They did need to pick out materials and finishes, though. The Robertses had pretty much deferred to Nolan and Grayson, which was how Grayson found himself standing in the kitchen one day, midconstruction, staring at cabinet and counter samples. Well, that and the fact that Nolan had changed his mind again.
Nolan pointed at the white Shaker cabinets with his foot. “Those, obviously.”
Grayson couldn’t find it in himself to care that much about cabinets. White cabinets made sense for the space. Where he’d get involved, though, was with the countertops. Nolan had picked out a dark granite that was absolutely not going to work.
“Nolan. Sweetheart. No.” Grayson put his hands on his hips.
Nolan stared at it for a long moment. “I just wanted to see how I liked it in the space.”
“Our theme is Jersey Shore in Winter, right? There is nothing beachy about dark granite. But this blueish-gray quartz isperfect. Doesn’t the color make you think of, like, rocks on the shore?”
Nolan pressed his lips together. Travis stood off to the side, looking like he was trying not to laugh.
“Fine. Gray quartz,” Nolan said. He pulled something that clanged out of his pocket and lay some black metal drawer pulls on the sawhorse that they’d set up to approximate where the kitchen island would be. “This is our hardware.”
“Where did you get these?” Grayson asked.
Nolan waved his hand as if it was of no consequence. “I love these, so we’re using them. White cabinets, black hardware, gray countertops. Same vinyl plank flooring we’re doing throughout the house. Done and done.”
“What about the backsplash?” asked Grayson. “’Cause I found these tiles online, and it’s alittlebit of a risk, but what do you think?”
Grayson got out his phone, pulled up the photo he saved, and showed it to Nolan. He’d found subway tile that came in a soft salmon that went perfectly with the color story of the house.
“Pink? For abacksplash?” Nolan said.
“Salmon. And yes, because it goes with the design. It’s the same pink as your color story.”
“No. I pictured the salmon for throw pillows. Maybe curtains. We’re doing white subway for the backsplash. Remember, we’re designing for the Robertses, not for ourselves. Pink is too… specific.”
“White subway is too boring.”
“Are we really—?”
“If I can intervene for a sec,” said Travis. “Not pink. But maybe the compromise here is a pattern. We just used these tiles on a house I did in Brooklyn that were white with a gray pattern on them. I’m not a designer, so I don’t know what the pattern is called, but it was kind of… French? Swirly? I dunno. But they would tie the cabinets with the counters.” Travis pulled out his phone and found the photo he wanted, then showed it to them.
“Perfect,” said Nolan. “Let’s do that.”
“I just think the kitchen needs a pop of color,” said Grayson.
“So we do it in staging. You can buy some pink dishes if it will make you feel better.”
Grayson crossed his arms. “Yeah, fine.”
“So, wait,” said Travis. “Your name is Gray, but—”
“Yeah, haha, my name is Gray, but I love color. Like nobody told me that every day of design school.”
Travis cracked up, clearly enjoying this tiff between Grayson and Nolan.
Once they settled on materials and finishes, everything took another ten days to install.
That left Grayson and Nolan with a week to stage the house. The way it worked was that they would do a full design on the house—or at least the rooms they’d worked on; they were leaving the bedrooms alone—and then the family had the option to keep or return whatever furniture they used. Furnishings were baked into the budget, and they had a pretty generous amount of money to work with, primarily because this was what they both did well.
On Monday of that week, a camera crew followed them around furniture stores while they picked things out. They went to a big chain place that Grayson found overwhelming. They found a sofa they could agree on—and they also agreed that the Robertses’ current sofa was hideous—but it quickly became clear to Grayson that Nolan’s tastes leaned more traditional and Grayson’s more edgy.
“The Robertses are retirees,” Nolan argued. “They don’t want new and different. They want safe and traditional.”
“Sure, but you don’t hire professional designers to do something you could do yourself. Anyone could put a gray sofa in a living room. The blue sofa, at least, has some character.”
