Photo: Benjamin Hill © 2017 Houzz
Inspiration for a timeless kids' room remodel in Houston

AWARD WINNING | International Green Good Design Award OVERVIEW | This home was designed as a primary residence for a family of five in a coastal a New Jersey town. On a tight infill lot within a traditional neighborhood, the home maximizes opportunities for light and space, consumes very little energy, incorporates multiple resiliency strategies, and offers a clean, green, modern interior. ARCHITECTURE & MECHANICAL DESIGN | ZeroEnergy Design CONSTRUCTION | C. Alexander Building PHOTOS | Eric Roth Photography

Finding a home is not easy in a seller’s market, but when my clients discovered one—even though it needed a bit of work—in a beautiful area of the Santa Cruz Mountains, they decided to jump in. Surrounded by old-growth redwood trees and a sense of old-time history, the house’s location informed the design brief for their desired remodel work. Yet I needed to balance this with my client’s preference for clean-lined, modern style. Suffering from a previous remodel, the galley-like bathroom in the master suite was long and dank. My clients were willing to completely redesign the layout of the suite, so the bathroom became the walk-in closet. We borrowed space from the bedroom to create a new, larger master bathroom which now includes a separate tub and shower. The look of the room nods to nature with organic elements like a pebbled shower floor and vertical accent tiles of honed green slate. A custom vanity of blue weathered wood and a ceiling that recalls the look of pressed tin evoke a time long ago when people settled this mountain region. At the same time, the hardware in the room looks to the future with sleek, modular shapes in a chic matte black finish. Harmonious, serene, with personality: just what my clients wanted. Photo: Bernardo Grijalva

Mid-sized transitional galley dark wood floor eat-in kitchen photo in Boston with recessed-panel cabinets, white cabinets, wood countertops, stainless steel appliances, an island, an undermount sink, gray backsplash and stone tile backsplash

Completed remodel of a 1930's bathroom. The original space was dark and dated. The client wanted a brighter and lighter space with up-to-date fixtures and easy to clean surfaces. Sheet vinyl made to look like wood completes the floor while a warm beige tiled tub surround complements the warm values the client was desiring since the beginning.

Completed remodel of a 1930's bathroom. The original space was dark and dated. The client wanted a brighter and lighter space with up-to-date fixtures and easy to clean surfaces. Sheet vinyl made to look like wood completes the floor while a warm beige tiled tub surround complements the warm values the client was desiring since the beginning.

Walk-in closet - large transitional gender-neutral carpeted walk-in closet idea in Oklahoma City with open cabinets and white cabinets

This is not your grandmother’s vinyl. Budget friendly sheet vinyl has all the texture and visual aspects of a higher priced floor. Underfoot you can feel the faux grout lines and surface textures which give the illusion of ceramic tile. The tile pattern and natural variations in color imitate much more expensive products. By: Top Floors Carpet One Floor & Home

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

These hall bookcases were an unusual dated feature in the 1950's ranch. Forgotten and forlorn we decided to remove some of the shelves, add doors to the bottom portion and wallpaper the back. Adding matching cabinet pulls found of Houzz really made this feature stand out.

Rikki Snyder © 2014 Houzz
Bedroom - eclectic bedroom idea in New York

Trendy kitchen photo in Chicago

Eat-in kitchen - large transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor eat-in kitchen idea in San Francisco with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, brick backsplash, stainless steel appliances, two islands and white countertops

Transitional kitchen photo in San Diego

Photo: Mina Brinkey © 2014 Houzz
Home design - home design idea in Tampa

Ward Jewell, AIA was asked to design a comfortable one-story stone and wood pool house that was "barn-like" in keeping with the owner’s gentleman farmer concept. Thus, Mr. Jewell was inspired to create an elegant New England Stone Farm House designed to provide an exceptional environment for them to live, entertain, cook and swim in the large reflection lap pool. Mr. Jewell envisioned a dramatic vaulted great room with hand selected 200 year old reclaimed wood beams and 10 foot tall pocketing French doors that would connect the house to a pool, deck areas, loggia and lush garden spaces, thus bringing the outdoors in. A large cupola “lantern clerestory” in the main vaulted ceiling casts a natural warm light over the graceful room below. The rustic walk-in stone fireplace provides a central focal point for the inviting living room lounge. Important to the functionality of the pool house are a chef’s working farm kitchen with open cabinetry, free-standing stove and a soapstone topped central island with bar height seating. Grey washed barn doors glide open to reveal a vaulted and beamed quilting room with full bath and a vaulted and beamed library/guest room with full bath that bookend the main space. The private garden expanded and evolved over time. After purchasing two adjacent lots, the owners decided to redesign the garden and unify it by eliminating the tennis court, relocating the pool and building an inspired "barn". The concept behind the garden’s new design came from Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello with its wandering paths, orchards, and experimental vegetable garden. As a result this small organic farm, was born. Today the farm produces more than fifty varieties of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers; many of which are rare and hard to find locally. The farm also grows a wide variety of fruits including plums, pluots, nectarines, apricots, apples, figs, peaches, guavas, avocados (Haas, Fuerte and Reed), olives, pomegranates, persimmons, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and ten different types of citrus. The remaining areas consist of drought-tolerant sweeps of rosemary, lavender, rockrose, and sage all of which attract butterflies and dueling hummingbirds. Photo Credit: Laura Hull Photography. Interior Design: Jeffrey Hitchcock. Landscape Design: Laurie Lewis Design. General Contractor: Martin Perry Premier General Contractors

Small corner kitchen space opened up and island relocated to take advantage of lake views.
Example of a mid-sized minimalist single-wall dark wood floor eat-in kitchen design in Cleveland with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, dark wood cabinets, solid surface countertops, gray backsplash, glass sheet backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Our clients lived in a wonderful home they designed and built which they referred to as their dream home until this property they admired for many years became available. Its location on a point with spectacular ocean views made it impossible to resist. This 40-year-old home was state of the art for its time. It was perfectly sited but needed to be renovated to accommodate their lifestyle and make use of current materials. Thus began the 3-year journey. They decided to capture one of the most exquisite views of Boston’s North Shore and do a full renovation inside and out. This project was a complete gut renovation with the addition of a guest suite above the garage and a new front entry.