Inspiration for a contemporary galley eat-in kitchen remodel in Baltimore with raised-panel cabinets, white cabinets, granite countertops, multicolored backsplash, white appliances, a single-bowl sink and a peninsula

This homeowner can control not only the TV, but the window blinds and lighting as well right from their iPad. Goodnight with the push of a single button. California

How to help a young couple who loved the location and bones of a traditional home, but wanted a decisive shift in its decor and vibe to modern luxe? Begin by pulling down the 2-story walls of oak paneling, heavy fireplace mantle, and scraping out the dimly lit kitchen. Opening the kitchen into the family room and reworking the architecture of the space was the solution to creating the fresh feeling we were after. Photos by John Bessler

Example of a transitional kitchen design in Burlington

How to help a young couple who loved the location and bones of a traditional home, but wanted a decisive shift in its decor and vibe to modern luxe? Begin by pulling down the 2-story walls of oak paneling, heavy fireplace mantle, and scraping out the dimly lit kitchen. Opening the kitchen into the family room and reworking the architecture of the space was the solution to creating the fresh feeling we were after. Photos by John Bessler

Photo: Carolyn Reyes © 2015 Houzz
Example of an eclectic family room design in Los Angeles

As written in Northern Home & Cottage by Elizabeth Edwards In general, Bryan and Connie Rellinger loved the charm of the old cottage they purchased on a Crooked Lake peninsula, north of Petoskey. Specifically, however, the presence of a live-well in the kitchen (a huge cement basin with running water for keeping fish alive was right in the kitchen entryway, seriously), rickety staircase and green shag carpet, not so much. An extreme renovation was the only solution. The downside? The rebuild would have to fit into the smallish nonconforming footprint. The upside? That footprint was built when folks could place a building close enough to the water to feel like they could dive in from the house. Ahhh... Stephanie Baldwin of Edgewater Design helped the Rellingers come up with a timeless cottage design that breathes efficiency into every nook and cranny. It also expresses the synergy of Bryan, Connie and Stephanie, who emailed each other links to products they liked throughout the building process. That teamwork resulted in an interior that sports a young take on classic cottage. Highlights include a brass sink and light fixtures, coffered ceilings with wide beadboard planks, leathered granite kitchen counters and a way-cool floor made of American chestnut planks from an old barn. Thanks to an abundant use of windows that deliver a grand view of Crooked Lake, the home feels airy and much larger than it is. Bryan and Connie also love how well the layout functions for their family - especially when they are entertaining. The kids' bedrooms are off a large landing at the top of the stairs - roomy enough to double as an entertainment room. When the adults are enjoying cocktail hour or a dinner party downstairs, they can pull a sliding door across the kitchen/great room area to seal it off from the kids' ruckus upstairs (or vice versa!). From its gray-shingled dormers to its sweet white window boxes, this charmer on Crooked Lake is packed with ideas! - Jacqueline Southby Photography

How to help a young couple who loved the location and bones of a traditional home, but wanted a decisive shift in its decor and vibe to modern luxe? Begin by pulling down the 2-story walls of oak paneling, heavy fireplace mantle, and scraping out the dimly lit kitchen. Opening the kitchen into the family room and reworking the architecture of the space was the solution to creating the fresh feeling we were after. Photos by John Bessler

Custom secretary from Amy Howard, chair is Hickory Chair. The wall paint is Sherwin-Williams Ramie SW6156, the ceiling and trim is Sherwin-Williams Shoji White SW7042. Custom rug is Davis & Davis.

Creative Captures, David Barrios
Example of a mid-sized 1960s black one-story wood house exterior design in Other

