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The Küllest Grilles in All the Land

HVAC. The mere mention of that word makes me shudder. We have three – count them! – THREE heating and cooling systems in our house. Talk about crazytown; it’s HVAC madness over here. There is one unit for the bedrooms, one unit for the living space, and one unit for the family room (as I mentioned I think it was converted from a garage by the first owners). We’ve had our share of fun times with these units… like the time when the air conditioner broke in the dead of Summer while I was six months pregnant. Or the time when the heater broke the night we brought our newborn daughter home from the hospital. Ah, the memories.

11.30.12 | By
The Küllest Grilles in All the Land

Well, another thing about the HVAC system that I’d like to erase from my memory are the hideous floor grilles throughout the house. They’ve been painted over, chipped, bent and beat up, and it’s time for them to retire to the big HVAC system in the sky.

Ew.

Gross.

I was surprised that the grilles were not replaced at the same time when the hardwood floors were installed, so it was up to us to do. Do you know how hard it is to find modern floor grilles, and ones that aren’t a zillion dollars? Nearly impossible. Thank goodness for Kül Grilles. I first heard about them in the back of a Dwell magazine (don’t you just love their little modern marketplace?). We started working together and, the next thing you know, a box of custom grilles arrived on my doorstep. As I get older, it never ceases to amaze me the things that I get excited about: new muscle pain-relieving patches, learning how to julienne, applesauce in a squeeze packet, and now, floor grilles. I ripped that box open like there was a puppy inside.

Sayonara!

Here’s where you can get a good look at our foundation. Completely concrete.

Here are two photos from the kitchen – it’s really hard to get good pics of these because they’re in such weirdly-lit areas. But, I think they look really great on the hardwood. We didn’t have any problems sliding them into place and, thus far, the air comes through them rather nicely.

I love the brushed chrome finish and how sleek it looks on the entryway slate:

Because they’re so minimalist, they are fixed and so there’s no way to adjust or close the vent. I guess it’s up to you whether that’s something of importance but we’re OK with it. Overall, these grilles are gorgeous and functional, perhaps you could even call them kül — er — cool, but the biggest impact that they’ve had is in making our floors finally feel complete.

Thanks to Kül Grilles for providing us with grilles for our home. All reviews and opinions are my own.

Jaime Derringer, Founder + Executive Editor of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things—running, reading, making music, and drawing.