Search results for "Difficulties" in Home Design Ideas

With a narrow driveway and leaning concrete retaining walls, parking was a major challenge at this 1938 brick Tudor on Spokane's South Hill. Crumbling concrete stairs added another layer of difficulty, and after a particularly rough winter, the homeowners were ready for a change. The failing concrete walls were replaced with stacked boulders, which created space for a new, wider driveway. Natural stone steps offer access to the backyard, while the new front stairs and sidewalk provide a safe route to the front door. The original iron railings were preserved and modified to be reused with the new stairs.

you could choose ceramic tiles for the flooring o the kitchen, that's certainly an exquisite idea. Kitchen flooring is victim of spills every day, which means that the kitchen floor's floor ought to be wiped clean every day. Then again, ceramic tiles have a tendency to be wiped clean without difficulty, and they're a notable option for kitchen flooring. The ceramic tiles do not absorb microorganism and smell, that's critical for the kitchen. Ceramic tiles are also excellent due to their water-resistant nature and are a crucial element for kitchen floors. What are ceramic tiles made up of? Ceramic tiles are defined to be made from clay, and they're also recognized to be very sincere and can be set up easily as kitchen flooring. It must be referred to that every one of the tile must be set up properly over the sub tiles if you choose a higher result at the stop. The subfloor must be very smooth and flat so that while you install the ceramic tiles within the kitchen, you must make certain that every one of the edges are instantly and make the technique of grouting, however, less difficult and quicker. The ceramic kitchen tiles in addition to the porcelain tiles
ceramic tiles and porcelain tiles do have a difference between them, however, the difference is very moderate. The porcelain can soak up water, and the ceramic tiles can take in more water in amount compared to the porcelain. It ought to be brought that the porcelain wood pattern tiles have sand in them, and it's far brought to the clay mixture easily. Those all were made essentially below stress and warmth to produce a robust, tough, and even dense tile with a view to be porous in comparison to the ceramic tiles present. It must be stated that the porcelain timber tiles are suitable for getting used inside the kitchens and bathrooms, and you may even use them exterior as nicely. The unique nature which could stand and tolerate the weather conditions and climate is remarkable. Ceramic tiles and natural stones like marble and slate are extremely good for the kitchen floors as they are very long-lasting and strong. The porcelain is likewise considered to be from the tile family, and as we understand, tiles are an excellent option with regards to kitchen and toilet floorings. What are the advantages of ceramic tiles for kitchen flooring? Ceramic tiles have multiple benefits, and consequently, it's miles considered to be perfect for the kitchen floorings including:
it's miles incredible information that the ceramic kitchen flooring does now not have a tendency to burn. The ceramic tiles can't be charged electrically and purpose no friction. The tiles for the kitchen floors do no longer have any health hazards and are subsequently very safe for people. In the end, it should be said that the ceramic kitchen tiles are very long-lasting and lengthy-lasting. After all those huge benefits and blessings of the ceramic tile kitchens, nevertheless, you are unsure about what to select for the kitchen floor?

