Inspiration for a timeless bedroom remodel in New York

Tuscan porch idea in Austin

This guest bathroom design in Odenton, MD is a cozy space perfect for guests or for a family bathroom. It features HomeCrest by MasterBrand Sedona maple cabinetry in a Cadet Blue finish. The cabinetry is accented by hardware in a brushed finish and a Q Quartz Calacatta Vicenza countertop. The vanity includes a Kohler Archer sink and Mirabelle Provincetown single hole faucet. It also incorporates a large mirror and a Quoizel 4 light vanity light, making it an ideal space to get ready for the day. This bathroom design includes a three wall alcove Kohler Archer soaker tub with armrests and lumbar support, perfect for a relaxing bath. The combination tub/shower also has a Mirabelle shower valve and Delta In2ition 2-in-1 multi-function shower with wall mounted shower arm. The sleek shower design includes gray glossy 4 x 16 subway tile with a Schluter brushed nickel edge and two larger shower shelves. Mirabelle Provincetown towel bar and ring offer ideally positioned places to hang towels. Anatolia Eramosa Silver 12 x 24 floor tile completes this design style. The total home project also included reconfiguring the hallway, master bath, and kitchen.

In this 90's cape cod home, we used the space from an overly large bedroom, an oddly deep but narrow closet and the existing garden-tub focused master bath with two dormers, to create a master suite trio that was perfectly proportioned to the client's needs. They wanted a much larger closet but also wanted a large dual shower, and a better-proportioned tub. We stuck with pedestal sinks but upgraded them to large recessed medicine cabinets, vintage styled. And they loved the idea of a concrete floor and large stone walls with low maintenance. For the walls, we brought in a European product that is new for the U.S. - Porcelain Panels that are an eye-popping 5.5 ft. x 10.5 ft. We used a 2ft x 4ft concrete-look porcelain tile for the floor. This bathroom has a mix of low and high ceilings, but a functional arrangement instead of the dreaded “vault-for-no-purpose-bathroom”. We used 8.5 ft ceiling areas for both the shower and the vanity’s producing a symmetry about the toilet room door. The right runner-rug in the center of this bath (not shown yet unfortunately), completes the functional layout, and will look pretty good too. Of course, no design is close to finished without plenty of well thought out light. The bathroom uses all low-heat, high lumen, LED, 7” low profile surface mounting lighting (whoa that’s a mouthful- but, lighting is critical!). Two 7” LED fixtures light up the shower and the tub and we added two heat lamps for this open shower design. The shower also has a super-quiet moisture-exhaust fan. The customized (ikea) closet has the same lighting and the vanity space has both flanking and overhead LED lighting at 3500K temperature. Natural Light? Yes, and lot’s of it. On the second floor facing the woods, we added custom-sized operable casement windows in the shower, and custom antiqued expansive 4-lite doors on both the toilet room door and the main bath entry which is also a pocket door with a transom over it. We incorporated the trim style: fluted trims and door pediments, that was already throughout the home into these spaces, and we blended vintage and classic elements using modern proportions & patterns along with mix of metal finishes that were in tonal agreement with a simple color scheme. We added teak shower shelves and custom antiqued pine doors, adding these natural wood accents for that subtle warm contrast – and we presented! Oh btw – we also matched the expansive doors we put in the master bath, on the front entry door, and added some gas lanterns on either side. We also replaced all the carpet in the home and upgraded their stairs with metal balusters and new handrails and coloring. This client couple, they’re in love again!

Elle Decor modern traditional kitchen features lucite and cowhide barstools, walnut island, brass inlay, lucite pendant lights, butterfly, bookmatched marble, custom pantry door, custom stainless and brass vent hood, hidden paper towel storage, hidden coffee bar.

