Chris and Sofia of Arlington Heights knew when they purchased their home that they would finish the basement. They needed a space for the kids to hang out, for family and friends to stay, and to have a better space for hosting holidays and parties. The dark unfinished space went mostly unused for three years, but once their kids reached the ideal age for use of a well-built basement, they moved ahead with their plan. “The old basement was dark and cold, and the kids came down and played, but they didn’t like it. The new space is like a whole other house, so we have this space for family game nights and for watching games or Super Bowl parties,” Chris said. The couple found Advance Design Studio through a friend who had their entire home renovated by the remodeling company. After the initial meeting and visiting the showroom, Chris and Sofia were positive that Advance Design was the company that could best turn their unfinished basement into a family friendly space for everyone to enjoy. “We really liked the showroom, we liked being able to choose all of those finishes and meet with them in one place,” Chris said. A Custom Space for a Family with Multiple Needs The project began with a fireplace focal point complete with an amazing entertainment wall, a fantastic full kitchen complete with every amenity, and a brand new full bath. The new basement truly has a space for everyone. If the kids want to watch a movie and hang out on the couch they can, if family wants to play games and have a pizza party on the large island they can, and if guests want to stay over night on the pull-out sofa they can enjoy the entire private “suite” complete with a full bath. It is the true definition of a multifunctional basement. The stunning, full kitchen is the highlight of this now bright and airy basement. You walk down the stairs and are immediately impressed with the detailed metal tile work on the ceiling, bringing to mind the classic feel of a comfortable old pub. Cherry Merlot cabinets provide a rich contrast against the soft neutral walls and the contrasting copper tin ceiling tile and backsplash. Rich Santa Cecelia granite countertops pair nicely with timeless stonework on the outer walls. The island is large enough to provide a more than adequate entertaining space, and provides plenty of both seating and storage. The well-appointed kitchen houses a regular size refrigerator, a full size oven for pizza parties and cookie baking anytime, a microwave oven as well as complete sink and trash set up. One could easily do without a home kitchen forever in this generously designed secondary space! The fireplace and buffet wall seating area is the ideal place to watch movies or sporting events. The coordinating stonework on the fireplace flows throughout the basement, and a burnt orange accent wall brings color and warmth to otherwise ordinary basement space. The Elite Merlot media buffet compliments the kitchen as well as provides storage and a unique functional display option, giving this part of the basement a sophisticated, yet functional feel. The full bath is complete with a unique furniture style cherry DuraSupreme vanity and matching custom designed mirror. The weathered look to the cabinets and mirror give the bathroom some earthy texture as does the stone floor in the walk-in shower. Soft blue makes the space a spa-like mini retreat, and the handsome wall to wall tile and granite speak luxury at every corner. Advance Design added clever custom storage spaces to take advantage of otherwise wasted corners. They built a custom mudroom for the kids to house their sports equipment and a handy built in bench area with basket pull outs for a custom home gym. “They were able to custom fit this second mudroom with the lockers and the bench, they were able to custom build that, so the kids could store all of their equipment down here for the sports that they are in,” Chris said. They Got The Amazing Space They Had Envisioned for Years! The basement Chris and Sofia had envisioned had come to life in a few short months of planning, design and construction, just a perfect fit in the summer months. Advance Design Studio was able to design and build a custom, multifunctional space that the whole family can enjoy. “I would recommend Advance Design because of the showroom, because of the cleanliness on the jobsite and the professionalism, combined with Christine’s design side as well as Todd’s builder’s side - it’s nice to have it all together,” reminisced Chris after the project was complete.

Patio - transitional patio idea in DC Metro

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This young growing family was in desperate need of a Master suite for the themselves. They wanted to convert their loft and old small bathroom into their master suite. This small family home located in heart of City of Falls Church. The old bathroom and closet space were under the front dormer and which 7 ½ feet ceiling height, small closet, vinyl floor, oddly placed toilet and literally lots of wasted space. The wanted it all, high ceiling, large shower, big free-standing tub, decorative old look tile, private commode area, lots of storage, bigger vanities and much much more Agreed to get their full wish list done and put our plans into action. That meant take down ceiling joist and raise up the entire ceiling. Raise up the front dormer to allow new shower placement. The double headed large shower stall tiled in with Persian rug flower pattern floor tile and dome ceiling behind the Barn style glass enclosure is the feature wall of this project. The toilet was relocated in a corner behind frosted glass pocket doors, long five panel door style was used to upscale the look of this project. A new slipper tub was placed where used to be dead space behind small shower area, offering space for large double vanity space as well. A built-in cabinetry with spa look was taken over south wall given more storage. The wise selection of light color wood plank floor tile contrasting with chrome fixtures, subway wall tiles and flower pattern shower floor creates a soothing bath space.

