Photo of a traditional landscaping in Omaha.

A shelfie filled with some of Isha's favourite things.
Kids' room - contemporary kids' room idea

This lyrical home was designed for an artist and her husband in the Northside Overlay District in Wheaton. The owners wanted a home that would fit comfortably into the established neighborhood, while creating its own presence as a new classic. While the large front porch ties the home to its neighbors, subtle details set it apart, such as the granite rubble base, the arched copper entrance, and the delicate curve in the cedar shingle roof. While the exterior echoes its shingle style roots, it is a distilled version of shingle style, a simplified rendering that sets the house firmly in the present day. The interior reinforces its stripped down persona with a long gallery and barrel-vault ceiling leading back to an intersection with the great room ceiling,- yet another barrel vault which defines the main living space in the back of the house. In all the house provides a clean canvas, ready to be filled in with the colorful detail of everyday life.

Pauline Hartogh of Wetherly’s Interiors was endowed with the task to create a transitional home for a family of four that melded modern luxury with functionality. She divided the home into three residential wings, all of which are structured in clean, contemporary lines. The heart of the home was created by connecting the indoors to the outdoors using floor-to-ceiling glass, which set an open focus for easy entertainment. The landscape further enhanced the clients’ desire to embrace the indoor/outdoor lifestyle that Florida’s climate offers. Amid warm, tropical landscaping, a Chartes-inspired stone labyrinth provides beauty while also providing a place for meditation and relaxation. An exceptional home calls for exceptional products, and when researching which stone to use, Hartogh went straight for Eldorado Stone. “I feel strongly that the use of Eldorado Stone’s products greatly enriched two of the areas in this project which won design awards,” Hartogh explained. The joints are seamless and the end result is always exactly what she aimed for. Hartogh chose Dry Creek Stacked Stone for the entire exterior, including patio walls and pillars, because not only looks current but also allows her the flexibility to create any design. The use of this product not only helped establish the overall tone for the home but it also allowed for architectural details, which was validated by winning the American Society of Interior Design Award 2013 – Outdoor Living, Single Family Home. Accolades: American Society of Interior Design Award 2013 – Bathroom Design, Transitional American Society of Interior Design Award 2013 – Single Residential Space, Contemporary American Society of Interior Design Award 2013 – Outdoor Living, Single Family Home Eldorado Stone Profile Featured: Exterior Façade – Dry Creek Stacked Stone Eldorado Stone Profile Featured: Master Bathroom – Pearl White CoastalReef Interior Design: Pauline Hartogh, Wetherlys Interiors Website: www.wetherlysinteriors.com Phone: (561) 691-4707 Architecture: Henry Franky, Franky & Associates Architect, Inc. Website: www.frankyarchitect.com Phone: (561) 338-3309 Home Builder: Gary Hartogh, Couture Homes Website: www.couture-homes.com Phone: (561) 776-0511 Photographer: David Durbak Website: www.durbak.com Phone: (561) 271.0706

Luxurious family room design in Naples, FL. Designed by Beasley & Henley Interior Design. While combining a tailored look that still inspires relaxation, the soft modern coastal design establishes an atmosphere of breezy serenity. The color palette blends sea salt with spa green, adding caramel, cream, and Champagne tones for contrast. The flooring throughout the main living areas, master bathroom, and cabana bedroom is 18-by-36-inch ceramic tile with an interesting vein cut to create movement. In the great room, we created a feature wall with three tall mirror-backed architectural niches. A television is wall-mounted in the center niche while wood shelving on either side provides display space for objets d'art. Floating base cabinets in each niche provide a foundation for this arrangement. Grimes' seating group includes an oversized sofa and a pair of upholstered club chairs with nail head detail. Two character chairs with open backs viewed from the foyer provide eye-catching flair. Glass accent tables and crystal elements in the chandelier enhance the atmosphere of a light airy space that flows easily to the kitchen. Wide pocketing sliders across the back of the great room open to a covered pool lanai and extraordinary lake views.

