If you research the internet, you’ll find all kinds of self-help and support information to keep you going. You can sift through anything from investment advice in the stock market to how to survive the coming collapse of civilization as we know it. Most of them (give or take a few fruit loops) contain some nuggets of wisdom that can help you and I’d like to throw in what I’ve learned.

Now, I certainly am no guru. In the grand scheme of things, I’m just a craftsman trying to provide for my family by doing the best job I can and producing the best product I can. That may not account for much on Wall Street, but I am proud of my reputation on Main Street, which is where I live. I will say this, though. I do think that you can’t let the craziness of this world completely drag you down. It doesn’t mean you lose your sense of reality, but screaming in the streets (although fun) probably won’t yield the results you want, either. When the going gets tougher, the tough do get going. It’s an old phrase, but a true one. If you lose everything, well, then you have nothing to lose. Stressing out about it makes about as much sense as rolling in the same mud puddle you fell in and expecting to not get dirty. I woudn’t advise it.

Of course, what do I know? I’m just the stone guy, but I’m not going to sweat it too much. My job has been pretty secure throughout human history and if it gets really bad, I guess I just go to making arrow heads. It seemed a pretty stable industry for thousands of years.

I have a saying that I use periodically when someone tells me something’s impossible. I’ll share it with you; it goes like this:

“The true character of a man is not what he does when everything goes right, it’s what he does when everything goes wrong.”

In today’s world, life is getting harder and I think that’s for just about everyone except maybe a handful. This is the time your true self will either crumble or shine. I know you hear this bologne of, ‘keep your chin up’ and junk like that. I’m not going to give you any cheesy sayings, just the reality. We’re all imperfect and we’ll all make mistakes. It’s going to happen. The best we can do now is when we fall down not to sit there in the dirt throwing a fit like a child. Sometimes all we can do is just keep going, even if we don’t know how we’re going to survive tomorrow. Don’t give up. You may have to find a different road, but that doesn’t mean you’re not traveling nonetheless. The world needs some heroes. So, what’s your character?

So you’ve chosen the tile you want, you got the design, and now you need your shelves, soap dishes, etc. for your shower, tub surround, or kitchen ceramic or porcelain tile project. It’s then you panic thinking you’ll never be able to find a stone that matches and you start to freak out. Don’t worry. Most tiles, with few exceptions, are made to mimick natural stone and can be matched fairly easily. Take for example slate. The various colors that are available would blow your mind. Marbles, travertines, granites, and slates come in just about every color you can think of. I’m hoping soon to have uploaded some pictures from my customers of custom made shelves and how amazing the matches are! There are three ways that we can work together to find the right stone:

• Email me a picture of your stone and I can find a tile that closely matches.
• Send me the style series, name, and where you purchased the tile and I’ll try to see a sample or review a sample online.
• Send me actual scraps of your tile (a few end pieces) that you’d like to match and I can find a stone that blends perfectly.

I’ve had customers that have done all three ideas and it turns out great every time. And, just in case you are wondering, I do not charge extra for this. This is something I do for my customers free of charge. I want you to be happy, that’s the bottom line. Ninety five percent of my business is word of mouth. If I don’t make you happy, I don’t have anything. Check out my website at www.stonecompliments.com and in a few weeks I should have more colors and varieties for ease of purchase, however, you don’t have to wait to get the shelves you need. Email me today and let me know what you need and we can choose a stone that is the right style for your tile. Nothing fits better than custom made shelves just for you!

‘Living on the edge’ is a great expression if your profession is a stunt man or woman, but not so good if you’re renovating your home. I can’t begin to count the times I’ve seen good design ideas taken to some really bad levels. Going to extremes runs the gambut from boring oatmeal-type plain with a muted sense of color to wild and screaming emotionally unstable in a non-judicious use of design and scale. Let’s take an example:

Our first example has muted tastes, we’ll call her “Plain Jane”. She is afraid of color, hates all borders, and worries her tile will look cluttered with even one design element. She decides to even forego shelves and much needed accessories for what she feels is a ‘clean’ look. Her neighbor comes in at her urging to see her new shower and tub surround. The neighbor forces a smile and says politely, “So you’re not done yet, right?”. Plain Jane is furious, but her problem isn’t the tile or even her ideals. Her problem is the execution. Solution: You don’t have to have decorative borders or even too many design elements. It’s also okay to keep the accessories to a minimum, but you can’t forego everything. You won’t be showing off your esthetic or making much use out of your shower or any home decor project unless you’ve thought about how you need to use the space. Keep the design flowing with just a few touches and it will actually show off your ’simplistic’ concept much better by showing a balanced scale of light and color. A little color or design goes a long way in making your project look polished and clean!