This home sat on the market without interest before staging. It went under agreement immediately after staging. Photos & Staging by: Betsy Konaxis, BK Classic Collections Home Stagers

Kitchen - transitional kitchen idea in Phoenix

The Home While looking for space where their active family could expand, these homeowners turned to Black Forest, with trees that remind them of their Indiana years. A stunning Pikes Peak view underscores how fortunate they are to live in Colorado. This home features classic nods to the owner’s French heritage while embracing a thoroughly of-the-moment Colorado lifestyle. Priorities for these homeowners included blending outdoor and indoor spaces wherever possible with generously proportioned windows and doors, porches, patios and balconies. A gracious lime-washed brick entry punctuates a simplified white stucco and black-frame-windowed exterior with traditional rooflines. Dramatic open spaces on the main floor comfortably accommodate the everyday activities of this busy family of four, while providing for welcomed visits from family and friends. A functional, open kitchen is designed for serious cooking, a butler’s pantry for staples, and serveware storage and dining spaces that effortlessly host after-school snacking to multi-course meals. A main-level, Peak-view office comfortably supports working at home, complete with a beer cave and tasting nook for hosting fellow aficionados after work is done. Guests will find comfort and privacy in a ma in-level guestroom suite or sleepover fun in the built-in bunks of the expansive over-garage bonus room. This home is a true collaboration that blends the homeowner’s long-held vision of their ideal home brought to life by the builder’s vision and design/build process that achieves something truly…Warm and welcoming in the Forest. The Builder Stauffer & Sons Construction is a true Design-Build team creating some of the finest living spaces in the Pikes Peak region for over twenty years. We’ve developed an easy point-of-entry to the Design-Build process that begins with our very popular Conceptual Design and Budgeting Agreement. This affordable, low-commitment step provides answers to the early-stage questions of “what and how much?” With this critical information in place, a robust collaboration between client and builder ensues, resulting in a thoughtfully designed home that strikes a balance between size and scope and budget. The Interior Design Family, friends and soon-to-be friends are welcomed into this updated version of a French country farmhouse through a bricked archway and a solid arch-top entry door. Once inside, a sweeping gallery of windows adorned with flower-filled window boxes sets a nice foreground to the ponderosa pine forest. A great room with a two-story, lime-washed, brick fireplace sits juxtaposed to a cozy farm-styled kitchen with large island, plenty of storage and a Pikes Peak view. This family home features a simple, clean design with warm, wooden beams and solid, white-oak flooring. This home is designed to be lived in. Wherever you go, downstairs, upstairs or out on the porch, this home wraps around you and is a delightful place to enjoy.

The Home While looking for space where their active family could expand, these homeowners turned to Black Forest, with trees that remind them of their Indiana years. A stunning Pikes Peak view underscores how fortunate they are to live in Colorado. This home features classic nods to the owner’s French heritage while embracing a thoroughly of-the-moment Colorado lifestyle. Priorities for these homeowners included blending outdoor and indoor spaces wherever possible with generously proportioned windows and doors, porches, patios and balconies. A gracious lime-washed brick entry punctuates a simplified white stucco and black-frame-windowed exterior with traditional rooflines. Dramatic open spaces on the main floor comfortably accommodate the everyday activities of this busy family of four, while providing for welcomed visits from family and friends. A functional, open kitchen is designed for serious cooking, a butler’s pantry for staples, and serveware storage and dining spaces that effortlessly host after-school snacking to multi-course meals. A main-level, Peak-view office comfortably supports working at home, complete with a beer cave and tasting nook for hosting fellow aficionados after work is done. Guests will find comfort and privacy in a ma in-level guestroom suite or sleepover fun in the built-in bunks of the expansive over-garage bonus room. This home is a true collaboration that blends the homeowner’s long-held vision of their ideal home brought to life by the builder’s vision and design/build process that achieves something truly…Warm and welcoming in the Forest. The Builder Stauffer & Sons Construction is a true Design-Build team creating some of the finest living spaces in the Pikes Peak region for over twenty years. We’ve developed an easy point-of-entry to the Design-Build process that begins with our very popular Conceptual Design and Budgeting Agreement. This affordable, low-commitment step provides answers to the early-stage questions of “what and how much?” With this critical information in place, a robust collaboration between client and builder ensues, resulting in a thoughtfully designed home that strikes a balance between size and scope and budget. The Interior Design Family, friends and soon-to-be friends are welcomed into this updated version of a French country farmhouse through a bricked archway and a solid arch-top entry door. Once inside, a sweeping gallery of windows adorned with flower-filled window boxes sets a nice foreground to the ponderosa pine forest. A great room with a two-story, lime-washed, brick fireplace sits juxtaposed to a cozy farm-styled kitchen with large island, plenty of storage and a Pikes Peak view. This family home features a simple, clean design with warm, wooden beams and solid, white-oak flooring. This home is designed to be lived in. Wherever you go, downstairs, upstairs or out on the porch, this home wraps around you and is a delightful place to enjoy.