For the maximum efficiency possible we designed everything in one space, the added living area is complete with a stylish kitchen, full bathroom, sleeping alcove and comfy family room. Building this San Jose ADU not only elevated the entire property but provided flexible options. Expand family spaces, multigenerational living, establish a designated home office or generating additional rental income.

The landscape design for this property in an established New York City suburb marries stately elegance with relaxed outdoor living. The greatest challenge of the site was a considerable grade change over a small area (a third of an acre). We replaced overgrown shrubs and crumbling stonework with a clean hardscape design that clearly defines the flow around the property. A long play lawn in front is linked to a sideyard patio space and natural-gas campfire with broad bluestone block steps. A cozy dining terrace behind the house is hugged by a retaining wall that showcases friendly flowering plants and edibles. Set into the terrace wall is a custom water feature that brings sound and movement to the seating area. Exposed ledge in the backyard provides a fun playspace for adventurous kids, with a rope bridge leading to a playhouse.

Draw attention to your walls with this gorgeous geometric wallpaper. The heavyweight texture and neutral colorway provide a high quality, luxurious look. This contemporary design is embellished with metallic gold accents that beam with sophistication and style. Styled here with cool neutrals, the beige wallpaper adds to the overall ambiance of the room to establish a calming presence.

A true Seattle Craftsman with original dark stained fir finish carpentry. When I first worked with this family nearly five years ago, we created a color design for all of the communal areas of the home, except the kitchen. They knew they would be remodeling the kitchen at some point in the future. With lovely furnishings that fit the period and aesthetic of the home, establishing a palette was easy. Four years later and after helping with the exterior and their home on Orcas Island, I was asked to design their kitchen! Truly a dream project. The new kitchen countertops provided the foundation for the expansion of the home's palette. Creating a much lighter aesthetic was the goal, which is where my ability to find the right balance really came into play. I knew having some of the very dark wood elements would be important to connect the new kitchen and sunroom to the rest of the house. Staining the window sashes only, the interior of the glass-front cabinets, bookcases and bench in sunroom, and floating shelves in baking center provided the connection to the rest of the home, while the painted cabinets and woodwork provided the light freshness they were after to the flow with the countertops. I was responsible for the custom cabinet design (layout, function, and aesthetic) and coordination and selection of all hard surfaces and color.

A true Seattle Craftsman with original dark stained fir finish carpentry. When I first worked with this family nearly five years ago, we created a color design for all of the communal areas of the home, except the kitchen. They knew they would be remodeling the kitchen at some point in the future. With lovely furnishings that fit the period and aesthetic of the home, establishing a palette was easy. Four years later and after helping with the exterior and their home on Orcas Island, I was asked to design their kitchen! Truly a dream project. The new kitchen countertops provided the foundation for the expansion of the home's palette. Creating a much lighter aesthetic was the goal, which is where my ability to find the right balance really came into play. I knew having some of the very dark wood elements would be important to connect the new kitchen and sunroom to the rest of the house. Staining the window sashes only, the interior of the glass-front cabinets, bookcases and bench in sunroom, and floating shelves in baking center provided the connection to the rest of the home, while the painted cabinets and woodwork provided the light freshness they were after to the flow with the countertops. I was responsible for the custom cabinet design (layout, function, and aesthetic) and coordination and selection of all hard surfaces and color.

Erin Feinblatt
Example of a large beach style freestanding desk light wood floor and white floor study room design in Santa Barbara with white walls and no fireplace

This Spanish Revival takes its place among the graceful and genteel tradition of Santa Barbara architecture. Located in a secreted area of Montecito, the house is tucked amidst a wooded glen along a riparian creek bed. Carefully sited at the top of a rolling green, the building provides a strong form in the natural landscape. With its reference to historical precedent, the house is both undeniably familiar and tangibly rich. Site sensitivity and pure spatial relationships combine in new ways, showing that what’s old can be new again. An entry courtyard concealed behind a pair of wooden doors of Moorish design begins the entry sequence. The courtyard, wrapped around an existing mature oak tree, creates an outdoor room, which establishes an interplay between interior and exterior spaces, a theme that recurs throughout the house. An exercise in scale and proportion, the 5,000-square-foot residence is imbued with classic detail and richness found in the Spanish Colonial architecture characteristic of George Washington Smith and others. Interior spaces are created through pure and varied geometric volumes, and are elaborated by opened beamed ceilings, groin vaults and Moorish arches.

