Download our free ebook, Creating the Ideal Kitchen. DOWNLOAD NOW This family from Wheaton was ready to remodel their kitchen, dining room and powder room. The project didn’t call for any structural or space planning changes but the makeover still had a massive impact on their home. The homeowners wanted to change their dated 1990’s brown speckled granite and light maple kitchen. They liked the welcoming feeling they got from the wood and warm tones in their current kitchen, but this style clashed with their vision of a deVOL type kitchen, a London-based furniture company. Their inspiration came from the country homes of the UK that mix the warmth of traditional detail with clean lines and modern updates. To create their vision, we started with all new framed cabinets with a modified overlay painted in beautiful, understated colors. Our clients were adamant about “no white cabinets.” Instead we used an oyster color for the perimeter and a custom color match to a specific shade of green chosen by the homeowner. The use of a simple color pallet reduces the visual noise and allows the space to feel open and welcoming. We also painted the trim above the cabinets the same color to make the cabinets look taller. The room trim was painted a bright clean white to match the ceiling. In true English fashion our clients are not coffee drinkers, but they LOVE tea. We created a tea station for them where they can prepare and serve tea. We added plenty of glass to showcase their tea mugs and adapted the cabinetry below to accommodate storage for their tea items. Function is also key for the English kitchen and the homeowners. They requested a deep farmhouse sink and a cabinet devoted to their heavy mixer because they bake a lot. We then got rid of the stovetop on the island and wall oven and replaced both of them with a range located against the far wall. This gives them plenty of space on the island to roll out dough and prepare any number of baked goods. We then removed the bifold pantry doors and created custom built-ins with plenty of usable storage for all their cooking and baking needs. The client wanted a big change to the dining room but still wanted to use their own furniture and rug. We installed a toile-like wallpaper on the top half of the room and supported it with white wainscot paneling. We also changed out the light fixture, showing us once again that small changes can have a big impact. As the final touch, we also re-did the powder room to be in line with the rest of the first floor. We had the new vanity painted in the same oyster color as the kitchen cabinets and then covered the walls in a whimsical patterned wallpaper. Although the homeowners like subtle neutral colors they were willing to go a bit bold in the powder room for something unexpected. For more design inspiration go to: www.kitchenstudio-ge.com

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

KITCHEN RENOVATION  CURRENT CRAFTSMAN This client started off just being curious about our services - what we could do, and if we could even help her update her kitchen. She and her husband with their two teenage kids have lived in their home for several years without updating anything since the house was originally built. They didn’t quite have a budget in mind yet. They didn’t know their style, or even if they had one. Their timeline was simple, “as fast as you can so we’re not without a kitchen for very long” (usually what we hear for kitchen updates). After a very productive consultation: determining the scope of work and zeroing in on a budget, I was very excited to update this underwhelming space to something that is modern but timeless, something that is theirs. And, it was easy to see what type of design style they gravitated toward looking at the pieces they already own: Craftsman/Prairie Style. I left the meeting so excited to weave in yet another genre of design to my CDG portfolio! We circled in our contractor to discuss the changes they were looking to make and the scope of work that would be theirs. Then I was off to get designing: // Because the kitchen’s footprint and the defined breakfast space delineated by the bay, we kept the perimeter cabinetry as it was originally laid out. We updated these cabinets to a beautiful soft Alabaster White with a Barn Wood Glaze to highlight the simplicity of the shaker style doors. We added transom cabinets above the uppers, with only the back wall having seeded glass inserts to highlight some of their collectables. // The original shaped island was counter-productive (See what I did there?) in functionality and design. We squared this off to reduce some of the angles and gain more storage. We highlighted the new island with a contrasting oak cabinet in a dark finish, to pay our respects to the craftsman style, and topped with a concrete-like countertop as a nod to the Prairie Style, allowing the homeowners to gain two extra seats and a massive -uninterrupted- work surface. // The small section of cabinetry between the garage entry and fridge now is the perfect dump-station for mail, electronics, whatever is in their hands when they come into the house; and completely hidden by the refrigerator. // The