This historic restoration and renovation was the cover story for the September / October 2015 issue of Design New England. Working with skilled craftsmen, we salvaged a derelict house and brought it into the 21st century. We were fortunate to design all aspects of the home, from architecture to interiors to the landscape plan!

Nancy Nolan Photography, Tobi Fairley Design
Family room - contemporary family room idea in Little Rock

Although this couple was fortunate to have “his and her” master bathrooms, they both needed attention. Now they each have a retreat! “Hers” features a new floating wall to the bright new Master Closet/Vanity area. An island & large custom closet provide plenty of storage. “Hers” also features a soaker tub, seamless glass shower, and a “fireplace”. His” features an expanded shower, more efficient storage, rich colors and bright white wainscoting for an elegant feel.

Melanie's inspiration for this sunroom was the grand era of the 1920’s when the prosperous gold coast of Long Island was built. The Sun Room pays homage to the glamorous, opulent lifestyles of the wealthy industrialists who were the residents of the Gold Coast estates in the 1920’s. We preserved the original aged brick walls and intricate metal work in the windows and chose materials for the room that would reflect and refresh the original design. Melanie chose two teal and white Mamounia rugs from The Rug Company in silk and wool to reflect the pattern in the metal work on the windows. Natural light was a major component when designing the sun room so we used reflective objects from mirrored pillows, brass light fixtures, brass objects in addition to a huge brass wall mirror to capture the natural sun light in the room. The estate is set on 6 rolling acres of land, so we used oversized planters with boxwood, and a huge aceda palm tree in the oversized ottoman to bring that outdoors into the room. A one-of-a-kind natural, driftwood table with teal resin from Andrianna Shamara's brings more nature into the room and sits in front of the waterproof Vondom sofa which was custom-made in Valencia Spain. All of the seating in the Sun Room is outdoor furniture and waterproof. A huge Brass sputnik light fixture sits above the sun room reflecting more light into the large brass mirror. An Ironies honeycomb table brings in texture to the room and holds reflective brass candlesticks and large piece of turquoise Slag Glass sits on an Oscar De La Renta book, another American style icon. A Milo Baughman brass bar carts holds a Christofle Martini shaker, martini glasses and a Gabriella Crespi brass and crystal ice bucket would service the captains of industries who displayed their fortunes from the industrial revolution with lavish parties in the their grand estates to celebrate the opportunities and accomplishments that they had worked so hard to achieve. The unprecedented economic prosperity was a distinctly unique aspect of Americana when wealthy industrialists, a hard working generation, helped promote American design and American Dreams. Photo by Alan Barry.

Nancy Nolan Photography, Tobi Fairley Design
Bedroom - contemporary bedroom idea in Little Rock

Photo: Ryan Hicks © 2018 Houzz
Example of a classic laundry room design in DC Metro

Irregular stone walkway through perennial garden. Coneflower line the path, with Blue Fortune Agastache in foreground.
Inspiration for a mid-sized craftsman partial sun backyard landscaping in Milwaukee.

Photo: Carolyn Reyes © 2015 Houzz
Example of an eclectic living room design in Los Angeles

Our goal for this perennial planting bed was continuous color and continuous bloom. Westhauser Photography
Inspiration for a large traditional drought-tolerant and full sun front yard stone garden path in Milwaukee for summer.

Design - Propel Studio Architecture - https://www.propelstudio.com/eliot-sustainable-adu Structural - Michael Daubenberger - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-daubenberger-5b1a5421/ Construction - JLTB Construction - http://www.jltbconstruction.com/ Photography - Josh Partee - http://www.joshpartee.com

The Johnson-Thompson House, built c. 1750, has the distinct title as being the oldest structure in Winchester. Many alterations were made over the years to keep up with the times, but most recently it had the great fortune to get just the right family who appreciated and capitalized on its legacy. From the newly installed pine floors with cut, hand driven nails to the authentic rustic plaster walls, to the original timber frame, this 300 year old Georgian farmhouse is a masterpiece of old and new. Together with the homeowners and Cummings Architects, Windhill Builders embarked on a journey to salvage all of the best from this home and recreate what had been lost over time. To celebrate its history and the stories within, rooms and details were preserved where possible, woodwork and paint colors painstakingly matched and blended; the hall and parlor refurbished; the three run open string staircase lovingly restored; and details like an authentic front door with period hinges masterfully created. To accommodate its modern day family an addition was constructed to house a brand new, farmhouse style kitchen with an oversized island topped with reclaimed oak and a unique backsplash fashioned out of brick that was sourced from the home itself. Bathrooms were added and upgraded, including a spa-like retreat in the master bath, but include features like a claw foot tub, a niche with exposed brick and a magnificent barn door, as nods to the past. This renovation is one for the history books! Eric Roth

