Its me Carissa!!!! Brutus and I are back from our Nebraska Adventures! We missed our beautiful mountains!

I am here to help with all your cabinetry needs!
Its cold outside so come on in. Or better yet I can bring my brand new laptop right to your house and design for you on the spot! (You can wear your pj's even, I wont tell!)

We are glad to be back where the faces are friendly, the air is clear, the mountains are near, the and the adventure continues!

Come see me or give me a call!
​Carissa (503) 701-1395

Picking a door style that has class and part of your personality can be a hard decision. Kraftmaid.com has some great starting points to help you figure out what your Style is with a Style Quiz!

Doors Styles can change the whole look of your kitchen. 
From Modern Styles, Country Styles, Classic Styles to Old Styles there is a wide range of options. I would suggest taking the Style Quiz to help you find out what style you are interested in. 

If you kind of know what you are interested in but aren't sure I would love to help you out here in our showroom! We have many doors to choose from in many different colors. 

Popular styles for 2012 and 2013 in the La Grande, Oregon Area. Have been more Classic styles and Rustic Styles. Classic doors include a Mission type profile, a very basic looing door with out all the fru fru of some of the raised panel doors. They are simplistic, clean, and classy looking. Lately people have been getting into a Maple wood with a off white paint. Some people are using bead board as an accent, either as a back splash or the back of and Island for some added interest. See examples below:

Other Styles that are popular right now are Hickory and Knotty Alder
 for a rustic approach. See some examples below:

We have all kinds of door styles to choose from here in our show room at The Carpenter's Shop, one of our designers would be happy to help you pick out your style.

If you are still not sure what your style is you can start by trying tout the Find Your Style Quiz on Kraftmaid.com for help! This is a wonderful quiz that helps determine what styles you may be interested in and what to do next!. 

Send us your ideas! If you have pictures of your project or house plans you can upload them here or e-mail us at carpenters@oregontrail.net 

Picking the right Hardware (Knobs and Pulls) for your cabinetry is important. I like to say the hardware is the finishing touch, the details like a painter puts on his artwork last to make it all come together.

Sometimes cabinetry is not meant to have any hardware at all, this is a different look and you may choose to have the aesthetic appearance of this to keep things simple.

But where do you start looking for hardware? There are so many options!
Well here are a few sites of hardware we offer here at The Carpenter's Shop to get you started. (We also have many samples of hardware in our showroom, so feel free to stop by and have a look, or take one home to see if it works in your environment.)

Amerock Hardware has a lot of different options, it is a very popular brand and prices start from aout $2.50ea-$7.00ea
What I like about Amerock is they are very consistent with colors and styles,
there are many different styles to choose from, and also the price range keeps people within their budget. To start looking now check out thier website at http://amerock.com/ or visit our showroom!

Berenson Hardware has a lot of different options as well. What I like about Berenson is that you can have some very classy looking hardware, even when you are on a low budget. Prices start at $1.00ea-$4.00ea this is wonderful if you are looking for inexpensive hardware but still want it to look good. One thing I will warn you about is that Berenson is not as consistent with their colors sometimes because they are batched processed. Colors tend to change a bit when working with the darker hardware. The best way to see what it would look like for sure is order a sample, unless you are not too concerned with exact coloring. To start looking now check out their website below http://www.berensonhardware.com/Default.asp or visit our showroom!

Avante Hardware while they still have good choices, they are a higher end hardware meaning they will cost more. Starting around $6.00ea and up to around $20ea depending on style and color. Avante has unique selections for hardware, some rustic, some modern, and some very plain. We have a few samples in our showroom to see some sample boards.

Cliffside Hardware is a very fun exotic hardware! While a bit pricy starting around $5.00ea and up to $25ea, they have some fun choices. Seashells, Sticks, Covered Wagons, Lady Bugs, Lighthouses, Glass, and many more! Cliffside offers quality hardware for those fun places like bathrooms, office's and some less busy ones for the kitchen. Stop by our showroom or you can check out their webiste at 
http://www.cliffsideind.com/cliffside/depts.asp?CurPage=14&pl=KNOB 

There are a lot of options for lighting out there. For you bathroom, kitchen, bedroom and cabinets.

