welcome to another edition of design for the times i'm your host richard christopher scary i'm very happy to have in studio someone that i met believe it or not yesterday at a barbecue a kind of a glamorous barbecue over at subzero kitchens and i think people are intrigued by kitchens because i think style has changed so much don't you like even in the past five years things are more modern they are cleaner the colors are so different i think people are confused and even people that did maybe they had a last house years ago nine years ago were a little bit more maybe traditional but styles have changed so much i think people are confused so they're coming to showrooms they're coming to places where people that you know know the latest trends such as yourself can advise them what to do so tell us a little about the company signature kitchens where you're located tell us about your background ok signature kitchens the family owned and operated company ok we have do you find because the you know we're in a small state but because you're down the sure that the a static there is different than north jersey which may be closer to new york well that's closer to new york but maybe a little bit more cosmopolitan are people picking different things because they live in cabinets they have today so it's weird how things are secular they come around but they're also reinvented right the materials are better than they were exonerated maybe looping around but he's not here else right so i think we're in a period of time too and i see this with the bathrooms that i work on that  white and gray and clean whether it's traditional transitional or contemporary continue to flow maybe now with pops tell me what you're seeing what are people asking you for your at the front line when people come in when people come into jessica did most people have an idea what they want to they come in with a folder full of magazines what do they come in to see you guys what are they what do they have in their arsenal i think it's fifty fifty people that a lot of people don't know what about psychology and then you see how people react to things and then you can sort of build a profile for them because again some people don't know what they want it all right and i have been i have been to either one of your locations are they sort of short rooms with cabinets set ups how is that and they might say i like that display i don't like that display and that helps me start them on the right path so what style of comic book kind of design are going to want exactly so start pretty much at the show around you have to walk around get some ideas you don't have all the pinterest printed out social welfare we do but we don't not print it out so we have a serious profile ever all the kitchen jobs that we do we save them and we look through all the photos of different styles and ideas and it's really helpful because that also helps me i would watch people's reactions i see what they like what they don't like and help guide them i also have to explain what different styles what it's like living with different styles functionally to your mate and then that all the time help me determine what they're going to want to live with so now because you have the opportunity to see kind of everything and again we met last night it will subzero and they were guest but two weeks ago on the show here we get to see the best of the best and sometimes we see things before the general public sees it so you have a wealth of knowledge already so what would you say your personal best are the what are things that you see out there that you particularly like you going to do a little birdie told me that you can do a little renovation yourself  pick and what is just because say wow you know i'm young i'm savvy i have a i know the business with what things that kill to you in a kitchen well i i think that it's a very important that the nile goes to the home for oh my god so first rule  of architecture don't have an italian lacquer kitchen in the center of all colonial right so sure even if you you know a modern kitchen i really love the style you play but they're right in you know there are certain homes that i wouldn't put it in so i think that's a very important starting why sure i think i would say that a simple door styles never new out of style and by simple distorts i would use a shaker percent or variation of a shaker recessed panel door  simple profile on the cabin it was a wood thing but it wasn't too late or too dark it was in the middle and you know it's old with those originally very well built custom cabinets because it stands the test of time so i think you're very right that a simpler profile will stand the test of rights absolutely doorways in the windows maybe a white cabinet to kind of continue that look right depends on what floor you're doing sure you have if there are wood floors throughout the whole house and dark stain wood floors throughout the kitchen also it could be difficult to find a stain that's not going to clash with those wood floors exact and white and what a beautiful together because a wood tone warms a white cabinet could be very cold if you know white everywhere so you have some warmth in the they don't have bring them together and what you do what we do collectively in our business is we create a palette of balance surfaces so it's just like dressing so your dress today and everything is balanced so if you had you know black jewelry black everything or dark blue all together you wouldn't appreciate the balance it's the same thing with dressing your room and that critical thing in doing that kitchen is from the floor up so i say to people when they're going to do their kitchen if they already have hardwood floors i like person like hardwood floors in the kitchen not everybody does but if your whole house is hardwood floors go with that and if you have a hardwood floor you don't want to have a stained floor finish with a stain cabinet finish unless there's a big contrast but for the most part i don't personally care for that i think that's an opportunity difficult to make that limb yeah because if they're too similar it just doesn't look right and if there are two opposite it doesn't look right there so for most part if i have hardwood floors in a space storm and there's no glaze on this now what i would say about this from my observation this is what i would call the gray where it's a combination of brown and great together it's not sort of a solid gray which i think is very nice because it's accommodating to a lot of different surfaces now with a cabinet like this with the grange you could you could peer this with a white or a warm white or an off white cabinet and i think it would work well to other in maybe that maybe we did the peninsula which is a really long peninsula right evan stools across your wow big no when you walk in and that's the color that you see on the bottom right on the back and then there's just open shelving on one wall which i'd like to do in white and air it out a little dark cabinets it could be sort of taking light away from the space and i would imagine when you're designing a kitchen you want to take things like the amount of light in the space the exposure is it open to other rooms as a closed off the other it's there's a lot that factor is a lot the fact so let's go back to floors a little bit so when do we have the kitchen we start with the floors we