The client requested a kitchen that would not only provide a great space to cook and enjoy family meals but one that would fit in with her unique design sense. An avid collector of contemporary art, she wanted something unexpected in her 100-year-old home in both color and finishes but still providing a great layout with improved lighting, storage, and superior cooking abilities. The existing kitchen was in a closed off space trapped between the family room and the living. If you were in the kitchen, you were isolated from the rest of the house. Making the kitchen an integrated part of the home was a paramount request. Step one, remove the wall separating the kitchen from the other rooms in the home which allowed the new kitchen to become an integrated space instead of an isolation room for the cook. Next, we relocated the pantry access which was in the family room to the kitchen integrating a poorly used recess which had become a catch all area which did not provide any usable space for storage or working area. To add valuable function in the kitchen we began by capturing unused "cubbies", adding a walk-in pantry from the kitchen, increasing the storage lost to un-needed drop ceilings and bring light and design to the space with a new large awning window, improved lighting, and combining interesting finishes and colors to reflect the artistic attitude of the client. A bathroom located above the kitchen had been leaking into the plaster ceiling for several years. That along with knob and tube wiring, rotted beams and a brick wall from the back of the fireplace in the adjacent living room all needed to be brought to code. The walls, ceiling and floors in this 100+ year old home were completely out of level and the room’s foot print could not be increased. The choice of a Sub-Zero wolf product is a standard in my kitchen designs. The quality of the product, its manufacturing and commitment to food preservation is the reason I specify Sub Zero Wolf. For the cook top, the integrated line of the contemporary cooktop and the signature red knobs against the navy blue of the cabinets added to the design vibe of the kitchen. The cooking performance and the large continuous grate on the cooktop makes it an obvious choice for a cook looking for a great cook top with professional results in a more streamlined profile. We selected a Sharp microwave drawer for the island, an XO wine refrigerator, Bosch dishwasher and Kitchen Aid double convection wall ovens to round out the appliance package. A recess created by the fireplace was outfitted with a cabinet which now holds small appliances within easy reach of my very petite client. Natural maple accents were used inside all the wall cabinets and repeated on the front of the hood and for the sliding door appliance cabinet and the floating shelves. This allows a brighter interior for the painted cabinets instead of the traditional same interior as exterior finish choice. The was an amazing transformation from the old to the new. The final touches are the honey bronze hardware from Top Knobs, Mitzi pendants from Hudson Valley Lighting group, a fabulous faucet from Brizo. To eliminate the old freestanding bottled water cooler, we specified a matching water filter faucet.

Mid-sized elegant ceramic tile utility room photo in Other with shaker cabinets, light wood cabinets, white walls and a side-by-side washer/dryer

Trendy kitchen photo in Portland with flat-panel cabinets and white cabinets

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

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

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Image Courtesy © Chris Becker
Example of a beach style metal exterior home design in Boston

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

The architecture of this mid-century ranch in Portland’s West Hills oozes modernism’s core values. We wanted to focus on areas of the home that didn’t maximize the architectural beauty. The Client—a family of three, with Lucy the Great Dane, wanted to improve what was existing and update the kitchen and Jack and Jill Bathrooms, add some cool storage solutions and generally revamp the house. We totally reimagined the entry to provide a “wow” moment for all to enjoy whilst entering the property. A giant pivot door was used to replace the dated solid wood door and side light. We designed and built new open cabinetry in the kitchen allowing for more light in what was a dark spot. The kitchen got a makeover by reconfiguring the key elements and new concrete flooring, new stove, hood, bar, counter top, and a new lighting plan. Our work on the Humphrey House was featured in Dwell Magazine.

The goal for this mid-century home was to exploit the best features of the property, taking advantage of views, the dramatic light, the potential for an incredible indoor-outdoor experience and the mid-century bones of the house. When we first visited the property, I was struck by the potential for a beautiful mountain view that was currently cut off by a low ceiling height in the main living area. Raising the roof of the main living area became the largest gesture in our scope of work. The former chopped-up side entry and tiny kitchen were combined to make a long, generous kitchen and built-in banquette. The original rhombus-shaped pool was kept, restored and lined with Ann Sacks tiles. In the center of the action, we conceived a large floating desk surface suspended from a black metal screen to define the space and allow filtered light and views to pass between. The clients were drawn to clean lines, pared-down details and highly disciplined palettes of white, grey and matte black. We generally opted for deep, muted colors balanced with crisp white, adding textures to create patterns with the shifting daylight throughout the house. This soothing collection of finishes playing with light and shadow would achieve a peaceful and elegant home that would stand the test of time and honor the landscape of the surrounding area. ​ Photography: Douglas Friedman

Kitchen - transitional kitchen idea in Minneapolis

Sometimes our clients like to be very much involved in the creation of their home, and this is one such example. The owner wanted to source the primary materials, so we discussed the needs from our point of view as the architects, and he went into action. He would find hewn barns and send us photos and floor plans to review until we found the perfect combination. One large hewn barn was moved to the client’s land near Yellowstone Park, then renovated to become the main living portion of the house. A second smaller barn was reworked to be the master bedroom, and then joined by a stone connector. To accommodate a billiards room and complete the home, one last living space was included in the project.

This early 20th century Poppleton Park home was originally 2548 sq ft. with a small kitchen, nook, powder room and dining room on the first floor. The second floor included a single full bath and 3 bedrooms. The client expressed a need for about 1500 additional square feet added to the basement, first floor and second floor. In order to create a fluid addition that seamlessly attached to this home, we tore down the original one car garage, nook and powder room. The addition was added off the northern portion of the home, which allowed for a side entry garage. Plus, a small addition on the Eastern portion of the home enlarged the kitchen, nook and added an exterior covered porch. Special features of the interior first floor include a beautiful new custom kitchen with island seating, stone countertops, commercial appliances, large nook/gathering with French doors to the covered porch, mud and powder room off of the new four car garage. Most of the 2nd floor was allocated to the master suite. This beautiful new area has views of the park and includes a luxurious master bath with free standing tub and walk-in shower, along with a 2nd floor custom laundry room! Attention to detail on the exterior was essential to keeping the charm and character of the home. The brick façade from the front view was mimicked along the garage elevation. A small copper cap above the garage doors and 6” half-round copper gutters finish the look. KateBenjamin Photography

Photo by Leonid Furmansky
Home design - modern home design idea in Austin