Eye-Land: Named for the expansive white oak savanna views, this beautiful 5,200-square foot family home offers seamless indoor/outdoor living with five bedrooms and three baths, and space for two more bedrooms and a bathroom. The site posed unique design challenges. The home was ultimately nestled into the hillside, instead of placed on top of the hill, so that it didn’t dominate the dramatic landscape. The openness of the savanna exposes all sides of the house to the public, which required creative use of form and materials. The home’s one-and-a-half story form pays tribute to the site’s farming history. The simplicity of the gable roof puts a modern edge on a traditional form, and the exterior color palette is limited to black tones to strike a stunning contrast to the golden savanna. The main public spaces have oversized south-facing windows and easy access to an outdoor terrace with views overlooking a protected wetland. The connection to the land is further strengthened by strategically placed windows that allow for views from the kitchen to the driveway and auto court to see visitors approach and children play. There is a formal living room adjacent to the front entry for entertaining and a separate family room that opens to the kitchen for immediate family to gather before and after mealtime.

Small transitional single-wall porcelain tile, black floor and wallpaper dedicated laundry room photo in Detroit with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, subway tile backsplash, multicolored walls, a side-by-side washer/dryer and white countertops

Mid-sized eclectic medium tone wood floor and brown floor bedroom photo in New York with blue walls

The kitchen features modern appliances with light wood finishes for a Belgian farmhouse aesthetic. The space is clean, large, and tidy with black fixture elements to add bold design,

Inspiration for a timeless kitchen remodel in Boston with an undermount sink, glass-front cabinets, green cabinets, black backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and black countertops

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

The light filled laundry room is punctuated with black and gold accents, a playful floor tile pattern and a large dog shower. The U-shaped laundry room features plenty of counter space for folding clothes and ample cabinet storage. A mesh front drying cabinet is the perfect spot to hang clothes to dry out of sight. The "drop zone" outside of the laundry room features a countertop beside the garage door for leaving car keys and purses. Under the countertop, the client requested an open space to fit a large dog kennel to keep it tucked away out of the walking area. The room's color scheme was pulled from the fun floor tile and works beautifully with the nearby kitchen and pantry.

Vanity cabinets with knotty alder shaker doors. Top knobs square bar pulls. Delta Stryke matte black 3 hole faucets on Kohler Ladena undermount sinks. White Quartz counters and backsplash. Nickel gap wood planks painted Pure White. Black 12" x 24" porcelain floor and wall tile - Matte Black. Mirrors from Pottery barn.

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Living room - transitional formal dark wood floor living room idea in Cedar Rapids with gray walls, a ribbon fireplace, a stone fireplace and a tv stand

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.

Susan Gilmore
Example of a classic kitchen design in Minneapolis

photo credit: David Gilbert
Elegant wood exterior home photo in New York with a clipped gable roof

Elegant sunroom photo in DC Metro

Modern powder bath. A moody and rich palette with brass fixtures, black cle tile, terrazzo flooring and warm wood vanity.
Small transitional black tile and terra-cotta tile cement tile floor and brown floor powder room photo in San Francisco with open cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, green walls, quartz countertops, white countertops and a freestanding vanity

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.

Matt Steeves Studio
Inspiration for a huge transitional medium tone wood floor kitchen remodel in Miami with an undermount sink, recessed-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, gray backsplash, mosaic tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and two islands

Jenn Baker
Inspiration for a large industrial galley concrete floor and gray floor open concept kitchen remodel in Dallas with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, marble countertops, white backsplash, wood backsplash, an island and black appliances

French Blue Photography www.frenchbluephotography.com
Example of a large classic l-shaped dark wood floor eat-in kitchen design in Houston with a farmhouse sink, recessed-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, white backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and subway tile backsplash

Jenn Baker
Inspiration for a large industrial open concept concrete floor and gray floor family room remodel in Dallas with gray walls, a ribbon fireplace, a brick fireplace and a wall-mounted tv