disconnected cabinetry in the breakfast area makes for a great place to have a working office. Accessible from the kitchen or the adjacent great room, this is the perfect place for the kids to do their homework while mom and dad are putting together dinner. The base cabinets are built out for office-type storage: paper and pencil drawers, filing systems, and cord management. Additionally, the long counter provides a ton of worksurface to spread out. // The largest transformation was the pantry. We raised the height of the doorway and added huge custom designed bypass sliding barndoors. Finished with a dark stain to compliment the island and cut to inset 4 stained glass windows, typical of this style of design, and driving home the concept for the whole space. // They were desperate to replace their flooring with something extremely durable to flow throughout the kitchen and the whole main level. This beautiful new flooring is actually a textured LVT(!) Which allowed them to save on overall cost and extend the life of their new flooring purchase. // They loved their copper table, so we kept it and added new simple, mid-century modern chairs around it and a shiny new craftsman-style chandelier above. We added bright barstools in a burnt orange-red accent, and a bright woven rug to tie it all together. // Because the kitchen renovation was shaping up to be pretty spectacular, they decided they needed to now replace their ‘now-these-look-a-little-too-old’ upholstered seating in the neighboring great room with 2 new sofas. We found the perfect sage-y-grey fabric which we covered on sofa frames that have and exposed oak-wood base, which we finished in a warm weathered grey. // As every designer knows, a room isn’t finished until there’s something on the windows. Now that the new flooring was installed and every other room on the main level ‘seemed’ to be updated, we needed to update the window treatments in the dining, and great rooms to reflect their new design concept. I hope you find the ‘after’ photos refreshing (as refreshing as it was for me to work on something that’s not a “Farm House” style that’s saturating the industry right now!) This was such a fun project and a great collaboration with our contractor.

This bedroom and full bathroom are part of an adventuresome project my wife and I embarked upon to create a complete apartment in the basement of our townhouse. We designed a floor plan that creatively and efficiently used all of the 385-square-foot-space, without sacrificing beauty, comfort or function – and all without breaking the bank! To maximize our budget, we did the work ourselves and added everything from thrift store finds to DIY wall art to bring it all together. A partial double closet bar adds a little extra space while still leaving room for longer hanging clothes.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Photo: A Kitchen That Works LLC
Example of a mid-sized transitional l-shaped cork floor and beige floor kitchen design in Seattle with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, dark wood cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, stone slab backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island and white countertops

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Our clients were ready to trade in their 1950s kitchen (faux brick and all) for a more contemporary space that could accommodate their growing family. We were more then happy to tear down the walls that hid their kitchen to create some simply irresistible sightlines! Along with opening up the spaces in this home, we wanted to design a kitchen that was filled with clean lines and moments of blissful details. Kitchen- Crisp white cabinetry paired with a soft grey backsplash tile and a warm butcher block countertop provide the perfect clean backdrop for the rest of the home. We utilized a deep grey cabinet finish on the island and contrasted it with a lovely white quartz countertop. Our great obsession is the island ceiling lights! The soft linen shades and linear black details set the tone for the whole space and tie in beautifully with the geometric light fixture we brought into the dining room. Bathroom- Gone are the days of florescent lights and oak medicine cabinets, make way for a modern bathroom that leans it clean geometric lines. We carried the simple color pallet into the bathroom with grey hex floors, a high variation white wall tile, and deep wood tones at the vanity. Simple black accents create moments of interest through out this calm little space.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Photo: A Kitchen That Works LLC
Mid-sized transitional l-shaped cork floor and beige floor kitchen photo in Seattle with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, green cabinets, quartz countertops, white backsplash, stone slab backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