Design Services Provided - Architect was asked to convert this 1950's Split Level Style home into a Traditional Style home with a 2-story height grand entry foyer. The new design includes modern amenities such as a large 'Open Plan' kitchen, a family room, a home office, an oversized garage, spacious bedrooms with large closets, a second floor laundry room and a private master bedroom suite for the owners that includes two walk-in closets and a grand master bathroom with a vaulted ceiling. The Architect presented the new design using Professional 3D Design Software. This approach allowed the Owners to clearly understand the proposed design and secondly, it was beneficial to the Contractors who prepared Preliminary Cost Estimates. The construction duration was nine months and the project was completed in September 2015. The client is thrilled with the end results! We established a wonderful working relationship and a lifetime friendship. I am truly thankful for this opportunity to design this home and work with this client!

Design Services Provided - Architect was asked to convert this 1950's Split Level Style home into a Traditional Style home with a 2-story height grand entry foyer. The new design includes modern amenities such as a large 'Open Plan' kitchen, a family room, a home office, an oversized garage, spacious bedrooms with large closets, a second floor laundry room and a private master bedroom suite for the owners that includes two walk-in closets and a grand master bathroom with a vaulted ceiling. The Architect presented the new design using Professional 3D Design Software. This approach allowed the Owners to clearly understand the proposed design and secondly, it was beneficial to the Contractors who prepared Preliminary Cost Estimates. The construction duration was nine months and the project was completed in September 2015. The client is thrilled with the end results! We established a wonderful working relationship and a lifetime friendship. I am truly thankful for this opportunity to design this home and work with this client!

This lyrical home was designed for an artist and her husband in the Northside Overlay District in Wheaton. The owners wanted a home that would fit comfortably into the established neighborhood, while creating its own presence as a new classic. While the large front porch ties the home to its neighbors, subtle details set it apart, such as the granite rubble base, the arched copper entrance, and the delicate curve in the cedar shingle roof. While the exterior echoes its shingle style roots, it is a distilled version of shingle style, a simplified rendering that sets the house firmly in the present day. The interior reinforces its stripped down persona with a long gallery and barrel-vault ceiling leading back to an intersection with the great room ceiling,- yet another barrel vault which defines the main living space in the back of the house. In all the house provides a clean canvas, ready to be filled in with the colorful detail of everyday life.

Red Oak are fast growing and high quality trees that are easy to maintain and require moderate amounts of fertilizer and moisture when established. Tree planted and provided by Treeland Nursery.

In an effort to maximize sweeping views of the city of Houston, a number of freestanding partitions were strategically located to define specific areas while providing uninterrupted views on the main level. Aesthetically, the approach was one of a balanced blend between traditional and contemporary design. Using smooth walnut panels on the library partitions the home’s atmosphere is established from the moment one enters the home. The blocked paneled dining room partition complements the walnut in it’s texture, geometry and use of sage green paint. The gray walls are a neutral complement to both the walnut and sage partitions, while the horizontal white oak planks within the gray walls balance the traditional freestanding partitions. Photography: Carl Mayfield

