Political hoohah aside, this Clint Eastwood Chrysler 2012 Superbowl ad inspires anyone hit hard by the downturn of the past 4 years to keep fighting for a comeback.

So what kind of paint does your builder use? More often then not, clients are unaware of how toxic consumer level paints can be. General household paint contains up to 10,000 chemicals. Of these chemicals, 300 are known toxins, while 150 have been linked to cancer. Arguably the most potent chemicals found in these paints are volatile organic compounds also known as “VOC’s“. The design and build industry has made a conscious effort to shift over to using environmentally sound materials such as these non VOC paints. When selecting a paint option for our clients, Wellbuilt Company has been mindful of these effects and we have gradually shifted to using non VOC paints on all jobs. These non VOC paints are great when designing and building “green“, however we believe clients deserve Wellbuilt spaces that are in fact treated with only the best materials on the market.

Wellbuilt Company’s very own Mitch Kidd has been building and crafting spaces since he was a little lad. Most kids in their adolescence play with legos, lincoln logs, and k’nex while others swing a hammer and bang nails. Wellbuilt’s team have built go carts, skateboard ramps, furniture, and even sail boats in their younger years. And one of these guys actually sawed his thumb off in the process – his boat was later appropriately named “thumbs up”. Mitch however built a three story tree house on his parent’s farm at the age of 9. Two decades on its still standing. Not sure if these images do much justice to this Wellbuilt gem, but here’s a few photos of the project.

In 1879 Thomas Edison unveiled the first incandescent light bulb. Needless to say, Mr. Edison’s efforts have changed the world and how we view it. Like many inventions in history’s past, the light bulb is an evolving product in design and build. And with these new products to hit the market comes discussions on energy efficiency and electricity bills. Household energy consumption is often a topic of conversation that most of us discuss, but when we look at the bigger picture we see high rise buildings in cities like New York, Buenos Aires, London, Paris, and especially Tokyo. These buildings take large sums of money to literally keep the lights on for businesses. As the cost on energy has risen, the last two decades has seen an influx of energy efficient products. In 2007 an energy law was passed to lead manufacturers to start phasing out incandescent bulbs in favor of more energy efficient lighting. Some consumers look at this change as an attempt to “go green“ but we view it as doing the right logical thing and a sound investment for our clients. With that, here we are with a few energy efficient style light bulbs that we will be using in our upcoming Wellbuilt projects.

Macquarie Group is a leading provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and fund management services with international divisions in Australia, Korea, London, Dubai, and Singapore. In 2006 the group set out to facilitate a new approach towards the design and functionality of modern office environments. Based in Sydney, the Macquarie Group acquired a building on One Shelley Street. The project took approximately three years to complete as California-based Clive Wilkinson Architects collaborated with Sydney’s Woods Bagot architecture branch to design the 330,000 square foot interior. Since its opening in 2009, One Shelley Street has won a variety of awards and praises for its creative design and take on environmental sustainability. One Shelley Street serves as a healthy dose of inspiration to Wellbuilt’s pursuit of environmentally sound design and build solutions.

Introducing Corey Gash. Born with an abnormal brain and super-human talents, this guy has it going on. From building out a wooden music studio in the early 90′s to a total renovation of an old coastal barn, Corey is the definition of a man’s man and creative pioneer. He’s also a music producer, drummer, chef extraordinaire, flea market king, family man, and designer. Before using reclaimed materials was considered “green” this guy would scour the back alleys of Newport Beach to find all sorts of reusable treasure. Corey is no traditional designer, and as a matter of fact, he fell into the design field by accident as his passion for music production bled into a passion for building music studios. This curiosity and pursuit to build music studios lead him to study design decades after he started customizing spaces. His own personal music studio, which goes by the monicker of Pheasant Studios was built almost entirely by wooden crates he found around various locations of Southern California in the early 90′s. During the inception of this space, the foundation had an abnormally high ceiling, so Corey decided to create a second story living space equipped with a full blown kitchen, bedroom, and entertainment center. Pheasant Studios is the epitome of coastal cool boasting an americana, gentleman-like charm. Here’s a few snaps from this wonderful place. Keep an eye out for this guy as we’ll be highlighting his works as inspiration and one of our go to project design gurus for Wellbuilt.

280 park avenue south NYC was a Wellbuilt collaboration with designer Daniel Grady Faires. This one bedroom apartment had a master bathroom sharing a common wall with an adjacent powder room. Both bathrooms were very small, outdated, and incredibly ugly. These bathrooms required a complete overhaul to bring them up to par with the  high end finishes of the rest of the apartment.

Both bathrooms were completed gutted down to the studs and the adjoining wall was removed. In the walls place we installed a sliding frosted glass panel which would allow the powder room to open up into the master bath. With the two bathrooms now joined linked together by the frosted glass door, we could remove the master toilet and enlarge the usable space of master bath. This consisted of double his & her basins, enlarged rain head shower & stall, shower niches, and oversized medicine cabinet with three way mirrors.  All new materials were used from Marble tile, marble counter tops, shower mixtures and faucets, bath, toilet, and custom mill work.

From the construction site to New York Fashion Week, these custom wood sunglasses by Capsule Furniture are stylin fit for all occasions. The temples are made of reclaimed wood from demolished warehouses in the Meatpacking district of New York city. The glasses known as “gansevoort goggles” are a limited edition handcrafted in the U.S.A release by designer Dan Faires. Very few pairs have been made and the high demand means long waits, so be prepared to go on a waiting list to get your pair.

Wellbuilt had the pleasure of assisting Melanie Fascitelli from Clos-ette, on this make over of her very own custom closet for the September/October issue of Lonny Magazine.