Custom KB Design | This outdoor living space was inspired by a vacation spot bringing the ultimate relaxation home to enjoy on a daily basis. Custom shutters are functional to provide a private cozy oasis or keep them open to enjoy the lush landscaping backdrop. A customized bar is a perfect finishing touch for family enjoyment.

Returning home after more than a decade living and working in Taiwan, our client envisioned something entirely different from the French Colonial aesthetic of his early-1990s Beaverton home. Through a comprehensive design-build renovation, this Portland metro whole-house remodel transformed a conventional suburban residence into a richly layered retreat inspired by global travel, natural materials, and timeless craftsmanship. The result is a warm, sophisticated home designed to showcase treasured artifacts and collectibles gathered from years abroad while providing modern functionality for everyday living. From the moment you enter, the home's new character unfolds through a carefully curated palette of wood, stone, and metal. Rich ebony-stained knotty alder millwork draws the eye through the entry, where a newly created mudroom replaces the former office space. Beyond a set of dramatic barn doors, a striking stone fireplace becomes the focal point of the living room, anchored by a reclaimed wood mantel and rustic ceiling beams that add warmth and architectural depth. Nearby, the sunroom was completely refreshed through thoughtful window modifications and custom trim detailing, creating a seamless connection between the interior and the surrounding landscape. The kitchen serves as the heart of the renovation, blending rustic elegance with refined craftsmanship. Custom alder cabinetry is paired with layered metal finishes, allowing subtle copper and bronze undertones to emerge from creamy quartz countertops. A textured slate backsplash echoes the flagstone-inspired flooring, while a newly created butler's pantry provides both beauty and functionality. Each material was selected to evoke the authenticity of old-world craftsmanship while supporting the practical needs of modern living. One of the home's most dramatic architectural transformations is the custom floating staircase. Designed as both a sculptural centerpiece and a solution to circulation challenges, the staircase opens previously constricted pathways and enhances the home's flow. Hand-tooled hickory wraps each tread while weathered metal accents provide subtle industrial character. Upstairs, creative space planning allowed for the addition of a discreet laundry nook within an underutilized hallway area, improving convenience without sacrificing valuable living space. The primary suite continues the home's story of understated luxury and global influence. Rustic ceiling beams mirror those seen throughout the main level, creating visual continuity and warmth. An antique carved door serves as a distinctive feature within the reconfigured closet layout, while the primary bathroom embraces a calming combination of stone, concrete, and matte black finishes. Large-format tile arranged in a custom Versailles-inspired pattern guides the eye through the spa-like retreat, where natural textures and abundant daylight create a serene atmosphere. While the main and upper levels celebrate warmth and global influence, the basement renovation introduces an entirely different layer of the home's personality. To create the ultimate entertainment destination, the basement footprint was extended approximately seven feet beyond the original foundation, transforming previously underutilized space into a seamless indoor-outdoor gathering environment. Inspired by cultured industrial design, the newly expanded lower level was envisioned as a place where family and friends could relax, connect, and enjoy the home's resort-like backyard amenities. At the heart of the basement renovation is a custom entertainment bar featuring reclaimed rustic cabinetry and chiseled-edge granite countertops that emphasize the natural character of the materials. Accordion-style serving windows create a direct connection between the interior bar and the outdoor living spaces, allowing drinks, food, and conversation to flow effortlessly between the entertainment room and the backyard pool, hot tub, and professionally landscaped grounds. The result is a true indoor-outdoor living experience designed for year-round enjoyment. The expansive recreation area accommodates a variety of activities while maintaining a cohesive design aesthetic. A shuffleboard table, billiards area, and casual bar dining space provide multiple destinations for gathering, all unified by a sophisticated palette of brick, concrete, wood, and metal. Slim-profile brick walls introduce texture and authenticity, while custom decorative painting techniques create the appearance of cast concrete accent walls, reinforcing the basement's refined industrial character without overwhelming the space. Supporting spaces throughout the lower level were equally transformed. An outdated bathroom was fully renovated to reflect the home's dark and moody aesthetic, incorporating a curbless shower, rustic vanity, and layered finishes that balance comfort with style. Two underutilized bedrooms were thoughtfully reconfigured to better support the homeowner's lifestyle, with one becoming a dedicated home office and the other opening into a flexible music room designed for creativity and relaxation. Additional unfinished crawlspace and storage areas were reclaimed to create a private home gym, maximizing every square foot of the home's footprint. The renovation extended beyond the interior walls of the home. A newly rebuilt two-story deck strengthens the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces while providing multiple vantage points overlooking the backyard retreat. On the upper level, adjacent to the primary suite, a new enclosed sunroom addition creates a peaceful sanctuary elevated among the trees. Together, these exterior improvements complement the home's interior transformation, enhancing both livability and year-round enjoyment while creating a true extension of the living space outdoors. Behind the finished spaces, this Beaverton full home remodel required significant structural and technical expertise. Replacing the original staircase involved extensive modifications to the upper-floor framing system, including the installation of concealed supports for the floating treads and the creation of a new landing structure. Throughout the home, natural materials presented unique installation challenges. The dimensional variation of the slate backsplash required each stone to be precisely shaped around electrical devices and surrounding elements, while reclaimed wood beams demanded extensive preparation before they could be securely installed. Careful coordination among multiple trades ensured every custom detail performed as beautifully as it appeared. Because the homeowner remained in Taiwan for much of the renovation, collaboration relied on a highly organized design-build process and frequent communication across a fourteen-hour time difference. Detailed design presentations, material selections, and construction updates allowed key decisions to be made efficiently, even from across the globe. This partnership enabled the project team to successfully execute a highly customized vision despite logistical complexities and construction delays outside of the project's control. Strategic planning also played a crucial role in maintaining the project budget. While the homeowner initially envisioned reclaimed wood flooring and natural flagstone throughout the home, carefully selected engineered hardwood and porcelain tile provided a similar aesthetic with improved performance and cost efficiency. Authenticity was preserved through the use of genuine stone at key focal points, including the fireplace surround and kitchen backsplash, as well as reclaimed wood incorporated into architectural beam details. Existing high-quality windows were retained and transformed through selective replacement, custom trim work, and thoughtful refinishing, delivering the desired look while avoiding unnecessary expense. Additional savings came from a creative exterior repair solution that replicated the home's original stucco detailing without requiring a complete façade replacement. This luxury Beaverton whole-house renovation demonstrates how thoughtful design-build remodeling can completely reimagine an existing home. Through strategic space planning, custom craftsmanship, and budget-conscious decision making, a dated suburban residence was transformed into a distinctive rustic contemporary retreat that reflects its owner's global experiences, personal story, and vision for home.

