Low maintenance shade gardening
Inspiration for a mid-sized eclectic shade backyard gravel formal garden in Seattle for spring.

This quaint home, located in Plano’s prestigious Willow Bend Polo Club, underwent some super fun updates during our renovation and refurnishing project! The clients’ love for bright colors, mid-century modern elements, and bold looks led us to designing a black and white bathroom with black paned glass, colorful hues in the game room and bedrooms, and a sleek new “work from home” space for working in style. The clients love using their new spaces and have decided to let us continue designing these looks throughout additional areas in the home!

The homeowner wanted to have her backyard professionally designed addressing a persisting drainage issue that compromised the pool maintenance. The design addressed the drainage issue by installing an underground system with PVC piping and catch basins to deviate water to the street. The homeowner's main desire was to create a walking area behind the pool with space for quiet reading and a new landscape to provide privacy and enjoyment. Sphere boxwoods are the protagonists of the scene over limestone gravel along with agapanthuses; both adapted to partial shade from the many pine trees located along with the property. The main accomplishment was to provide a lush landscape in a previously problematic area with no drainage and shade. The flow of the walking area continues with liriope and mondo grass leading to a peaceful reading area surrounded by beautiful boulders and muhly grass.

Step into luxury with this stunning walk-in master bathroom shower. The walls are adorned with large ceramic tiles, creating a modern and sleek look. A decorative hexagon tile accent adds a touch of elegance to the space, while the herringbone floor tile adds a unique, spa-like feel. The shower features a spacious and open design, with ample room to move around. The large ceramic tiles continue into the shower area, with a sleek glass enclosure completing the look.

This home was completely remodelled with high end stainless steel appliances, custom millwork cabinets, new hardwood flooring throughout, and new fixtures. The updated home is now a bright, inviting space to entertain and create new memories in. The renovation continued into the living, dining, and entry areas as well as the upstairs bedrooms and master bathroom. A large barn door was installed in the upstairs master bedroom to conceal the walk in closet.

The first goal for this client in Chatham was to give them a front walk and entrance that was beautiful and grande. We decided to use natural blue bluestone tiles of random sizes. We integrated a custom cut 6" x 9" bluestone border and ran it continuous throughout. Our second goal was to give them walking access from their driveway to their front door. Because their driveway was considerably lower than the front of their home, we needed to cut in a set of steps through their driveway retaining wall, include a number of turns and bridge the walkways with multiple landings. While doing this, we wanted to keep continuity within the building products of choice. We used real stone veneer to side all walls and stair risers to match what was already on the house. We used 2" thick bluestone caps for all stair treads and retaining wall caps. We installed the matching real stone veneer to the face and sides of the retaining wall. All of the bluestone caps were custom cut to seamlessly round all turns. We are very proud of this finished product. We are also very proud to have had the opportunity to work for this family. What amazing people. #GreatWorkForGreatPeople As a side note regarding this phase - throughout the construction, numerous local builders stopped at our job to take pictures of our work. #UltimateCompliment #PrimeIsInTheLead

This home was completely remodelled with high end stainless steel appliances, custom millwork cabinets, new hardwood flooring throughout, and new fixtures. The updated home is now a bright, inviting space to entertain and create new memories in. The renovation continued into the living, dining, and entry areas as well as the upstairs bedrooms and master bathroom. A large barn door was installed in the upstairs master bedroom to conceal the walk in closet.

ZeroEnergy Design (ZED) created this modern home for a progressive family in the desirable community of Lexington. Thoughtful Land Connection. The residence is carefully sited on the infill lot so as to create privacy from the road and neighbors, while cultivating a side yard that captures the southern sun. The terraced grade rises to meet the house, allowing for it to maintain a structured connection with the ground while also sitting above the high water table. The elevated outdoor living space maintains a strong connection with the indoor living space, while the stepped edge ties it back to the true ground plane. Siting and outdoor connections were completed by ZED in collaboration with landscape designer Soren Deniord Design Studio. Exterior Finishes and Solar. The exterior finish materials include a palette of shiplapped wood siding, through-colored fiber cement panels and stucco. A rooftop parapet hides the solar panels above, while a gutter and site drainage system directs rainwater into an irrigation cistern and dry wells that recharge the groundwater. Cooking, Dining, Living. Inside, the kitchen, fabricated by Henrybuilt, is located between the indoor and outdoor dining areas. The expansive south-facing sliding door opens to seamlessly connect the spaces, using a retractable awning to provide shade during the summer while still admitting the warming winter sun. The indoor living space continues from the dining areas across to the sunken living area, with a view that returns again to the outside through the corner wall of glass. Accessible Guest Suite. The design of the first level guest suite provides for both aging in place and guests who regularly visit for extended stays. The patio off the north side of the house affords guests their own private outdoor space, and privacy from the neighbor. Similarly, the second level master suite opens to an outdoor private roof deck. Light and Access. The wide open interior stair with a glass panel rail leads from the top level down to the well insulated basement. The design of the basement, used as an away/play space, addresses the need for both natural light and easy access. In addition to the open stairwell, light is admitted to the north side of the area with a high performance, Passive House (PHI) certified skylight, covering a six by sixteen foot area. On the south side, a unique roof hatch set flush with the deck opens to reveal a glass door at the base of the stairwell which provides additional light and access from the deck above down to the play space. Energy. Energy consumption is reduced by the high performance building envelope, high efficiency mechanical systems, and then offset with renewable energy. All windows and doors are made of high performance triple paned glass with thermally broken aluminum frames. The exterior wall assembly employs dense pack cellulose in the stud cavity, a continuous air barrier, and four inches exterior rigid foam insulation. The 10kW rooftop solar electric system provides clean energy production. The final air leakage testing yielded 0.6 ACH 50 - an extremely air tight house, a testament to the well-designed details, progress testing and quality construction. When compared to a new house built to code requirements, this home consumes only 19% of the energy. Architecture & Energy Consulting: ZeroEnergy Design Landscape Design: Soren Deniord Design Paintings: Bernd Haussmann Studio Photos: Eric Roth Photography