have a dark wood floor or even a middle tone hardwood floor probably we're going to do some paint a cabinet or a combination of paint stained to break it up a little if you were not if you were little bit of a variation and so it's not not just a point to point correct one of the things you want to keep in mind if you're going with a tile surface or non wood service in the kitchen you wanted to at least have some texture because texture prevents from seeing crumbs but twenty years ago i had a client that moved down to florida and i said how do you like your new place she goes oh i made it i had nothing to do with it she said i made a big mistake if i did a pure white tile floor and a speck of a speck of dust pepper if you put it i guess is putting pepper on stuff if you could see it so it's very important even if you have a light floor is that that floor has a little bit of striations or something going on to it number one it makes it look more like natural stone right then number two it just is easier for me to clean so i would say for me in a perfect world i would have hardwood floors throughout my whole first floor because the visual line from other rooms the continuity makes the spacing bigger i think big and continuity but if i had a situation where i didn't have there was a change a grade i could make that work and i was going to texture to it a little too so it's also safer and it's not so hard to walk on what about incorporating with a tile like this some sort of a heating element underneath that's a very that's a popular option to i just think that tile is an opportunity to create that and you have warm under your feet when you're having your coffee in the summertime is that's a good solution to depending on how the renovation transforms sure if a wall is being knocked down we have a heating element in right now that heating elements coming out if it's difficult to relocate that in sometimes it can be located in a token but it sure there aren't cabinetry is there that there's no cabinetry there adding to the heat on the floor is really that's a that's a great solution sure so i do like i'm sorry much my first choice would always be hardwood if it's throughout the rest of the house the issue that i has and you had already brought this up the issue i had you know just a restaurant over a new providence new jersey and we did a beautiful wood is perfect for rent but if this was backing up against wood i don't like tile that looks like wood against one and yeah i see people make that mistake all the time because it's kind of trendy don't right think it is i also so what is great if you're going to do tile i would say the linear go big size is less grout less maintenance and it does it's sort of counter to that people say oh i have a small kitchen i don't want to because no it's actually the opposite is the bathrooms y let's talk about lower cabinets are you a fan of splitting up the type shape or color of top cabinets as opposed to lower cabinets usually not tell me why i'm surprised in the in the case that i just mentioned the top cabinets it's a very open space and they don't really connect throughout the whole room yeah that would have more of an easy separating point already so you don't have continuity yeah awkward it has like you said the very beginning is that it's all about balance now if you're doing fifty percent of the the base is one color and then the other half of the kitchen other fifty percent pie another color it's awkward to me to have then you have tall cabinets you have a very much i very much agree what i do probably most often is have all the cabinets uppers and lowers in the same and then the break is in the island that we do yeah i don't know if that's what you meant but i know i meant when you did say you did a small kitchen the top would be white shaker in the bottom would be navy shaker the top would be white the bottom would be cherry but the same style cabinet it works sometimes it depends on how the design is going to lay out right and the way out of balance holes face very important but i do find that i like a lot to break it up with the island right because it's its own vehicle here's also my rule of thumb if you're doing a countertop surface i don't like you i see this a lot now i'm seeing that people that say their perimeter is all white chick are cabinets  their island is a dark the charcoal gray they also change the countertop on the island i don't love that i like either the island is different but the continuity is with the countertop right or you know or vice right not that it's too much now how do you feel about how angry you are right but because i think there's no you have to have your you have to have individuality but it has to be connected some way because as you say you're dealing with appliances refrigerators think there's so many cuts in that that you make it look like it's together so let's talk about countertop surfaces because i think a lot of people are confused the difference between granite which i was in the twenty one years ago all i did was granite people were going from korean to gran to today were people seem to be going towards not granite are they more there are more going towards other surfaces other than the granite what surface do you like better for kitchen well i like to think of it in three different categories three different options sure there's granite which is a natural stone and still very much around still around right still great still pretty much almost maintenance free from microsoft right there's quartzsite which was also a national stone right  and then there's engineered court courts rage is an engineered stone sure so granite is about seventy ish percent quartzsite and which the ct side in it which makes it non porous right of the rest of it moved rest of other rockets mixed in that give it the natural look for it makes it could be different varying degrees of being a little bit porous which is why you really should seal it if you if you have it in your home right otherwise it's really the great surface  the say am right exactly and i will tell you this so to be honest with you just i think that this whole thing about the maintenance for the for having a granite i mean with seal it's nothing it's nothing and not a lot of the time you may really have to do you go years in between out there right all right let's talk a little bit about more ball because i do have the client here or there that wants to at least have some more ball on the island do you think about marbles the surface you know if you're a big her marbles a wonderful surface to take on it is it's that all add to whatever that will define your style i think it's like it's like part of the jewelry that you're adding to outfit basically but even it's funny that even some of the tennis now there are so industrial still work with traditional it like it's kind of it's kind of like a mix up is  was very impressed with is you really go back to what i say is that simplicity is always best especially when you're spending money on something so a kitchen should be well thought out right but it also the surfaces should be practical enough to stand the test of time because a kitchen needs to be as functional as it is beautiful right exactly definite well put yeah and then finally paint color right you can always you can you can always judge up a little bit at the end with paint color your kitchen will come to you