This home is nestled back into a nice woodsy setting. The homeowner didn't like how pitch black the place was once the sun set and she wanted to add an elegant look to place as you come up the driveway. We added a combination of up lighting on the brick architecture as well as some thoughtfully placed down lighting from the large trees that will accentuate her perennial beds come spring and summer. This home has nice limestone window arches and coins that reflect that light well and and call attention to these specific details that sometimes get lost during the day. The light colored gables reelect the light as well, outlining the tall roof detail and making the home feel taller overall.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

This proposal is for a new two-story home on the vacant heavily wooded lot with an existing 150-foot-long driveway lined by several beautiful oak trees culminating in a behemoth 43-inch oak tree where the driveway meets the main lot. The far end of the driveway terminates in a grove of three 43/40/43-inch redwoods and at the very center of the vacant lot stands a gargantuan V-twin 59-inch redwood tree paired with a “small” 29-inch redwood tree. The owners want to build a beautiful contemporary-styled home for their family that fully enjoys and embraces the mature trees on their cozy 65-foot by 100-foot lot. As with all small, constrained lots, this project’s site design started first with meeting the relatively large parking and car maneuvering requirements. Menlo Park’s Department of Transportation typically requires side-facing garages to have 24-feet of backup space. So that they could give the largest feature redwood tree on site an added four feet (50%) of clearance outside of its critical root zone, the owners agreed to install a vehicle turntable at the end of their driveway to eliminate the extra four feet of space needed to back up and turnaround. This allowed them to pull their garage forward an additional four feet towards the front property line on the panhandle side, drastically reducing the rest of the home’s impact on the gargantuan V-Twin paired redwood tree at the center of the lot. One of the owners has mobility issues, and accordingly, they first sought to design a one-story floor plan that incorporated all their family’s needs including plenty of covered patio and deck space to enjoy our fantastic California weather. But that single-story footprint spread too far into the critical root zones of several of the redwood trees on site, even despite the use of the vehicle turntable. During my interview process with the owners, they made it clear to me that one of their primary concerns is ensuring that the largest trees on site would thrive and become features of their new home after construction is complete. The single-story designs that removed the grove of three huge redwood trees were non-starters, as was the skimpy 5x10 master bath I designed when trying to squeeze the whole house program into an overly compromised single-story design. It was therefore deemed necessary to go with a two-story design despite the owner’s mobility issues. This two-story design has a much more compact ground floor footprint and has no bedrooms downstairs, other than the detached ADU. The owners must give up the floor area and incur the costs to install a residential elevator to access their upstairs master suite. Our ground floor footprint is smaller due to the two-story design decision, and our foundation is pulled away from the trees thanks to the vehicle turntable. Yet, a tiny portion of the home’s ground floor footprint still encroaches into the critical root zones of the largest 59” redwood tree. Therefore, as outlined in the Arborist Report prepared by Aesculus Arboricultural Consulting, the structural engineers are incorporating an array of drilled piers and shallow-grade beams for the main home’s foundation and deck area nearest the redwood’s critical root zone. This drilled piers and grade beam foundation is a type of “bridging” foundation as outlined in Aesculus’ report to preserve the health of these trees that the property was designed around. The rest of the foundation will be constructed as an insulated slab-on-grade foundation to minimize the number of steps and ramps needed for the owners to enjoy their home and patio areas. Despite the owner’s desire to keep as many trees as possible on site, and despite the smaller ground floor footprint and the advantage of the vehicle turntable, the need for a 20x20-foot garage and 20x20/25-foot guest parking space on our panhandle lot requires the removal of two heritage trees in the required driveway, a 16” coast redwood, and a 17” coast redwood. An alternate design, such as swapping the garage and guest parking locations north-to-south, still requires the removal of these two trees for vehicle maneuvering but has the added disadvantage of cutting off the home’s sightlines to the behemoth 43” oak tree just outside the currently proposed front patio space and living room. Jim Redman of Elements Landscape is proposing 13 new trees be planted on site to replace the lost value of these two heritage coast redwood trees. This contemporary architectural design features clean lines, and an abundance of full-height windows and large skylights to best take in the immense trees on site. To blend in with the forest-like setting, the home boasts a mix of rich textures and features a color palette of natural wood tones contrasted