Minimalist living room photo in Los Angeles

This new Sunroom provides an attractive transition from the home’s interior to the sun-filled addition. The same rich, natural materials and finishes used in the home extend to the Sunroom to expand the home, The natural hardwoods and Marvin Integrity windows warms provide an elegant look for the space year-round.

Living room - modern living room idea in Los Angeles

Martin King Photography
Large beach style kitchen photo in Orange County

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Transitional living room in blue and white. Wooden credenza acts as a bar.
Living room - large transitional open concept dark wood floor living room idea in Toronto with a bar and beige walls

Inspiration for a modern living room remodel in Los Angeles

Hammer & Hand and architect Mitch Snyder transformed a hot, cramped, non-code-compliant attic space into a bright and functional master suite. The existing upstairs attic space had two small and hard-to-access bedrooms and a dangerous staircase. The team added a new dormer on the west side of the house which added an additional 195 square feet to the home. The new space includes a master bedroom, master bathroom with vanity and shower, separate water closet, laundry, walk-in master closet, and option to add a small bedroom (the space is currently being used as an open office area). Additional improvements to the home include an upgraded building envelope, insulation, high efficiency water heater, and minisplit heat pump. Photos by Mitchell Snyder Architecture.

For the Fletcher home we installed our new PC6/1 Single Basket, PC6/4 Double Basket, and PC4/1 Single Twist balusters in our Classic Black coating. We also replaced the painted newel posts with Oak 4500 series newel posts and replaced the 6010 Oak handrail on the right side of the stairs. We then installed a "Rake" 4212 newel post under the handrail for a cleaner, uninterrupted handrail all the way up to the top of the stairs. To finish we installed new MDF shoe rail and re-spaced the balusters to IRC Code requirements.

To formalize this dining space, we wrapped the room in drapery panels, framing the beautiful golf course view. Contrasting head chairs, bold lighting and an Ikat rug add some visual interest to an otherwise neutral space.

originally space between (old) refrigerator and raised bar (new peninsula) was not to code, under 36". We brought raised bar down to counter height and cut down 6" of the counter space. Kenmore French door refrigerator HAS to pass the wall to be able to open both doors completely, specs didn't sow it. When everything was installed we end up cutting wall on the left from refrigerator down by 7" to clear the opening. ****Please be aware about this type of refrigerators: you cannot have wall on either side it will prevent doors to be completely open.

Custom made roman shades with two inch accent band on all sides and coordinating header. Shades are interlined and blackout lined and up to current code with continuous loop cord.

This Furlong, PA in ground pool was designed to fit perfectly in this backyard. The pool deck was extended so that sun bathing chairs could be facing out into the open views of the land. The natural wooded area of the back of the property was softened by various rows of colorful plantings. An aluminum fence surrounds the pool following code. A small pocket of grasses and river jack stone add beauty to the pool side.

At the opposite end of this long deck you’ll find the clients’ outdoor fireplace. It’s a gas-burning fireplace we built with chop block stone matching the outdoor kitchen. We added a cap of cream Lueders stone on either side of the chimney. You may notice the stone hearth built into the deck. Building code requires you have non-combustible materials outside the fireplace doors. We used a combination of inlaid stone and an AZEK decking border for the hearth. There is plenty of room for comfortable seating in front of the fireplace.

For the Fletcher home we installed our new PC6/1 Single Basket, PC6/4 Double Basket, and PC4/1 Single Twist balusters in our Classic Black coating. We also replaced the painted newel posts with Oak 4500 series newel posts and replaced the 6010 Oak handrail on the right side of the stairs. We then installed a "Rake" 4212 newel post under the handrail for a cleaner, uninterrupted handrail all the way up to the top of the stairs. To finish we installed new MDF shoe rail and re-spaced the balusters to IRC Code requirements.

Custom made roman shades with two inch accent band on all sides and coordinating header. Shades are interlined and blackout lined and up to current code with continuous loop cord.

For the Fletcher home we installed our new PC6/1 Single Basket, PC6/4 Double Basket, and PC4/1 Single Twist balusters in our Classic Black coating. We also replaced the painted newel posts with Oak 4500 series newel posts and replaced the 6010 Oak handrail on the right side of the stairs. We then installed a "Rake" 4212 newel post under the handrail for a cleaner, uninterrupted handrail all the way up to the top of the stairs. To finish we installed new MDF shoe rail and re-spaced the balusters to IRC Code requirements.

New and separate entrance added to the basement. Photo: Pete Eckert
Transitional exterior home idea in Portland

Atherton has many large substantial homes - our clients purchased an existing home on a one acre flag-shaped lot and asked us to design a new dream home for them. The result is a new 7,000 square foot four-building complex consisting of the main house, six-car garage with two car lifts, pool house with a full one bedroom residence inside, and a separate home office /work out gym studio building. A fifty-foot swimming pool was also created with fully landscaped yards. Given the rectangular shape of the lot, it was decided to angle the house to incoming visitors slightly so as to more dramatically present itself. The house became a classic u-shaped home but Feng Shui design principals were employed directing the placement of the pool house to better contain the energy flow on the site. The main house entry door is then aligned with a special Japanese red maple at the end of a long visual axis at the rear of the site. These angles and alignments set up everything else about the house design and layout, and views from various rooms allow you to see into virtually every space tracking movements of others in the home. The residence is simply divided into two wings of public use, kitchen and family room, and the other wing of bedrooms, connected by the living and dining great room. Function drove the exterior form of windows and solid walls with a line of clerestory windows which bring light into the middle of the large home. Extensive sun shadow studies with 3D tree modeling led to the unorthodox placement of the pool to the north of the home, but tree shadow tracking showed this to be the sunniest area during the entire year. Sustainable measures included a full 7.1kW solar photovoltaic array technically making the house off the grid, and arranged so that no panels are visible from the property. A large 16,000 gallon rainwater catchment system consisting of tanks buried below grade was installed. The home is California GreenPoint rated and also features sealed roof soffits and a sealed crawlspace without the usual venting. A whole house computer automation system with server room was installed as well. Heating and cooling utilize hot water radiant heated concrete and wood floors supplemented by heat pump generated heating and cooling. A compound of buildings created to form balanced relationships between each other, this home is about circulation, light and a balance of form and function. Photo by John Sutton Photography.