Less commonly used perennials and grasses such as ‘Blue Fortune’ agastache, Baptisia australis, and ‘Skyracer’ molinia are combined with some of our clients’ favorites, including echinacea and rudbeckia. Westhauser Photography

Stuart Wade, Envision Virtual Tours The second-largest and most developed of Georgia's barrier islands, St. Simons is approximately twelve miles long and nearly three miles wide at its widest stretch (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York). The island is located in Glynn County on Georgia's coast and lies east of Brunswick (the seat of Glynn County), south of Little St. Simons Island and the Hampton River, and north of Jekyll Island. The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River. Known for its oak tree canopies and historic landmarks, St. Simons is both a tourist destination and, according to the 2010 U.S. census, home to 12,743 residents. Early History The earliest St. Simons Island Village record of human habitation on the island dates to the Late Archaic Period, about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Remnants of shell rings left behind by Native Americans from this era survive on many of the barrier islands, including St. Simons. Centuries later, during the period known by historians as the chiefdom era, the Guale Indians established a chiefdom centered on St. Catherines Island and used St. Simons as their hunting and fishing grounds. By 1500 the Guale had established a permanent village of about 200 people on St. Simons, which they called Guadalquini. Beginning in 1568, the Spanish attempted to create missions along the Georgia coast. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida. In the 1600s St. Simons became home to two Spanish missions: San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, on the southern tip of the island, and Santo Domingo de Asao (or Asajo), on the northern tip. Located on the inland side of the island were the pagan refugee villages of San Simón, the island's namesake, and Ocotonico. In 1684 pirate raids left the missions and villages largely abandoned. Colonial History As Fort Frederica early as 1670, with Great Britain's establishment of the colony of Carolina and its expansion into Georgia territory, Spanish rule was threatened by the English. The Georgia coast was considered "debatable land" by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat. Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. By 1740 Frederica's population was 1,000. In 1736 the congregation of what would become Christ Church was organized within Fort Frederica as a mission of the Church of England. Charles Wesley led the first services. In 1742 Britain's decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, ended the Spanish threat to the Georgia coast. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and, except for a short time of prosperity during the 1760s and 1770s under the leadership of merchant James Spalding, never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel's tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service. Plantation Era By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was left largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army. Besides hosting a small Georgia naval victory on the Fort Frederica River, providing guns from its famous fort for use at Fort Morris in Sunbury, and serving as an arena for pillaging by privateers and British soldiers, the island played almost no role in the war. Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farm land and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides." Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between Ebos Landing the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. In 1803 a group of Ebo slaves who survived the Middle Passage and arrived on the west side of St. Simons staged a rebellion and drowned themselves. The sacred site is known today as Ebos Landing. One of the largest owners of land and slaves on St. Simons was Pierce Butler, master of Hampton Point Plantation, located on the northern end of the island. By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves, who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler's Island in the Altamaha River delta. Butler's grandson, Pierce Mease Butler, who at the age of sixteen inherited a share of his grandfather's estate in 1826, was responsible for the largest sale of human beings in the history of the United States: in 1859, to restore his squandered fortune, he sold 429 slaves in Savannah for more than $300,000. The British actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whose tumultuous marriage to Pierce ended in divorce in 1849, published an eyewitness account of the evils of slavery on St. Simons in her book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863). Another Retreat Plantation large owner of land and slaves on St. Simons was Major William Page, a friend and employee of Pierce Butler Sr. Before purchasing Retreat Plantation on the southwestern tip of the island in 1804, Page managed the Hampton plantation and Butler's Island. Upon Page's death in 1827, Thomas Butler King inherited the land together with his wife, Page's daughter, Anna Matilda Page King. King expanded his father-in-law's planting empire on St. Simons as well as on the mainland, and by 1835 Retreat Plantation alone was home to as many as 355 slaves. The center of life during the island's plantation era was Christ Church, Frederica. Organized in 1807 by a group of island planters, the Episcopal church is the second oldest in the Diocese of Georgia. Embargoes imposed by the War of 1812 (1812-15) prevented the parishioners from building a church structure, so they worshiped in the home of John Beck, which stood on the site of Oglethorpe's only St. Simons residence, Orange Hall. The first Christ Church building, finished on the present site in 1820, was ruined by occupying Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884 the Reverend Anson Dodge Jr. rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife, Ellen. The cruciform building with a trussed gothic roof and stained-glass windows remains active today as Christ Church. Civil War and Beyond The St. Simons Island Lighthouse outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves. By August 1862 more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons, including Susie King Taylor, who organized a school for freed slave children. But in November the ex-slaves were taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Fernandina, Florida, leaving the island abandoned. After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no slaves to work the fields. After Union general William T. Sherman's January 1865 Special Field Order No. 15 —a demand that former plantations be divided and distributed to former slaves—was overturned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson less than a year later, freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms that dotted the land previously occupied by the sprawling plantations. By St. Simons Lumber Mills 1870 real economic recovery began with the reestablishment of the timber industry. Norman Dodge and Titus G. Meigs of New York set up lumber mill operations at Gascoigne Bluff, formerly Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided welcome employment for both blacks and whites and also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new lighthouse in 1872, designed by architect Charles B. Cluskey, marked the beginning of St. Simons's tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park, which drew many visitors, as did the seemingly miraculous light that traveled from the top of the lighthouse tower to the bottom. The island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland, particularly from Baxley, Brunswick, and Waycross. The island's resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island and could be accessed by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island. Twentieth Century The St. Simons Island Pier and Village opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. St. Simons's beaches were now easily accessible to locals and tourists alike. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for convenient residential and resort development. In 1926 automotive pioneer Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s. The St. Simons Island outbreak of World War II (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah; and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers. The increased wartime population brought the island its first public school. With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats. In April 1942, just off the coast, the Texas Company oil tanker S. S. Oklahoma and the S. S. Esso Baton Rouge were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents. Due in large part to the military's improvement of the island's infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community. In 1950 the Methodist conference and retreat center Epworth by the Sea opened on Gascoigne Bluff. In 1961 novelist Eugenia Price visited St. Simons and began work on her first works of fiction, known as the St. Simons Trilogy. Inspired by real events on the island, Price's trilogy renewed interest in the history of Georgia's coast, and the novelist herself relocated to the island in 1965 and lived there for thirty-one years. St. Simons is also home to contemporary Georgia writer Tina McElroy Ansa. Since Epworth by the Sea 1980 St. Simons's population has doubled. The island's continued status as a vacation destination and its ongoing development boom have put historic landmarks and natural areas at risk. While such landmarks as the Fort Frederica ruins and the Battle of Bloody Marsh site are preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, and while the historic lighthouse is maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, historic Ebos Landing has been taken over by a sewage treatment plant. Several coastal organizations have formed in recent years to save natural areas on the island. The St. Simons Land Trust, for example, has received donations of large tracts of land and plans to protect property in the island's three traditional African American neighborhoods. Despite its rapid growth and development, St. Simons remains one of the most beautiful and important islands on the Georgia coast.

