Located near Ennis, Montana, this cabin captures the essence of rustic style while maintaining modern comforts. Jack Watkins’ father, the namesake of the creek by which this home is built, was involved in the construction of the Old Faithful Lodge. He originally built the cabin for he and his family in 1917, with small additions and upgrades over the years. The new owners’ desire was to update the home to better facilitate modern living, but without losing the original character. Windows and doors were added, and the kitchen and bathroom were completely remodeled. Well-placed porches were added to further integrate the interior spaces to their adjacent exterior counterparts, as well as a mud room—a practical requirement in rural Montana. Today, details like the unique juniper handrail leading up to the library, will remind visitors and guests of its historical Western roots.

THE SETUP Client Background: Our clients, a couple who have transitioned into the empty nest phase, have cherished their home for over three decades without undergoing any significant renovations. With a newfound desire to adapt their living space to better suit their current lifestyle, they’ve embarked on a journey to reimagine their kitchen — the heart of their home. Their aspiration is to cultivate a serene, neutral-toned sanctuary on the first floor that seamlessly merges with their family room, ensuring a harmonious and inviting environment. Design Inspiration: The renovation is inspired by the couple’s penchant for soft, calming neutrals, using their cherished family room and the kitchen’s existing tile flooring as the cornerstone for the color scheme. This approach aims to foster a sense of warmth and tranquility throughout. Design Objectives: Harmonize the kitchen with the family room by adopting a soothing, neutral color scheme, ensuring a seamless flow across the first floor. Enhance kitchen functionality with thoughtfully designed cabinetry, providing a designated place for every item and maximizing storage efficiency. Cultivate an inviting and comfortable atmosphere that reflects the homeowners’ desire for a calm and relaxing space. Design Challenges: The homeowners wish to retain the existing kitchen tile flooring and integrate it into a refreshed, modern design. Accommodating a dining area spacious enough for family visits without compromising the kitchen’s open feel or functional layout. Despite liking the current placement of plumbing and appliances, the homeowners aspire for a more open floor plan to facilitate better movement and interaction. The need to amplify natural light in the kitchen, especially around the sink area, where existing lighting is insufficient. Preserving the half-wall between the kitchen and family room, a feature the homeowners want to keep, while ensuring it complements the new design. THE RENEWED SPACE Design Solutions: By choosing a neutral color palette that complements the existing tile, the design unifies the kitchen with the adjacent spaces. The tile’s grout was cleaned and restored, enhancing the floor’s appearance and integrating it seamlessly with the new kitchen aesthetic. The inclusion of a larger island with seating for two, alongside maintaining a substantial dining table, was achieved by optimizing the spatial layout. This allowed for a sociable yet functional kitchen, accommodating large family gatherings without feeling crowded. Minor adjustments to the kitchen’s layout maintained the preferred locations for plumbing and appliances while introducing an ‘open’ design concept. Strategic modifications, such as angling the pantry wall, improved the flow and accessibility within the space. Replacing the garden window with a broader, standard window significantly increased natural light, transforming the sink area into a bright, welcoming space with enhanced views of the outdoors. The decision to keep the half-wall was ingeniously leveraged to define the dining area while maintaining an open connection to the family room. This feature not only serves as a visual separator but also ties the two spaces together through the shared color scheme and design elements. The homeowners are thrilled with their newly remodeled kitchen, which has become a hub of warmth and hospitality. Hosting a wedding shower and a birthday party, they have shared their renewed space with friends and family, who have been equally enamored. This remodel has not only met their functional and aesthetic desires but has also enriched their home with a fresh sense of serenity and joy. The upstairs part of the home is shaping up nicely. Here’s their newly remodeled primary bathroom.

The 100-year old home’s kitchen was old and just didn’t function well. A peninsula in the middle of the main part of the kitchen blocked the path from the back door. This forced the homeowners to mostly use an odd, U-shaped corner of the kitchen. Design objectives: -Add an island -Wow-factor design -Incorporate arts and crafts with a touch of Mid-century modern style -Allow for a better work triangle when cooking -Create a seamless path coming into the home from the backdoor -Make all the countertops in the space 36” high (the old kitchen had different base cabinet heights) Design challenges to be solved: -Island design -Where to place the sink and dishwasher -The family’s main entrance into the home is a back door located within the kitchen space. Samantha needed to find a way to make an unobstructed path through the kitchen to the outside -A large eating area connected to the kitchen felt slightly misplaced – Samantha wanted to bring the kitchen and materials more into this area -The client does not like appliance garages/cabinets to the counter. The more countertop space, the better! Design solutions: -Adding the right island made all the difference! Now the family has a couple of seats within the kitchen space. -Multiple walkways facilitate traffic flow. -Multiple pantry cabinets (both shallow and deep) are placed throughout the space. A couple of pantry cabinets were even added to the back door wall and wrap around into the breakfast nook to give the kitchen a feel of extending into the adjoining eating area. -Upper wall cabinets with clear glass offer extra lighting and the opportunity for the client to display her beautiful vases and plates. They add and an airy feel to the space. -The kitchen had two large existing windows that were ideal for a sink placement. The window closest to the back door made the most sense due to the fact that the other window was in the corner. Now that the sink had a place, we needed to worry about the dishwasher. Samantha didn’t want the dishwasher to be in the way of people coming in the back door – it’s now in the island right across from the sink. -The homeowners love Motawi Tile. Some fantastic pieces are placed within the backsplash throughout the kitchen. -Larger tiles with borders make for nice accent pieces over the rangetop and by the bar/beverage area. -The adjacent area for eating is a gorgeous nook with massive windows. We added a built-in furniture-style banquette with additional lower storage cabinets in the same finish. It’s a great way to connect and blend the two areas into what now feels like one big space!