This home sat on the market without any interest prior to staging. After staging the home went under agreement immediately.
Drop-in bathtub - large traditional master multicolored tile and ceramic tile ceramic tile drop-in bathtub idea in Boston with a drop-in sink, raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, granite countertops, a one-piece toilet and gray walls

This is a 50'' Orton Style Rumford Fireplace at my home in Oxford,CT. A Rumford Firplace is made with either a straight rear wall or a slanted one. The slanted ones are the better heaters and I just proved "the more efficient" as they do not have a bigger throat area than the straight variety. The book "The Forgotten Art of Building a Good Fireplace" written bu Vrest Orton in the late 60's descibes the slanted variety well and that is where they picked up the name. He did not invent them rather he wrote of what he witnessed as being nice enjoyable good heating Rumfords . It uses my self made damper and burns all winter long with the damper blade at only a 1-3/4'''' gap opening. This represents a throat area to fireplace opening area of 1 to 30 a achievement that recently left the top authority on Rumford Fireplaces in awe and disbelief as his straight backed Rumfords only get to a 1:20 ratio. Although he remained skeptical and wanting more explicit videos and refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement, he wanted to know if I could do the same with his chosen styled Rumfords. With a large or small fire the damper stays fixed. Weather is a non issue, even foggy drizzly nights do not effect this fireplace. There are videos at FCasini on You Tube showing the 50'' burning along with my basement 36'' Orton which I did experimenting last winter . The basement [never used before] has no face, so I affixed a steel panel on it to see if it could burn at the same ratio as my 50'' which uses my self made 30 year old damper. Iinstead it has a custom vestal damper which I cut the front off as I occasionally do when the budget is limited. It burned good at a 1 to 26 ratio which is way above the 1/17 that Straight Back Rumfords normally do although their very best is 1/20 ..both of which depend on the use of the highly suggested Tee Pee Fire which will assist any fireplace in smoke evacuation due to solely emitting the smoke form the high end of the standing logs! Both of my fireplaces certainly can use this style fire but I enjoy the horizontal log cabin style because of the easy loading and longer lasting fire per load. This winter I am going to affix a glass panel to get a good look at the throat and inner breast chamber while the fireplace is burning. This will be done in my third [ also un faced like the basement] Rumford. This one uses an outside chimney that is about 18' tall, much shorter than the other two and not as warm an environment being the other two are interior chimneys. I am anxious to see if it will compete with a lesser draft ? I have been searching the patent data base and to date there is nothing close to even resemble the way I get these slanted fireplaces to pass the smoke through such a ridiculously thin throat which I call "The Gates Of Hell". The prototype is complete and installed into this fireplace which is in it's second year of performance testing and doing better than I expected, in fact before installing it last week I cleaned the throat and chimney and damper blade which hasn't been done in 6 years. This did help the performance a lot as the passage is so thin any build up greatly slows it down from the added viscosity ie flow drag. For those that don't understand the benefit of a 1:30 ratio it is half the loss of heated air up the chimney and results in a 50% increase in heat efficiency. This equals a 100% enjoyment factor for anyone whom takes fireplace burning seriously like have done and do for the past 30 years! The house doesn't get sucked cold!

