A few quick notes - we have opened the following major cities for shower remodeling work:

Charlotte
Knoxville
Miami
Atlanta
San Diego
Nashville

You may also find BKR Pros on Houzz. More info coming soon!

Creating a good color palette for your kitchen or bathroom can be a challenge, but there's nothing forbidding or mysterious about it. The following general guidelines will help:

• For the sake of continuity, carry your home's overall personality into the bathroom.
• Link the bath or kitchen with adjoining rooms by matching color values as well as actual hues. For example, if the trim in the hall outside the bath is painting a high-gloss creamy white, consider using that color somewhere in the bath.
• Most successful color schemes us a minimum of three and a maximum of six colors. Three-color schemes consist of a main color, a secondary color, and an accent color. The accent is often the brightest of darkest color in a scheme; use it in at least three places to establish a definite presence.
• Give thought to the color of every component: walls, ceiling, windows and door trim, wainscoating or chair rail, floor, furniture, counters, cabinets and accessories. 
• When determining your color placements, decide what you want the main focus of the room to be. Consider  that the eye is attracted first to the lightest color. If the walls aren't the main focus, they should not be painted the lightest color.
• White fixtures are not only less expensive, but they also are easier to clean.
• White comes in many tones, and choosing from among them can be tough. Decide if you want a cool white or a warm white, then choose one specific hue.
• Countertop colors that keep their good looks are lighter mid-tones, grays, and beiges. Dark colors have pool reflective qualities, solids tend to show marks, and white shows stains.
• White cabinets can make a small bath seem larger. Dark cabinets have the opposite effect. Use dark cabinets only in a well-lit room.

Contributors to this post included local BKR Pro contractors across the US including Miami | Knoxville | Charlotte | San Diego | Buffalo NY |

If you have the luxury of a large kitchen, consider including an island unit. This will not only make the most out of all the space, it can also take the pressure off of the wall bounced cabinets, giving you all the benefits of the perimeter kitchen without the rigid enclosed wraparound look. In Island takes up a fair bit of floorspace, so make sure that it is multipurpose. Yes and for appliances, extra work-surface, even the kitchen sink, or allow the top of it to overhang it one-sided to create an informal meeting space.

For ultimate flexibility, fit it with casters, so you can we'll it to one side, or, if it is fixed, make it float by placing it on stilts or a pedestal. If you don't have room for an island, by a large mobile butcher block instead.

Island countertop advantages:

• Can make an effective partition between kitchen and dining area.
• Can accommodate everything from storage cupboards and the waste can to the range or even the sink. Remember, though, that you will need to conceal plumbing and electric wiring in the legs of the unit and that the service pipes will need to run under the floor.
• With four separate sides, an island can be used by several people at once, so its both practical and sociable.
• A floating island countertop can work well in a smaller space, but make sure your ceiling can handle the weight. It's best to consult with a kitchen remodeler before taking on such a project yourself!

Some content courtesy of http://www.granitecountertopsdallastx.com/