Stuart Wade, Envision Virtual Tours The second-largest and most developed of Georgia's barrier islands, St. Simons is approximately twelve miles long and nearly three miles wide at its widest stretch (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York). The island is located in Glynn County on Georgia's coast and lies east of Brunswick (the seat of Glynn County), south of Little St. Simons Island and the Hampton River, and north of Jekyll Island. The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River. Known for its oak tree canopies and historic landmarks, St. Simons is both a tourist destination and, according to the 2010 U.S. census, home to 12,743 residents. Early History The earliest St. Simons Island Village record of human habitation on the island dates to the Late Archaic Period, about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Remnants of shell rings left behind by Native Americans from this era survive on many of the barrier islands, including St. Simons. Centuries later, during the period known by historians as the chiefdom era, the Guale Indians established a chiefdom centered on St. Catherines Island and used St. Simons as their hunting and fishing grounds. By 1500 the Guale had established a permanent village of about 200 people on St. Simons, which they called Guadalquini. Beginning in 1568, the Spanish attempted to create missions along the Georgia coast. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida. In the 1600s St. Simons became home to two Spanish missions: San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, on the southern tip of the island, and Santo Domingo de Asao (or Asajo), on the northern tip. Located on the inland side of the island were the pagan refugee villages of San Simón, the island's namesake, and Ocotonico. In 1684 pirate raids left the missions and villages largely abandoned. Colonial History As Fort Frederica early as 1670, with Great Britain's establishment of the colony of Carolina and its expansion into Georgia territory, Spanish rule was threatened by the English. The Georgia coast was considered "debatable land" by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat. Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. By 1740 Frederica's population was 1,000. In 1736 the congregation of what would become Christ Church was organized within Fort Frederica as a mission of the Church of England. Charles Wesley led the first services. In 1742 Britain's decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, ended the Spanish threat to the Georgia coast. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and, except for a short time of prosperity during the 1760s and 1770s under the leadership of merchant James Spalding, never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel's tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service. Plantation Era By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was left largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army. Besides hosting a small Georgia naval victory on the Fort Frederica River, providing guns from its famous fort for use at Fort Morris in Sunbury, and serving as an arena for pillaging by privateers and British soldiers, the island played almost no role in the war. Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farm land and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides." Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between Ebos Landing the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. In 1803 a group of Ebo slaves who survived the Middle Passage and arrived on the west side of St. Simons staged a rebellion and drowned themselves. The sacred site is known today as Ebos Landing. One of the largest owners of land and slaves on St. Simons was Pierce Butler, master of Hampton Point Plantation, located on the northern end of the island. By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves, who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler's Island in the Altamaha River delta. Butler's grandson, Pierce Mease Butler, who at the age of sixteen inherited a share of his grandfather's estate in 1826, was responsible for the largest sale of human beings in the history of the United States: in 1859, to restore his squandered fortune, he sold 429 slaves in Savannah for more than $300,000. The British actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whose tumultuous marriage to Pierce ended in divorce in 1849, published an eyewitness account of the evils of slavery on St. Simons in her book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863). Another Retreat Plantation large owner of land and slaves on St. Simons was Major William Page, a friend and employee of Pierce Butler Sr. Before purchasing Retreat Plantation on the southwestern tip of the island in 1804, Page managed the Hampton plantation and Butler's Island. Upon Page's death in 1827, Thomas Butler King inherited the land together with his wife, Page's daughter, Anna Matilda Page King. King expanded his father-in-law's planting empire on St. Simons as well as on the mainland, and by 1835 Retreat Plantation alone was home to as many as 355 slaves. The center of life during the island's plantation era was Christ Church, Frederica. Organized in 1807 by a group of island planters, the Episcopal church is the second oldest in the Diocese of Georgia. Embargoes imposed by the War of 1812 (1812-15) prevented the parishioners from building a church structure, so they worshiped in the home of John Beck, which stood on the site of Oglethorpe's only St. Simons residence, Orange Hall. The first Christ Church building, finished on the present site in 1820, was ruined by occupying Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884 the Reverend Anson Dodge Jr. rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife, Ellen. The cruciform building with a trussed gothic roof and stained-glass windows remains active today as Christ Church. Civil War and Beyond The St. Simons Island Lighthouse outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves. By August 1862 more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons, including Susie King Taylor, who organized a school for freed slave children. But in November the ex-slaves were taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Fernandina, Florida, leaving the island abandoned. After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no slaves to work the fields. After Union general William T. Sherman's January 1865 Special Field Order No. 15 —a demand that former plantations be divided and distributed to former slaves—was overturned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson less than a year later, freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms that dotted the land previously occupied by the sprawling plantations. By St. Simons Lumber Mills 1870 real economic recovery began with the reestablishment of the timber industry. Norman Dodge and Titus G. Meigs of New York set up lumber mill operations at Gascoigne Bluff, formerly Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided welcome employment for both blacks and whites and also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new lighthouse in 1872, designed by architect Charles B. Cluskey, marked the beginning of St. Simons's tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park, which drew many visitors, as did the seemingly miraculous light that traveled from the top of the lighthouse tower to the bottom. The island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland, particularly from Baxley, Brunswick, and Waycross. The island's resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island and could be accessed by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island. Twentieth Century The St. Simons Island Pier and Village opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. St. Simons's beaches were now easily accessible to locals and tourists alike. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for convenient residential and resort development. In 1926 automotive pioneer Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s. The St. Simons Island outbreak of World War II (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah; and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers. The increased wartime population brought the island its first public school. With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats. In April 1942, just off the coast, the Texas Company oil tanker S. S. Oklahoma and the S. S. Esso Baton Rouge were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents. Due in large part to the military's improvement of the island's infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community. In 1950 the Methodist conference and retreat center Epworth by the Sea opened on Gascoigne Bluff. In 1961 novelist Eugenia Price visited St. Simons and began work on her first works of fiction, known as the St. Simons Trilogy. Inspired by real events on the island, Price's trilogy renewed interest in the history of Georgia's coast, and the novelist herself relocated to the island in 1965 and lived there for thirty-one years. St. Simons is also home to contemporary Georgia writer Tina McElroy Ansa. Since Epworth by the Sea 1980 St. Simons's population has doubled. The island's continued status as a vacation destination and its ongoing development boom have put historic landmarks and natural areas at risk. While such landmarks as the Fort Frederica ruins and the Battle of Bloody Marsh site are preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, and while the historic lighthouse is maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, historic Ebos Landing has been taken over by a sewage treatment plant. Several coastal organizations have formed in recent years to save natural areas on the island. The St. Simons Land Trust, for example, has received donations of large tracts of land and plans to protect property in the island's three traditional African American neighborhoods. Despite its rapid growth and development, St. Simons remains one of the most beautiful and important islands on the Georgia coast.