This project, sitting on a little more than 3.5 acres on Rivercrest was completed in 3 years with a total square footage of more than 26,000 square feet.
Typically modern homes are smaller. At a certain size, usually around 4,000 square feet, the difficulty with modern or contemporary architecture becomes scale, and the minimalist idea gets lost. Whenever you get to this scale of house at over 26,000 square feet, this problem adds a layer of complexity.
Connie Anderson Photography
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This townhome located on Lake Anna of Reston, VA own into a confined gall kitchen with a very limited cabinet space, short wall cabinets, big closet taking over big portion of kitchen, duct chase creating a big barrier, plumbing chases causing bulkhead and a bearing wall header to name a few of obstacles
Their dream was to walk in from front door and have a clear view of wall to wall scenic view of the lake.
Modernize the kitchen, eliminate bearing walls, lots of storage, upgraded appliances and so much more.
They have been chasing this dream for years and have been turned down by multiple firms due to level of difficulty of the project, budget constraint and as she put it “cleeking with a design firm that can feel her needs”
Our staff spent countless number of hours to hear her and bring her dream to reality.
The main constraint was the bearing wall on corner of foyer and living room, which was a closet, main duct chase and return ducts, obscene amount of plumbing and not to mention structural load.
By the way of re-routing mechanical chases, and reformulating all second-floor plumbing stack to back walls, and then inserting few structural beams that transfer the second-floor joists to front and back wall, we have accomplished the biggest goals of all and created the view open floor plan
Now home to a big island with cooktop and beverage center. The home has front to back clear view of the scenic lake.
¬¬¬With expanding the kitchen into front breakfast area, we have doubled up on storage and cabinet space.
Long line of gorgeous counter top and full backsplash under new Led lighting has glorified this kitchen project.
The linear porcelain floor tile has complimented the counter top and her trophy accessories.

All the way through the design, planning and installation, we felt very comfortable with the team at RFK, especially with the added challenges and difficulties caused by the pandemic. The final result is we now have a fantastic and stunning new kitchen that is exactly what we imagined and hoped.
MALCOM & MICHELE

The brief:
Our clients own an apartment in a mansion block overlooking Clapham Common. They wanted to modernise and bring the apartment up to date and had a few goals:
To change the existing small cellular spaces in the apartment to create a new open-plan room
To extend into the loft and create a new master bedroom suite
To create a roof terrace for some much-needed private outdoor space
The key to the brief was to ensure a good connection between the different levels of the apartment and ensure natural light could flood into all spaces. The apartment is in a conservation area, which was an important consideration.
The solution:
We changed the primary room space to run from the front to the back of the building. This change created the large kitchen dining living space our clients wanted, an area with good natural light throughout and at all times of the day.
We created a master bedroom suite in the loft space, with generous room size and lots of natural light.
The limitations of the building’s form meant that a critical aspect to creating these larger living spaces was carefully considered smaller areas, including the bathrooms and a pocket utility room. The circulation space was carefully considered, too, with the landings used for storage in the form of new joinery.
The stairs were vital in the design. Creating an in-between/half level meant we made the most of the flat roof extension for a bedroom suite and terrace. It also helped natural light get into the centre of the apartment, creating a clear connection between the different floors.
The stairs also help to mark the difference between the existing and the new. We shifted the design from a minimalist take on traditional metal balustraded stairs to open tread steel stairs with a glazed balustrade.
Externally, we kept the design quite simple and in keeping with the context. By adding dormers to the front and back, we created a sculptural and fun loft space.
The result:
A spacious, light and luxurious apartment for our clients Gareth and Mary in a Clapham Common Conservation area.
We asked about their experience with Granit, and we are pleased with their response:
Our experience overall is very good, even with the unexpected difficulties created by Covid.
If you are thinking of appointing an architect and interior design firm, Granit should be seriously considered.

There were a few difficulties in making this kitchen any better than how it was. There was a separate staircase that had access to the second floor which was located in the kitchen. This left just enough room to push the dining room to one side. Then, there was the porch. A really nice panoramic view of the back, but was somehow under-used by the family during the summer months. Then, it was the size of the kitchen. It simply was way too small for a growing family, and while it had a peninsular in place, the flow just didn’t work. I remember watching them one day demonstrating how awkward it was using the kitchen. We got it! We had our marching orders to go and figure out how to make this kitchen work for this family.
Everything in the room was fair play. The design was done to make the kitchen very open. For a few ideas, we incorporated the porch in the kitchen by using the nana wall idea but it ended up being too cost prohibitive to do so. We then decided to do a permanent fix by using a commercial glass wall application. Once we figured that out, we moved back inside and removed the staircase. This gave us two added benefits. One allowed us to really reconfigure the kitchen and the other opened up the second floor for a huge built in closet system.
We relocated the windows, added a fire place with a built In TV above. From there, it was onto the kitchen itself which contained a huge Island with seating, large kitchen sink and built in appliances which was set up in a way to take advantage of the new layout. We re-positioned the kitchen facing the beautiful views outside rather than looking towards a wall. Now, when you enter the house up the entry stairs, the kitchen now draws you into the magnificent new open space. This is now setup for entertaining, relaxation, hanging out and most of all, preparing meals in a room where you only have to leave if you want to.
This one was all about the design. Design was what made this space. Setting this space up for success was crucial, and this kitchen is a great example of how design can cover a multitude of sins in Kitchen designs.
… Just close your eyes for a second and imagine waking up one winter morning and having a cup of coffee and watching the snow fall through those huge windows, leaning up against those 3D feature walls while watching the kids sitting around the table enjoying those warm radiant heated floors in this spacious kitchen…..

