Wally Covington has been showing people the science of forestry in Flagstaff for years.

At places like Gus A. Pearson Natural Restoration Area in Flagstaff, a living forest experiment, Covington has helped bridge peoples connection to nature by explaining cutting-edge science in simple terms. He has become known as a master science communicator, and hes been at it for years. And this week, after 44 years, at the age of 73, Covington has stepped down from his executive director position at Northern Arizona Universitys Ecological Restoration Institute.

Looking back, hes proud of the work hes done, the people hes met, and especially the students hes had the opportunity to teach.

Im proud of all of 'em, Covington said. They love working with students, do great research, care about the environment just great, great people, men and women.

Covington actually predates the institute hes leaving. He helped the state and federal government fund the Pearson restoration area, the research-focused ERI, and one of the first restoration projects ever funded at Mt. Trumbull near the Arizona Strip. Using this science and his skill at communicating, he helped politicians pave the way for many of our forest restoration projects today like the local Four Forest Restoration Initiative and Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project.

As to how he communicates so well? Covington said its simple.

I never want to sound like a smarty-pants, or be pedantic, he said. That just gets you nowhere.

Beyond his position at ERI, Covington was a key figure in a community of activists, scientists, politicians and foresters who are pushing forest management away from the conditions that have led to the catastrophic fires seen across the west.

No leading scientist stands alone, Covington points out, but getting the Pearson restoration area funded has been a critical tool for explaining science. The 12-acre experimental forest took advantage of 150-year-old trees that were mixed with trees less than 100 years old, the difference between young and old trees.

[The experimental forest] is important because it really did set into motion that forestry must be based on strong science, Covington said. And this being the first U.S. Forest Service experimental forest, its got the longest record of scientific research in the U.S. for forest ecology.

The experimental forest clearly lays out the problem for anyone who walks among the trees. Because of post-European settlement land management practices of suppressing fires, tree density has grown from 23 trees per acre in 1876 to 1,300 trees per acre in 1992. With such high density, groundwater is spread thin and pine needles build up, creating the perfect scenario for fire to explode into the catastrophic conditions we see today.

But ERI researchers dont keep the gates closed to only politicians and foresters. From walking around with Flagstaff residents and elementary students during the Flagstaff Festival of Science in the '90s, to politicians looking to understand forest ecology and better land management practices, Covington has spoken to them all.

Bonnie Stevens, who organizes the Flagstaff Festival of Science, has also worked on a documentary about the state of forests with Covington. She said retirement isnt a word she associates with the man, and expects to see him continue to work in the forest.

This man is incredibly busy. Hes really an adviser to so many projects, yet what strikes me is in a social setting, he will remember names, and your kids' names, Stevens said. He will ask you about those people. You can tell he truly cares about the people hes around.

This includes when he gets the opportunity to spend time talking about science with the children of Flagstaff.

Its been great bringing the junior high kids, elementary school kids and showing them around. They ask these crazy questions you just never think of, Covington said with a glint in his eye. One of them was, 'what about butterflies?'

This question of whether forest restoration impacts butterflies was one no one had asked before -- not scientifically, anyway.

Yeah, what about butterflies... Covington thought at the time. The question ended up becoming the focus of a dissertation by an ERI researcher Amy Waltz.

Diane Vosick, director of policy and partnerships at ERI, describes Covington as unrelenting. His nature helped him as he navigated political fights to push for government funding of projects in Flagstaff and as he pushed science to the forefront of policy debates surrounding forest management.

In the policy world you take barbs. You take spears. And a lot of people just don't want to do that, Vosick said. Hes taken spears from multiple sides, but hes been willing to continue to hold the line on what needs to happen.

But many will tell you that despite Covingtons hard work, and the work of those around him, there is still more to be done as global temperatures continue to rise and the world continues to see new, unprecedented fires.

Prescriptive approach

Covingtons story was tied to NAU before he was born: His parents first met at the university campus. Covington told the story at last year's commencement of how his father would help his mother sneak out of Morton Hall in 1941 on campus.

My mom, years later we were walking around the campus, and she said yknow, your dad used to sneak me out of that dorm right there to go kanoodle, Covington said laughing.