A modern twist on tradition! The Beacon Hill sofa has the cozy yet classic look of an iconic slipcover sofa. It’s an alluring design with a deep kick pleat skirt, soft rolled arms and accent pillows that create a vibe that’s in sync with a relaxed lifestyle.

With over 60 years of excellence in manufacturing and design, Presotto Italia continues to reinvent the relationships between form and function by interpreting the evolving consumer lifestyles, tastes and trends. Today, Presotto is one of Italy’s leading manufacturers of top notch, ultra-modern bedrooms and extraordinary, exclusively-designed living room solutions. Best known for its one-of-a-kind Aqua Bed and Zero Round Bed, Presotto Italia is also the source for innovation and edgy product design which includes countless wall unit collections, wardrobes, walk-in closets, dining rooms and bedrooms.

This home was completely remodelled with high end stainless steel appliances, custom millwork cabinets, new hardwood flooring throughout, and new fixtures. The updated home is now a bright, inviting space to entertain and create new memories in. The renovation continued into the living, dining, and entry areas as well as the upstairs bedrooms and master bathroom. A large barn door was installed in the upstairs master bedroom to conceal the walk in closet.

Remodeling the master bath provided many design challenges. The long and narrow space was visually expanded by removing an impeding large linen closet from the space. The additional space allowed for two sinks where there was previously only one. In addition, the long and narrow window in the bath provided amazing natural light, but made it difficult to incorporate vanity mirrors that were tall enough. The designer solved this issue by incorporating pivoting mirrors that mounted just below the long window. Finally, a custom walnut vanity was designed to utilize every inch of space. The vanity front steps in and out on the ends to make access by the toilet area more functional and spacious. A large shower with a built in quartz shower seat and hand held shower wand provide touch of luxury. Finally, the ceramic floor tile design provides a mid century punch without overpowering the tranquil space.

A&E Construction. This Pennington NJ remodel of a master bath en-suite features marble basketweave tile detailing and a generous walk-in shower area. One memorable aspect of this design is the continuous marble slab that simultaneously serves as a tub deck and continues into the shower area to serve as a bench seat. Scroll through the project photos to observe this unique project.

We converted the never-used bathtub to a larger, walk-in shower. The sunny yellow subway tile is a bright welcome to the four pre-teens/teens that use this bathroom each day. Even the decor is encouraging with framed inspiration statements. Oil rubbed bronze plumbing fixtures create an industrial vibe in the cheery space. Double barn lights above the vanity provide task lighting for the morning routines and continue the industrial theme. photo by Myndi Pressly

Inside the walk-in shower, dark marble slabs run continuously from the walls to the ceiling with no visible tile joints. A ceiling-mounted rainfall head with purple LED chromotherapy lighting sits overhead while a wall-mounted hand shower and digital thermostatic controls are set into the stone. A full-width stone bench and a recessed product niche with LED backlighting are built into the back wall.

This home was completely remodelled with high end stainless steel appliances, custom millwork cabinets, new hardwood flooring throughout, and new fixtures. The updated home is now a bright, inviting space to entertain and create new memories in. The renovation continued into the living, dining, and entry areas as well as the upstairs bedrooms and master bathroom. A large barn door was installed in the upstairs master bedroom to conceal the walk in closet.

This room is in the basement but walks out into the beautiful terrace and pool level. We wanted to give this room the typical men's club feel. We choose the velt on the pooltable in a navy blue and continued with that accent color throughout the room. What an awesome entertainment room!

This elevated garden was seriously overgrown and the clients wanted something they could more easily maintain. We excavated the whole space, installed updated irrigation, and re-designed it with walking path, patio and new planting. Pearly white flagstone provides a perfect strolling path through the garden and around the house. Granite accent boulders and beach wood give it a simplified West-coast feel. Purple is the favourite colour of this client. Lavenders, Russian sage, iris, and wallflowers continuously provide purple throughout the seasons. The movement of the grasses provide another layer of sensation. These graceful grasses, highlighted by the morning sun, are intentionally situated based on the sun orientation of this garden.

This home was completely remodelled with high end stainless steel appliances, custom millwork cabinets, new hardwood flooring throughout, and new fixtures. The updated home is now a bright, inviting space to entertain and create new memories in. The renovation continued into the living, dining, and entry areas as well as the upstairs bedrooms and master bathroom. A large barn door was installed in the upstairs master bedroom to conceal the walk in closet.