Our clients had a couple young kids and wanted to renovate their house. We used timber framing to extend and add-on to the existing home and significantly increase the square footage of the house. This provided both structural and aesthetic benefits for the project. The kitchen has numerous local and handmade features, including a soapstone countertop and built-in sink.

Naturalistic meadow.
Design ideas for a large rustic drought-tolerant and full sun backyard gravel garden path in San Diego.

Rosmarin Landscape Design is a company dedicated to creating gardens of individuality and atmosphere. Our gardens are artistically designed and professionally installed. The company combines local horticultural experience and an international art and garden background to create an aesthetically satisfying, functional and cost effective result.

Open concept living room with neutral colors, floor to ceiling windows and stone fireplace.
Cottage open concept light wood floor living room photo in Austin with white walls, a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Coronado, CA The Alameda Residence is situated on a relatively large, yet unusually shaped lot for the beachside community of Coronado, California. The orientation of the “L” shaped main home and linear shaped guest house and covered patio create a large, open courtyard central to the plan. The majority of the spaces in the home are designed to engage the courtyard, lending a sense of openness and light to the home. The aesthetics take inspiration from the simple, clean lines of a traditional “A-frame” barn, intermixed with sleek, minimal detailing that gives the home a contemporary flair. The interior and exterior materials and colors reflect the bright, vibrant hues and textures of the seaside locale.

Design ideas for a contemporary landscaping in San Francisco.

Rustic wood custom garage doors
Arts and crafts attached three-car garage photo in Atlanta

Our clients had a couple young kids and wanted to renovate their house. We used timber framing to extend and add-on to the existing home and significantly increase the square footage of the house. This provided both structural and aesthetic benefits for the project. The kitchen has numerous local and handmade features, including a soapstone countertop and built-in sink.

The owner proposed a Rustic Modern aesthetic, and the design highlights trees harvested from the site as columns for the timber frame structure. Nestled into a Western slope the house enjoys dramatic views to the East. Conceived as the ultimate family house, the main floor is the heart of the residence, and the third floor houses the master bedroom suite with guest rooms lower level. Photo by Tom Bodell

Our clients were looking to build an income property for use as a short term rental in their backyard. In order to keep maximize the available space on a limited footprint, we designed the ADU around a spiral staircase leading up to the loft bedroom. The vaulted ceiling gives the small space a much larger appearance. To provide privacy for both the renters and the homeowners, the ADU was set apart from the house with its own private entrance. The design of the ADU was done with local Pacific Northwest aesthetics in mind, including green exterior paint and a mixture of woodgrain and metal fixtures for the interior. Durability was a major concern for the homeowners. In order to minimize potential damages from renters, we selected quartz countertops and waterproof flooring. We also used a high-quality interior paint that will stand the test of time and clean easily. The end result of this project was exactly what the client was hoping for, and the rental consistently receives 5-star reviews on Airbnb.

Rosmarin Landscape Design is a company dedicated to creating gardens of individuality and atmosphere. Our gardens are artistically designed and professionally installed. The company combines local horticultural experience and an international art and garden background to create an aesthetically satisfying, functional and cost effective result.

