Example of a transitional kitchen design in Detroit

THE SETUP Client Background: Our clients, a couple who have transitioned into the empty nest phase, have cherished their home for over three decades without undergoing any significant renovations. With a newfound desire to adapt their living space to better suit their current lifestyle, they’ve embarked on a journey to reimagine their kitchen — the heart of their home. Their aspiration is to cultivate a serene, neutral-toned sanctuary on the first floor that seamlessly merges with their family room, ensuring a harmonious and inviting environment. Design Inspiration: The renovation is inspired by the couple’s penchant for soft, calming neutrals, using their cherished family room and the kitchen’s existing tile flooring as the cornerstone for the color scheme. This approach aims to foster a sense of warmth and tranquility throughout. Design Objectives: Harmonize the kitchen with the family room by adopting a soothing, neutral color scheme, ensuring a seamless flow across the first floor. Enhance kitchen functionality with thoughtfully designed cabinetry, providing a designated place for every item and maximizing storage efficiency. Cultivate an inviting and comfortable atmosphere that reflects the homeowners’ desire for a calm and relaxing space. Design Challenges: The homeowners wish to retain the existing kitchen tile flooring and integrate it into a refreshed, modern design. Accommodating a dining area spacious enough for family visits without compromising the kitchen’s open feel or functional layout. Despite liking the current placement of plumbing and appliances, the homeowners aspire for a more open floor plan to facilitate better movement and interaction. The need to amplify natural light in the kitchen, especially around the sink area, where existing lighting is insufficient. Preserving the half-wall between the kitchen and family room, a feature the homeowners want to keep, while ensuring it complements the new design. THE RENEWED SPACE Design Solutions: By choosing a neutral color palette that complements the existing tile, the design unifies the kitchen with the adjacent spaces. The tile’s grout was cleaned and restored, enhancing the floor’s appearance and integrating it seamlessly with the new kitchen aesthetic. The inclusion of a larger island with seating for two, alongside maintaining a substantial dining table, was achieved by optimizing the spatial layout. This allowed for a sociable yet functional kitchen, accommodating large family gatherings without feeling crowded. Minor adjustments to the kitchen’s layout maintained the preferred locations for plumbing and appliances while introducing an ‘open’ design concept. Strategic modifications, such as angling the pantry wall, improved the flow and accessibility within the space. Replacing the garden window with a broader, standard window significantly increased natural light, transforming the sink area into a bright, welcoming space with enhanced views of the outdoors. The decision to keep the half-wall was ingeniously leveraged to define the dining area while maintaining an open connection to the family room. This feature not only serves as a visual separator but also ties the two spaces together through the shared color scheme and design elements. The homeowners are thrilled with their newly remodeled kitchen, which has become a hub of warmth and hospitality. Hosting a wedding shower and a birthday party, they have shared their renewed space with friends and family, who have been equally enamored. This remodel has not only met their functional and aesthetic desires but has also enriched their home with a fresh sense of serenity and joy. The upstairs part of the home is shaping up nicely. Here’s their newly remodeled primary bathroom.

This postmodern-inspired residence pairs a sophisticated earth-toned palette with bulbous modern forms. Custom furnishings, statement patterns, and organic matter create balance and refinement. Natural elements of wool, linen, stone and wood help the environment feel layered and harmonious. Asymmetrical styling and delicate lighting add a finishing artistic touch.

Mid-sized craftsman brown one-story mixed siding gable roof idea in Boston with a metal roof

