Example of a small trendy single-wall wet bar design in New York with open cabinets, marble countertops and mirror backsplash

Example of a large classic guest medium tone wood floor and brown floor bedroom design in New York with blue walls and no fireplace

Drainage Solutions & Curb Appeal Transformation This project focused on solving a persistent drainage issue that was impacting both the usability and appearance of the property. Standing water and poor grading were creating functional problems while diminishing the home’s overall curb appeal—an issue many homeowners face when water isn’t properly directed away from the home. Fowler Outdoor Co. approached the project with a design-build mindset, addressing the root cause of the drainage problem through proper grading, water management, and structural solutions. By integrating effective drainage systems with thoughtfully designed hardscape elements, the team was able to redirect water flow, protect the property, and create a more stable foundation for the landscape. Beyond functionality, the transformation elevated the front yard’s appearance with clean lines, intentional materials, and a cohesive layout that complements the home. The result is a space that not only performs better during heavy rain but also delivers a polished, welcoming first impression. This project is a great example of how solving underlying issues like drainage can completely transform both the look and long-term performance of an outdoor space.

A colorful home in Pittsburgh brought into the modern era by Betsy Wentz uses Chez Shea hand-dyed art wallpaper in the butler's pantry and matching fabric on the kitchen shades.

Inspiration for a huge timeless brown two-story mixed siding gable roof remodel in Denver

Expert wallpaper installer Lakeview services transform Chicago homes with precision and style. This stunning project showcases our commitment to quality craftsmanship in one of Chicago's most desirable neighborhoods. Project Overview and Architecture This beautiful Lakeview greystone required careful wallpaper installation that would complement the home's original architectural details. The vintage building's unique character demanded specialized techniques to ensure perfect results while preserving the historic charm that makes these homes so special. Materials and Products We utilized premium wallpaper adhesive, professional smoothing tools, and high-quality materials specifically chosen for Chicago's climate conditions. Our team selected products that work exceptionally well with the plaster walls common in vintage Lakeview homes. Installation Process First, we thoroughly prepared surfaces by repairing imperfections and priming walls. Next, we precisely measured and cut each strip, ensuring perfect pattern alignment. Then, we applied adhesive evenly and positioned wallpaper with expert precision. Finally, we eliminated bubbles, trimmed edges, and completed finishing touches. Chicago Home Challenges Lakeview's vintage homes present unique challenges including uneven plaster walls, settling issues, and temperature fluctuations. Our wallpaper installer Lakeview expertise addresses these concerns with specialized preparation techniques and climate-appropriate materials that ensure lasting results. Results and Quality The finished installation showcases flawless pattern matching, smooth surfaces, and crisp edges that enhance the room's architectural features. This wallpaper installer Lakeview project demonstrates our commitment to excellence and attention to detail. Professional Tips Homeowners should always hire experienced professionals for wallpaper installation. Proper surface preparation is crucial for longevity. Additionally, choosing quality materials appropriate for Chicago's climate ensures your investment lasts for years. See more work and request free estimate at windypainters.com. Q: Why choose professional wallpaper installer Lakeview services over DIY? / A: Professional installation prevents costly mistakes, ensures proper adhesion, and guarantees beautiful results that enhance your home's value and appearance. Q: How do you handle vintage Lakeview home challenges? / A: Our wallpaper installer Lakeview team addresses plaster walls, settling issues, and architectural details with specialized techniques and appropriate materials. Q: What preparation is required before wallpaper installation? / A: We repair wall imperfections, apply primer, ensure smooth surfaces, and address any moisture issues for optimal wallpaper installer Lakeview results. Q: How long does professional wallpaper installation take? / A: Most rooms require 1-2 days depending on complexity, though our wallpaper installer Lakeview team works efficiently while maintaining quality standards. Q: Can you work with designer or specialty wallpapers? / A: Absolutely, our wallpaper installer Lakeview experts handle luxury papers, grasscloth, murals, and specialty materials with appropriate techniques and care. Q: Do you remove existing wallpaper before installation? / A: Yes, we provide complete removal services using safe methods that protect your walls and prepare surfaces for new wallpaper installer Lakeview projects. Q: How do you ensure pattern alignment and matching? / A: Our wallpaper installer Lakeview professionals use precise measuring, professional tools, and years of experience to achieve perfect pattern continuity. Q: What types of walls can accommodate wallpaper? / A: We install wallpaper on various surfaces including drywall, plaster, and painted walls after proper preparation for wallpaper installer Lakeview projects. Q: How do you handle corners and trim work? / A: Our wallpaper installer Lakeview team uses specialized techniques for inside corners, outside corners, and detailed trim work ensuring professional results. Q: What warranty do you provide on installation? / A: Windy City Painters guarantees our wallpaper installer Lakeview work with comprehensive warranty coverage protecting your investment and ensuring satisfaction.

Inspiration for a patio remodel in Montreal

Inspiration for a transitional kitchen remodel in Other

The owners had been battling gophers, deer, drainage issues, drought, and hard, rocky soil for years. They decided to eliminate their entire front lawn & add a pond-less water fountain as a focal point. I strove to provide year-round interest by adding evergreen trees and shrubs to their mostly deciduous & perennial existing plants & a variety of plants that flower at different times of the year. We terraced the yard to address the drainage issues and separated the levels with a dry-stacked fieldstone wall. Low-water, erosion control plants at the top of the hill & plants that tolerate more water at the bottom will help with the longevity of their landscape. A cool palette of purple, blue, and pink helps sooth and unify the design. The spiral of gravel & Dymondia ground-cover (will fill in the area in a couple of months) draws the eye towards the fountain & provides a large area to rest the eyes that won’t need to be watered. It was a challenge to choose plants that the deer & gophers would be less likely to destroy, that can grow under a large Oak tree, and that attract beneficial insects to help the garden last!

Craig Hudson - Hudson Photography
Example of a mountain style home bar design in Birmingham

This custom piece of cabinetry was specially designed and built by the homeowner's father! Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube Michael Eric Berube, Maine Virtual Home Tours

New garden complete. Pea gravel path leads users through a native plant garden with the essence of a geological feature. The grassland provides year-round interest, attracts birds and pollinators, and functions as a drainage solution, efficiently diverting enormous amounts of runoff away from the home where it had previously pooled after rain showers and spring snowmelts. Photo by Jess Ray Photography

Elegant kitchen photo in Other

Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

Toilet area is now completely open with room to move around, eliminating many possibilities of slips and falls.
Corner shower - mid-sized traditional master beige tile corner shower idea in New York with a one-piece toilet, gray walls and a drop-in sink

Our Architectural Digest featured acrylic wine cellar. This cellar was comprised of three alcoves that were backlit and filled with our Luma Series acrylic wine racks. We created a stacked wine rack layout that allowed for a metal counter top between the racks. Acrylic drawers with invisible stops were added for bulk wine storage. Contact our sales department to learn more about the stunning designs we can create for you.