White shaker, charcoal-grey island kitchen, and walk you through unique design features it possesses. Hypoallergenic Finish Solutions One of the biggest priorities in this design was its hypoallergenic characteristics, so we selected solid maple for the door panels and low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) “Pune Bond” plywood for the interior with solid maple drawer boxes. The finishes are: water-based post-catalyzed polyurethane and hypoallergenic grey stain with a clear coat. Eco-friendliness On top of our aspirations to make hypoallergenic and low VOC material choices, we strive to make our designs highly reusable/recyclable and use local materials and labor to keep CO2 emission as low as possible. This kitchen was manufactured at our factory in Etobicoke, including production of door panels. Durability All our kitchens are practical and as low maintenance as they could be. We use highly durable MDF and hardwoods along with reliable finishes, Blum soft-close hardware on doors and drawers. We achieved this goal when designing this kitchen by choosing solid maple doors, plywood interiors, dovetail drawers, Blum soft-close door hinges and drawer slides. The appliance garages have Aventos parallel lifts. All hardware have a lifetime warranty! Use of space It is crucial that you are able to utilize the space at its maximum capacity as well as it is convenient to work on. As you can see here, we adhered to the ‘work triangle’ rule, making it easy to move between the main prep/cooking components: fridge, cooktop/oven and sink. All ‘hot spots’ of this kitchen are at your arm’s stretch. We incorporated appliance garages, waste management systems, tray dividers, wine racks and last but not the least, a combination of shallow and deep drawers. Esthetics A funny thing about esthetics is that no designer will ever tell you that he priorities esthetic qualities over practicality or cost-efficiency, because we do not. However, this is what sells the kitchen, makes your house unique, increases its value on the real estate market and just makes you feel great! That is why esthetics can’t be ignored; it is just as important as everything else!

Rosmarin Landscape Design is a company dedicated to creating gardens of individuality and atmosphere. Our gardens are artistically designed and professionally installed. The company combines local horticultural experience and an international art and garden background to create an aesthetically satisfying, functional and cost effective result.

Judy Bernier
Inspiration for a mid-sized eclectic detached studio / workshop shed remodel in Portland Maine

Rosmarin Landscape Design is a company dedicated to creating gardens of individuality and atmosphere. Our gardens are artistically designed and professionally installed. The company combines local horticultural experience and an international art and garden background to create an aesthetically satisfying, functional and cost effective result.

White shaker, charcoal-grey island kitchen, and walk you through unique design features it possesses. Hypoallergenic Finish Solutions One of the biggest priorities in this design was its hypoallergenic characteristics, so we selected solid maple for the door panels and low Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) “Pune Bond” plywood for the interior with solid maple drawer boxes. The finishes are: water-based post-catalyzed polyurethane and hypoallergenic grey stain with a clear coat. Eco-friendliness On top of our aspirations to make hypoallergenic and low VOC material choices, we strive to make our designs highly reusable/recyclable and use local materials and labor to keep CO2 emission as low as possible. This kitchen was manufactured at our factory in Etobicoke, including production of door panels. Durability All our kitchens are practical and as low maintenance as they could be. We use highly durable MDF and hardwoods along with reliable finishes, Blum soft-close hardware on doors and drawers. We achieved this goal when designing this kitchen by choosing solid maple doors, plywood interiors, dovetail drawers, Blum soft-close door hinges and drawer slides. The appliance garages have Aventos parallel lifts. All hardware have a lifetime warranty! Use of space It is crucial that you are able to utilize the space at its maximum capacity as well as it is convenient to work on. As you can see here, we adhered to the ‘work triangle’ rule, making it easy to move between the main prep/cooking components: fridge, cooktop/oven and sink. All ‘hot spots’ of this kitchen are at your arm’s stretch. We incorporated appliance garages, waste management systems, tray dividers, wine racks and last but not the least, a combination of shallow and deep drawers. Esthetics A funny thing about esthetics is that no designer will ever tell you that he priorities esthetic qualities over practicality or cost-efficiency, because we do not. However, this is what sells the kitchen, makes your house unique, increases its value on the real estate market and just makes you feel great! That is why esthetics can’t be ignored; it is just as important as everything else!

Custom-built on over six acres by a local builder, this gorgeous property is surrounded by vineyards and lake views. With a classic Mediterranean villa aesthetic, there’s a large inner courtyard and fireplace (with a gorgeous olive tree!) along with a beautiful backyard with multiple seating areas, firepits, pool/spa, and outdoor kitchen and dining. The spacious interior includes custom furniture throughout which allows for plenty of seating that's perfect for indoor/outdoor entertaining.

Situated at he top of a ridge that commands an impressive view of Chimney Top Mountain, this home was built using local vernacular details and materials from the Appalachians dating to the early 1900’s. We incorporated extensive wood detailing in the interiors to maintain the look and feel of its regional aesthetic.