Here is an example of how you can showcase vacant homes without adding a lot of furniture and accessories. We added a few pieces to highlight the focal point and character of the room. Design tip – To frame the French doors on the left, we purchased inexpensive curtains at Walmart and hug them using upholstery tacks. It looked so good the buyer wrote them into the purchase agreement.

This project is truly one of those designed by setbacks. The owners fell in love with the setting, sitting on a bank above the river, but a sewer easement through the center of the property, parallel to the road, cut the building envelope in half. Our goal was a 1,400 sq ft home with outside space on the river side of the home. We started with an attached garage concept, which is very desirable in our snowy climate, but it was forcing a compromise with no patio on the back of the house. We negotiated an agreement with the city staff to allow us to build a breezeway over the 25’ sewer easement. The breezeway was designed and constructed to be removable by forklift in 3 pieces, if it ever becomes necessary to work on the sewer line, buried about 20’ below grade. The owners had varying taste in the style of home they wanted, one on the more traditional end and one on a more contemporary bent. They also wanted low maintenance materials. The result is a simple gable form with over-sized knee braces and gable end vents for function as well as character. The home is finished with cedar shingle siding with a horizontal corrugated metal wainscot below. We opened the back of the house up with windows and sliding doors, giving great views into the trees and down to the river below. The greatest feature is the back patio perched on the bank with the sound of the river rising up from below.

The Home While looking for space where their active family could expand, these homeowners turned to Black Forest, with trees that remind them of their Indiana years. A stunning Pikes Peak view underscores how fortunate they are to live in Colorado. This home features classic nods to the owner’s French heritage while embracing a thoroughly of-the-moment Colorado lifestyle. Priorities for these homeowners included blending outdoor and indoor spaces wherever possible with generously proportioned windows and doors, porches, patios and balconies. A gracious lime-washed brick entry punctuates a simplified white stucco and black-frame-windowed exterior with traditional rooflines. Dramatic open spaces on the main floor comfortably accommodate the everyday activities of this busy family of four, while providing for welcomed visits from family and friends. A functional, open kitchen is designed for serious cooking, a butler’s pantry for staples, and serveware storage and dining spaces that effortlessly host after-school snacking to multi-course meals. A main-level, Peak-view office comfortably supports working at home, complete with a beer cave and tasting nook for hosting fellow aficionados after work is done. Guests will find comfort and privacy in a ma in-level guestroom suite or sleepover fun in the built-in bunks of the expansive over-garage bonus room. This home is a true collaboration that blends the homeowner’s long-held vision of their ideal home brought to life by the builder’s vision and design/build process that achieves something truly…Warm and welcoming in the Forest. The Builder Stauffer & Sons Construction is a true Design-Build team creating some of the finest living spaces in the Pikes Peak region for over twenty years. We’ve developed an easy point-of-entry to the Design-Build process that begins with our very popular Conceptual Design and Budgeting Agreement. This affordable, low-commitment step provides answers to the early-stage questions of “what and how much?” With this critical information in place, a robust collaboration between client and builder ensues, resulting in a thoughtfully designed home that strikes a balance between size and scope and budget. The Interior Design Family, friends and soon-to-be friends are welcomed into this updated version of a French country farmhouse through a bricked archway and a solid arch-top entry door. Once inside, a sweeping gallery of windows adorned with flower-filled window boxes sets a nice foreground to the ponderosa pine forest. A great room with a two-story, lime-washed, brick fireplace sits juxtaposed to a cozy farm-styled kitchen with large island, plenty of storage and a Pikes Peak view. This family home features a simple, clean design with warm, wooden beams and solid, white-oak flooring. This home is designed to be lived in. Wherever you go, downstairs, upstairs or out on the porch, this home wraps around you and is a delightful place to enjoy.

