This award-winning and intimate cottage was rebuilt on the site of a deteriorating outbuilding. Doubling as a custom jewelry studio and guest retreat, the cottage’s timeless design was inspired by old National Parks rough-stone shelters that the owners had fallen in love with. A single living space boasts custom built-ins for jewelry work, a Murphy bed for overnight guests, and a stone fireplace for warmth and relaxation. A cozy loft nestles behind rustic timber trusses above. Expansive sliding glass doors open to an outdoor living terrace overlooking a serene wooded meadow. Photos by: Emily Minton Redfield

Think of the Noon Starter Kit as mission control center, but for your house. Play music, and even control your lighting with your voice using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Jim Tschetter
Kitchen/dining room combo - contemporary dark wood floor kitchen/dining room combo idea in Chicago with white walls and no fireplace

Photo: Caroline Sharpnack © 2017 Houzz
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Photo credit: Robyn Ivy Design credit: Fresh Nest Color and Design
Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional open concept light wood floor living room remodel in Providence with a tv stand, a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

Technology and function. While a TV is the centerpiece of a traditional family room, Ferrer eschewed the eyesore of a wall-mounted TV and tucked it away in a custom-built Cabinet Tronix television cabinet. With a touch of a button, the TV emerges, neatly and discretely, connected to half a dozen media peripherals, including a Blu-Ray player and X-Box, which are also hidden away, enclosed in a compartment at the bottom of the unit. Inside the cabinet, the family’s former tiny TV was upsized and upgraded with a 43" TCL Roku TV. Since streaming is the new cable, the family cut the cord, and cost, and now uses a TERK Trinity Indoor Amplified HDTV antenna to get basic channels sans subscription. Atop the cabinet, a stylish Sonos Playbar connects to the TV via optical cable and lends rich AV sound. The app-controlled system connects with other Sonos speakers in the house to stream free and paid playlists from sites like Pandora, Amazon Music, and Spotify. To amplify Wi-Fi throughout the house, a TP-Link VR900 modem/router is paired with the eero extender system to boost bufferless audio and video streaming. Above the lift cabinet, Ferrer used the wall space as a projection screen for a ZTE Spro2 projector. The palm-sized tablet-like projector transforms the living room into a cinema, streaming directly from the device or connecting to other devices via USB or HDMI cable. After some research, Ferrer learned that the best color wall for projection was not white, as one might expect, but grey. She chose Sherwin-Williams Passive Gray to make the colors pop and show vividly on the wall.

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Get smart. To outsmart kids prone to leaving lights on, the Lutron Maestro motion sensor automatically turns lights on and off, and to set the mood lighting, the handy Lutron Caseta Wireless controller dims lights and raises and lowers blinds while iDevices switches wirelessly control the Robert Abbey Delta Emerald Glazed Table Lamp and floor fan, while the heat and AC are controlled by a Honeywell Lyric thermostat. Both wireless controllers and the thermostat respond to app or voice commands by Amazon Echo, which can also play music, update a Google calendar, report the news, and even read the kids a story. The family can play it safe anywhere in the home with Samsung smartthings hub home monitoring kit which sends alerts via app if anyone passes a sensor or opens or closes a connected door or window.

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