Lake Front Country Estate Master Bedroom, designed by Tom Markalunas, built by Resort Custom Homes. Photography by Rachael Boling.
Inspiration for a huge timeless master medium tone wood floor bedroom remodel in Other with white walls and no fireplace

Elegant formal and open concept dark wood floor living room photo in Minneapolis with white walls, a standard fireplace, a tile fireplace and no tv

Jim Somerset Photography
Large transitional master multicolored tile, white tile and marble tile marble floor and white floor bathroom photo in Charleston with white cabinets, white walls, a hinged shower door and flat-panel cabinets

Laura Moss
Inspiration for a large timeless master drop-in bathtub remodel in New York with raised-panel cabinets and gray walls

Reverse Shed Eichler This project is part tear-down, part remodel. The original L-shaped plan allowed the living/ dining/ kitchen wing to be completely re-built while retaining the shell of the bedroom wing virtually intact. The rebuilt entertainment wing was enlarged 50% and covered with a low-slope reverse-shed roof sloping from eleven to thirteen feet. The shed roof floats on a continuous glass clerestory with eight foot transom. Cantilevered steel frames support wood roof beams with eaves of up to ten feet. An interior glass clerestory separates the kitchen and livingroom for sound control. A wall-to-wall skylight illuminates the north wall of the kitchen/family room. New additions at the back of the house add several “sliding” wall planes, where interior walls continue past full-height windows to the exterior, complimenting the typical Eichler indoor-outdoor ceiling and floor planes. The existing bedroom wing has been re-configured on the interior, changing three small bedrooms into two larger ones, and adding a guest suite in part of the original garage. A previous den addition provided the perfect spot for a large master ensuite bath and walk-in closet. Natural materials predominate, with fir ceilings, limestone veneer fireplace walls, anigre veneer cabinets, fir sliding windows and interior doors, bamboo floors, and concrete patios and walks. Landscape design by Bernard Trainor: www.bernardtrainor.com (see “Concrete Jungle” in April 2014 edition of Dwell magazine). Microsoft Media Center installation of the Year, 2008: www.cybermanor.com/ultimate_install.html (automated shades, radiant heating system, and lights, as well as security & sound).

Custom Cupboards
Example of a classic laundry room design in Chicago

Alcove shower - mid-sized transitional 3/4 cement tile floor and multicolored floor alcove shower idea in Austin with shaker cabinets, gray cabinets, a two-piece toilet, white walls, an undermount sink, white countertops and solid surface countertops

Example of a tuscan blue tile alcove shower design in Orange County

Charles Hilton Architects, Robert Benson Photography From grand estates, to exquisite country homes, to whole house renovations, the quality and attention to detail of a "Significant Homes" custom home is immediately apparent. Full time on-site supervision, a dedicated office staff and hand picked professional craftsmen are the team that take you from groundbreaking to occupancy. Every "Significant Homes" project represents 45 years of luxury homebuilding experience, and a commitment to quality widely recognized by architects, the press and, most of all....thoroughly satisfied homeowners. Our projects have been published in Architectural Digest 6 times along with many other publications and books. Though the lion share of our work has been in Fairfield and Westchester counties, we have built homes in Palm Beach, Aspen, Maine, Nantucket and Long Island.

The aqua high gloss ceiling, subtle tone-on-tone trellis wallpaper, small geometric carpet, and bulls eye mirror all help to give this formal living room an open and airy feel. A pair of velvet tufted sofas also make the sitting area feel more luxurious. Photography by Michael Hunter Photography.

Jason Alexander
Inspiration for a timeless white two-story brick gable roof remodel in Dallas

Photography by Melissa M. Mills
Example of a large cottage l-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor kitchen design in Nashville with white cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, subway tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island, white countertops and shaker cabinets

Example of a large trendy porcelain tile kitchen pantry design in New York with flat-panel cabinets, white cabinets and wood countertops

A local Houston art collector hired us to create a low maintenance, sophisticated, contemporary landscape design. She wanted her property to compliment her eclectic taste in architecture, outdoor sculpture, and modern art. Her house was built with a minimalist approach to decoration, emphasizing right angles and windows instead of architectural keynotes. The west wing of the house was only one story, while the east wing was two-story. The windows in both wings were larger than usual, so that visitors could see her art collection from the home’s exterior. Near one of the large rear windows, there was an abstract metal sculpture designed in the form of a spiral. When she initially contacted us, the surrounding property had only a few trees and indigenous grass as vegetation. This was actually a good beginning point with us, because it allowed us to develop a contemporary landscape design that featured a very linear, crisp look supportive of the home and its contents. We began by planting a garden around the large contemporary sculpture near the window. Landscape designers planted horsetail reed under windows, along the sides of the home, and around the corners. This vegetation is very resilient and hardy, and requires little trimming, weeding, or mulching. This helped unite the diverse elements of sculpture, contemporary architecture, and landscape design into a more fluid harmony that preserved the proportions of each unique element, but eliminated any tendency for the elements to clash with one another. We then added two stonework designs to the landscape surrounding the contemporary art collection and home. The first was a linear walkway we build from concrete pads purchased through a retail vendor as a cost-saving benefit to our client. We created this walkway to follow the perimeter of the home so that visitors could walk around the entire property and admire the outdoor sculptures and the collections of modern art visible through the windows. This was especially enjoyable at night, when the entire home was brightly lit from within. To add a touch of tranquility and quite repose to the stark right angles of the home and surrounding contemporary landscape, we designed a special seating area toward the northwest corner of the property. We wanted to create a sense of contemplation in this area, so we departed from the linear and angular designs of the surrounding landscape and established a theme of circular geometry. We laid down gravel as ground cover, then placed large, circular pads arranged like giant stepping stones that led up to a stone patio filled with chairs. The shape of the granite pads and the contours of the graveled area further complimented the spirals and turns in the outdoor metal sculpture, and balanced the entire contemporary landscape design with proportional geometric forms of lines, angles, and curves. This particular contemporary landscape design also has a sense of movement attached to it. All stonework leads to a destination of some sort. The linear pathway provides a guided tour around the home, garden, and modern art collection. The granite pathway stones create movement toward separate space where the entire experience of art, vegetation, and architecture can be viewed and experienced as a unity. Contemporary landscaping designs like create form out of feeling by using basic geometric forms and variations of forms. Sometimes very stark forms are used to create a sense of absolutism or contrast. At other times, forms are blended, or even distorted to suggest a sense of complex emotion, or a sense of multi-dimensional reality. The exact nature of the design is always highly subjective, and developed on a case-by-case basis with the client.

Photo: Vicki Bodine
Inspiration for a large country l-shaped medium tone wood floor kitchen remodel in New York with beaded inset cabinets, white cabinets, marble countertops, gray backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and gray countertops

Built in the iconic neighborhood of Mount Curve, just blocks from the lakes, Walker Art Museum, and restaurants, this is city living at its best. Myrtle House is a design-build collaboration with Hage Homes and Regarding Design with expertise in Southern-inspired architecture and gracious interiors. With a charming Tudor exterior and modern interior layout, this house is perfect for all ages.

Mail storage, cork board and everything else you need to keep spaghetti sauce off of the bills.
Inspiration for a transitional kitchen remodel in Detroit

Kitchen - farmhouse kitchen idea in Seattle

Living room - 1950s medium tone wood floor living room idea in San Francisco with white walls