This project, sitting on a little more than 3.5 acres on Rivercrest was completed in 3 years with a total square footage of more than 26,000 square feet.
Typically modern homes are smaller. At a certain size, usually around 4,000 square feet, the difficulty with modern or contemporary architecture becomes scale, and the minimalist idea gets lost. Whenever you get to this scale of house at over 26,000 square feet, this problem adds a layer of complexity.
Connie Anderson Photography

The brief:
Our clients own an apartment in a mansion block overlooking Clapham Common. They wanted to modernise and bring the apartment up to date and had a few goals:
To change the existing small cellular spaces in the apartment to create a new open-plan room
To extend into the loft and create a new master bedroom suite
To create a roof terrace for some much-needed private outdoor space
The key to the brief was to ensure a good connection between the different levels of the apartment and ensure natural light could flood into all spaces. The apartment is in a conservation area, which was an important consideration.
The solution:
We changed the primary room space to run from the front to the back of the building. This change created the large kitchen dining living space our clients wanted, an area with good natural light throughout and at all times of the day.
We created a master bedroom suite in the loft space, with generous room size and lots of natural light.
The limitations of the building’s form meant that a critical aspect to creating these larger living spaces was carefully considered smaller areas, including the bathrooms and a pocket utility room. The circulation space was carefully considered, too, with the landings used for storage in the form of new joinery.
The stairs were vital in the design. Creating an in-between/half level meant we made the most of the flat roof extension for a bedroom suite and terrace. It also helped natural light get into the centre of the apartment, creating a clear connection between the different floors.
The stairs also help to mark the difference between the existing and the new. We shifted the design from a minimalist take on traditional metal balustraded stairs to open tread steel stairs with a glazed balustrade.
Externally, we kept the design quite simple and in keeping with the context. By adding dormers to the front and back, we created a sculptural and fun loft space.
The result:
A spacious, light and luxurious apartment for our clients Gareth and Mary in a Clapham Common Conservation area.
We asked about their experience with Granit, and we are pleased with their response:
Our experience overall is very good, even with the unexpected difficulties created by Covid.
If you are thinking of appointing an architect and interior design firm, Granit should be seriously considered.

Living Room - Client contacted Staged to Sell or Dwell to redesign a living room. With such a large space, the client had difficulty with scale and quantity of furniture, making the room appear empty.

This trompe l'oeil hand lettered chalkboard mural will give you the style you've been lusting after, without the commitment of painting or the difficulty of mastering calligraphy.