Covington was born in Wynniewood, Oklahoma on March 31, 1947. He said he moved away from the area at age 5, but Oklahoma, and specifically the Arbuckle Mountains, have always felt like home to him.

Until the Arbuckle Fire of 2000, the forest had trees that were 400, 500 years old, Covington said. The place in Honey Creek called Blue Hole had this 80 feet by 30 feet crystal clear water and all these cascades. The fishing is great in there, hiking, anything you want.

Covington found himself drawn to serving others and began his attempt of service at medical school after getting his bachelor's degree. He spent his early life asking himself what specialty he should be in, as opposed to asking what he wanted to do with his life.

He said he remembers an interaction with a doctor that changed his path forever.

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Continued here:
Wally Covington retires after over 40 years of forest science excellence - Arizona Daily Sun

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said on Thursday that when Iran "returns to a normal state" then a restoration of ties with it is possible.

Jubeir, speaking at a World Economic Forum panel in Davos, Switzerland about the situation in the Middle East, said the Kingdom was concerned about Irans meddling in Iraqs internal affairs and that it takes its relationship with Baghdad very seriously.

Iran is behind the Houthi militia missiles coming from Yemen that are targeting Saudi Arabia, he said.

Iran should worry more about its own people and stop sponsoring global terrorism, he told the audience in Davos.

On Libya, Jubeir expressed concern about foreign meddling in the country, adding Saudi Arabia was working with Arab and international countries to stabilize the situation there.

Read the original here:
Jubeir Says Restoring Ties with Iran Hinges on its Return to Normal State - Asharq Al-awsat English

A notable building in the early history of Modernism, designed by the Irish migr Eileen Gray, has been restored and opened to the public. Tim Richardson reports.

In 1979, three years after her death, the V&A Museum organised a major retrospective exhibition which later transferred to MOMA in New York on the Modernist furniture and fabric designs of Eileen Gray. Before that, Grays name was barely known even among designers, her career viewed merely as a footnote to the work of other (male) figures, notably Le Corbusier. Her star has never ceased to ascend since: in 2009, the original of her Dragons armchair was sold for a reported 21.9 million Euros and authorised reproductions of her furniture and textiles are available via the Aram Store in London.

Small surprise, therefore, that a house she designed in the 1920s has also witnessed a spectacular recent revival. In the mid 1990s, House E1027 was vandalised, occupied by squatters and in danger of collapse. Since 2006, it has been subject to restoration and refurbishment by Cap Moderne, a not-for-profit organisation set up to maintain and protect the site, and is now open to visitors.

House E-1027 came about as a result of Grays relationship with Jean Badovici, whom she had met in 1921. Badovici was a Romanian-born architect who had studied in Paris and become known as a critic and proselytiser for Modernism and especially the work of his friend Le Corbusier. Gray had been living and working in Paris since 1907, having trained first at the Slade in London. Through the 1910s, she made her name as a designer of lacquered items, including screens, and, in 1922, opened a shop on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honor, which displayed modern furniture and objects in a white-lacquer interior.

Gray carved a reputation as a designer of chic, luxurious interiors with highly ori-ginal modern touches. But she was no businesswoman; the practice was not profitable and the shop closed in 1930. Perhaps that did not matter as a scion of a wealthy and artistically minded family from Co Wexford, Gray was able to pursue her design interests independently and without compromise one reason for her small output over the course of a long career. With her sharp bob haircut and aristocratic hauteur (her mother was the 19th Baroness Gray), she could come across as somewhat imperious.

Badovici introduced Gray to the work of Le Corbusier and, together, they visited Modernist houses in Germany and the Netherlands. In the late 1920s, they collaborated on the renovation and reconfiguration of several stone houses at Vzelay in Burgundy, where Gray worked mainly on the interiors, and, in 1926, she came up with an architectural plan and model for a putative project in Provence named House for an Engineer (unbuilt). A box-like cabin on concrete supports or pilotis, with a flat roof and long horizontal window, it was clearly indebted to Le Corbusiers example.

Encouraged by these forays, Gray came up with the idea for House E-1027. It was initially conceived as a seaside home where Badovici and Gray would live together, although, in effect, it was a gift to him and remained in his ownership. (Gray stopped living there in 1931, when their relationship changed, and never visited again.)

