This beautiful 1881 Alameda Victorian cottage, wonderfully embodying the Transitional Gothic-Eastlake era, had most of its original features intact. Our clients, one of whom is a painter, wanted to preserve the beauty of the historic home while modernizing its flow and function. From several small rooms, we created a bright, open artist’s studio. We dug out the basement for a large workshop, extending a new run of stair in keeping with the existing original staircase. While keeping the bones of the house intact, we combined small spaces into large rooms, closed off doorways that were in awkward places, removed unused chimneys, changed the circulation through the house for ease and good sightlines, and made new high doorways that work gracefully with the eleven foot high ceilings. We removed inconsistent picture railings to give wall space for the clients’ art collection and to enhance the height of the rooms. From a poorly laid out kitchen and adjunct utility rooms, we made a large kitchen and family room with nine-foot-high glass doors to a new large deck. A tall wood screen at one end of the deck, fire pit, and seating give the sense of an outdoor room, overlooking the owners’ intensively planted garden. A previous mismatched addition at the side of the house was removed and a cozy outdoor living space made where morning light is received. The original house was segmented into small spaces; the new open design lends itself to the clients’ lifestyle of entertaining groups of people, working from home, and enjoying indoor-outdoor living. Photography by Kurt Manley. https://saikleyarchitects.com/portfolio/artists-victorian/

This Portland 1929 Tudor mix home was in need of a few luxury additions. Designed by architect Stuart Emmons of Emmons Architects and built by Hammer & Hand, additions to the home included a green roof, two-person shower, soaking tub, and a two-story addition with a new living room and art studio. Photo by Mitchell Snyder.

Example of a farmhouse pool design in DC Metro

Guest Bedroom
Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional guest carpeted and beige floor bedroom remodel in Baltimore with gray walls

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Open pickets become the structural stair support.
Staircase - mid-sized 1950s wooden u-shaped open, wood railing and wood wall staircase idea in Seattle

Dane Tashima Photography
Home design - small eclectic home design idea in New York

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft. Photography: Rikki Snyder

Inspiration for a craftsman gray three-story mixed siding gable roof remodel in Seattle

Ryan Gamma Photography
Example of a mid-sized trendy wooden u-shaped open and glass railing staircase design in Tampa

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft. Photography: Rikki Snyder

Huge elegant enclosed carpeted home theater photo in Other with a projector screen

One of our happiest projects to date, the Rainbow Tile Bathroom! The homeowner designed this rainbow tile bathroom using Fireclay Tile to update the main bathroom in their vintage Portland home. As we took the bathroom down to its bare bones, it was cool to see just how many hands had worked in that space over the past 110 years. I'm proud to give this space new life that still honors the original character of the home.

Beach style living room photo in Orange County

Elegant bathroom photo in Other

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft. Photography: Rikki Snyder

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft.

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft. Photography: Rikki Snyder

In the backyard of a home dating to 1910 in the Hudson Valley, a modest 250 square-foot outbuilding, at one time used as a bootleg moonshine distillery, and more recently as a bare bones man-cave, was given new life as a sumptuous home office replete with not only its own WiFi, but also abundant southern light brought in by new windows, bespoke furnishings, a double-height workstation, and a utilitarian loft. The original barn door slides open to reveal a new set of sliding glass doors opening into the space. Dark hardwood floors are a foil to crisp white defining the walls and ceiling in the lower office, and soft shell pink in the double-height volume punctuated by charcoal gray barn stairs and iron pipe railings up to a dollhouse-like loft space overhead. The desktops -- clad on the top surface only with durable, no-nonsense, mushroom-colored laminate -- leave birch maple edges confidently exposed atop punchy red painted bases perforated with circles for visual and functional relief. Overhead a wrought iron lantern alludes to a birdcage, highlighting the feeling of being among the treetops when up in the loft. Photography: Rikki Snyder