The brief:
Our clients own an apartment in a mansion block overlooking Clapham Common. They wanted to modernise and bring the apartment up to date and had a few goals:
To change the existing small cellular spaces in the apartment to create a new open-plan room
To extend into the loft and create a new master bedroom suite
To create a roof terrace for some much-needed private outdoor space
The key to the brief was to ensure a good connection between the different levels of the apartment and ensure natural light could flood into all spaces. The apartment is in a conservation area, which was an important consideration.
The solution:
We changed the primary room space to run from the front to the back of the building. This change created the large kitchen dining living space our clients wanted, an area with good natural light throughout and at all times of the day.
We created a master bedroom suite in the loft space, with generous room size and lots of natural light.
The limitations of the building’s form meant that a critical aspect to creating these larger living spaces was carefully considered smaller areas, including the bathrooms and a pocket utility room. The circulation space was carefully considered, too, with the landings used for storage in the form of new joinery.
The stairs were vital in the design. Creating an in-between/half level meant we made the most of the flat roof extension for a bedroom suite and terrace. It also helped natural light get into the centre of the apartment, creating a clear connection between the different floors.
The stairs also help to mark the difference between the existing and the new. We shifted the design from a minimalist take on traditional metal balustraded stairs to open tread steel stairs with a glazed balustrade.
Externally, we kept the design quite simple and in keeping with the context. By adding dormers to the front and back, we created a sculptural and fun loft space.
The result:
A spacious, light and luxurious apartment for our clients Gareth and Mary in a Clapham Common Conservation area.
We asked about their experience with Granit, and we are pleased with their response:
Our experience overall is very good, even with the unexpected difficulties created by Covid.
If you are thinking of appointing an architect and interior design firm, Granit should be seriously considered.

Our client recently purchased a newly-constructed home in order to downsize and have a low- maintenance home and yard. The existing side yard/back yard was undeveloped by the builder, leaving the homeowner with the huge challenge of creating a great outdoor entertaining space for family and friends, while creating privacy and overcoming the over 8-foot steep drop from the existing back porch down to the alley.
The grade was the largest challenge because the space was so narrow with such a large fall from existing porch to the property line. The second largest challenge is that this residence is located in a semi-private community where HOA approval of plans and materials is difficult, as all the residences here share a similar look and feel with a very clean and contemporary aesthetic.
We had to precisely shoot grades to know what kinds of retaining walls would need to be constructed along with how much backfill soil and dirt movement would need to be done. After that the design had to carefully consider the space with maximum functionality for outdoor entertainment with newly constructed walls to ensure it would last for many years to come. All of this was done with multiple meetings with the homeowners who are a retired engineer and active architect themselves. Once a design was settled upon, then submission to the HOA board of approval had to be completed and signed off on with all questions and concerns answered for the community by-laws.
The two biggest difficulties within the construction phase were that the neighbor next to the back yard had a large retaining wall not properly backfilled up to the property line. That neighbor wouldn’t allow us proper access and control to help alleviate the issues, so we had to skillfully work around this to ensure what we constructed would last, despite their property not being properly addressed. We also had to go through multiple shipments from the manufacturer due to large variances in the material’s appearance on the steps and another shipment that was broken during shipping. These two things delayed the project we were working to complete before the spring so the homeowner could have the maximum use of the space this year.
Topping off this challenging construction was a beautiful palette of native grasses, rosemary, groundcover, granite walkways, and synthetic grass to ensure year-round, practically effortless beauty.

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to help an older couple in our local community. They approached us with a project that they thought would be impossible. Turn a 6x6 first floor pantry into a fully functioning bathroom. Normally this space limitation would not be a problem but the plumbing presented a difficulty that already scared away 2 other contractors. We were able to overcome this obstacle with the help of our experienced staff who keep up to date on the newest devices and products in the remodeling industry.
We had a very enjoyable experience designing and remodeling this room. Even with the small space limitations we believe we came up with a very unique and rustic feel for their 1890's farm house. I must end on all the custom wood work that our employees made for this project. From the custom, two-sided, door to the little, wooden, wall shelf we made all of the wooden pieces you see in this project and most of them were unique creations specifically for this job.

With a narrow driveway and leaning concrete retaining walls, parking was a major challenge at this 1938 brick Tudor on Spokane's South Hill. Crumbling concrete stairs added another layer of difficulty, and after a particularly rough winter, the homeowners were ready for a change. The failing concrete walls were replaced with stacked boulders, which created space for a new, wider driveway. Natural stone steps offer access to the backyard, while the new front stairs and sidewalk provide a safe route to the front door. The original iron railings were preserved and modified to be reused with the new stairs.

