This sophisticated metropolitan family room is the talk of the town. It connects the owners to their backyard, letting in lots of light from two directions. The space is fresh and inviting - the perfect place to hang out with the kids.
Photo by Danny Piassick
House designed by Charles Isreal
This photo has 57 questions
sas_design wrote:
Dimensions of fireplace and doorway? - We love this room, and chose it as a study model for our ID course. We'd love to know the width and depth of the fireplace as relative to the alcoves and shelving dimensions. Also, what are the dimensions of the doorway and pony wall? Thank you so much! »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The fireplace is a 48" box. the room is about 19' wide. The shelves are about 5-1/2' wide. the fireplace is about 8' wide. the entrance to the bar, including the pony wall is about 6'
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC I am the builder. Perhaps the decorator can tell you. I know it's all custom made. HEr contact info is delaney_warren@sbcglobal.net
Fire place wall - I have a similar fireplace/TV wall that I have no idea how to finish. My husband and I cant agree. He is traditional I am contemporary. I live in the Dallas area. It appears that you practice in this area as well.
Are you taking clients at this time? »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC I build houses and do major remodeling in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. Do you live near that area? I frequently have clients who are divided on the style they want, but we can usually reach a beautiful compromise.
What type of puck lights did you use? - I am creating a fireplace wall very similar to this in my master bedroom. We are having difficulty figuring out how to put puck lights in a 3" tall shelf, where the light will be totally enclosed in the shelf. We have considered halogen pucks, but because of the transformer they need to use, we would need to increase the shelf to 3 1/2" tall, which is too chunky. We are currently researching whether we can fit LED pucks in a 3" shelf. Just curious how you made this work? Thanks! »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC You're welcome! I hope you can figure it out! Making the shelves too thick ruins the proportions of the whole look unless your space is really large.
Love the floating shelves! - Can you please tell me the thickness of the shelves and the mantel? The shelves look to be about 2 inches, but I wanted to check! Thanks a bunch! »
Where is the dvd player etc.--I hope you don't have to leave the cab drs open--? - It looks so simple but would a finish carpenter know how to conceal everything in the mantle ?--It looks pretty thin for that to be the case.I love the simpleness.I want to copy but wrap mantle around the sides of the fireplace.--It is very involved!!!--Help please! »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The TV has a remote eye. All of the equipment is in one of the cabinets below. We ran a conduit from the TV space to the conduit. In some newer houses we run the conduit to an equipment closet in a totally different room.
Does putting a TV over the fireplace ruin the TV? - Always curious if you have a real, wood burning fireplace, with a TV, how does the TV not get ruined? Also, if you have a stone fireplace, how do you get the TV to attach to the stone without ruining the stone? »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC No it does not ruin the TV. The mantel blocks any heat that might escape the firebox. This TV is sitting on the mantel, but the plug and cable connection are behind the TV. In other applications, we just the screw the TV mount to the stone. Are you ever going to have blank stone with nothing on it over your fireplace? Probably not!
Plus, woodburning fireplaces produce very little convective heat (hot air) versus radiant heat (which travels as light), so the area two feet above the fireplace opening is in very little danger, even without a mantel.
If you are trying to mount to an actual masonry fireplace, the trick is usually related to getting all of the wiring done.
What is the length of the wall with the three sets of doors? - ...I would like to discuss this option with builder if we have a large enough living room. »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC It is 3 sizes of tile from Materials Marketing - 2x9, 3x16, and 4x24. The material is vein cut travertine called "Vintage Vein". It's beautiful material. Materials Marketing is based in San Antonio and has several locations around the country. The material is always shipped directly from San Antonio to the address where it's going to be used.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The ceiling beams are made of mahogany. THey are stained with Rosewood stain and finished with 2 coats of satin finish polyurethane.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC These doors and the beams and cabinets are mahogany. It has a nice tight grain that's not very visible. You could do maple and give it two coats of stain or maybe clear alder.
What is the height of the lower cabinets next to the fireplace - I am doing something similar but without any upper shelves. And the height of the lower cabinets look like a good height. »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC We ran a "smurf" tube inside the wall that connects the TV to the cabinet. This is a plastic conduit intended for electrical wiring. Behind the TV is a plug and a plate with a conduit opening. In the cabinet is the other end of the conduit.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The are built-in floating cabinets made by my cabinet guy. They are very simple boxes screwed to the wall and each have 3 slab doors. They are made of mahogany. Each one is about a foot off the floor.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC It is 3 sizes of tile from Materials Marketing - 2x9, 3x16, and 4x24. The material is vein cut travertine called "Vintage Vein". It's beautiful materials. Materials Marketing is based in San Antonio and has several locations around the country. The material is always shipped directly from San Antonio to the address where it's going to be used.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC Nope! It is 3 sizes of tile from Materials Marketing - 2x9, 3x16, and 4x24. The material is vein cut travertine called "Vintage Vein".