After purchasing their ideal ranch style home built in the ‘70s, our clients had requested some major updates and needs throughout the house. The couple loved to cook and desired a large kitchen with professional appliances and a space that connects with the family room for ultimate entertaining. The husband wanted a retreat of his own with office space and a separate bathroom. Both clients disliked the ‘70s aesthetic of their outdated master suite and agreed that too would need a complete update. The JRP Team focused on the strategic removal of several walls between the entrance, living room, and kitchen to establish a new balance by creating an open floor plan that embraces the natural flow of the home. The luxurious kitchen turned out to be the highlight of the home with beautifully curated materials and double islands. The expanded master bedroom creates space for a relocated and enlarged master bath with walk-in closet. Adding new four panel doors to the backyard of the master suite anchors the room, filling the space with natural light. A large addition was necessary to accommodate the "Man Cave" which provides an exclusive retreat complete with wet bar– perfect for entertaining or relaxing. The remodel took a dated, choppy and disconnected floor plan to a bespoke haven sparkling with natural light and gorgeous finishes. PROJECT DETAILS: • Style: Traditional • Countertops: Quartzite - White Pearl (Cloudy) • Cabinets: Dewils, Lakewood (Frameless), Maple, Just White • Flooring: White Oak – Galleher, Limestone / Brushed • Paint Color: Perspective • Photographer: J.R. Maddox