This Houston kitchen remodel turned an outdated bachelor pad into a contemporary dream fit for newlyweds. The client wanted a contemporary, somewhat commercial look, but also something homey with a comfy, family feel. And they couldn't go too contemporary, since the style of the home is so traditional. The clean, contemporary, white-black-and-grey color scheme is just the beginning of this transformation from the previous kitchen, The revamped 20-by-15-foot kitchen and adjoining dining area also features new stainless steel appliances by Maytag, lighting and furnishings by Restoration Hardware and countertops in white Carrara marble and Absolute Black honed granite. The paneled oak cabinets are now painted a crisp, bright white and finished off with polished nickel pulls. The center island is now a cool grey a few shades darker than the warm grey on the walls. On top of the grey on the new sheetrock, previously covered in a camel-colored textured paint, is Sherwin Williams' Faux Impressions sparkly "Striae Quartz Stone." Ho-hum 12-inch ceramic floor tiles with a western motif border have been replaced with grey tile "planks" resembling distressed wood. An oak-paneled flush-mount light fixture has given way to recessed lights and barn pendant lamps in oil rubbed bronze from Restoration Hardware. And the section housing clunky upper and lower banks of cabinets between the kitchen an dining area now has a sleek counter-turned-table with custom-milled legs. At first, the client wanted to open up that section altogether, but then realized they needed more counter space. The table - a continuation of the granite countertop - was the perfect solution. Plus, it offered space for extra seating. The black, high-back and low-back bar stools are also from Restoration Hardware - as is the new round chandelier and the dining table over which it hangs. Outdoor Homescapes of Houston also took out a wall between the kitchen and living room and remodeled the adjoining living room as well. A decorative cedar beam stained Minwax Jacobean now spans the ceiling where the wall once stood. The oak paneling and stairway railings in the living room, meanwhile, also got a coat of white paint and new window treatments and light fixtures from Restoration Hardware. Staining the top handrailing with the same Jacobean dark stain, however, boosted the new contemporary look even more. The outdoor living space also got a revamp, with a new patio ceiling also stained Jacobean and new outdoor furniture and outdoor area rug from Restoration Hardware. The furniture is from the Klismos collection, in weathered zinc, with Sunbrella fabric in the color "Smoke."

Winner of the 2018 Tour of Homes Best Remodel, this whole house re-design of a 1963 Bennet & Johnson mid-century raised ranch home is a beautiful example of the magic we can weave through the application of more sustainable modern design principles to existing spaces. We worked closely with our client on extensive updates to create a modernized MCM gem. Extensive alterations include: - a completely redesigned floor plan to promote a more intuitive flow throughout - vaulted the ceilings over the great room to create an amazing entrance and feeling of inspired openness - redesigned entry and driveway to be more inviting and welcoming as well as to experientially set the mid-century modern stage - the removal of a visually disruptive load bearing central wall and chimney system that formerly partitioned the homes’ entry, dining, kitchen and living rooms from each other - added clerestory windows above the new kitchen to accentuate the new vaulted ceiling line and create a greater visual continuation of indoor to outdoor space - drastically increased the access to natural light by increasing window sizes and opening up the floor plan - placed natural wood elements throughout to provide a calming palette and cohesive Pacific Northwest feel - incorporated Universal Design principles to make the home Aging In Place ready with wide hallways and accessible spaces, including single-floor living if needed - moved and completely redesigned the stairway to work for the home’s occupants and be a part of the cohesive design aesthetic - mixed custom tile layouts with more traditional tiling to create fun and playful visual experiences - custom designed and sourced MCM specific elements such as the entry screen, cabinetry and lighting - development of the downstairs for potential future use by an assisted living caretaker - energy efficiency upgrades seamlessly woven in with much improved insulation, ductless mini splits and solar gain

It all started with an unwelcome surprise for these homeowners: stray Lego down the shower drain. Without any other reasonable way to access second-story plumbing, the fiberglass shower had to be removed to make repairs. At that point, the owners figured they might as well take advantage of the opportunity to update their bathroom. A clever (and money saving) design called for replacing the seldom-used spa tub with a new tile shower. By angling the shower just right, the existing window did not need to be abandoned and now continues to provide natural light and a pleasant view. The custom tile shower is luxurious and spacious, complete with a clear glass enclosure, niche, rainfall shower head and handheld wands. We also made doubly sure the new shower drain would block any future Lego intruders!