The site of the new house was all-important. Gray already knew the area around Saint-Tropez, but she wanted something wilder, more remote. Taking the train one day to the little station at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, she walked down the railway tracks until she found an area of land on a steep escarpment leading down to the rocky shore. She acquired the plot and, between 1926 and 1929, oversaw construction of the house, the name of which was an affirmation of their relationship: E is for E[ileen], 10 is for J[ean] (the 10th letter of the alphabet), 2 is for B[adovici] and 7 is for G[ray].

E-1027 is a geometrically designed, white-rendered concrete-and-brick building supported on pilotis. It has previously been presented as an equal collaboration between Gray and Badovici, but it appears his chief interventions were to suggest the use of pilotis and the addition of the central staircase and lantern the rest of the design was Grays.

There were, indeed, key divergences between Grays approach and that of Le Corbusier and his followers. There is a wittiness to Grays work that belies the purely functional impulse, together with an emphasis on comfort, even to the point of luxuriousness. As she commented in a 1940s notebook: The poverty of modern architecture stems from the atrophy of sensuality.

Another key area of difference was the importance of the garden. The Corbusian approach would have been to create a roof garden and set the house on a grass plinth, but Gray eschewed this idea in favour of garden spaces on the south-facing, seaward side of the building. Three distinct terrace areas are defined by means of different-coloured tiling in a geometric pattern, reminiscent of an abstract by Malevich or Mondrian. Concrete benches were conceived as three-dimensional extensions of this ground plan, together with a large, square tree pit towards the rear of the terrace.

A sunken solarium on the western side of the house, finished in black and ochre tiling, looks like a small swimming pool, but the idea was for it to be part-filled with sand, to keep feet either cool or warm, depending on the weather (Fig 7). As Gray commented: We have avoided a pond, which would have attracted mosquitoes, but have provided a sort of divan in sloping slabs for sunbathing, a glass-topped table for cocktails and benches on each side for conversation.All three sleeping areas and the main living room have separate entrances to the garden, via discrete stairways. Grays intention was that, even in a small house, the users should have the option of privacy and a feeling of being alone.

Viewed either from the approach above or the sea, the house has a nautical flavour. It is long and narrow like a yacht and possesses deck-like floors with white-painted railings. The lantern on the roof lighting the stairwell resembles a lighthouse and next to it is a mast flagpole.

The fenestration on the entrance side of the house (north) is expressed as vertical slots and as windows with shutters that slide and pivot, allowing for the regulation of both air and light. To the left is the entrance to the service area and kitchen, which Gray conceived in modular fashion as both an indoor and outdoor space, by means of a folding glass partition a kind of homage to the local habit of cooking outside in hot weather.

The entrance porch was found to be the coolest part of the house and was often utilised as a dining and living space in summer. The words sens interdit and entrez lentement are painted on the wall; Grey incorporated numerous playful inscriptions in the house. Some perhaps satirise the didactic nature of her own design (at the planning stage, she even choreographed circulation routes for owner and servant).

The entrance to the living room is perhaps the most curious element to the design. Its screened off by a plywood screen that incorporates bookshelves, coat-rack and umbrella stand, all of which constrict the entrance passageway. The living room beyond is an open-plan space, well lit by a floor-to-ceiling window that can concertina across. On the other side is a south-facing balcony, shaded by an awning of grey sailcloth.

Despite its apparent simplicity, this living room contains eight distinct zones, two of them out of doors. Apart from the entry passage and the balcony, there is a large divan bed for sleeping, resting and working. Behind it is a wall that conceals a bathroom with shower. Next to this is an alcove with a daybed and built-in cupboards and lights, which functions as an additional guest room; a door leads out to a small balcony with a hammock on the west side of the house. Near the entrance screen is a sitting space with a gramophone player. Finally, at the eastern end of the room, there is a dining area, with a fold-down, cork-covered table with a built-in light.

A black, white and beige geometric tiling pattern provides elegant hints as to how these zones are demarcated and the room is furnished with pieces designed specifically for the house. Rugs of Grays own design add to a sense of comfort and, on the south wall, a large maritime map on beige paper is annotated with slogans on the theme of travel, notably Baudelaires Luxe, calme et volupt and the words Vas-y Totor, which refer to the designers (British) car, nicknamed Totor. Attached to the map is a vertical tubular lamp and a folding bookshelf.

