Neglected Garden bed and pool area resurfaced, cleaned and painted.
This is an example of a mid-sized traditional full sun backyard raised garden bed in Los Angeles for summer.

Our client approached us while he was in the process of purchasing his ½ lot detached unit in Hermosa Beach. He was drawn to a design / build approach because although he has great design taste, as a busy professional he didn’t have the time or energy to manage every detail involved in a home remodel. The property had been used as a rental unit and was in need of TLC. By bringing us onto the project during the purchase we were able to help assess the true condition of the home. Built in 1976, the 894 sq. ft. home had extensive termite and dry rot damage from years of neglect. The project required us to reframe the home from the inside out. To design a space that your client will love you really need to spend time getting to know them. Our client enjoys entertaining small groups. He has a custom turntable and considers himself a mixologist. We opened up the space, space-planning for his custom turntable, to make it ideal for entertaining. The wood floor is reclaimed wood from manufacturing facilities. The reframing work also allowed us to make the roof a deck with an ocean view. The home is now a blend of the latest design trends and vintage elements and our client couldn’t be happier! View the 'before' and 'after' images of this project at: http://www.houzz.com/discussions/4189186/bachelors-whole-house-remodel-in-hermosa-beach-ca-part-1 http://www.houzz.com/discussions/4203075/m=23/bachelors-whole-house-remodel-in-hermosa-beach-ca-part-2 http://www.houzz.com/discussions/4216693/m=23/bachelors-whole-house-remodel-in-hermosa-beach-ca-part-3 Features: subway tile, reclaimed wood floors, quartz countertops, bamboo wood cabinetry, Ebony finish cabinets in kitchen

This homeowner has long since moved away from his family farm but still visits often and thought it was time to fix up this little house that had been neglected for years. He brought home ideas and objects he was drawn to from travels around the world and allowed a team of us to help bring them together in this old family home that housed many generations through the years. What it grew into is not your typical 150 year old NC farm house but the essence is still there and shines through in the original wood and beams in the ceiling and on some of the walls, old flooring, re-purposed objects from the farm and the collection of cherished finds from his travels. Photos by Tad Davis Photography

This home was not even visible from the street because of the overgrown and neglected landscape. There was no obvious entrance to the front door, and the garden area was surprisingly spacious once the over grown brush was removed. We added an arbored and walled patio in the rear garden, near the kitchen, for morning coffee and meditation. .

This American Foursquare built in the early 1900’s needed a complete restoration. The back two story porch was rotten from years of neglect and needed to be torn down and completely rebuilt. Inside, the kitchen and bathrooms needed full renovations, and the trunk room was turned into the master bath in order to create a true master suite. Piperbear also handled the staging and assisted with the marketing of the property.

Custom Design Project: Designer needed to add interest to an oft-neglected long hallway and chose antique fern prints from our extensive print collection in a custom size 47"x72" OD that we framed in gold leaf wood moulding.

The couple that purchased this home, moved to Omaha from California. They loved the history of the neighborhood. It had been neglected for years, until someone came through before them and decided to flip it (and not very well). They had multiple spaces in the house they wished to renovate, while maintaining the original integrity of the home. Their first goal was to convert an upstairs bathroom, bedroom, and hall space to a large master bath with two walk-in closets and large shower. We then changed the pitch of the outdoor porch roof of the back addition to accommodate a hot tub above, and connect an entrance to their newly renovated upstairs master bath/suite. We also had additional cabinetry made for a serving bar in the kitchen that was previously an empty space. The last space was a full hall bath that we took completely down to the studs and re-designed/built. I would like to credit Bill Bolte Construction for taking my designs and the ideas laid out by the homeowners and turning them into an incredible reality.

Door style: Pendleton | Species: Red Oak | Finish: Natural An overlooked downtown loft space becomes a home of stunning spaces and simple charm with the help of Showplace red oak cabinetry. The owners of this intriguing creation operate Rehfeld's Art and Framing in the street-level storefront below, so there is no shortage of artistic creativity in the family. With some careful planning and hard work, this neglected space became a comfortable and unique home. Showplace Kitchens: http://www.showplacekitchens.com/ Showplace Wood Products: http://www.showplacewood.com/

This Dutch Renaissance Revival style Brownstone located in a historic district of the Crown heights neighborhood of Brooklyn was built in 1899. The brownstone was converted to a boarding house in the 1950’s and experienced many years of neglect which made much of the interior detailing unsalvageable with the exception of the stairwell. Therefore the new owners decided to gut renovate the majority of the home, converting it into a four family home. The bottom two units are owner occupied, the design of each includes common elements yet also reflects the style of each owner. Both units have modern kitchens with new high end appliances and stone countertops. They both have had the original wood paneling restored or repaired and both feature large open bathrooms with freestanding tubs, marble slab walls and radiant heated concrete floors. The garden apartment features an open living/dining area that flows through the kitchen to get to the outdoor space. In the kitchen and living room feature large steel French doors which serve to bring the outdoors in. The garden was fully renovated and features a deck with a pergola. Other unique features of this apartment include a modern custom crown molding, a bright geometric tiled fireplace and the labyrinth wallpaper in the powder room. The upper two floors were designed as rental units and feature open kitchens/living areas, exposed brick walls and white subway tiled bathrooms.

After a large renovation in the back of the house, this front room was looking neglected. The space had become cluttered and the furniture didn’t reflect the family’s aesthetic. I interviewed them to determine how they wanted to use the room and why it wasn’t working for them. Then, I created several design mock-ups. Once we landed on a style direction, I provided a shopping list for big items and sourced accessories. Now, this little room is one of their favorites!