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC 5" common/quartered white oak, lightly hand scraped with the grain, stained with Duraseal Rosewood, and finished with 2 coats of Eukula hardwax oil.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The color scheme definitely has some warm tones, while still feeling really fresh and new. It's very inviting! You will have to contact the decorator for the fabric - dealney.warren@sbcglobal.net
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The color scheme definitely has some warm tones, while still feeling really fresh and new. It's very inviting! You will have to contact the decorator for the fabric - delaney.warren@sbcglobal.net
Is the light orange peel mist throughout the house? - I am struggling to decide on whether to do a very light orange peel or go with smooth walls.... this house looks fabulous! »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC We did an orange peel mist. It's almost no texture. Since then, I have had several clients ask for even smoother walls. What I have been doing lately is imperfect smooth. It's not museum quality, which can be really expensive, but smooth walls with some small imperfections. It seems to be acceptable without running the price up.
what are the dimensions of the sofas and chairs? - Gorgeous room. I'm trying to figure out what size would work best in my 18'x16' room, same furniture layout.
Thank you! »
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC This room is 23' long by 19' wide. The chairs are about 42" wide and deep. I don't know how big the sofas are. The soaps table is about 16" front to back. I hope this helps!
Kathy VanDeventer Did you grout between the tiles or are they dry joints? Can you tell me how you used all the different sizes? What kind of pattern worked out best?
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC We have 3 sizes - 2x9,3x16, and 4x24. Each row consists of one size tile. We alternated rows of all three sizes. Yes, there is grout that matches. I have done this same stone in the same design at another house with no grout. It looks Great that way too.
speckledmom The article linked above says mounting a TV over your fireplace can shorten the life of your television IF you're not careful. It then goes on to tell you how to do it/get it done properly.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC You will have to contact Delaney Warren, who did the decorating to find out. She selected all the fabrics. You can reach her at delaney_warren@sbcglobal.net.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC I have no idea. I'm just the builder! I was in and out as stuff was being delivered and set up but I didn't participate in purchasing any of the furnishings.
Beams and ceiling type - I'm considering doing beams in my basement which has 9' ceilings. Would I have to go with a painted ceiling rather than a knock-down style? »
mrams Thank you both. Knock down is a type of stipple that is troweled flat after it is applied. We were just trying to decide if we need to do painted ceiling to make the beams look correct.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC This house has a VERY light orange peel texture. The texture guys call it "orange peel mist". They wanted texture, but not noticeable. I have also done an imperfect smooth texture in a similar house.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC The rug came to the house through Delaney Warren, who did the decorating. Her website is delaneywarren.com. She will tell you exactly where she found it!
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC I don't, but the tile come in 3 sizes - 2x9, 3x16, and 4x24. Each row only has one size tile in it. The tile came from Materials Marketing in San Antonio and is called "Vintage Vein"
loftus9 My kitchen and counter top are white. The family room is seperate but adjoining. We were considering putting in decorative beams like these. Would you put dark beams or paint them white to continue the theme of the cabinetry in kitchen which is white. I feel as though the fireplace mantle should be the same as the ceiling beams. Our floors are a warm honey hardwood. The window frames are also white in kitchen and family room.
Ellen Grasso & Sons, LLC Mahogany. We built the beams out of solid stock - 1x8's cut to be exactly 1x7 (the distance between the doors). The beams could have been made from mahogany plywood since the edges are mitered. We used the 1" strips left over as a border in the dining room floor. It looked really nice.
Floating shelves above and on both sides of the fireplace give the family room a clean, crisp feel; the strong horizontal lines of the shelves are repeated in the mahogany ceiling beams. "My clients didn't want the rustic look of old beams and really love the crisp look of these mahogany beams," says Grasso. Turquoise throws and earth-tone glassware add splashes of color to the otherwise neutral palette. Natural light floods the space through two lofty windows and wood panel doors.
8. Rearrange your furniture. In the living room, symmetrical arrangements usually work well. Pull your furniture off the walls and use pairs (of sofas, chairs, lamps) to create an inviting conversation area.
What Houzzers are commenting on:
added by clintv331 to living room (37 minutes ago)
downstairs family room idea. its possible to have sofa against stairway wall with bookshelves/storage on back wall with tv (and ventfree fireplace possible). two recliner chairs at back window and drapes flanking windows in back. what to do with small space between bathroom and office? what to do with floor? large area rug or two rugs?