Rustic Farmhouse: Garvin-Weeks Farmstead The Garvin-Weeks Farmstead in beautiful North Reading, built c1790, has enjoyed a first floor makeover complete with a new kitchen, family room and master suite. Particular attention was given to preserve the historic details of the house while modernizing and opening up the space for today’s lifestyle. The open concept farmhouse style kitchen is striking with its antique beams and rafters, handmade and hand planed cabinets, distressed floors, custom handmade soapstone farmer’s sink, marble counter tops, kitchen island comprised of reclaimed wood with a milk paint finish, all setting the stage for the elaborate custom painted tile work. Skylights above bathe the space in natural light. Walking through the warm family room gives one the sense of history and days gone by, culminating in a quintessential looking, but fabulously updated new England master bedroom and bath. A spectacular addition that feels and looks like it has always been there! Photos by Eric Roth

Two islands made of teak and granite, with accompanying alder cabinets, concrete floor, cedar ceiling, and floor to ceiling windows comprise this kitchen.

A fresh take on traditional style, this sprawling suburban home draws its occupants together in beautifully, comfortably designed spaces that gather family members for companionship, conversation, and conviviality. At the same time, it adroitly accommodates a crowd, and facilitates large-scale entertaining with ease. This balance of private intimacy and public welcome is the result of Soucie Horner’s deft remodeling of the original floor plan and creation of an all-new wing comprising functional spaces including a mudroom, powder room, laundry room, and home office, along with an exciting, three-room teen suite above. A quietly orchestrated symphony of grayed blues unites this home, from Soucie Horner Collections custom furniture and rugs, to objects, accessories, and decorative exclamationpoints that punctuate the carefully synthesized interiors. A discerning demonstration of family-friendly living at its finest.

Our client has a large collection of bonsai trees and wanted an exhibition space for the extensive collection and a workshop to tend to the growing plants. Together we came up with a plan for a beautiful garden with plenty of space and a water feature. The design also included a Japanese-influenced pavilion in the middle of the garden. The pavilion is comprised of three separate rooms. The first room is features a tokonoma, a small recessed space to display art. The second, and largest room, provides an open area for display. The room can be accessed by large glass folding doors and has plenty of natural light filtering through the skylights above. The third room is a workspace with tool storage. Photography by Todd Crawford

The theater scope included both a projection system and a multi-TV video wall. The projection system is an Epson 1080p projector on a Stewart Cima motorized screen. To achieve the homeowner’s requirement to switch between one large video program and five smaller displays for sports viewing. The smaller displays are comprised of a 75” Samsung 4K smart TV flanked by two 50” Samsung 4K displays on each side for a total of 5 possible independent video programs. These smart TVs and the projection system video are managed through a Control4 touchscreen and video routing is achieved through an Atlona 4K HDMI switching system. Unlike the client’s 7.1 theater at his primary residence, the hunting lodge theater was to be a Dolby Atmos 7.1.2 system. The speaker system was to be a Bowers & Wilkins CT7 system for the main speakers and use CI600 series for surround and Atmos speakers. CT7 15” subwoofers with matched amplifier were selected to bring a level of bass response to the room that the client had not experienced in his primary residence. The CT speaker system and subwoofers were concealed with a false front wall and concealed behind acoustically transparent cloth. Some degree of wall treatment was required but the budget would not allow for a typical snap-track track installation or acoustical analysis. A one-inch absorption panel system was designed for the room and custom trim and room design allowed for stock size panels to be used with minimum custom cuts, allowing for a room to get some treatment in a budget that would normally afford none. Both the equipment rack and the projector are concealed in a storage room at the back of the theater. The projector is installed into a custom enclosure with a CAV designed and built port-glass window into the theater.

The Lucius 140 Room Divider by Element4. This large peninsula-style fireplace brings architectural intrigue to a modern prefab home designed by Method Homes.

