Enclosed kitchen - large transitional u-shaped ceramic tile enclosed kitchen idea in Toronto with an undermount sink, flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, granite countertops, beige backsplash, matchstick tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Inspiration for a mid-sized timeless red one-story stucco exterior home remodel in Other with a shingle roof

Homeowners may enjoy the view and natural light more with reduced heat and glare after window film is installed. Photo Courtesy of Eastman
Example of a trendy formal dark wood floor living room design in Los Angeles with white walls, a standard fireplace and a tile fireplace

Example of a classic exterior home design in Houston

Mid-sized elegant master dark wood floor and brown floor bedroom photo in Other with brown walls and no fireplace

Homeowners may enjoy the view and natural light more with reduced heat and glare after window film is installed. Photo Courtesy of Eastman
Example of a large transitional formal and enclosed dark wood floor and brown floor living room design in Other with white walls, a standard fireplace, a concrete fireplace and no tv

When people think window film, they sometimes think it will ruin their view. There is Vista V-58 (great for reducing the fading process) on the right window, and the left window has no film. Window film actually enhances your view!

Homeowners may enjoy the view and natural light more with reduced heat and glare after window film is installed. Photo Courtesy of Eastman
Transitional formal dark wood floor living room photo in Sacramento with white walls, a standard fireplace and a tile fireplace

We love our metal roof projects! A new metal roof can provide a great return on investment for you in many ways. Main things are it improves energy efficiency and reduces your insurance premium.

We love our metal roof projects! A new metal roof can provide a great return on investment for you in many ways. Main things are it improves energy efficiency and reduces your insurance premium.

We love our metal roof projects! A new metal roof can provide a great return on investment for you in many ways. Main things are it improves energy efficiency and reduces your insurance premium.

This residence was a complete gut renovation of a 4-story row house in Park Slope, and included a new rear extension and penthouse addition. The owners wished to create a warm, family home using a modern language that would act as a clean canvas to feature rich textiles and items from their world travels. As with most Brooklyn row houses, the existing house suffered from a lack of natural light and connection to exterior spaces, an issue that Principal Brendan Coburn is acutely aware of from his experience re-imagining historic structures in the New York area. The resulting architecture is designed around moments featuring natural light and views to the exterior, of both the private garden and the sky, throughout the house, and a stripped-down language of detailing and finishes allows for the concept of the modern-natural to shine. Upon entering the home, the kitchen and dining space draw you in with views beyond through the large glazed opening at the rear of the house. An extension was built to allow for a large sunken living room that provides a family gathering space connected to the kitchen and dining room, but remains distinctly separate, with a strong visual connection to the rear garden. The open sculptural stair tower was designed to function like that of a traditional row house stair, but with a smaller footprint. By extending it up past the original roof level into the new penthouse, the stair becomes an atmospheric shaft for the spaces surrounding the core. All types of weather – sunshine, rain, lightning, can be sensed throughout the home through this unifying vertical environment. The stair space also strives to foster family communication, making open living spaces visible between floors. At the upper-most level, a free-form bench sits suspended over the stair, just by the new roof deck, which provides at-ease entertaining. Oak was used throughout the home as a unifying material element. As one travels upwards within the house, the oak finishes are bleached to further degrees as a nod to how light enters the home. The owners worked with CWB to add their own personality to the project. The meter of a white oak and blackened steel stair screen was designed by the family to read “I love you” in Morse Code, and tile was selected throughout to reference places that hold special significance to the family. To support the owners’ comfort, the architectural design engages passive house technologies to reduce energy use, while increasing air quality within the home – a strategy which aims to respect the environment while providing a refuge from the harsh elements of urban living. This project was published by Wendy Goodman as her Space of the Week, part of New York Magazine’s Design Hunting on The Cut. Photography by Kevin Kunstadt

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

The interior of the home went from Colonial to Classic Lodge without changing the footprint of the home. Columns were removed, fur downs removed that defined space, fireplace relocated, kitchen layout and direction changed, breakfast room and sitting room flip flopped, study reduced in size, entry to master bedroom changed, master suite completely re-arranged and enlarged, custom hand railing designed to open up stairwell, hardwood added to stairs, solid knotty alder 8’ doors added, knotty alder crown moldings added, reclaimed beamed ceiling grid, tongue and groove ceiling in kitchen, knotty alder cabinetry, leather finish to granite, seeded glass insets, custom door to panty to showcase an antique stained glass window from childhood church, custom doors and handles made for study entry, shredded straw added to wall texture, custom glazing done to all walls, wood floor remnants created an antique quilt pattern for the back wall of the powder bath, custom wall treatment created by designer, and a mixture of new and antique furnishing were added, all to create a warm, yet lived in feeling for this special family. A new central stone wall reversed with an over scaled fireplace and reclaimed flooring from the East became the anchor for this level of the home. Removing all the “divisions” of space and using a unified surface made unused rooms, part of the daily living for this family. The desire to entertain large group in a unified space, yet still feel like you are in a cozy environment was the driving force for removing divisions of space. Photos by Randy Colwell

Removed the shower entrance wall and reduced to a knee wall. Custom Quartz Ultra on Knee wall Ledge and Vanity Top. Custom Niche with Soap Dish. White and Green Subway Tile (Vertical and Horizontal Lay) Black Shower Floor Tile. Also Includes a Custom Closet.

This floor based reach-in-closet featured in white veneer and brushed aluminum hardware, provides plenty of storage space. Our sectional aluminum sliding doors in charcoal with smoked frosted glass are a sleek and functional way to access your belongings. Even compact spaces can have a modern and stylish look. Attractive lighting brightens up your closet helping you see and match the color of clothes better. Top shelves are great for storing rarely used or seasonal items while matching storage boxes are useful for keeping more delicate items neat. With tons of hanging space you can easily hang a long skirt and still have room to store your handbags underneath. Adjustable hanging rods make it simple to sort by color and fit more hanging space into your closet. Fixed belt hooks and shoe cubbies allow you to conveniently and quickly match the perfect accessory to any outfit. Removable hampers are a stress-free way to carry and sort laundry. This design also includes plenty of drawer space. At transFORM we specialize in custom designed closets that allow you to showcase your wardrobe while staying beautifully organized.

Trendy home office photo in San Francisco

2019 Addition/Remodel by Steven Allen Designs, LLC - Featuring Clean Subtle lines + 42" Front Door + 48" Italian Tiles + Quartz Countertops + Custom Shaker Cabinets + Oak Slat Wall and Trim Accents + Design Fixtures + Artistic Tiles + Wild Wallpaper + Top of Line Appliances

Hallway photo in Orange County