Behind the dining area is a passageway leading to the main bedroom, on the eastern side of the house. It consists of two distinct zones, also expressed by variations in the tiling. A vestibule by the south window doubles as a private studio, where Gray had her drawing board, and, in the bedroom behind, the built-in headboard contains lights and hidden alcoves.Gray specialised in designing for apartments or small houses, so many of her objects fold away. She employed a pivot technique to drawers or tabletops, for example, and her screens could effectively make one room into two. Her intention was to blend the concepts of architecture and furnishing so that they become one.

The bathroom adjoining is a tall, serene space, with the bathtub lit from above by a window and the bath itself wrapped in an aluminium sheet, its shininess augmenting the reflective appeal of the surrounding black tiling. There are rough woollen curtains and a bidet with a bright orange-red lid.

The spiral staircase serves as a service route and next door is the maids bedroom; its tiny size may give modern visitors pause. A ground-floor guest bedroom is perhaps the least successful element of Grays design: the space is not clearly articulated and the quality of light seems flat and unvaried. Perhaps it is relevant that the existence of this room is related to Badovicis design input. The bedroom features a fold-down desk area, a tall wardrobe with pivoting drawers and one of only two original surviving built-in cupboard systems (the other one is in the bathroom; all of the other built-in furniture has recently been painstakingly rebuilt by a volunteer team to an exactingly high standard). This room is the last area to await restoration.

The guest bedroom leads out to an undercroft area formed by the pilotis beneath the house. On the wall here is a facsimile of one of eight Picasso-esque murals (more -esque than Picasso) painted by Le Corbusier after 1938, without Grays knowledge or consent. Several of these murals have been restored and there is no doubt that they change the nature of Grays interior scheme at key moments a decision has been taken to screen over the mural in the main living room.

In the 1950s, Le Corbusier built his own little cabin and some holiday chalets on the cliffs above the house, which are visitable as part of the Cap Moderne tour. It is an interesting site in that, according to the guides, it divides visitors, who tend to express sympathy with either Gray or Le Corbusier.

For more information and opening hours, visit http://www.capmoderne.com

Some of our most enduring stories were conceived at Haworth Jeremy Musson enjoys a literary pilgrimage.

Undertaken by the National Trust with the aid of the donor family, the restoration of Mount Stewart has restored it

We take a look at some of the magnificent images of Chatsworth which have graced the pages of Country Life

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House E-1027, Cote dAzur: A 1920s house by Eileen Gray, restored and returned to the public eye - Country Life

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Are you tired of the same old kitchen? Do you want to turn your drab kitchen into a fab one? Well, we have just the right services for you. When it comes to Houston TXKitchen Remodeling,we have years of experience in converting a dusty, old-fashioned kitchens to 21st-century ones and ones that youll love. Our Kitchen Remodeling HoustonTX team is always ready to give you all the needed details regarding costs and materials. We will turn your kitchen remodel dream into a beautiful realityRead more

Bathrooms are something that there is no excuse about; we buy houses and one of the main selling points is the bathroom. We, as people just like having clean, good looking bathrooms, even though its something very private.

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Houston Remodeling Company | Home Remodeling | Gulf Remodeling

LAKE CITY, Fla. (WCJB) -- The Blanche Hotel hosted its first event tonight after years of remodeling.

Many Lake City residents say they are excited to see what the historical landmark looks like now.

After almost two years, the Lake City community was finally able to see what the Blanche Hotel looks like with millions dollars worth of renovations.

"It is beautiful, said Lake City Resident Joy Lutz. It is so that they restored it to its historical components and also updated it and its great to have it as a hub for downtown."

The hotel, built in 1902, was the first building in Florida to have an elevator.

The debut of the renovated 80,000 square-foot property was an art fundraiser for the Happy House and the Art League of North Florida.

"We just brought downtown Lake City back to life again, said IDP Properties Marketing Director Dennille Decker. I mean, bringing the balcony back on Marion Street was something that used to be here, hadn't been here for 50 plus years so that was a really big deal to the community.

