(by guest blogger Julie Burke)
A couple of weeks ago Christie and I had the opportunity to
briefly attend the Kitchen Bath Industry Show (KBIS). Our schedules are so hectic right now that we
couldn't afford the time to attend the full conference but we just couldn't
bear the thought of missing out on the design event of the year. So we poured over our calendars until we found
a very small window of opportunity and off we went!
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| The highlight of the show for Christie - faucet by Ann Sacks |
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| Hardware really is jewelry for cabinets! |
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| Shiny...and pretty! |
Because our time was so precious we had to do some serious prioritizing. We choose to mostly skip the Builders Show, which is twice the size of the Design Show, and dedicate our time to the pretty, shiny things. Our mission was simple but challenging: to race through 400,000+ Square Feet, 537 exhibitor booths and 4 fully constructed model homes in 8 short hours. This was going to take some serious focus, stamina and coffee...lots of coffee. And did I mention focus?? We are easily distracted, too many fabulous things to look at!
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| So beautiful! |
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| Fancy feet for cabinets?? Yes please! |
Besides the obvious draw of all of the shiny, pretty things, KBIS plays a very important role to our business each year. We are always seeking to improve the services we provide to our clients. At a trade show like this, we get the chance to see and be informed about the latest products. This is so valuable in allowing us to be the best possible resource for our clients. By seeing in person what is new in the market, it allows us to make the best selections to meet those specific needs and budget of each project. When you choose to invest in improving your home it’s important to be able to feel comfortable that you've made informed decisions and gotten the most “bang for your buck”.
We also use an opportunity like this to further develop face to face relationships with our vendors and suppliers. In the event of a design crisis you can truly appreciate having someone you can call directly to help you resolve a problem. That is worth its weight in gold. Because of this, we work hard at establishing and maintaining relationships with a wide variety of vendors. These kinds of connections also help us ensure our clients are getting the best value and pricing whenever they work with us.
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| We loved this simple, sleek vanity. |
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Does this make you want to remodel
your bathroom or what?! |
Providing excellent service to the people we get to work with is
very important to us. But we also totally
love seeing all the gorgeous fixtures! These pictures show just a few of the things we found to be the most beautiful. We also saw a lot of great new ideas, innovations and trends. For more of those check out our
Pinterest page. When you're ready for your shiny new kitchen or bath, you know who to call! In the meantime, we will just leave you with this eye candy...
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| Simply stunning. |
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| Stunning and affordable? Sign us up! |
Julie is
Christie’s design assistant. She
attended Harrington Institute of Interior Design in Chicago where she got her
AA in Interior Design. She has worked as an
architectural draftsman, office manager, and personal trainer/health coach prior to joining Christie as design assistant, draftsman, Pinterest aficionado and finder of pretty, shiny things.