One of the best ways to look at lamps, and chandlers would to be going to a local retailer or one in a near by town.
If you live in La Grande you might try Arrow associated Stores for lamps and other decorative lighting.

Do some research, either online or by browsing around in places like Home Depot or Lowes to get ideas for decorative lighting.  

Recently our Rev-A-Shelf line has added Lighting to its catalog. To learn aobut under cabinet lighting, toe kick lighting, closet lighting, and Puck lighting etc. Click the link below and download the catalog to learn more about the different options. http://www.trescointernational.com/ 

Some pretty neat looking lighting fixtures that I found was from The Pottery Barn. Click on the blue link to view the unique styles!

If you need some help deciding on what lighting to go with send me a picture by uploading to this blog!

Ah the never ending choices of color! Some people may become discouraged picking out colors, they will become overwhelmed with all of the options.

Honestly this can even happen to designers, but Being a Fine Artist, this is also one of my most favorite things to do! I love picking out colors and that there are so many options!

To try to narrow things down, lets take a look at some current color trends for 2012 and 2013 by watching this short clip.

As you may have noticed most of the colors are similar in shades. The blues, greens, creme, browns all have an earthiness tone to them for 2012. I also agree with Heartland Color about things heading in a BRIGHTER BOLDER COLOR trend for 2013. Just take a look at our clothing colors in any department store. I see neon green, pink, reds, blues, and yellows. All of which are birght, happy, pure colors! They are not muted or toned down. Keeping this in mind I hesitate to put these BOLD colors on every wall in your home. Maybe just an accent wall or just the kitchen. Too much and you may find yourself irritated because bright colors tend to cause your brain to become stressed in some situations.

Whats under your Kitchen Sink?           Does it look like this?

So many times you may open your sink base to find water damage, spills, stains and grime. Gross!!! Wouldn't you like to KNOW when there is a spill or a leak right away so you can catch it before it ruins your cabinet? Or how about never having to worry about rotting wood in your sink base? Let me introduce to you the solution to your problems!!!

Kraftmaid Cabinetry has a brand new solution called a CoreGuard™ Sink Base!

Kraftmaid stands behind their cabinet saying this about it "Beautiful style outside, lasting protection inside. Protect your cabinets from minor spills and leaks under the sink with the CoreGuard™ Sink Base. Made of an engineered polymer that resists damage and stains, the CoreGuard™ Sink Base is built to last and easy to clean so it stays beautiful for as long as you own it."

Don't risk water damage or spill damge to your sink base ever again!
Come into The Carpener's Shop to learn more about this
wonderful NEW solution!

Learn more about CoreGuard™ by clicking on the link or visiting www.kraftmaid.com and don't forget to check out the video on the Krafmaid website about CoreGuard™ Sink Bases!

All infomation taken from the Krafmaid website and google images.

    There are soooo many choices for flooring!
While we here at The Carpenter's Shop do not do flooring ourselves, I would like to give you a few suggestions on where to start looking. 
    Remember you can ALWAYS bring a flooring sample to The Carpenter's Shop to match it with your cabinet style and color. One of our designers would be more than happy to help you make these important decisions.
    
    For the real experts in flooring here are a few places to get started by clicking on the Blue Links:
    
    Carpet One or (Fashion Floors) next to Taco Time and across from Rite Aid in La Grande, OR. They have a great selection of flooring options such as wood, tile, laminate, carpet, and vinyl. They are excelent people to work with!

Doren Tile and Stone located to the left of Wal Mart down the side street in La Grande, OR. They have a very nice showroom with a lot of differnt ideas. They do mostly tile flooring, but they also have back-splashes and wonderful granite for counter-tops or fireplaces! 

Bought your flooring already? Just need an Installer? Get a bid from the Wesley Pennington Construction. They will install flooring for you! Give them a call at (541) 963-6230.