Decker said the renovations to th hotel created an overall rejuvenation of a whole city block in Downtown Lake City.

"You, know and downtown's need of a hub to bring things downtown and this will definitely do that, said Lutz. It will help all of the little hubs and shops down here and get people here supporting our community."

At the end of the day, many Lake City residents say they are pleased with what the hotel looks like now and thrilled to see what the historic landmark will have in store for downtown.

Original post:
The Blanche Hotel hosts its first event tonight after years of remodeling. - WCJB

Posted: Jan 24, 2020 / 11:47 AM EST / Updated: Jan 24, 2020 / 12:00 PM EST

(City Grill Rochester Facebook Photo)

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Signs of new life at a once-popular nightlife destination in Rochesters East End neighborhood.

City Grill on East Avenue announced its closure back in November. Owners and management said they made the decision to close to due complications from the construction of what was the East Avenue Inn and Suites, which will bebecome The Courtyard by Marriott East-End Hotel.

The team said they were working on plans in hopes of re-opening alongside the new hotel in the future, although no expected date of completion was given.

In the meantime, the City Grill Facebook page posted Thursday whats in store for the near future:

According to the post, City Grill will be opening their doors every Saturday until their remodeling begins.

City Grill Underground will be open Saturdays from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. and is described in the post as lounge style, fun atmosphere with a cool DJ and exciting bartenders providing a fun place to grab a drink.

The City Grill Underground is for adults 21 years and older, and requires a business casual dress code.

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City Grill rebrands as an East Ave. nightlife destination ahead of remodeling plans - RochesterFirst

If youve ever remodeled any part of your home, you know the headache that comes along with the process. Its not nearly as glamorous when you dont have the deep pockets (or expertise) that HGTVs Chip and Joanna Gaines have to deal with unexpected problems.

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Kyle Zink, the first marketing hire at Square, found this out firsthand after purchasing a home in Southern California a few years ago. Zink hired a contractor through a trusted source and was excited about fixing up the house. But the process turned out to be a nightmare.

Everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong, he recalled.

The experience got Zink thinking. His time at Square taught him how much small business can benefit from technology. Zink was dismayed to discover his own contractor essentially relied on a legal pad and text messaging to communicate and for checks to get paid.

I looked around in the marketplace and saw there were a lot of companies tackling really big commercial problems and projects, Zink told me. But on the residential side, there were no real tools for small, independent contractors.

It was then Zink teamed up with Andy Vella to come up with the concept behind Punch List. The San Francisco-based startup has just closed a $4 million seed round, Zink told Crunchbase News exclusively. It also today launched a mobile app that aims to help independent contractors and homeowners more easily navigate the remodeling process. The digital platform gives contractors a way to provide real-time views on progress, get approval during different phases of a project and get paid as they go.

For Zink, Punch List is the first modern tool for contractors to grow and run their business. (In the construction world, a punch list is a list of items that need to be addressed before a project can be deemed complete.)

Bling Capital and Bedrock Capital led the seed financing. Ludlow Ventures and Mayfield Fund 1 also participated, as did a group of high-profile angel investors including Twitter and Square co-founder Jack Dorsey, Rippling COO Matt Macinnis, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, and Opendoor co-founder and CEO Eric Wu.

Punch List is in its early stages, having built a core alpha and beta product that its been testing with some early customers. Today at the NAHB International Builders Show in Las Vegas, the company is publicly releasing its app which will be accessible within all 50 states.

The way it works is fairly straightforward, according to Zink. Once a contractor and a homeowner agree to work together on a remodel, they share the details (such as scope, timeline and budget) with a Punch List account executive. The information is then uploaded to the app for contractor and homeowner approval.

As the contractor completes work, he/she takes photos of the progress in real time and sends them to the homeowner, who can review and approve remotely if desired. When each significant milestone is complete, Punch List automatically generates invoices for homeowner approval. According to Zink, the pay-as-you-go model is designed to allow contractors to get paid faster while giving homeowners more visibility into the project. The whole process also aims to keep projects moving along smoothly. If a contractor can get approvals quickly, he/she can avoid delays.

Contractors will pay $49 a month per project, but the service is free to homeowners. Punch List operates on a SaaS platform.