Sited on 35- acres, this rustic cabin was laid out to accommodate the client’s wish for a simple home comprised of 3 connected building forms. The primary form, which includes the entertainment, kitchen, and dining room areas, is built from beetle kill pine harvested on site. The other two forms are sited to take full advantage of spectacular views while providing separation of living and garage spaces. LEED Silver certified.

A fresh take on traditional style, this sprawling suburban home draws its occupants together in beautifully, comfortably designed spaces that gather family members for companionship, conversation, and conviviality. At the same time, it adroitly accommodates a crowd, and facilitates large-scale entertaining with ease. This balance of private intimacy and public welcome is the result of Soucie Horner’s deft remodeling of the original floor plan and creation of an all-new wing comprising functional spaces including a mudroom, powder room, laundry room, and home office, along with an exciting, three-room teen suite above. A quietly orchestrated symphony of grayed blues unites this home, from Soucie Horner Collections custom furniture and rugs, to objects, accessories, and decorative exclamationpoints that punctuate the carefully synthesized interiors. A discerning demonstration of family-friendly living at its finest.

Della Terra is a natural quartz surface, it is a blend of nature and technology, combining beauty and functionality in a high performance surface. Della Terra is comprised of more than 93% natural quartz crystals, one of the hardest minerals in nature. Color controlled quartz is blended together with technologically advanced polymers. Because of its high quartz content, Arizona Tile's Della Terra Quartz surfaces are ultra-durable and resistant to scratches and chipping. Its dense composition also makes Della Terra Quartz highly resistant to staining. Photo: Aperture Architectural Images

Home gym - rustic medium tone wood floor and brown floor home gym idea with white walls

Photo © Bruce Damonte
Living room - eclectic dark wood floor living room idea in San Francisco with white 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

Glass and teak walls with a cedar ceiling comprise this bedroom. Views into home office in the background.
Inspiration for a modern master concrete floor, gray floor, wood ceiling and wood wall bedroom remodel in Seattle with brown walls

Glass and plaster walls with a cedar ceiling comprise this bedroom.
Bedroom - contemporary guest concrete floor bedroom idea in Seattle

This propery is situated on the south side of Centre Island at the edge of an oak and ash woodlands. orignally, it was three properties having one house and various out buildings. topographically, it more or less continually sloped to the water. Our task was to creat a series of terraces that were to house various functions such as the main house and forecourt, cottage, boat house and utility barns. The immediate landscape around the main house was largely masonry terraces and flower gardens. The outer landscape was comprised of heavily planted trails and intimate open spaces for the client to preamble through. As the site was largely an oak and ash woods infested with Norway maple and japanese honey suckle we essentially started with tall trees and open ground. Our planting intent was to introduce a variety of understory tree and a heavy shrub and herbaceous layer with an emphisis on planting native material. As a result the feel of the property is one of graciousness with a challenge to explore.

Beach style wood railing balcony photo in Orange County with a roof extension

This charming European-inspired home juxtaposes old-world architecture with more contemporary details. The exterior is primarily comprised of granite stonework with limestone accents. The stair turret provides circulation throughout all three levels of the home, and custom iron windows afford expansive lake and mountain views. The interior features custom iron windows, plaster walls, reclaimed heart pine timbers, quartersawn oak floors and reclaimed oak millwork.

A bespoke residence, designed to suit its owner in every way. The result of a collaborative vision comprising the collective passion, taste, energy, and experience of our client, the architect, the builder, the utilities contractors, and ourselves, this home was planned to combine the best elements in the best ways, to complement a thoughtful, healthy, and green lifestyle not simply for today, but for years to come. Photo Credit: Jay Graham, Graham Photography

A bespoke residence, designed to suit its owner in every way. The result of a collaborative vision comprising the collective passion, taste, energy, and experience of our client, the architect, the builder, the utilities contractors, and ourselves, this home was planned to combine the best elements in the best ways, to complement a thoughtful, healthy, and green lifestyle not simply for today, but for years to come. Photo Credit: Jay Graham, Graham Photography