It all started with an unwelcome surprise for these homeowners: stray Lego down the shower drain. Without any other reasonable way to access second-story plumbing, the fiberglass shower had to be removed to make repairs. At that point, the owners figured they might as well take advantage of the opportunity to update their bathroom. A clever (and money saving) design called for replacing the seldom-used spa tub with a new tile shower. By angling the shower just right, the existing window did not need to be abandoned and now continues to provide natural light and a pleasant view. The custom tile shower is luxurious and spacious, complete with a clear glass enclosure, niche, rainfall shower head and handheld wands. We also made doubly sure the new shower drain would block any future Lego intruders!

This open living space highlights the home’s clean, modern foundation with a focus on simplicity, light, and flexibility. Wide-plank light oak hardwood flooring runs seamlessly throughout, adding warmth and continuity against crisp white walls and minimal architectural detailing. Recessed lighting and an open layout create a bright, adaptable environment ready for furnishing and personalization. The neutral palette allows future design elements to stand out while maintaining a timeless, cohesive aesthetic. Designed as a blank canvas within a luxury custom home, this space emphasizes quality finishes, natural light, and the versatility of open-concept living.

This renovated brick rowhome in Boston’s South End offers a modern aesthetic within a historic structure, creative use of space, exceptional thermal comfort, a reduced carbon footprint, and a passive stream of income. DESIGN PRIORITIES. The goals for the project were clear - design the primary unit to accommodate the family’s modern lifestyle, rework the layout to create a desirable rental unit, improve thermal comfort and introduce a modern aesthetic. We designed the street-level entry as a shared entrance for both the primary and rental unit. The family uses it as their everyday entrance - we planned for bike storage and an open mudroom with bench and shoe storage to facilitate the change from shoes to slippers or bare feet as they enter their home. On the main level, we expanded the kitchen into the dining room to create an eat-in space with generous counter space and storage, as well as a comfortable connection to the living space. The second floor serves as master suite for the couple - a bedroom with a walk-in-closet and ensuite bathroom, and an adjacent study, with refinished original pumpkin pine floors. The upper floor, aside from a guest bedroom, is the child's domain with interconnected spaces for sleeping, work and play. In the play space, which can be separated from the work space with new translucent sliding doors, we incorporated recreational features inspired by adventurous and competitive television shows, at their son’s request. MODERN MEETS TRADITIONAL. We left the historic front facade of the building largely unchanged - the security bars were removed from the windows and the single pane windows were replaced with higher performing historic replicas. We designed the interior and rear facade with a vision of warm modernism, weaving in the notable period features. Each element was either restored or reinterpreted to blend with the modern aesthetic. The detailed ceiling in the living space, for example, has a new matte monochromatic finish, and the wood stairs are covered in a dark grey floor paint, whereas the mahogany doors were simply refinished. New wide plank wood flooring with a neutral finish, floor-to-ceiling casework, and bold splashes of color in wall paint and tile, and oversized high-performance windows (on the rear facade) round out the modern aesthetic. RENTAL INCOME. The existing rowhome was zoned for a 2-family dwelling but included an undesirable, single-floor studio apartment at the garden level with low ceiling heights and questionable emergency egress. In order to increase the quality and quantity of space in the rental unit, we reimagined it as a two-floor, 1 or 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment with a modern aesthetic, increased ceiling height on the lowest level and provided an in-unit washer/dryer. The apartment was listed with Jackie O'Connor Real Estate and rented immediately, providing the owners with a source of passive income. ENCLOSURE WITH BENEFITS. The homeowners sought a minimal carbon footprint, enabled by their urban location and lifestyle decisions, paired with the benefits of a high-performance home. The extent of the renovation allowed us to implement a deep energy retrofit (DER) to address air tightness, insulation, and high-performance windows. The historic front facade is insulated from the interior, while the rear facade is insulated on the exterior. Together with these building enclosure improvements, we designed an HVAC system comprised of continuous fresh air ventilation, and an efficient, all-electric heating and cooling system to decouple the house from natural gas. This strategy provides optimal thermal comfort and indoor air quality, improved acoustic isolation from street noise and neighbors, as well as a further reduced carbon footprint. We also took measures to prepare the roof for future solar panels, for when the South End neighborhood’s aging electrical infrastructure is upgraded to allow them. URBAN LIVING. The desirable neighborhood location allows the both the homeowners and tenant to walk, bike, and use public transportation to access the city, while each charging their respective plug-in electric cars behind the building to travel greater distances. OVERALL. The understated rowhouse is now ready for another century of urban living, offering the owners comfort and convenience as they live life as an expression of their values. Eric Roth Photo