The demand is certainly there. According to a recent Ernst & Young survey, 98 percent of contractors globally agree that digital technology will be critical to the future viability of their business. Yet just less than 10 percent feel confident in how far along they are on the digital readiness spectrum. Also, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies, Americans spend more than $400 billion a year on residential renovations and repairs.

In general, the construction tech space is hot, but it has largely focused on software helping with mostly commercial, and mostly big, projects. Yet millions of Americans at any given time are in the middle of some form of home renovation. Startups addressing this subsector, if they do it right, have the potential to garner impressive returns.

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias

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Exclusive: Punch List Raises $4M Seed To Streamline The Home Renovation Process - Crunchbase News

Q: Im thinking about pursuing a remodel of my home but am afraid of exposing my children to harmful materials during construction. How can I minimize this risk?

A: If youre like many homeowners, you want to buy green products to keep you and your family healthy and safe. No one wants to expose their loved ones to toxins and chemicals.

A 2018 study by the Shelton Group, published in Eco Pulse, found that the number one reason cited by respondents for choosing green products in three categories was the health and safety of their families. Others include conserving natural resources, preventing waste and inefficiencies, and mitigating climate impact.

Whatever your reasons for seeking contractors that use green products, there is an excellent but little-known resource to help you make your selection: the Red List.

According to the International Living Future Institute, its Red List includes the worst in class materials prevalent in the building industry.How your contractor uses it (or doesnt) can have a significant impact on your remodel project, as well as the environment.

The easiest and most effective thing you can do with this list is have a conversation with your contractor about your health, safety and family-wellness needs, and how to limit harmful materials on the project. This is especially important if you and your family will be living onsite throughout the construction phase.

The Red List demonstrates to the contractor how important using green products is to you, and it gives them the information they need to best advise you throughout the project and reduce harmful toxins and chemicals wherever possible.

What are the limitations of the Red List? Simply put, the list isnt exhaustive. Many big brands develop the materials they use in their products in different plants, and some are unwilling to disclose every material or ingredient used in each product. The company may consider such information proprietary, and its understandable for them to protect their intellectual property and assets.

However, these days even a modicum of transparency especially regarding environmental impact can enhance a brand and build consumer loyalty. When it comes to the environment and consumer health, protecting proprietary secrets is increasingly seen as a liability. As a homeowner with a family, knowledge is a better selling point than secrecy. The Red List arms you with that knowledge.

Ask your contractor if theyre already using the Red List. If your contractor is already familiar with it, chances are good they have at least a passing interest in green products, materials and resources in the building industry.

In the best-case scenario, they may be actively reviewing and monitoring updates on the list to avoid using, working with and offering products made with listed items. This requires extra time, research and care to ensure that products they use are both green and a good fit for the remodeling project.

Communication and collaboration with your contractor or design-build firm will be frequent once the process begins, and it may prove overwhelming at times. The earlier you discuss your desire to use safe, green products, the better off youll be when construction begins.

Paul Kocharhook is the owner of Pathway Design & Construction, a member of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties (MBAKS), and HomeWork is the groups weekly column. If you have a home improvement, remodeling or residential homebuilding question youd like answered by one of the MBAKSs more than 2,700 members, write to homework@mbaks.com.

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Minimize health risks during a remodel by checking the Red List - Seattle Times

Remember your grandmothers avocado-green kitchen? It could soon be yours. Or maybe it will be pink, mauve, emerald green or buttercup. Anything but white, because the revolt against the white kitchen has begun.

Last November, the cover of Elle Decor featured a Steven Gambrel-designed kitchen awash in a shiny turquoise even the ceiling gleamed like an iridescent underwater wonderland.

On Pinterest between November 2018 and November 2019, searches for dark-green cabinets jumped 367%, plum kitchens went up 107% and pink kitchen walls spiked 121%.

For decades now, cabinets have been relegated to white, brown or maybe black, and it has been even longer since appliances were allowed to be anything but stainless steel.

But the Instagram kitchen invariably a clean backdrop of basic Shaker cabinets, simple subway backsplashes and marble countertops finally has some competition.