There were a few difficulties in making this kitchen any better than how it was. There was a separate staircase that had access to the second floor which was located in the kitchen. This left just enough room to push the dining room to one side. Then, there was the porch. A really nice panoramic view of the back, but was somehow under-used by the family during the summer months. Then, it was the size of the kitchen. It simply was way too small for a growing family, and while it had a peninsular in place, the flow just didn’t work. I remember watching them one day demonstrating how awkward it was using the kitchen. We got it! We had our marching orders to go and figure out how to make this kitchen work for this family.
Everything in the room was fair play. The design was done to make the kitchen very open. For a few ideas, we incorporated the porch in the kitchen by using the nana wall idea but it ended up being too cost prohibitive to do so. We then decided to do a permanent fix by using a commercial glass wall application. Once we figured that out, we moved back inside and removed the staircase. This gave us two added benefits. One allowed us to really reconfigure the kitchen and the other opened up the second floor for a huge built in closet system.
We relocated the windows, added a fire place with a built In TV above. From there, it was onto the kitchen itself which contained a huge Island with seating, large kitchen sink and built in appliances which was set up in a way to take advantage of the new layout. We re-positioned the kitchen facing the beautiful views outside rather than looking towards a wall. Now, when you enter the house up the entry stairs, the kitchen now draws you into the magnificent new open space. This is now setup for entertaining, relaxation, hanging out and most of all, preparing meals in a room where you only have to leave if you want to.
This one was all about the design. Design was what made this space. Setting this space up for success was crucial, and this kitchen is a great example of how design can cover a multitude of sins in Kitchen designs.
… Just close your eyes for a second and imagine waking up one winter morning and having a cup of coffee and watching the snow fall through those huge windows, leaning up against those 3D feature walls while watching the kids sitting around the table enjoying those warm radiant heated floors in this spacious kitchen…..

Description: Installation of motorized exterior ZIPPER shades along 2 south facing elevations of this SW Calgary home. Client expressed difficulty controlling temperature and glare in all rooms along the south elevation.
This product is designed to reduce heat, glare and UV at the exterior, (before it gets inside the house) while maintaining an unobstructed view to the exterior. The screen fabric used is a 5% open PVC / polyester screen material with a laminated zipper along both sides of the shade band which run inside aluminum side channels. The system required using Somfy RTS (radio series motors) for individual & group control in conjunction with 2 wireless wall switches for control.

Our investor client, Summit Homes, reached out to us for their renovation project located on C Street in Washington, DC. The scope included a full kitchen installation, custom vanities for the bathrooms, and a custom-built closet for the primary bedroom.
For the kitchen, we designed and installed elegant double-stacked upper cabinets to take full advantage of the vertical space. However, recognizing that the future homeowner might have difficulty reaching the uppermost cabinets, Summit requested a functional solution. We added a custom ladder system that attaches directly to the cabinetry—making upper cabinet access easier while enhancing the kitchen’s overall visual appeal.
The kitchen was also fitted with panel-ready appliances, for which we fabricated matching cabinet panels to ensure a seamless, built-in look. To elevate the design further, we installed natural granite countertops, which bring both durability and timeless beauty to the space. The granite’s organic texture adds warmth and character, perfectly complementing the deep cabinetry and refined finishes.
In the bathrooms, we installed carefully selected modern vanities and coordinated them with granite countertops that match the home’s overall aesthetic. These choices not only enhance the look and feel of the bathrooms but also provide durable, long-lasting surfaces for daily use.
Upstairs, the designated closet area in the primary bedroom was transformed into a fully custom-built closet system designed to optimize functionality and storage. We finished the piece with matte black hardware, giving the space a clean, modern edge.
From kitchen to closet, this project reflects our focus on combining thoughtful design with practical elegance—tailored to meet the needs of both investors and future homeowners.
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