A Glendale, MO home gains pleasing depth and beauty with a covered front porch and new door that are also designed for accessibility. The fiberglass door by Provia is Signet Mahogany in Toffee. The hand-forged iron pendant light is Scarsdale by Troy Lighting. Photo by Toby Weiss for Mosby Building Arts.

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

Winner of the 2018 Tour of Homes Best Remodel, this whole house re-design of a 1963 Bennet & Johnson mid-century raised ranch home is a beautiful example of the magic we can weave through the application of more sustainable modern design principles to existing spaces. We worked closely with our client on extensive updates to create a modernized MCM gem. Extensive alterations include: - a completely redesigned floor plan to promote a more intuitive flow throughout - vaulted the ceilings over the great room to create an amazing entrance and feeling of inspired openness - redesigned entry and driveway to be more inviting and welcoming as well as to experientially set the mid-century modern stage - the removal of a visually disruptive load bearing central wall and chimney system that formerly partitioned the homes’ entry, dining, kitchen and living rooms from each other - added clerestory windows above the new kitchen to accentuate the new vaulted ceiling line and create a greater visual continuation of indoor to outdoor space - drastically increased the access to natural light by increasing window sizes and opening up the floor plan - placed natural wood elements throughout to provide a calming palette and cohesive Pacific Northwest feel - incorporated Universal Design principles to make the home Aging In Place ready with wide hallways and accessible spaces, including single-floor living if needed - moved and completely redesigned the stairway to work for the home’s occupants and be a part of the cohesive design aesthetic - mixed custom tile layouts with more traditional tiling to create fun and playful visual experiences - custom designed and sourced MCM specific elements such as the entry screen, cabinetry and lighting - development of the downstairs for potential future use by an assisted living caretaker - energy efficiency upgrades seamlessly woven in with much improved insulation, ductless mini splits and solar gain

This home maximizes use of passive solar gain with a two-story wall of glass supported by braces that penetrate the exterior wall. Fabric pendant lights descend from the 10’ ceilings to light the kitchen surfaces. Cable lighting weaves in and out of the exposed structure to light the passageway. A cantilevered walkway provides access to the bedrooms on the second floor. photo by Jeff Scrogins

After photo of the garage rebuilt utilizing the existing brick from the old garage and new materials that match the existing house itself. Additionally, the garage was reversed for alley access, allowing us to demolish the driveway next to the house and reclaim all of the space for grass and plantings. An added benefit, while removing the driveway next to the house, it provided less thermal gain against the house from the new absence of the concrete driveway being removed.

The clients found a house they loved for two reasons…location, location, location (first reason) and the exterior style was similar to a beloved childhood home. They came to LaMantia inquiring as to the possibilities for the first floor. Armed with the clients’ “wants and desires” LaMantia designers Jackie Prazak and Andy LaMantia went about redesigning most of the first floor into an open floor plan fit for the young family. LaMantia & Prazak found the key to providing the enlarged feeling was through the poorly designed existing home addition. The additional living space was difficult to access, thus providing no useful function to the home. Completely removing the original exterior walls of the home that blocked access into the addition was the first step in the plan. With the walls removed, the original walled-off space became a part of the home. Relocating the first floor Powder Room, revising the entry closet, removing the wall into the kitchen and resizing the Living Room all were key components to the final rebirth of the larger picture. To finalize the new kitchen space, it was suggested to raise the Bay window unit thus allowing the relocated sink location. With all the revisions, the Kitchen now could easily accommodate a stretched out “L” layout with a large seated Island and a separate desk area. With the final plans in place, the clients were amazed to find that within the existing walls of their newly purchased home they had gained so much extra use. And…the very last prize they gained was a dreamed of Mudroom!

A 1500 square foot vacation home on the shore of Devil's Lake and near the worlds shortest river. The house has both lake and ocean access. The home is a volume of mahogany siding wrapped with standing seam metal siding, with a south facing deck for solar gain in the winter. In this photo, our Giddy-Up Stool in featured

Greenwise helped an Evanston home owner gain better beach access and turn unusable lakefront space into a beautiful summer retreat and al fresco yoga studio. The space was cleared of concrete and box elders, then re-set with boulders. New and existing plantings define a terrace nestled into the waterfront with a Pennsylvania fieldstone fire pit as a focal point. photo by Sandro Nandiko

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

This front elevation gains pleasing depth with a new portico protecting a Provia door with a lever door handle and a keyless lock option, for further accessibility. The new look was enhanced with soft grayish-greens (to compliment the red tones of the door and brick) for the portico, and the new coats of paint on the existing shutters and siding of the garage wing. New landscaping completes the transformation to a warmer welcome.

View from cantilevered julliet balcony toward front of house. Family room on the left with kitchen atrium space on the right. Walkway provides access to second floor spaces as well as views into the kitchen below. Entire space flooded with natural light from surrounding windows. Fitted carpet and rugs on oak flooring. Owners pets gain access to catwalk over wall cabinets. Photo: Ron Freudenheim

This shingle style cottage was a complete renovation, enhancing its already charming attributes with new, modern amenities. Renovations included enclosing an existing sunroom, new windows and new roof dormers to gain access to a walk-out roof deck.

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

We design wide overhangs (18" in most cases) on all of our Habitat designs. This helps shade the windows during the summer months, reducing solar gain and helping the Air Conditioning to work more efficiently. In the winter, lower sun angles sneak underneath to Let the Sunshine In!

Photo by Mike Casey Cramped, uncomfortable, and out of date: when the owners of this home approached us about renovating their kitchen and adjoining sunroom, these were high on their list of complaints. OPENING UP THE KITCHEN Our plan kept the kitchen in the same location but took down the walls between both the dining room and the sunroom to create an expansive multi-purpose space with spectacular views to conservation land along the back of the property. We removed the powder room and in its place created a window-lined hallway to the living room—opening up direct access between these two previously disconnected spaces. We then built a new half bath between these two rooms, with a door along the back hallway. The result is a more private powder room that is easier to access than before. Significantly improved cabinetry provides ample storage for both human and canine needs. An island countertop is functional and pleasant, enabling the owners to prep for and clean up from dinner all while enjoying the view of the woods behind their house. CREATING COMFORT We also completely rebuilt the sunroom, thickening the framing to allow for extra insulation and raising the roof to accommodate a higher ceiling and tall windows that let in as much natural light as the skylights they replaced, but much less of the solar gain that had made the room so intolerable in the summer. We improved visual connections between spaces and admitted more natural light by converting the framing of the main stairway from full to half walls. We also insulated the attic and replaced an aging, inefficient central air conditioning system with ductless minisplit heat pumps, which can also be used as supplemental heat. All in all, this was our kind of project: we made the home more attractive, more comfortable, and more energy-efficient—all over the course of a single, well-integrated project.

This home, owned by an interior designer is situated on a wide, steep lot on a long abandoned logging route. It has ben designed in a linear fashion to reinforce the feeling of a natural grade in the woods. Most rooms take advantage of two exposures and are offset to gain access to the expansive rustic outdoor room and deck. In keeping with it’s setting, it was built using polar bark, cedar, and stone.

This shingle style cottage was a complete renovation, enhancing its already charming attributes with new, modern amenities. Renovations included enclosing an existing sunroom, new windows and new roof dormers to gain access to a walk-out roof deck.