With adjacent neighbors within a fairly dense section of Paradise Valley, Arizona, C.P. Drewett sought to provide a tranquil retreat for a new-to-the-Valley surgeon and his family who were seeking the modernism they loved though had never lived in. With a goal of consuming all possible site lines and views while maintaining autonomy, a portion of the house — including the entry, office, and master bedroom wing — is subterranean. This subterranean nature of the home provides interior grandeur for guests but offers a welcoming and humble approach, fully satisfying the clients requests. While the lot has an east-west orientation, the home was designed to capture mainly north and south light which is more desirable and soothing. The architecture’s interior loftiness is created with overlapping, undulating planes of plaster, glass, and steel. The woven nature of horizontal planes throughout the living spaces provides an uplifting sense, inviting a symphony of light to enter the space. The more voluminous public spaces are comprised of stone-clad massing elements which convert into a desert pavilion embracing the outdoor spaces. Every room opens to exterior spaces providing a dramatic embrace of home to natural environment. Grand Award winner for Best Interior Design of a Custom Home The material palette began with a rich, tonal, large-format Quartzite stone cladding. The stone’s tones gaveforth the rest of the material palette including a champagne-colored metal fascia, a tonal stucco system, and ceilings clad with hemlock, a tight-grained but softer wood that was tonally perfect with the rest of the materials. The interior case goods and wood-wrapped openings further contribute to the tonal harmony of architecture and materials. Grand Award Winner for Best Indoor Outdoor Lifestyle for a Home This award-winning project was recognized at the 2020 Gold Nugget Awards with two Grand Awards, one for Best Indoor/Outdoor Lifestyle for a Home, and another for Best Interior Design of a One of a Kind or Custom Home. At the 2020 Design Excellence Awards and Gala presented by ASID AZ North, Ownby Design received five awards for Tonal Harmony. The project was recognized for 1st place – Bathroom; 3rd place – Furniture; 1st place – Kitchen; 1st place – Outdoor Living; and 2nd place – Residence over 6,000 square ft. Congratulations to Claire Ownby, Kalysha Manzo, and the entire Ownby Design team. Tonal Harmony was also featured on the cover of the July/August 2020 issue of Luxe Interiors + Design and received a 14-page editorial feature entitled “A Place in the Sun” within the magazine.

When full-time Massachusetts residents contemplate building a second home in Telluride, Colorado the question immediately arises; does it make most sense to hire a regionally based Rocky Mountain architect or a sea level architect conveniently located for all of the rigorous collaboration required for successful bespoke home design. Determined to prove the latter true, Siemasko + Verbridge accompanied the potential client as they scoured the undulating Telluride landscape in search of the perfect house site. The selected site’s harmonious balance of untouched meadow rising up to meet the edge of an aspen grove and the opposing 180 degree view of Wilson’s Range spoke to everyone. A plateau just beyond a fork in the meadow provided a natural flatland, requiring little excavation and yet the right amount of upland slope to capture the views. The intrinsic character of the site was only enriched by an elk trail and snake-rail fence. Establishing the expanse of Wilson’s range would be best served by rejecting the notion of selected views, the central sweeping curve of the roof inverts a small saddle in the range with which it is perfectly aligned. The soaring wave of custom windows and the open floor plan make the relatively modest house feel sizable despite its footprint of just under 2,000 square feet. Officially a two bedroom home, the bunk room and loft allow the home to comfortably sleep ten, encouraging large gatherings of family and friends. The home is completely off the grid in response to the unique and fragile qualities of the landscape. Great care was taken to respect the regions vernacular through the use of mostly native materials and a palette derived from the terrain found at 9,820 feet above sea level. Photographer: Gibeon Photography

An historic St. Louis home by architect Frederick Dunn has a refurbished yard designed in harmony with the clean lines of the home and grounds. A brick and metal staircase with retaining walls is the new approach to the re-graded rear yard with a heated pool, fountain and the choice of lounging on limestone or grass patio areas. Photo by Toby Weiss for Mosby Building Arts

The gently sloping yard is divided into two distinct areas. We kept a large grassy area for the dogs and to offset the large patio. Instead of a harsh retaining we used the slope to create a natural stone stream bed that collects rainwater and drains it away from the house.

Transitional light wood floor and beige floor living room photo in Vancouver with white walls, a ribbon fireplace, a stone fireplace and no tv

Colin Perry
Large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower photo in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Alcove shower - large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower idea in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower photo in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Inspiration for a large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower remodel in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower photo in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Inspiration for a large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower remodel in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Example of a large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower design in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Colin Perry
Alcove shower - large transitional master multicolored tile and stone tile porcelain tile alcove shower idea in Vancouver with flat-panel cabinets, light wood cabinets, a one-piece toilet, multicolored walls, a trough sink and quartz countertops

Inspiration for a modern side porch remodel with a roof extension