Pool fountain - mid-sized contemporary backyard stone and l-shaped lap pool fountain idea in Toronto

Inspiration for a contemporary exterior home remodel in DC Metro

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL "I wanted to let you know I have finally gotten to the beach after moving and after the hurricane. It took us a bit to settle in and get the bed hung and mattress and pillows all set, but I wanted to send you a picture. We love it. Thanks so much. "Hoping to get one or two more beds for my new house in once it is done."

This young growing family was in desperate need of a Master suite for the themselves. They wanted to convert their loft and old small bathroom into their master suite. This small family home located in heart of City of Falls Church. The old bathroom and closet space were under the front dormer and which 7 ½ feet ceiling height, small closet, vinyl floor, oddly placed toilet and literally lots of wasted space. The wanted it all, high ceiling, large shower, big free-standing tub, decorative old look tile, private commode area, lots of storage, bigger vanities and much much more Agreed to get their full wish list done and put our plans into action. That meant take down ceiling joist and raise up the entire ceiling. Raise up the front dormer to allow new shower placement. The double headed large shower stall tiled in with Persian rug flower pattern floor tile and dome ceiling behind the Barn style glass enclosure is the feature wall of this project. The toilet was relocated in a corner behind frosted glass pocket doors, long five panel door style was used to upscale the look of this project. A new slipper tub was placed where used to be dead space behind small shower area, offering space for large double vanity space as well. A built-in cabinetry with spa look was taken over south wall given more storage. The wise selection of light color wood plank floor tile contrasting with chrome fixtures, subway wall tiles and flower pattern shower floor creates a soothing bath space.

