I recently took a tour of Natural Stone Design Gallery in Sacramento and was blown away with all their handcrafted tile options they have to make your spaces truly stunning. I’ve partnered with Natural Stone Design Gallery to showcase ideas on how you can create impact with tile in small spaces. Their beautiful showroom is located in Sacramento, CA and filled with exclusive handmade tile options including handmade ceramic tile, imported Italian marble tile, Mosaic tiles, cement tiles and much more.

When visiting Natural Stone Design Gallery, I would recommend making an appointment to meet with one of their onsite designers to discuss your project. Bring inspiration pictures and be ready to be blown away with all their tile options and colorways. Their designers will walk you through the design process helping you select the right tile for your space.

Natural Stone Design Gallery carries many exclusive brands, a few of my favorites tiles were from Sonoma Tilemakers, made in Sonoma, California. Their tiles are amazing and came in so many colors. I also loved the tile options from Walker Zanger.

Below is a small sampling of some of the tiles I love from Natural Stone Design Gallery, all the tiles shared come in various colorways.

Create impact in Small Spaces with Tile - TILE IDEAS (1).png

Tile Information // ONE Stellar Isla Stone Blue TWO 6Th Avenue Fog Glass 2 inch Hex THREE Stellar Boka Leaf Quicksilver FOUR Stellar Laurel Color Mist FIVE Stellar Chevy Lefi Stone Blue SIX Stellar Penthouse (Crackle Glaze) SEVEN 6th Avenue French Clay

In addition to tile, Natural Stone Design Gallery they also have a stone yard. Guys, I was in heaven! Lovely Marble Slabs for days in both polished and honed, Quartzite Slabs, Granite Slabs. They also have Quartz Counter top options. If you have a small project be sure and visit the stone yard for remnants priced at steep discounts.

Remnants pieces in the stone yard

This month Natural Stone Design Gallery is hosting a Tile Design & Trends CEU Workshops for Designers. The event is on October 17, 2018 and connects local designers with leading tile industry specialists, sharing future design trends for tile. For more information on the event and visit NSDGallery.com/ceu-workshop

HOW TO CREATE IMPACT IN SMALL SPACES WITH TILE

I love how selecting the right tile in a small space can make a room come alive by adding color, pattern and the good drama. Small spaces make it budget friendly to splurge on handcrafted tile.

KITCHEN IDEAS // In kitchens, create a pretty focal point above your stove with a tile mosaic pattern back splash, or a tile pattern design above the stove. For me subway tile is a classic forever tile, using glazed crackle subway is a great way to add a timeless look in your kitchen and elevates the look of subway tile.

image via Driven by Decor and Pinterest (no direct link given)

BATHROOM IDEAS // Small bathrooms are a great for adding a big punch of style with tile. In a shower add a niche inset and use splurge on a pretty pattern tile. I also love the idea of adding a marble slab in a shower niche, talk about stunning!

images via Designer Drains and Decor Pad

LAUNDRY ROOMS // Add a fun element with patterned tile flooring in a laundry room, or use wood-look tile laid in a chevron pattern on the floor.

images via

Create impact in Small Spaces with Tile.png

What are some of your favorite ideas to add impact in a small space with tile?

I’m a recent Fitbit convert and I love it! In the past I’ve always dismissed Fitbit thinking they were all these big bulky step counters, that screamed hey look at me, I’m counting my steps! Until I saw my girlfriend Lauren’s Fitbit, which at first glance I thought it was a cute bracelet until she told me it was a Fitbit!

I was really impressed by the size of hers and all the features. Plus I had just recently started Weight Watchers and wanted to track my daily active mins to record in my WW app so I would have more fit points each week. For Mothers Day in May I treated myself to a Fitbit. Now that I have a Fitbit my ‘Activity Points’ are automatically synced with my WW app. Don’t you love technology!

For me having a Fitbit is all about moving more my entire day. Some jobs are really active, mine is so not one of those. At my 9-5 I’m so sedentary, I have a job that pays me to sit at my desk in front of the computer for eight hours a day, which totally sucks. The Fitbit is the perfect solution for me and has really helped me increase my daily steps, take longer walks, park hella far away from stores, get up and move away from my desk.

I have the Fitbit Flex 2 - it came with a simple black unisex band and a charger. Hasani got me a gold pretty band, and I got myself another gold band and extra chargers. I’m that girl who loves having options and I’m also that girl who looses charges! I have a Fitbit charger in my purse, one at home and I leave one at work. I found these Fitibit chargers that work great! My Fitbit emails me when my battery is running low.