with dark blue and black. Once through the new steel gate at the street and down the 150-foot tree-lined driveway, a large covered front patio becomes visible past the neighbor’s detached accessory structure. The covered patio is just across the driveway from the beautiful 43” behemoth coast live oak. The single plane of the covered patio roof is delicately supported by a pair of steel posts in a “V-twin” configuration much like the largest redwood trees that tower over the center of the lot and will still be visible above the new two-story home, even from the front yard. The patio is covered in a dark-colored standing seam roof, with steel C-channel fascias, and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling planks on the underside. Generously sized skylights on the patio roof and inside the living area allow for impressive views of the amazing oak canopy as well as precious natural light. Supporting the sloped covered patio on the other side is the two-car garage with a secondary bedroom suite stacked above the garage. This two-story volume is to be clad in vertical clear-coated redwood siding, to tie in with the grove of three 43-inch redwood trees just beyond. The garage door, and the bank of windows for Bedroom#2 above feature a steel fascia eyebrow header feature to provide shade and overhang protection, as we are not proposing a large overhang at this “redwood trunk”. The garage and bedroom volume are pulled 16 feet away from the side property line, instead of the minimum required setback of 6’-6”, thus leaving plenty of room for the redwood grove and existing mature pear tree to continue to thrive. This existing mature green screen in this 16-foot-wide side yard is a feature worth soaking in, which is why tall windows with low sill heights are proposed for both the stairs and the upstairs hallway. Though it may be infrequent to approve side-facing 2nd floor windows with sill heights as low as what we’re proposing, we are confident that the mature green screen and the over 16-foot-wide side yard are sufficient to provide for the continued privacy of our neighbor’s rear yard space, especially considering theses windows are in walkway zones. The covered patio at the front entry is also bound by the 10-foot-tall living room. The great room is clad in a dark blue brick veneer, which wraps around all three sides of the living room. Upon entering the home from the covered patio, you are immediately greeted with one of the most impressive features of the home’s design: a 10-foot-tall by 24-foot-wide set of sliding glass doors. From the entry, this huge opening gives merely an initial glimpse of the massive trunks of the gargantuan V-twin redwoods sitting at the center of the lot. All three sliding glass panels open directly out into the smaller partially covered deck in the rear. This roof overhang element matches the design of the front patio with a steel C-channel fascia and a large skylight. But the rear deck’s roof element is set flat at a ten-foot ceiling height so that the living room’s ceiling seems to float above and out beyond the expanse of full-height sliding doors, thus creating an indoor-outdoor living space that will feel much larger than the home’s actual footprint. This rear covered deck is smaller than the patio in the front and also has a mix of solid and open-slatted roofing to allow for more solar access for the relatively small amount of open sky available. The downstairs living room is open to the dining and kitchen areas, as well as the stair-and-elevator tower beyond. The stair tower is very open and glassy, and the stairs wind up and around the redwood-clad elevator tower. From certain perspectives in the 16-foot-wide side yard, it will almost seem as if the grove of three redwoods has a fourth tree that the house and the stairs were carefully built around. Other than the 3-foot-wide windows, the exterior walls of the stair tower, downstairs utility spaces, and Bedroom#3 above are finished in cement plaster, painted dark blue and black. The sloped roof over the stair-and-elevator tower continues cleanly over the area of upstairs Bedroom#3. This roof level is set by the side daylight plane and only yields an inside wall height of just under 6 feet in height. The owners are satisfied that the rest of this upstairs room has a nice vaulted ceiling to make up for the one short wall under the daylight plane. The rest of the ground floor adjacent to the stair tower consists of a small utility wing containing a half-bath, laundry, storage area, and an exterior alcove for the electric heat pump HVAC unit. This short wing also gives more accessible access to the rear yard deck, as well as a backdrop for an outdoor kitchen. The bright white stone backsplash for the outdoor kitchen provides contrast to the otherwise consistent use of cement plaster painted dark blue and black for the two-story wing closest to the detached ADU. Though Bedroom#3 is stacked directly above this small wing, it is relatively short to comply with the side daylight plane of this narrow lot. Still, to further help break up the scale of this wall, another steel fascia eyebrow element is set about 8 feet above the rear