This open living space highlights the home’s clean, modern foundation with a focus on simplicity, light, and flexibility. Wide-plank light oak hardwood flooring runs seamlessly throughout, adding warmth and continuity against crisp white walls and minimal architectural detailing. Recessed lighting and an open layout create a bright, adaptable environment ready for furnishing and personalization. The neutral palette allows future design elements to stand out while maintaining a timeless, cohesive aesthetic. Designed as a blank canvas within a luxury custom home, this space emphasizes quality finishes, natural light, and the versatility of open-concept living.

Mid-sized beach style enclosed family room photo in Austin with gray walls, a standard fireplace, a wood fireplace surround and a wall-mounted tv

A spacious great room designed as a clean, open canvas, highlighting architectural simplicity and warmth. The brick fireplace serves as the central focal point, complete with a substantial hearth and wood mantle that adds natural texture and balance. Expansive windows bring in abundant natural light, enhancing the soft neutral walls and creating an airy, inviting atmosphere. Wide-plank hardwood flooring runs throughout, grounding the space with warmth and continuity. Paired with recessed lighting and a statement ceiling fixture, this great room is thoughtfully designed for both everyday living and future personalization.

A spacious great room designed as a clean, open canvas, highlighting architectural simplicity and warmth. The brick fireplace serves as the central focal point, complete with a substantial hearth and wood mantle that adds natural texture and balance. Expansive windows bring in abundant natural light, enhancing the soft neutral walls and creating an airy, inviting atmosphere. Wide-plank hardwood flooring runs throughout, grounding the space with warmth and continuity. Paired with recessed lighting and a statement ceiling fixture, this great room is thoughtfully designed for both everyday living and future personalization.

A spacious great room designed as a clean, open canvas, highlighting architectural simplicity and warmth. The brick fireplace serves as the central focal point, complete with a substantial hearth and wood mantle that adds natural texture and balance. Expansive windows bring in abundant natural light, enhancing the soft neutral walls and creating an airy, inviting atmosphere. Wide-plank hardwood flooring runs throughout, grounding the space with warmth and continuity. Paired with recessed lighting and a statement ceiling fixture, this great room is thoughtfully designed for both everyday living and future personalization.

This open living space highlights the home’s clean, modern foundation with a focus on simplicity, light, and flexibility. Wide-plank light oak hardwood flooring runs seamlessly throughout, adding warmth and continuity against crisp white walls and minimal architectural detailing. Recessed lighting and an open layout create a bright, adaptable environment ready for furnishing and personalization. The neutral palette allows future design elements to stand out while maintaining a timeless, cohesive aesthetic. Designed as a blank canvas within a luxury custom home, this space emphasizes quality finishes, natural light, and the versatility of open-concept living.

