The homeowner's custom stained glass shines over a farmhouse sink. Dave Adams Photography
Kitchen pantry - small modern galley concrete floor kitchen pantry idea in Sacramento with a farmhouse sink, open cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, quartz countertops and stainless steel appliances

We developed a design that fully met the desires of a spacious, airy, light filled home incorporating Universal Design features that blend seamlessly adding beauty to the Minimalist Scandinavian concept.

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This LEED Platinum certified house reflects the homeowner's desire for an exceptionally healthy and comfortable living environment, within a traditional neighborhood. INFILL SITE. The family, who moved from another area of Wellesley, sought out this property to be within walking distance of the high school and downtown area. An existing structure on the tight lot was removed to make way for the new home. 84% of the construction waste, from both the previous structure and the new home, was diverted from a landfill. ZED designed to preserve the existing mature trees on the perimeter of the property to minimize site impacts, and to maintain the character of the neighborhood as well as privacy on the site. EXTERIOR EXPRESSION. The street facade of the home relates to the local New England vernacular. The rear uses contemporary language, a nod to the family’s Californian roots, to incorporate a roof deck, solar panels, outdoor living space, and the backyard swimming pool. ZED’s careful planning avoided to the need to face the garage doors towards the street, a common syndrome of a narrow lot. THOUGHTFUL SPACE. Homes with dual entries can often result in duplicate and unused spaces. In this home, the everyday and formal entry areas are one and the same; the front and garage doors share the entry program of coat closets, mudroom storage with bench for removing your shoes, and a laundry room with generous closets for the children's sporting equipment. The entry area leads directly to the living space, encompassing the kitchen, dining and sitting area areas in an L-shaped open plan arrangement. The kitchen is placed at the south-west corner of the space to allow for a strong connection to the dining, sitting and outdoor living spaces. A fire pit on the deck satisfies the family’s desire for an open flame while a sealed gas fireplace is used indoors - ZED’s preference after omitting gas burning appliances completely from an airtight home. A small study, with a window seat, is conveniently located just off of the living space. A first floor guest bedroom includes an accessible bathroom for aging visitors and can be used as a master suite to accommodate aging in place. HEALTHY LIVING. The client requested a home that was easy to clean and would provide a respite from seasonal allergies and common contaminants that are found in many indoor spaces. ZED selected easy to clean solid surface flooring throughout, provided ample space for cleaning supplies on each floor, and designed a mechanical system with ventilation that provides a constant supply of fresh outdoor air. ZED selected durable materials, finishes, cabinetry, and casework with low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and no added urea formaldehyde. YEAR-ROUND COMFORT. The home is super insulated and air-tight, paired with high performance triple-paned windows, to ensure it is draft-free throughout the winter (even when in front of the large windows and doors). ZED designed a right-sized heating and cooling system to pair with the thermally improved building enclosure to ensure year-round comfort. The glazing on the home maximizes passive solar gains, and facilitates cross ventilation and daylighting. ENERGY EFFICIENT. As one of the most energy efficient houses built to date in Wellesley, the home highlights a practical solution for Massachusetts. First, the building enclosure reduces the largest energy requirement for typical houses (heating). Super-insulation, exceptional air sealing, a thermally broken wall assembly, triple pane windows, and passive solar gain combine for a sizable heating load reduction. Second, within the house only efficient systems consume energy. These include an air source heat pump for heating & cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation, and high efficiency appliances. Lastly, photovoltaics provide renewable energy help offset energy consumption. The result is an 89% reduction in energy use compared to a similar brand new home built to code requirements. RESILIENT. The home will fare well in extreme weather events. During a winter power outage, heat loss will be very slow due to the super-insulated and airtight envelope– taking multiple days to drop to 60 degrees even with no heat source. An engineered drainage system, paired with careful the detailing of the foundation, will help to keep the finished basement dry. A generator will provide full operation of the all-electric house during a power outage. OVERALL. The home is a reflection of the family goals and an expression of their values, beautifully enabling health, comfort, safety, resilience, and utility, all while respecting the planet. ZED - Architect & Mechanical Designer Bevilacqua Builders Inc - Contractor Creative Land & Water Engineering - Civil Engineering Barbara Peterson Landscape - Landscape Design Nest & Company - Interior Furnishings Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Photo by Junichi Harano
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Beautiful Master Tub set in spa-like desert surrounding with views of the local scenery. Builder – GEF Development, Interiors - Ownby Design, Photographer – Thompson Photographic.

The toilet was chosen for it's clean, sleek lines, and the fact it is a one piece unit (easier cleaning!) A cabinet over the toilet was custom built to house the toilet paper, and angled to follow the slope of the ceiling. Custom magazine rack was added beside the toilet and painted out to match the walls.

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Todd Miller
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Powder room design by DKOR Interiors - Residential Interior Design Project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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chandelier and artwork in master bath
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This walk in shower benefited from both a hand held shower and rain shower head.
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From the master you enter this awesome bath. A large lipless shower with multiple shower heads include the rain shower you can see. Her vanity with makeup space is on the left and his is to the right. The large closet is just out of frame to the right. The tub had auto shades to provide privacy when needed and the toilet room is just to the right of the tub.

Bathroom - mid-sized eclectic master white tile and subway tile bathroom idea in Denver with glass countertops and blue countertops

The shower tile was designed to look like a single block of concrete using large format porcelain tiles by Emser Tile with a 3/16" grout line in the same color. The plumbing needed to go on an exterior wall to make sense, so we built out a box to house the pipes in front of the insulated exterior wall and accented it with a subtle mosaic.