Dining Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Dining Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Living Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Kitchen in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

This LEED Platinum certified house reflects the homeowner's desire for an exceptionally healthy and comfortable living environment, within a traditional neighborhood. INFILL SITE. The family, who moved from another area of Wellesley, sought out this property to be within walking distance of the high school and downtown area. An existing structure on the tight lot was removed to make way for the new home. 84% of the construction waste, from both the previous structure and the new home, was diverted from a landfill. ZED designed to preserve the existing mature trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize site impacts, and to maintain the character of the neighborhood as well as privacy on the site. EXTERIOR EXPRESSION. The street facade of the home relates to the local New England vernacular. The rear uses contemporary language, a nod to the family’s Californian roots, to incorporate a roof deck, solar panels, outdoor living space, and the backyard swimming pool. ZED’s careful planning avoided to the need to face the garage doors towards the street, a common syndrome of a narrow lot. THOUGHTFUL SPACE. Homes with dual entries can often result in duplicate and unused spaces. In this home, the everyday and formal entry areas are one and the same; the front and garage doors share the entry program of coat closets, mudroom storage with bench for removing your shoes, and a laundry room with generous closets for the children's sporting equipment. The entry area leads directly to the living space, encompassing the kitchen, dining and sitting area areas in an L-shaped open plan arrangement. The kitchen is placed at the south-west corner of the space to allow for a strong connection to the dining, sitting and outdoor living spaces. A fire pit on the deck satisfies the family’s desire for an open flame while a sealed gas fireplace is used indoors - ZED’s preference after omitting gas burning appliances completely from an airtight home. A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space. A first floor guest bedroom includes an accessible bathroom for aging visitors and can be used as a master suite to accommodate aging in place. HEALTHY LIVING. The client requested a home that was easy to clean and would provide a respite from seasonal allergies and common contaminants that are found in many indoor spaces. ZED selected easy to clean solid surface flooring throughout, provided ample space for cleaning supplies on each floor, and designed a mechanical system with ventilation that provides a constant supply of fresh outdoor air. ZED selected durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no added urea formaldehyde. YEAR-ROUND COMFORT. The home is super insulated and air-tight, paired with high performance triple-paned windows, to ensure it is draft-free throughout the winter (even when in front of the large windows and doors). ZED designed a right-sized heating and cooling system to pair with the thermally improved building enclosure to ensure year-round comfort. The glazing on the home maximizes passive solar gains, and facilitates cross ventilation and daylighting. ENERGY EFFICIENT. As one of the most energy efficient houses built to date in Wellesley, the home highlights a practical solution for Massachusetts. First, the building enclosure reduces the largest energy requirement for typical houses (heating). Super-insulation, exceptional air sealing, a thermally broken wall assembly, triple pane windows, and passive solar gain combine for a sizable heating load reduction. Second, within the house only efficient systems consume energy. These include an air source heat pump for heating & cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and high efficiency appliances. Lastly, photovoltaics provide renewable energy help offset energy consumption. The result is an 89% reduction in energy use compared to a similar brand new home built to code requirements. RESILIENT. The home will fare well in extreme weather events. During a winter power outage, heat loss will be very slow due to the super-insulated and airtight envelope– taking multiple days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. An engineered drainage system, paired with careful the detailing of the foundation, will help to keep the finished basement dry. A generator will provide full operation of the all-electric house during a power outage. OVERALL. The home is a reflection of the family goals and an expression of their values, beautifully enabling health, comfort, safety, resilience, and utility, all while respecting the planet. ZED - Architect & Mechanical Designer Bevilacqua Builders Inc - Contractor Creative Land & Water Engineering - Civil Engineering Barbara Peterson Landscape - Landscape Design Nest & Company - Interior Furnishings Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Living Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Entry in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Living Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

The drop zone hallway was thoughtfully designed to bring both beauty and organization to one of the hardest-working areas of the home. Custom built-ins provide dedicated storage for everyday essentials, while integrated millwork and tailored cabinetry create a polished, furniture-like appearance. Carefully selected finishes, decorative hardware, and architectural details elevate the space beyond a typical mudroom, allowing it to seamlessly connect with the home's overall design. The result is a functional yet sophisticated transition space that keeps daily life organized while maintaining the elegant character carried throughout the home.