This open living space highlights the home’s clean, modern foundation with a focus on simplicity, light, and flexibility. Wide-plank light oak hardwood flooring runs seamlessly throughout, adding warmth and continuity against crisp white walls and minimal architectural detailing. Recessed lighting and an open layout create a bright, adaptable environment ready for furnishing and personalization. The neutral palette allows future design elements to stand out while maintaining a timeless, cohesive aesthetic. Designed as a blank canvas within a luxury custom home, this space emphasizes quality finishes, natural light, and the versatility of open-concept living.

An open-concept kitchen with large amounts of storage utilizing white cabinets, countertops, a built-in hutch, and kitchen island. The kitchen island comes with drawers, cabinets, shelves, a spot for the microwave (to avoid taking up counter space), and a seating area. Dark hardwood floors, an off-white subway tile backsplash, and stainless steel appliances and pendant lighting give contrast to the mostly white-colored room, giving it a bright, clean, and balanced look. Project designed by Skokie renovation firm, Chi Renovation & Design. They serve the Chicagoland area, and it's surrounding suburbs, with an emphasis on the North Side and North Shore. You'll find their work from the Loop through Lincoln Park, Skokie, Evanston, Wilmette, and all of the way up to Lake Forest. For more about Chi Renovation & Design, click here: https://www.chirenovation.com/ To learn more about this project, click here: https://www.chirenovation.com/portfolio/lake-bluff-kitchen/

Originally designed as a vacation and future retirement home, this craftsman style uses elements such as gabled dormers and simple gable roofs to invoke a bungalow style. With 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, this Cayuga Lake home features a mixture of timber frame elements with rich and detailed interior woodwork, prominently situated bluestone masonry fireplaces, many sitting and gathering areas that take advantage of both interior and outdoor spaces, and an open floor plan that uses wood trimmed archways, four-post columns on wood panel bases, and in-laid wood borders in the oak floors to create traditionally distinct living spaces such as the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The beautiful lake view is the focal point of these living areas; the archways that frame the dining room create a sense of movement as the archways continue to the exterior lake side wall, and the lakeside ceiling features a cathedral with skylights to bring in natural light as well as a timber frame truss with an arched center, framed with queen posts and with a stained tongue and groove wood ceiling with dropped wood trimmed breams.

This family’s intention was clear – to create a well-functioning home for their busy family that will continue to be just as well-functioning in the future. With a wish list that included open kitchen and dining spaces, a guest bedroom, and a fresh, modernized master suite, this renovation left the owners delighted. The shifting of the kitchen created a mudroom area resulting in a happy landing space for the family returning from activities. The new mudroom casts a warm glow with an ample black walnut-topped bench. Handsfree entering the kitchen, the large island and coffered ceiling well defines this space. The cook’s Lacanche Saulieu black enamel range is a show-stopper, topped off with a uniquely custom maple hood. A pleasant hideaway, the Benjamin Moore wrought iron painted cabinetry and shelving in the butler’s pantry is both practical and pretty with a quick peek out to the backyard. The upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms were reenergized with new tile, fixtures, and updated a/v. A Newburyport Blue vanity makes for a cheery children’s bath. A more sophisticated black satin vanity in the master bath compliments the basketweave tile rug created in cool and classy Walker Zanger stone tile. Lit from above, the frameless medicine cabinet mirrors’ simplicity let the gunmetal faucets ‘shine’. Down the hall, the family laundry room’s charming tile and easy function gives hope that every family member will chip in with the chores.

