August webinars focus on construction and building. By Dianne M. Pogoda

The NKBA’s free webinar series continues in August with a theme of honing construction and building skills specific to the kitchen and bath space, and innovative thinking to bring a new element to an existing K&B design and remodeling business.

First up, on Aug. 7, 3 p.m. (Eastern Time), Jennifer Duncan, CKD, a designer at Custom Kitchens Inc. in Richmond, Va.,  will tackle “Expanding Visual Space in Small Bathrooms.”

In this session Duncan will discuss the character of older homes — well-built examples of great craftsmanship, often with terrific wood floors, moldings and windows. “Unfortunately, lifestyles were different 40, 50, 60 years or more ago,” says to Duncan. Bathrooms, often dark, dingy, hard to keep clean and with a dearth of storage, were squeezed into small corners of the house. Typically, there may have only been one or two bathrooms in a four-bedroom family home. Newer homes today have much larger bathrooms as a standard — but homeowners renovating may have to compromise craftsmanship and character elsewhere in the house. Is that compromise worth it? “We all want a big, bright, open bathroom. The problem is, most homes don’t have room to expand a small bathroom without compromising closet space or another room, entirely.”

But this doesn’t mean a homeowner is stuck with a small, dated bathroom. Duncan will share tips on ingenuity, a smart use of materials and creative proportioning to transform a small into a bright, airy space while keeping character and personality. She’ll discuss how to expand visual space, removing partition walls, specifying materials proportioned to the room and that create an illusion of treater space. Finally, she will review floor plans and before-and-after photos to show how seemingly minor changes can have a dramatic effect. To register for this webinar, click here.

Next, on Aug. 15 at 12 noon (Eastern Time), Lauren Levant, principal of Lauren Levant Interior, Pittsburgh, will discuss “Breakthrough Kitchens and Baths — Setting Your Projects Apart.” Levant is a multiple-category winner of NKBA’s Professional Design Competition, including the 2018 Clay Lyon Builder/Remodeler honors. She will address the doldrums of kitchens that all look the same —similar configurations, styles, and dealing with clients who want the same things they’ve seen elsewhere. Levant will explore some key ways to break out of and beyond these constraints and set work and projects apart.

She’ll talk about collaborating with other bright minds, like artisans and craftspeople, and how to reinvent the rules of the layout and break out of the box. Attendees will learn to utilize design processes for innovation and emerge refreshed and inspired. To register for this session, click here.

Finally, on Aug. 21 at 12 noon (Eastern Time), India Hynes, chief executive officer of Vinotemp International, a wine storage and refrigeration specialist in Irvine, Calif., will host “Innovating in Your Specific Field.”

The central idea of this webinar is that when you’re in the same business for a long time, it’s easy to feel like you’re so familiar with how you do what you do, that you might run out of ideas, or not be able to create something as cool and successful as in the past. Hynes will discuss how to determine whether innovative ideas can be patented and become part of an organization’s brand, how to discover the “what’s next” in a business, and how innovation can become a catalyst for growth. Attendees will learn to incorporate innovative thinking to make improvements to their businesses and be inspired to try new tools, take risks and create the next real-life solution. To register for this webinar, click here.

Each month, NKBA offers free 60-minute webinars, each of which features a presentation by an expert in the specific subject matter, delivered via a virtual platform. The sessions offer the attending participants 0.1 CEU per event — it’s an easy way to collect the CEUs needed to maintain certification. Participants must engage in 80 percent of the session to receive CEU credit; registration closes two hours prior to start times.