At this Saratoga, Calif., home of an NFL star, there is no such thing as simple. The quarterback had visions of a pool deck connected to an outdoor kitchen that featured a fireplace, barbecue and trash compactor. Tom Ralston of Tom Ralston Concrete, in Santa Cruz, Calif., was chosen as the man for the job. "He wanted the pool to have somewhat of an organic feel," Ralston says. "But at the same time, he wanted to have more of a conventional look." The customer's wishes were met by Ralstons team painting the kitchen components white. The pool deck was also tied in to the look. . "The concrete is acid-stained, and what that does is play off his conventional-looking barbecue and pizza oven with organics," Ralston says. "I always view acid stain as an organic because it comes from the iron oxides that are in the Earth. The way the iron oxides play out, they have this variation that is hard to reproduce with any other medium." 25% To create the color on the pool deck, Ralston blended L.M. Scofield Co.'s Padre Brown and Faded Terracotta acid stains. Three Rivers Flagstone was employed to create a band around the pool. Although Ralston and his project foremen did a large amount of work, no one person can take credit for the design. "It's really a result of many minds," he says. Preconstruction meetings were held with Ralston and his crew, an architect, a landscape architect, a pool contractor and the homeowner. Ralston suggested what hardscape mediums to use and provided samples for the group. "It was like a Mr. Potato Head," Ralston says. "We pieced things together and mixed and matched until we came to agreement with all parties." picture In order to keep all of the deck's elements cohesive, the same tile was used in a spa, around the pizza oven and barbecue, and in the pool coping. "It ties itself together that way," Ralston says. "It's really nice to have juxtaposition in our hardscapes." Because there were so many elements to the kitchen, there were a lot of different types of workers in the area. "It was a challenge to keep everything coordinated between the electrician, pool contractor, landscaper, architect, and the homeowner's desire to have t is built in three months," Ralston says. The project ended up taking around five months to complete. Thankfully for Ralston, he had three foremen on the site - a masonry foreman, concrete foreman, and staining and sealing foreman. "All of those guys have years and years of experience with me," he says. "A key to success is to have people in the field who really know at they were doing."

Trendy home design photo in London

Inspiration for a contemporary home design remodel in London

Bursting with craft to enhance true Muskoka living, the vision for this Lake Muskoka custom build was to bring family to the forefront of every day living. Classic, timeless, modern and clean, with a touch of rustic elements throughout. Our client envisioned a streamlined, elegant home that maximized the impact of the glorious views and showcased their love of natural materials. ABOVE & BEYOND provided full planning and design services and executed a re-zoning and site plan agreement for the property in order to accomplish the client’s vision for their cottage. This open-concept space framed with floor-to-celing windows, is defined by a custom stone fireplace, complete with reclaimed barn beam for the feature mantle. A cool, fresh palette and simple lines bring focus to the fine details and rustic finishes that distinguish this exceptional home. Standout features include custom cabinetry and built-ins, a massive island draped with white granite, and brushed steel hardware. Bursting with craft and fine woodwork, including a graceful, fine-lined staircase, maximize the light that makes this family home so magnificent.

Bursting with craft to enhance true Muskoka living, the vision for this Lake Muskoka custom build was to bring family to the forefront of every day living. Classic, timeless, modern and clean, with a touch of rustic elements throughout. Our client envisioned a streamlined, elegant home that maximized the impact of the glorious views and showcased their love of natural materials. ABOVE & BEYOND provided full planning and design services and executed a re-zoning and site plan agreement for the property in order to accomplish the client’s vision for their cottage. This open-concept space framed with floor-to-celing windows, is defined by a custom stone fireplace, complete with reclaimed barn beam for the feature mantle. A cool, fresh palette and simple lines bring focus to the fine details and rustic finishes that distinguish this exceptional home. Standout features include custom cabinetry and built-ins, a massive island draped with white granite, and brushed steel hardware. Bursting with craft and fine woodwork, including a graceful, fine-lined staircase, maximize the light that makes this family home so magnificent.