Photo by www.workshed.com
Mid-sized trendy galley porcelain tile eat-in kitchen photo in Portland with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Lincoln Farmhouse LEED-H Platinum, Net-Positive Energy OVERVIEW. This LEED Platinum certified modern farmhouse ties into the cultural landscape of Lincoln, Massachusetts - a town known for its rich history, farming traditions, conservation efforts, and visionary architecture. The goal was to design and build a new single family home on 1.8 acres that respects the neighborhood’s agrarian roots, produces more energy than it consumes, and provides the family with flexible spaces to live-play-work-entertain. The resulting 2,800 SF home is proof that families do not need to compromise on style, space or comfort in a highly energy-efficient and healthy home. CONNECTION TO NATURE. The attached garage is ubiquitous in new construction in New England’s cold climate. This home’s barn-inspired garage is intentionally detached from the main dwelling. A covered walkway connects the two structures, creating an intentional connection with the outdoors between auto and home. FUNCTIONAL FLEXIBILITY. With a modest footprint, each space must serve a specific use, but also be flexible for atypical scenarios. The Mudroom serves everyday use for the couple and their children, but is also easy to tidy up to receive guests, eliminating the need for two entries found in most homes. A workspace is conveniently located off the mudroom; it looks out on to the back yard to supervise the children and can be closed off with a sliding door when not in use. The Away Room opens up to the Living Room for everyday use; it can be closed off with its oversized pocket door for secondary use as a guest bedroom with en suite bath. NET POSITIVE ENERGY. The all-electric home consumes 70% less energy than a code-built house, and with measured energy data produces 48% more energy annually than it consumes, making it a 'net positive' home. Thick walls and roofs lack thermal bridging, windows are high performance, triple-glazed, and a continuous air barrier yields minimal leakage (0.27ACH50) making the home among the tightest in the US. Systems include an air source heat pump, an energy recovery ventilator, and a 13.1kW photovoltaic system to offset consumption and support future electric cars. ACTUAL PERFORMANCE. -6.3 kBtu/sf/yr Energy Use Intensity (Actual monitored project data reported for the firm’s 2016 AIA 2030 Commitment. Average single family home is 52.0 kBtu/sf/yr.) o 10,900 kwh total consumption (8.5 kbtu/ft2 EUI) o 16,200 kwh total production o 5,300 kwh net surplus, equivalent to 15,000-25,000 electric car miles per year. 48% net positive. WATER EFFICIENCY. Plumbing fixtures and water closets consume a mere 60% of the federal standard, while high efficiency appliances such as the dishwasher and clothes washer also reduce consumption rates. FOOD PRODUCTION. After clearing all invasive species, apple, pear, peach and cherry trees were planted. Future plans include blueberry, raspberry and strawberry bushes, along with raised beds for vegetable gardening. The house also offers a below ground root cellar, built outside the home's thermal envelope, to gain the passive benefit of long term energy-free food storage. RESILIENCY. The home's ability to weather unforeseen challenges is predictable - it will fare well. The super-insulated envelope means during a winter storm with power outage, heat loss will be slow - taking days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. During normal conditions, reduced energy consumption plus energy production means shelter from the burden of utility costs. Surplus production can power electric cars & appliances. The home exceeds snow & wind structural requirements, plus far surpasses standard construction for long term durability planning. ARCHITECT: ZeroEnergy Design http://zeroenergy.com/lincoln-farmhouse CONTRACTOR: Thoughtforms http://thoughtforms-corp.com/ PHOTOGRAPHER: Chuck Choi http://www.chuckchoi.com/

Love this girls' bedroom! I can image this girl curling up on the window seat and reading a book for hours. The lavender and pale yellow walls are a perfect color combination. The white bedding is light and airy, which gives a whimsical look to the bedroom. The flower rugs are a perfect addition to this room and is complete with the shutters on the bay windows. We hear from clients that shutters can be overwhelming and consequently are sometimes overlooked. With so many choices, we completely understand how our clients must feel prior to working with us. But shutters are an important addition to your home and can actually improve the overall look and make it easier to sell your home in the future. The important thing is finding a shutter that fits your purpose and will compliment your home. The shutters in this picture are a perfect match because the trim is low-profile which decreases the amount of space it takes up in the window seat area. In addition, a clean-line look was achieved by omitting the tilt bar that would normally be placed in the middle of the shutter vertically. This is important when the client wants to maximize the view-through space. With our shutters, this does not compromise the strength or durability. Our goal is to make the shutter process easy for our clients! Stop in our showroom or schedule a free in-home consultation. We work with clients in the Central Indiana Area. Contact us today to get started on your project. 317-273-8343