Interior decorating of living room in newly renovated home. Photos: Joyelle West Photography
Living room - large transitional light wood floor and beige floor living room idea in Boston with white walls

This Cobble Hill Brownstone for a family of five is a fun and captivating design, the perfect blend of the wife’s love of English country style and the husband’s preference for modern. The young power couple, her the co-founder of Maisonette and him an investor, have three children and a dog, requiring that all the surfaces, finishes and, materials used throughout the home are both beautiful and durable to make every room a carefree space the whole family can enjoy. The primary design challenge for this project was creating both distinct places for the family to live their day to day lives and also a whole floor dedicated to formal entertainment. The clients entertain large dinners on a monthly basis as part of their profession. We solved this by adding an extension on the Garden and Parlor levels. This allowed the Garden level to function as the daily family operations center and the Parlor level to be party central. The kitchen on the garden level is large enough to dine in and accommodate a large catering crew. On the parlor level, we created a large double parlor in the front of the house; this space is dedicated to cocktail hour and after-dinner drinks. The rear of the parlor is a spacious formal dining room that can seat up to 14 guests. The middle "library" space contains a bar and facilitates access to both the front and rear rooms; in this way, it can double as a staging area for the parties. The remaining three floors are sleeping quarters for the family and frequent out of town guests. Designing a row house for private and public functions programmatically returns the building to a configuration in line with its original design. This project was published in Architectural Digest. Photography by Sam Frost

Photo: Sarah Greenman © 2014 Houzz Design: New Leaf Construction
Playroom - contemporary gender-neutral dark wood floor playroom idea in Dallas with white walls

A fresh take on traditional style, this sprawling suburban home draws its occupants together in beautifully, comfortably designed spaces that gather family members for companionship, conversation, and conviviality. At the same time, it adroitly accommodates a crowd, and facilitates large-scale entertaining with ease. This balance of private intimacy and public welcome is the result of Soucie Horner’s deft remodeling of the original floor plan and creation of an all-new wing comprising functional spaces including a mudroom, powder room, laundry room, and home office, along with an exciting, three-room teen suite above. A quietly orchestrated symphony of grayed blues unites this home, from Soucie Horner Collections custom furniture and rugs, to objects, accessories, and decorative exclamationpoints that punctuate the carefully synthesized interiors. A discerning demonstration of family-friendly living at its finest.

Home bar - transitional home bar idea in Minneapolis with dark wood cabinets and multicolored backsplash

Inspiration for a contemporary laundry room remodel in Cincinnati

Kirk Bianchi created the design for this residential resort next to a desert preserve. The overhang of the homes patio suggested a pool with a sweeping curve shape. Kirk positioned a raised vanishing edge pool to work with the ascending terrain and to also capture the reflections of the scenery behind. The fire pit and bbq areas are situated to capture the best views of the superstition mountains, framed by the architectural pergola that creates a window to the vista beyond. A raised glass tile spa, capturing the colors of the desert context, serves as a jewel and centerpiece for the outdoor living space.

This kitchen was updated to reflect a light and airy mixed wood and paint, family eat-in style island. Inset cabinets paired with quart countertops and herringbone natural stone backsplash.

Photography by Tara L. Callow
Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional l-shaped brown floor and dark wood floor kitchen remodel in Boston with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, ceramic backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and white backsplash

A fresh take on traditional style, this sprawling suburban home draws its occupants together in beautifully, comfortably designed spaces that gather family members for companionship, conversation, and conviviality. At the same time, it adroitly accommodates a crowd, and facilitates large-scale entertaining with ease. This balance of private intimacy and public welcome is the result of Soucie Horner’s deft remodeling of the original floor plan and creation of an all-new wing comprising functional spaces including a mudroom, powder room, laundry room, and home office, along with an exciting, three-room teen suite above. A quietly orchestrated symphony of grayed blues unites this home, from Soucie Horner Collections custom furniture and rugs, to objects, accessories, and decorative exclamationpoints that punctuate the carefully synthesized interiors. A discerning demonstration of family-friendly living at its finest.