Cigar and sports - Harry Blanchard
Inspiration for a mid-sized farmhouse brick back porch remodel in Philadelphia with a fire pit and a roof extension

The client purchased a mature, small, NAPA Valley vineyard to be their home and for personal enjoyment. Once they began converting their new "hobby" grapes into wine, they soon realized they needed a place to "age" their labors and a place to then enjoy them. They decided to design such a place within the confines of their home where they could entertain family and friends. The structure was modified to allow storage of more than 200 individual bottles, cases, and magnum size bottles. A cask room was added as was a well-appointed tasting room. The storage area is separated from the tasting and social area by a tempered glass doors and windows. The space to be converted was a challenge. No surface was plumb or level, therefore, the remodel involved interior walls, new floors and ceilings. Until these issues were addressed, the beautiful cabinet work, and a complete temperature and humidity control system to store, maintain, and enjoy the wine could not be started. The floors had to be floated out and chases with faux finishes provided for HVAC and electrical. Lighting in the tasting room is provided by a series of recessed and puck lights. The bar/counter area is highlighted by a custom, Tiffany style chandelier. Enough space was left in front of the bar to accommodate two serving tables for food and snacks, with plenty of room to move about the space. Discreetly hidden behind the bar is a large capacity cooler that can chill several bottles at once. The bar is capped with eight lineal feet of Calcutta Gold Marble and sports a brass foot rail. The bar has grape panels between Acanthus Corbels and the bottle storage cabinet areas are a unique blend of Acanthus overlays under precisely cut and mitered grape design crown molding over and around a cleverly designed bottle storage system. Traffic flow is achieved through the multiple points of entry through any of three pairs of 6' custom double doors which, when weather permitting, can remain open while entertaining. The host and hostess can attend food and beverage service from behind and around the bar through a separate doorway. The temperature controlled cask storage area is large enough for the clients' current needs, and can accommodate a larger number of casks should the need arise. The floor and walls of the cask room are designed for easy maintenance.. Both rooms are delightfully decorated with earthen tone faux finishes on walls, ceilings and floors reminiscent of a nonspecific European wine making region. This effect is extended to the soffits in the tasting room. A unique wine racking system is easily stored, providing even greater ability to maintain and move about the storage area.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Greg Hadley
Kitchen - kitchen idea in DC Metro

Patio - patio idea in Ottawa

Photo by Ashley Elizabeth Ford
This is an example of a small eclectic backyard landscaping in Los Angeles.

A rare and secluded paradise, the Woodvale Estate is a true modern masterpiece perfect to impress even the most discerning of clientele. At the pinnacle of luxury, this one-of-a-kind new construction features all the modern amenities that one could ever dream of. Situated on an expansive and lush over 35,000 square foot lot with truly unparalleled privacy, this modern estate boasts over 21,000 square feet of meticulously crafted and designer done living space. Behind the hedged, walled, and gated entry find a large motor court leading into the jaw-dropping entryway to this majestic modern marvel. Superlative features include chef's prep kitchen, home theater, professional gym, full spa, hair salon, elevator, temperature-controlled wine storage, 14 car garage that doubles as an event space, outdoor basketball court, and fabulous detached two-story guesthouse. The primary bedroom suite offers a perfectly picturesque escape complete with massive dual walk-in closets, dual spa-like baths, massive outdoor patio, romantic fireplace, and separate private balcony with hot tub. With a truly optimal layout for enjoying the best modern amenities and embracing the California lifestyle, the open floor plan provides spacious living, dining, and family rooms and open entertainer's kitchen with large chef's island, breakfast bar, state-of-the-art appliances, and motorized sliding glass doors for the ultimate enjoyment with ease, class, and sophistication. Enjoy every conceivable amenity and luxury afforded in this truly magnificent and awe-inspiring property that simply put, stands in a class all its own.

Powder room - contemporary powder room idea in DC Metro