In the top floor of the Hopkinson House lived a neglected, dingy corner apartment facing Washington Square. The new owner purchased the unit and undertook a complete gut renovation of the space. With parallels to her own life, the owner craved a new, fresh, light filled, colorful space to call her own. The design centers around a retractable suede wall panel system which when open, draws in the western sun, creating a spacious living area. When closed, it allows for a guest bedroom complete with Murphy bed. Fine finishes accent the space throughout and wood shelving provide displays for an extensive teapot collection.

Mid Century home that was neglected, original kitchen, baths with leaky old showers, original, occasional surface mount lighting. Every room in the house was extensively redone from framing, electrical, plumbing, flooring, cabinetry, exteriors repaired, transom glass replaced.

A neglected backyard in deep shade needed a redesign. Clean and usable garden was built full of shade tolerant perennials and shrubs. As this garden will mature in years to come it will provide owners with lush vegetation and plenty of room to entertain and play.

2011 NARI CAPITAL COTY FINALIST AWARD WINNER This 1970’s split-level single-family home in an upscale Arlington neighborhood had been neglected for years. With his surrounding neighbors all doing major exterior and interior remodeling, however, the owner decided it was time to renovate his property as well. After several consultation meetings with the design team at Michael Nash Design, Build & Homes, he settled on an exterior layout to create an Art & Craft design for the home. It all got started by excavating the front and left side of the house and attaching a wrap-around stone porch. Key design attributes include a black metal roof, large tapered columns, blue and grey random style flag stone, beaded stain ceiling paneling and an octagonal seating area on the left side of this porch. The front porch has a wide stairway and another set of stairs leads to the back yard. All exterior walls of the home were modified with new headers to allow much larger custom-made windows, new front doors garage doors, and French side and back doors. A custom-designed mahogany front door with leaded glass provides more light and offers a wider entrance into the home’s living area. Design challenges included removing the entire face of the home and then adding new insulation, Tyvek and Hardiplank siding. The use of high-efficiency low-e windows makes the home air tight. The Arts & Crafts design touches include the front gable over the front porch, the prairie-style grill pattern on the windows and doors, the use of tapered columns sitting over stone columns and the leaded glass front door. Decorative exterior lighting provides the finishing touches to this look. Inside, custom woodwork, crown molding, custom glass cabinets and interior pillars carry the design. Upon entering the space, visitors face a large partition that separates the living area from a gourmet Arts & Crafts kitchen and dining room. The home’s signature space, the kitchen offers contrasting dark and light cherry cabinets. Wide plank hard wood floors, exotic granite counters and stainless steel professional-grade appliances make this a kitchen fit for any chef.

How do you modernize modernism on a budget? This house had charming midcentury character and lots of potential but had been neglected for many years and was sorely in need of a refresh to bring it up to modern standards of comfort, finish, and sustainability. The tight budget dictated that it would not be a down-to-the-studs, gut remodel, but more of a surgical intervention. Built in 1955, the house had settled on the downhill side, making the floors slope almost 4” from the front to the back of the house. Using an innovative and inexpensive push-pile method, the foundation was reinforced and the house was jacked back up. It now sits solidly on bedrock and the floor is level to within a half-inch throughout. Inside, the original kitchen was worn and needed replacement. This presented an opportunity to remove the walls separating it from the living and dining area and create a wide-open great room with a peninsula counter for guests to gather and an almost continuous wall of windows to take in views of the hills, trees, and bay. Throughout the rest of the house, most finishes were restored, or replaced when necessary. Wood floors were refinished, and new cork flooring, a slightly less durable but much less expensive alternative to tile and similar materials, was used in all wet areas, with the added benefit of warmth and resiliency. The existing textured walls and ceilings were skim-coated smooth with plaster, dark beams painted white, and existing wood wall paneling in the living room was cleaned and color-matched where new pieces were required. All of the existing frameless, direct-glazed windows were replaced with double pane units, and a new floor-to-ceiling window on the south side of the living room provides a key source of natural light. In the bathrooms, existing tile and vanities were saved, and a strangely colored tub and sinks were re-glazed. Flooring, toilets, lighting, double medicine cabinets, and paint in each space make these mostly unaltered rooms feel new again. Sustainability and comfort upgrades include an induction range (step one of an eventual transition to full electrification), spray foam insulation under the floor, spray-in cellulose in the walls, and warm-dim LED lighting throughout on a simple whole-house control system. Combined with a modern thermostat, the house’s systems are all accessible via app from anywhere. And the most sustainable feature of all? What we didn’t do: tear it down and start over. In a country that demolishes a million homes a year- 1% of our residential housing stock- reusing an existing home is the greenest solution of all.

Design and installed by Good Earth Inc. Turned a bare and neglected lawn into a simple but elegant modern landscape to compliments the modern remodel of the home. Contact Good Earth for information on lawn and home.

Opportunity: The unusual shape of this space, low ceilings, and poorly located appliances combined to make guests feel cramped and unsure of where to sit in this kitchen. The access doors to the exterior deck begged for more space to make for a more natural flow from the inside out. And the adjacent TV area off of the kitchen felt neglected and disjointed. With some holistic thinking and beautiful details, we were able to turn this awkward space into a focal point of a warm and cozy home. RESULT: The range backsplash became our piece de resistance and our focus on creating a cohesive design of the spaces. A blue/gray and white theme with gold accents evolved and combined to bring it all together.

Extensive or compact, no details will be neglected
Minimalist l-shaped marble floor and gray floor enclosed kitchen photo in Los Angeles with a single-bowl sink, open cabinets, white cabinets, marble countertops, multicolored backsplash, marble backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and white countertops

After decades of neglect left its yard overgrown with weeds and wild flora, we have painstakingly restored the landscapes back to a simple and beautiful state where old growth is enhanced by new additions.