Every now and again we have the good fortune to provide our services in a location with stunningly gorgeous scenery. This Cape Neddick, Maine project represents one of those occasions. Nestled in the client’s backyard, the custom glass conservatory we designed and built offers breathtaking views of the Cape Neddick River flowing nearby. The picturesque result is a great example of how our custom glass enclosures can enhance your daily experience of the natural beauty that already surrounds your home. This conservatory is iconic in its form, designed and styled to match the existing look of the client’s residence, and built to withstand the full brunt of a New England winter. Positioned to maximize views of the river, the glass addition is completed by an adjacent outdoor patio area which provides additional seating and room to entertain. The new space is annexed directly to the home via a steel-reinforced opening into the kitchen in order to provide a convenient access path between the home’s interior and exterior. The mahogany glass roof frame was engineered in our workshop and then transported to the job site and positioned via crane in order to speed construction time without sacrificing quality. The conservatory’s exterior has been painted white to match the home. The floor frame sits atop helical piers and we used wide pine boards for the interior floor. As always, we selected some of the best US-made insulated glass on the market to complete the project. Low-e and argon gas-filled, these panes will provide the R values that make this a true four-season structure.

In a suburb less than 3 miles from Manhattan an old house underwent a major facelift. I had a good fortune of being invited to participate on the garden design and installation. In the front a simple corten steel frame lifts an arrangement of Carex Pensilvanica, that will mature into a lawn that will not need mowing. Playful clusters of Boxwoods add structure and winter interest.

Kitchen - traditional kitchen idea in Houston

Most of the new addition was devoted to this stunning, contemporary take on an early century beach cottage kitchen. The enlarged space allowed for an open and gracious flow between the kitchen and dining areas.

This Florida Gulf home is a project by DIY Network where they asked viewers to design a home and then they built it! Talk about giving a consumer what they want! We were fortunate enough to have been picked to tile the kitchen--and our tile is everywhere! Using tile from countertop to ceiling is a great way to make a dramatic statement. But it's not the only dramatic statement--our monochromatic Moroccan Fish Scale tile provides a perfect, neutral backdrop to the bright pops of color throughout the kitchen. That gorgeous kitchen island is recycled copper from ships! Overall, this is one kitchen we wouldn't mind having for ourselves. Large Moroccan Fish Scale Tile - 130 White Photos by: Christopher Shane

Originally Built in 1903, this century old farmhouse located in Powdersville, SC fortunately retained most of its original materials and details when the client purchased the home. Original features such as the Bead Board Walls and Ceilings, Horizontal Panel Doors and Brick Fireplaces were meticulously restored to the former glory allowing the owner’s goal to be achieved of having the original areas coordinate seamlessly into the new construction.