A striking island occupies the center of a spacious kitchen in Bloomfield Hills. The HPL backed real wood veneer in Ebony Sabbiata from Tree Frog bridges the tonal distance between the walnut floors and all white cabinets and walls, creating harmony and visual balance. Full height backsplashes in shiny white are laid out in a windmill pattern, punctuated every so often with intricately designed accent squares. A combination of bold veining and delicate blooming on the Calacatta quartzite countertops contributes its subtle energy to the mix. The kitchen is separated into several independent vignettes, each one laid out symmetrically. The vast island with built in sink offers all the prep space a chef could need. The built in cooktop is centered directly behind to facilitate easy cooking, while an additional sink in the clean up area expedites after dinner chores. A walk-pantry and small home office are tucked in behind the refrigerator freezer wall. Multiple lighting details, including lighted cabinet interiors and a lighted display niche above the refrigerator, complete this stunning 2015 lake home.

The Betty at Inglenook’s Pocket Neighborhoods is an open two-bedroom Cottage-style Home that facilitates everyday living on a single level. High ceilings in the kitchen, family room and dining nook make this a bright and enjoyable space for your morning coffee, cooking a gourmet dinner, or entertaining guests. Whether it’s the Betty Sue or a Betty Lou, the Betty plans are tailored to maximize the way we live.

This LEED Platinum certified house reflects the homeowner's desire for an exceptionally healthy and comfortable living environment, within a traditional neighborhood. INFILL SITE. The family, who moved from another area of Wellesley, sought out this property to be within walking distance of the high school and downtown area. An existing structure on the tight lot was removed to make way for the new home. 84% of the construction waste, from both the previous structure and the new home, was diverted from a landfill. ZED designed to preserve the existing mature trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize site impacts, and to maintain the character of the neighborhood as well as privacy on the site. EXTERIOR EXPRESSION. The street facade of the home relates to the local New England vernacular. The rear uses contemporary language, a nod to the family’s Californian roots, to incorporate a roof deck, solar panels, outdoor living space, and the backyard swimming pool. ZED’s careful planning avoided to the need to face the garage doors towards the street, a common syndrome of a narrow lot. THOUGHTFUL SPACE. Homes with dual entries can often result in duplicate and unused spaces. In this home, the everyday and formal entry areas are one and the same; the front and garage doors share the entry program of coat closets, mudroom storage with bench for removing your shoes, and a laundry room with generous closets for the children's sporting equipment. The entry area leads directly to the living space, encompassing the kitchen, dining and sitting area areas in an L-shaped open plan arrangement. The kitchen is placed at the south-west corner of the space to allow for a strong connection to the dining, sitting and outdoor living spaces. A fire pit on the deck satisfies the family’s desire for an open flame while a sealed gas fireplace is used indoors - ZED’s preference after omitting gas burning appliances completely from an airtight home. A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space. A first floor guest bedroom includes an accessible bathroom for aging visitors and can be used as a master suite to accommodate aging in place. HEALTHY LIVING. The client requested a home that was easy to clean and would provide a respite from seasonal allergies and common contaminants that are found in many indoor spaces. ZED selected easy to clean solid surface flooring throughout, provided ample space for cleaning supplies on each floor, and designed a mechanical system with ventilation that provides a constant supply of fresh outdoor air. ZED selected durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no added urea formaldehyde. YEAR-ROUND COMFORT. The home is super insulated and air-tight, paired with high performance triple-paned windows, to ensure it is draft-free throughout the winter (even when in front of the large windows and doors). ZED designed a right-sized heating and cooling system to pair with the thermally improved building enclosure to ensure year-round comfort. The glazing on the home maximizes passive solar gains, and facilitates cross ventilation and daylighting. ENERGY EFFICIENT. As one of the most energy efficient houses built to date in Wellesley, the home highlights a practical solution for Massachusetts. First, the building enclosure reduces the largest energy requirement for typical houses (heating). Super-insulation, exceptional air sealing, a thermally broken wall assembly, triple pane windows, and passive solar gain combine for a sizable heating load reduction. Second, within the house only efficient systems consume energy. These include an air source heat pump for heating & cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and high efficiency appliances. Lastly, photovoltaics provide renewable energy help offset energy consumption. The result is an 89% reduction in energy use compared to a similar brand new home built to code requirements. RESILIENT. The home will fare well in extreme weather events. During a winter power outage, heat loss will be very slow due to the super-insulated and airtight envelope– taking multiple days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. An engineered drainage system, paired with careful the detailing of the foundation, will help to keep the finished basement dry. A generator will provide full operation of the all-electric house during a power outage. OVERALL. The home is a reflection of the family goals and an expression of their values, beautifully enabling health, comfort, safety, resilience, and utility, all while respecting the planet. ZED - Architect & Mechanical Designer Bevilacqua Builders Inc - Contractor Creative Land & Water Engineering - Civil Engineering Barbara Peterson Landscape - Landscape Design Nest & Company - Interior Furnishings Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Large beach style light wood floor enclosed dining room photo in Miami with white walls

Mid century modern kitchen remodel with bold color accent.
Inspiration for a mid-sized mid-century modern l-shaped brown floor and medium tone wood floor eat-in kitchen remodel in Seattle with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, white cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, ceramic backsplash, an island, white countertops and stainless steel appliances

Inspiration for a large transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor open concept kitchen remodel in New York with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, beige cabinets, quartzite countertops, green backsplash, stone slab backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and green countertops