deck. The master suite sits centered above the ten-foot-tall great room. The master bedroom and its balcony, as well as the master bathtub area, have a commanding view of the central redwood trees and their impressive canopy, though the balcony is mostly recessed and should pose no privacy concerns to the neighbor’s rear yards. The master balcony parapet is clad in the same brick veneer continuing up from the living room below. A dark-painted metal rail makes up the rest of the open guardrail height. The entire length of the master balcony is comprised of 9-foot-tall sliding glass doors, but the area above the doors, as well as the area below the master bathroom windows, is accented with more redwood siding. The remainder of the master suite bathroom and walk-in closet is finished in cement plaster painted dark blue. The master bathroom has one side yard-facing window but will be frosted glass for both the owner’s and the neighbor’s privacy. The 2nd floor is capped under a simple gable roof design with one roof ridge and varying eave and rake overhangs depending on the 2nd-floor layout and solar orientation. Since these roof planes are quite difficult to see in the middle of the heavily wooded panhandle lot, we are proposing a white TPO roofing for these two upper roof planes as a more sustainable choice compared to more dark-colored roofing like the covered patios and detached ADU. The owners also wish to build a detached 292-square-foot Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) as an office and guest suite. For the ADU foundation to be situated outside the central redwood tree’s critical root zone, this relatively tiny structure takes advantage of the narrower 4-foot side and rear setbacks allowed for ADUs smaller than 800 square feet. The small L-shaped detached ADU frames a wonderful quasi-courtyard around the gargantuan V-twin redwoods at the center of the lot. The ADU shares a matching material palette consisting of cement plaster painted blue and black, vertical redwood siding and soffits, and thin brick veneer. The ADU also features large full-height windows. The only difference between the main home and the ADU material palette is that the roofing will be a dark composition shingle roofing since it will be quite visible from the master balcony.

Mark Hoyle Originally, this 3700 SF two level eclectic farmhouse from the mid 1980’s underwent design changes to reflect a more colonial style. Now, after being completely renovated with additional 2800 SF living space, it’s combined total of 6500 SF boasts an Energy Star certification of 5 stars. Approaching this completed home, you will meander along a new driveway through the dense buffer of trees until you reach the clearing, and then circle a tiered fountain on axis with the front entry accentuating the symmetrical main structure. Many of the exterior changes included enclosing the front porch and rear screened porch, replacing windows, replacing all the vinyl siding with and fiber cement siding, creating a new front stoop with winding brick stairs and wrought iron railings as will as other additions to the left and rear of the home. The existing interior was completely fro the studs and included modifying uses of many of the existing rooms such as converting the original dining room into an oval shaped theater with reclining theater seats, fiber-optic starlight ceiling and an 80” television with built-in surround sound. The laundry room increased in size by taking in the porch and received all new cabinets and finishes. The screened porch across the back of the house was enclosed to create a new dining room, enlarged the kitchen, all of which allows for a commanding view of the beautifully landscaped pool. The upper master suite begins by entering a private office then leads to a newly vaulted bedroom, a new master bathroom with natural light and an enlarged closet. The major portion of the addition space was added to the left side as a part time home for the owner’s brother. This new addition boasts an open plan living, dining and kitchen, a master suite with a luxurious bathroom and walk–in closet, a guest suite, a garage and its own private gated brick courtyard entry and direct access to the well appointed pool patio. And finally the last part of the project is the sunroom and new lagoon style pool. Tucked tightly against the rear of the home. This room was created to feel like a gazebo including a metal roof and stained wood ceiling, the foundation of this room was constructed with the pool to insure the look as if it is floating on the water. The pool’s negative edge opposite side allows open views of the trees beyond. There is a natural stone waterfall on one side of the pool and a shallow area on the opposite side for lounge chairs to be placed in it along with a hot tub that spills into the pool. The coping completes the pool’s natural shape and continues to the patio utilizing the same stone but separated by Zoysia grass keeping the natural theme. The finishing touches to this backyard oasis is completed utilizing large boulders, Tempest Torches, architectural lighting and abundant variety of landscaping complete the oasis for all to enjoy.