Our second subject, we’ll call her “Crazy Carla” (obviously, these names are fake and not to represent an actual person), loves color and design. She loves it so much she plasters everything with her wild colors, bold decos, and unusual elements. Most people don’t know exactly how to take her design and usually feel very uncomfortable with the busy features and a little stressed from looking at the eye numbing colors and wild prints. Everything is so wild that it’s hard to determine exactly what Crazy Carla is actually trying to do. Solution: Far be it from me to tell anyone not to be themselves. If all of us were the same, what a boring world that would be! Unfortunately, though, like most things in life, if we try too hard to put too many things on display, we loose the impact that we were actually going for. Instead of becoming an interesting and exciting design, it becomes overkill and tasteless. The best way to show off your design is picking one or two major design elements you want to stand out and working your design around them. Keep in mind that you don’t want to be too cluttered, so your eye should flow gently over the room or area, focusing on the few points you want to stand out. That gets exciting for your viewer, because then instead of scaring them, you get them excited to see what else you have to offer. Be bold, be daring, and tasteful and you’ll get the ‘wow’s you were looking for.

Remember, balance in everything is a good rule of thumb. If you’re not sure about something, ask someone who’s opinion you value so that you get to see it from another person’s perspective. On the roller coaster ride of home decor, a little balance is good.

There are so many “to do”s out there that I thought there should be an alternative what not to do to show the reasons for the “to do”. Sometimes it’s hard to understand why something is so important until you see what can happen when you don’t have or do it. So, here’s a step by step approach of how to fully mess up your shower or tub surround:
continue reading "How To Mess Up Your Stone or Ceramic Tile Shower and/or Tub Surround"

I wanted to give to everyone currently in the throws of bathroom, kitchen, or any tile or stone renovation project a word of encouragement and a cheer to hang in there until it’s done. No, you’re not crazy, there is a lot of stuff you don’t think about until you’re in the middle of it or even after. It can be solved, trust me. The key is to think about things not just in the straight sense, but also maybe a little outside the box. Most things in life do not work out the way we want them initially, but this may not be a bad thing. You may not know you like that border or you don’t until after a portion of it is in. It happens. So, if your tile is already in and you were thinking of what to do now, check out my store and see some ideas.
continue reading "The Crazy World of Ceramic and Stone Tile"

Everyone has a style, even if they don’t know it yet. Style has to do with not just what you like, but also what you don’t like. Style is part of who you are, what you stand for, and what you want the world to know about you. For twenty five years, I’ve been helping people discover that style. I’ve gotten so used to reading personalities that now it takes me about one minute to look around someone’s home and be able to tell what kind of person they are, what they like, and what their home means to them. Although now I work all over the world online with my various customers, I still feel close to their projects by communicating through phone, email, fax, and many other ways. It is this understanding that I’ve taken with me in changing and evolving my business to try to meet those styles and leave room for personal self expression for all my customers in the custom pieces they work with me to create.
continue reading "Discovering Your Style"

The main reason I started this business is because as an installer of twenty five years, I’d seen a sad lack of quality products for stone, porcelain, and ceramic tile installations, especially in the shower and tub surrounds. Most products available were completely uniform, colorless, bulky, and brutal. In fact, most of the products designed to handle the issue of where to put everything were downright cheap looking. Most manufacturers of these products truly did not want to be bothered with anything they couldn’t sell at a substantial profit by manufacturing it in mass quanities. This left most homeowners with little options and even less solutions.

     So, the question was asked, ‘Does all this truly matter? Isn’t accessories for your shower or tub surround just that, accessories not necessities?’ Absolutely not! You wouldn’t buy a brand new car without seats. The same holds true for your shower or tub surround project. You’re putting all this time, money, and effort into creating a space you actually want to be in, so why would you not want appropriate storage and usable space that will actually enhance the area? The proper shelving and accessories can make the difference between an area that invites you in and is relaxing with easy access to everything or a disfunctional shower with conflicting materials and and a junky appearance.

     When designing your shower or tub surround area, ask yourself ‘how will I be using the space’? Where do you want your soaps, shampoos, bath beads, etc? Do you have a special area that is easily accessible that you need storage? What about the image your space evokes? Does the storage ideas you’ve thought of really compliment the space or does it look like you went discount shopping at garage sales and threw it together? Remember that home improvements such as the cost and resources that go into a tub or shower surround can increase your home’s value, so you don’t want to downplay that investment either. Choose wisely and you’ll be enjoying the fruitage of your well thought out plans and getting the highest return on investment. For more ideas, visit my website at www.stonecompliments.com/store for more great ideas and products.