Working in a professional environment, I love that my Fitbit looks like a bracelet and unless I tell you, you’d never know I had one on! I get so many compliments about my bracelets and excitement when I reveal it has a dual purpose, it looks pretty and motivates me! As I mentioned I love options and that’s one of the many things I love about my Fitbit, changing the look up, I recently ordered this pretty pink leather bracelet, its so cute! I can’t wait for it to arrive.

FIVE REASONS YOU NEED A FITBIT, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU HAVE A DESK JOB

ONE // Track all your steps and tells you how much you moved that day, you can even add a reminder to your FitBit that encouragesTracko move if you been inactive for a while. Since I have a FitBit 2 - to see where I’m at on my daily steps, I just check the app. The pp is so cool and tells me my step count, how many miles I’ve walked and calories burned and active minutes.

TWO // Create & Join Weekly Challenges! This is so much fun if your family or friend has a Fitbit you can create a weekly challenge, to motivate each other to get the most steps in every day. I’ve been doing this with Lauren and my sister and its so much fun. During the challenge we send each other words or encouragement telling each other we got this!

THREE // In addition to tracking your daily steps, it always tracks your active minutes' which is awesome! My daily goal is to be active for 30mins a day which will help me burn more calorie

FOUR // You can also track your fitness & health goals with your health bit, including water intake, weight tracking and see how your sleep pattern is

FIVE // For there’s a tool for Female Health, to track your period, fertile window, cramps and headaches, giving you greater insight into your female health. I like that is information you can have to share with your doctor if you're having any issues or concerns. I haven't turned this feature on, but I like to know this is an option

My goal is to be active my entire day, vs. hitting the gym 3-4 days a week for an hour and being a couch potato the rest of the week #BeenThereDoneThat

When I first got my Fitbit it was preset to 10,000 steps a day, which is really hard with my 9-5 sedentary job, like really hard. I bumped down my daily goal to 5,000 steps, to see how much effort it took for me to hit 5K It still takes effort which honestly is a good thing, it makes me get up and move and take the long way to the bathroom, copier machine etc. Even though my goal is to always hit 5K steps which are about 2 miles, I want to surpass that goal and increase my daily mileage. Having the Fitbit on my wrist is a reminder to move, below are five ideas for adding more steps in your day.

FIVE REAL LIFE IDEAS FOR ADDING IN MORE ACTIVITY IN YOUR WEEKDAY 9-5 ROUTINE

ONE // I get up early and walk between 30-45 minutes in the morning, this morning walk feels good for my soul allowing me to have quiet time and gives me a jump start on the number of steps. Most morning I walk with Tabari, it was actually his idea, but now I’m the one asking him to walk each day! Funny how that happens. On mornings when he’s not in the mood to walk, Hasani and I will walk.

TWO // On my lunch break, instead of sitting in the break room, I take a 30 min walk around the park at a good pace with my friend. I recently converted her it a Fitbit believer and she loves hers too! I’m still trying to convince her to join our challenge! She has the FitBit Chrage 2, she can also change her band if she wants.

THREE // Take the long route. Instead of the fast route to the bathroom, break room, or copier machine and if you can take the stairs everyday and skip the elevator. I take the longest router possible to area in the office and make multi-able trips! Its little ways like this you can sneak in more steps

FOUR // Park father away. As my mom would say park in the ‘South 40’, the father our I park the more steps I can get in.

FIVE // In the evenings, I try to add movement, I water the lawn, do laundry, put away the clothes and if time permits go for an evening walk.

This week, I created a personal challenge to hit 10,000 steps a day! So far I’ve been making it happen, yesterday I hit 12,118 steps which eqausl 5.29 miles #ThankYouVeryMuch

GET STEPPING IN STYLE, CUTE FITBIT OPTIONS

IF YOU LOVE THIS POST, PIN IT

Of course, when the weather starts to get gloomy in Sacramento, which is a very short window, I’ll have to change up my routine so I can keep moving. I’m in the process of working on a follow-up blog post to My 11 Weeks on Weight Watchers Freestyle sharing my progress, changes I’ve made, how I stay focused and how close I am to hitting my weight goal, I’m very close friends like super duper close!

Now I want to hear from you, do you have a Fitbit? What do you do to add activity into your everyday work routine?