Dining Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Entry in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Dining Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Dining Room in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

Kitchen in Hodges Street | Room Type: Whole Home Interior Design | Project Name: Hodges Street | Key Feature: A builder-grade tract home transformed with personality through a playful mid-century modern design influence. Challenge: The home originally lacked character and felt like a typical builder-grade tract house. The goal was to elevate the space and create a more distinctive interior. Solution: The design introduced bold styling and mid-century modern touches throughout the home, adding personality and visual interest while creating a more elevated and cohesive interior. Timeline: Completed in 2018.

This couple had already purchased the Restoration Hardware table, side board, and 4 chairs when they realized they were stuck at that. Just table and chairs, no color, pizzaz or details. They had already also purchased two round back head chairs in the same fabric. I convinced them that matching head chairs was not the way to go. So even though they wanted their first real "grown up" dining room, fun and uniqueness were the two main points. Because of the size and scale of this large dining room, I also convinced them that two chandeliers were the only way to really make the space stand out. And although they were not into the typical crystal chandelier these elegant crystal beaded lights were the perfect fit. The chairs were a Craigslist find turned custom with fun geometric fabric and soft gray velvet, to match their existing chairs. During the day the metallic paint finish on the ceiling changes colors to reflect the light. The clients existing speaker system was relocated in order to add more character to the room with sconces and custom art work. Jennifer Gilliam Photography

Utility room - contemporary utility room idea in DC Metro with flat-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, wood countertops, a side-by-side washer/dryer and beige walls

This Craftsman kitchen detail in Manchester, MA features warm cherry wood cabinetry paired with a light marble tile backsplash and a stainless steel undermount sink centered beneath the window. The natural wood tones contrast beautifully with the soft stone texture, while simple hardware and clean lines highlight the handcrafted character typical of Craftsman design, creating a functional and timeless kitchen workspace.

The owners of this 1950s colonial on Philadelphia’s Main Line wanted to preserve its traditional architecture and take advantage of the kitchen’s ample footprint. In addition to reworking the floorplan and improving the flow, the owner wanted a large island with several seating options, a desk area and a small table for dining. One of the design goals was to transform the spacious room into a functional kitchen that still felt intimate and comfortable for everyday use. Furniture style inset cabinetry kept the room in tune with the home’s original character and made it feel less utilitarian. Removing the wall that hindered the flow and views between the kitchen and the adjacent family room ensured that the main entertaining areas flowed together. Stylistically, we wanted to avoid the typical white kitchen, opting instead to pull in rich wood tones to create a warmer and more classic look.

THEME Inspired by the Magic Tree House series of children’s books, this indoor tree house provides entertainment, fun and a place for children to read about or imagine adventures through time. A blue sky, green meadows, and distant matching beech trees recreate the magic of Jack and Annie’s Frog Creek, and help bring the characters from the series to life. FOCUS A floor armoire, ceiling swing and climbing rope give the structure a true tree house look and feel. A drop-down drawing and writing table, wheeled work table and recessed ceiling lights ensure the room can be used for more than play. The tree house has electric interior lighting, a window to the outdoors and a playful sliding shutter over a window to the room. The armoire forms a raised, nine-foot-wide play area, while a TV within one of the wall’s floor-to-ceiling cabinets — with a delightful sliding ladder — transforms the room into a family theater perfect for watching movies and holding Wii competitions. STORAGE The bottom of the drawing table is a magnetic chalk board that doubles as a display for children’s art works. The tree’s small niches are for parents’ shoes; the larger compartment stores children’s shoes and school bags. Books, games, toys, DVDs, Wii and other computer accessories are stored in the wall cabinets. The armoire contains two spacious drawers and four nifty hinged storage bins. A rack of handy “vegetable buckets” above the armoire stores crayons, scissors and other useful items. GROWTH The room easily adapts from playroom, to party room, to study room and even to bedroom, as the tree house easily accommodates a twin-size mattress. SAFETY The rungs and rails of the ladder, as well as the grab bars beside the tree house door are wrapped with easy-grip rope for safe climbing. The drawing table has spring-loaded hinges to help prevent it from dropping dangerously from the wall, and the table door has double sets of locks up top to ensure safety. The interior of each storage compartment is carpeted like the tree house floor to provide extra padding.