbors reply that they would rather put their money in to something they control rather than in to the financial markets where they have no control over the everyday gyrations in share values.

Remodeling Magazine’s 2008-2009 Cost vs. Value report shows that while home improvement projects are down for the period measured, property owners are still finding that the home is a great place to “invest” some of one’s savings and as a result they are tackling minor projects with many of those centering around the kitchen or the bath. The cost vs. value report shows that a minor kitchen remodel can re coup as much as 79.5% of the cost while a minor bathroom remodel is close to 75%. Many of the western states in the US show the ability to re coup more than 90% of the cost of the same projects due to higher resale values in this part of the country.

We offer a number of affordable products that are well designed and suited for kitchen and bath upgrades. Products such as our Solana Glass Subway tile, our Cardiff crackle subway tile, and many of our glass mosaic tile products such as our Coastal Blends or our Milano blends glass mosaic tile collections are all nice choices for upgrading one’s home.

To take advantage of deals and savings when searching for tile for your home stay in touch with us through our emails or by reading this blog. We will email specials to those on our email list from time to time and we will also post the discounts on our blog on the first day of the sales event. As readers of our blog know we focus on issues related to home improvement topics, new products for the home, the real estate market, and of course anything and everything relating to the world of tile.

This month and for the next five days through Tuesday August 18th we will be offering FREE SHIPPING on our Coastal Blends glass mosaic tiles in all ten colors. Any order of $125.00 or more qualifies and orders must be received by midnight Tuesday. Use code COASTAL upon checkout to take advantage of this offer.

Read some of the recent posts on our Blog about affordable kitchen and bathroom upgrades and you will see that a little money invested can go a long way towards making a big improvement in any home.

Last week we spoke about affordable bathroom upgrades and bathroom fixtures were mentioned as a nice addition to any such projects. Well, we think we have come across a contemporary and very complementary collection of drawer knobs and pulls to go with an upgraded bathroom where glass tile is being used. The new Riva collection from Amerock Hardware www.Amerock.com is designed with the modern home in mind and features simple, clean lines to reflect its urban appeal.

The Riva collection is available in graphite and satin nickel finishes and comes in eight sizes of knobs and pulls. Amerock products are available nationwide at Lowe’s and Home Depot as well at many Ace Hardware stores.

The graphite finish would work well with dark cabinets or black appliances while the satin nickel finish would be a nice choice with lighter cabinets and stainless steel appliances. We can picture either as a complement to glass subway tile in a kitchen or bathroom or glass mosaic tile on a tub surround or bathroom vanity backsplash. If you have any design suggestions or photos you would like to share of your DIY project please send them over and we would be happy to share them with our readers.

Visit the Learning Center on the AnchorBayTile website where we have numerous informative articles for the DIY’er hoping to make affordable improvements to their home. Some of the easiest improvements to make involve those in the Bathroom and each one can offer significant aesthetic improvements at a very affordable cost.

First of all and whenever possible, do the work yourself on small projects in order to save money. All of the projects we talk about can be completed by a homeowner with moderate home repair skills.

The easiest improvement to make is to re-paint the Bathroom in order to update the colors in the room. Pick a color scheme which you like and try to match other Bathroom accessories to the color family which you have chosen.

Our favorite upgrade of course is to tile the tub surround or behind the bathroom vanity area with a color that stays within the color family of the paint color chosen. A great choice for a bathroom vanity or tub surround area is glass mosaic tile because glass tile is a wonderful design complement to a newly painted and updated bathroom.

Finally, complete your weekend bathroom upgrade with new bathroom hardware of your choosing which may include faucets, light fixtures, cabinet knobs, toilet paper holders and light fixtures. Most bath hardware is quite inexpensive and store sales are common on these items.

Good luck with your weekend projects and send us your project photos when you are done!

We hear often from our customers in these tough times about locating beautiful tile products that offer a good value for homeowners. With our new Coastal Blends glass mosaic tile we believe we have over delivered for our customers by stocking a tile that is very competitively priced and comes in ten beautiful contemporary glass tile blends colors which are suitable for most any interior or exterior project.

We find that our customers are using the Coastal Blends tiles as an affordable glass mosaic tile choice for showers, tub surrounds, kitchen backsplashes, and entire swimming pools. Given the incredible pricing of only $8.50 per sheet this makes upgrading one’s home using decorative glass tile in reach of most anyone considering a home improvement project.

Consider that a standard backsplash varies between 15 and 20 square feet. Using the Coastal Blends tile makes that backsplash materials cost well under $200, falling somewhere between $127.50 and $170.00 depending on actual square feet needed. Throw in one bag of mortar and one small bag of grout and the entire materials cost for a DIY’er installing our Coastal Blends tile is less than $200. Not bad at all.
Go to www.AnchorBayTile.com and click Glass Tile to learn more about how the Coastal Blends collection is a great choice for a contemporary upgrade to any home or commercial location.

Finally, it is done. It seemed like a simple pattern. I really was unprepared for how long it took to do the tiling. Or how precise the tiling had to be.

And I was definitely unprepared for making a grave tiling error and having to tear off one wall of tile after it had already been put up. I have laid a lot of floor tile and thought I had skills greater than a beginner, but I guess I don’t. Or at least I didn’t. I feel confident that sould I decide to undertake a project like this now I would measure better and make sure the corner seam was lined up.

The major problem is that I live in an old house, where nothing is square, level or plumb. This requires you to “cheat” in order to make it appear correct. This cheating is a skill that can’t be taught, it is all trial and error.

It is done now and like most home improvement projects, the finished product makes it all worthwhile.