Jenny Dina Kirschner, an interior designer in New York, recently painted the cabinets pink for a client in Long Island, giving the room a decidedly 80s vibe somewhere between mauve and millennial pink. The color picked up the pinkish tones in the Calacatta Vagli marble countertop.

Were starting to see more daring use of color, Kirschner said. Its a rebellion against the white kitchen.

Breaking the mold is risky when 43% of homeowners choose white cabinets and a third choose white countertops, according to a 2019 Houzz report. Try something bolder than wood cabinets or black soapstone countertops and you might fail.

Unlike an unfortunate coat of paint on the living room walls, the wrong choice of cabinetry could cost a homeowner tens of thousands of dollars. And money aside, its not easy to rip out that chartreuse backsplash if you later regret it.

Yet cracks in the color-free facade are emerging. Between 2018 and 2019, BHG.com consumer insights found a 115% spike in interest in cabinet paint trends, and a 10% increase in interest in colorful kitchen cabinetry.

And from March 2018 to March 2019, interest in blue and green for paint and home decor rose 50%. Navy cabinets have become increasingly popular, as have two-toned varieties, with choices such as blue for the lower cabinets and blond wood for the uppers.

Greens of all shades have been nudging their way onto the stage, too, appearing as emerald cabinetry, avocado backsplashes and sage pendants.

In a throwback to the 1970s, the age of wacky-colored appliances also is back. Want a retro fridge? Big Chill carries them in colors such as beach blue, cherry red and pink lemonade. The appliance company BlueStar offers hundreds of color options as well as custom colors for its products, letting customers personalize down to the color of the doors, trim and dials.

Have a specific shade of purple in mind for your oven? Dacor can match a swatch you provide to the color of its appliances.

Anything goes these days, said Gideon Mendelson, an interior designer in Manhattan. He is currently designing a yellow kitchen for a couple on the North Fork of Long Island, which he described as a sophisticated buttercup. Its not going to be sweet and cutesy. Its not quite mustard. Its happier than that.

Who doesnt want a happy kitchen? With the world so dreary, a little yellow can go a long way. In these uncertain times, we are drawn to colors that dont need to be impeccable, that can hide the messiness of life.

Theres a sense of energy and nourishment in bright colors, said Ingrid Fetell Lee, the author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness.

Alessandra Wood, the vice president of style for Modsy, an online interior-design service, told me that homeowners are looking for comfort and coziness in design choices, so why not our kitchens, too?

In this really unstable world, we are looking for anything that makes us feel comfortable, and we are definitely turning to our homes to do that, she said.

Just look at the color Pantone chose for its color of the year: classic blue, because it highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation. (See a related story on Page D4.)

Paint companies Sherwin-Williams and PPG also ushered in the new decade with blue as their picks of the year in a collective nod to what might soon be our new neutral call it bluetral.

We also are living in our homes differently. After decades of relentless moving, Americans are moving at the lowest rates since the U.S. census began tracking our mobility, with fewer than 10% of Americans moving between 2018 and 2019. Baby boomers are aging in place and millennials, facing rising housing costs and stagnating wages, are less likely to house hop. With no plans to stake a for sale sign in the front yard, why commit to the safe and listless colors of a staged house?

Greige, that dreary hue that is neither gray nor beige but took over our homes for more than a decade, is decidedly out. The relentlessly white kitchen might be next.

It made a lot of sense in the era of house flipping. White looks clean and is unlikely to offend a potential buyer. Who hates white? And if your home is perpetually one renovation away from its next open house, white is a natural go-to color. Its a kitchen designed for future buyers, not the specific tastes of the current inhabitants.

But lets face it: White looks clean only when it is clean. The rest of the time, it is not the most practical color for a room that regularly gets splashed with marinara sauce. There is something to be said for a little color to hide the imperfections.

Were living in our spaces longer, so theres an extra level of consideration that people are giving to them, Wood said. Were thinking, How do I make this space into a space that I really feel comfortable in?

So if there is no buyer on the horizon, if the kitchen remodel is just for you, the view widens.

Why not wash the whole room in turquoise? It doesnt really matter what some fictional buyer might think. You can be you and paint the cabinets pink.

The rest is here:
Colors are heating up again in the kitchen - The Columbus Dispatch