Timber frame homes offer unique challenges during a remodel. What often makes them beautiful and attractive to most homeowners, also makes them challenging for space requirements. Context: The lovely couple that owned this home were struggling with some interesting floor plan challenges that just didn't work for their family. The loved the beautiful timbers and woodwork of their home, but the dramatically sloping ceilings on the second floor, particularly in the bathroom, just didn't work for this 1 1/2 bath home. Needing to use the skylight to approach the toilet was a less then ideal scenario. Although the bathroom footprint was more then adequate, the sloped ceiling only made half of the space useable. Check out the Before/After post on our blog to see the photos of the house pre-renovation. As much as they loved all the wood features in their home, another challenge they had was light. The wood ceiling made everything inside the house darker, even with a fantastic array of south facing windows, there were spaces in the home that felt dark and small. When they contacted us they wanted to know how could they make their brighter and more inviting, were there solutions to the 2nd floor sloped ceiling issues, and if they were going to do all of this work, how could they make their home more comfortable and efficient. A nagging water leak in the upstairs bathroom spurred them into action and here is how we solved their dilemma. Conclusion: First, we added a little dormer to the rear of the house so we could get full headroom in nearly all of the upstairs bathroom! Then we decided to extend that dormer one more timber bay over to create a walk in closet with natural light and plenty of space. Since we were contemplating energy efficiency, we resolved a nagging issue that is present in a lot of timber frame construction, air tightness. Commonly found in timber frame construction, fiberglass insulation is installed in the rafter bays and board ceilings are installed over top. Unfortunately, board ceilings are anything but air tight, and fiberglass insulation needs to be in an airtight cavity for maximum effectiveness. So we were able to solve two issues at the same time for this homeowner. We removed the board ceiling and fiberglass insulation, we dense packed the rafter bays with cellulose insulation, and installed sheetrock in place of the boards. The boards were salvaged for re-use by the homeowner, and the space and light quality was dramatically improved. Some may think that losing the board ceiling took something away from the space, but what you'll see in the pictures is that it highly accentuates the heavy timbers and really makes them stand out in a beautiful way. Now with this added airtightness, better insulation, and brighter space, the homeowner hardly runs their wood stove, and it's so quiet in the space, an added bonus from changing the insulation. It became necessary to also add a sheetrock ceiling to the living room to hide the plumbing from the new bathroom layout above. Changing this ceiling gave the homeowner some real quality lighting that was lacking in the living room before. The brighter ceiling and new lighting layout completely transforms the living room into a space you want to hang out, even though the layout didn't change at all. When the homeowner saw the finished spaces she said "I can't believe this is my house, I want to live in this house" Energy Efficiency: I touched a little on the efficiency above, but like all projects done with Mottram Architecture, we always want to leave you with a little extra. Timber frame construction with board ceilings and fiberglass insulation are notoriously leaky! If you want to know what we think about fiberglass insulation, check our our blog post on Why Fiberglass Insulation Sucks. By installing cellulose insulation and covering it with sheetrock we were able to greatly reduce the heat flowing out of this home. It not only improves cashflow it improves the comfort level in the space. Who wants to sit in their living room and feel a draft? Let us remind you, we are not saying cellulose insulation is an air barrier, we use the sheetrock to help with that, but it does significantly reduce the air flow over fiberglass insulation. And when we reduce the airflow, we reduce the heat flow. And when we reduce the heat flow, we reduce the need to re-heat that drafty air from outside. When it comes to energy efficiency the first and best place to start is air infiltration. We greatly reduced the air infiltration with the new insulation, but we also added a hat and warm boots. What I mean by that is, we improved the insulation in the roof, and we installed insulation in the basement. Maybe it's a silly analogy, but when you think about keeping warm, we always start with the hat and boots! With sustainability in mind, the next project will be to add a deck to the front of this house with rain catchment barrels from the metal roof. They are planning to plant a garden in the spring and the rain catchment system will help to irrigate the new garden. Builder: East Shore Builders Photographer: Michael Eric Berube

Andrea Pesce Photography
Dining room - traditional dining room idea in Grand Rapids

Photo: Michaela Dodd © 2015 Houzz
Dining room - traditional dining room idea in DC Metro

As written in Northern Home & Cottage by Elizabeth Edwards In general, Bryan and Connie Rellinger loved the charm of the old cottage they purchased on a Crooked Lake peninsula, north of Petoskey. Specifically, however, the presence of a live-well in the kitchen (a huge cement basin with running water for keeping fish alive was right in the kitchen entryway, seriously), rickety staircase and green shag carpet, not so much. An extreme renovation was the only solution. The downside? The rebuild would have to fit into the smallish nonconforming footprint. The upside? That footprint was built when folks could place a building close enough to the water to feel like they could dive in from the house. Ahhh... Stephanie Baldwin of Edgewater Design helped the Rellingers come up with a timeless cottage design that breathes efficiency into every nook and cranny. It also expresses the synergy of Bryan, Connie and Stephanie, who emailed each other links to products they liked throughout the building process. That teamwork resulted in an interior that sports a young take on classic cottage. Highlights include a brass sink and light fixtures, coffered ceilings with wide beadboard planks, leathered granite kitchen counters and a way-cool floor made of American chestnut planks from an old barn. Thanks to an abundant use of windows that deliver a grand view of Crooked Lake, the home feels airy and much larger than it is. Bryan and Connie also love how well the layout functions for their family - especially when they are entertaining. The kids' bedrooms are off a large landing at the top of the stairs - roomy enough to double as an entertainment room. When the adults are enjoying cocktail hour or a dinner party downstairs, they can pull a sliding door across the kitchen/great room area to seal it off from the kids' ruckus upstairs (or vice versa!). From its gray-shingled dormers to its sweet white window boxes, this charmer on Crooked Lake is packed with ideas! - Jacqueline Southby Photography

Photo: Faith Towers Media © 2016 Houzz
Dining room - eclectic dining room idea in New York

The vanity was expanded to include a pull-out laundry hamper, more countertop space and fill in the gap next to the tile shower design. We created open shelving under the window so you could pull out items with ease since the wall was bumped out due to mechanical considerations. Photos by Vern Uyetake

As written in Northern Home & Cottage by Elizabeth Edwards In general, Bryan and Connie Rellinger loved the charm of the old cottage they purchased on a Crooked Lake peninsula, north of Petoskey. Specifically, however, the presence of a live-well in the kitchen (a huge cement basin with running water for keeping fish alive was right in the kitchen entryway, seriously), rickety staircase and green shag carpet, not so much. An extreme renovation was the only solution. The downside? The rebuild would have to fit into the smallish nonconforming footprint. The upside? That footprint was built when folks could place a building close enough to the water to feel like they could dive in from the house. Ahhh... Stephanie Baldwin of Edgewater Design helped the Rellingers come up with a timeless cottage design that breathes efficiency into every nook and cranny. It also expresses the synergy of Bryan, Connie and Stephanie, who emailed each other links to products they liked throughout the building process. That teamwork resulted in an interior that sports a young take on classic cottage. Highlights include a brass sink and light fixtures, coffered ceilings with wide beadboard planks, leathered granite kitchen counters and a way-cool floor made of American chestnut planks from an old barn. Thanks to an abundant use of windows that deliver a grand view of Crooked Lake, the home feels airy and much larger than it is. Bryan and Connie also love how well the layout functions for their family - especially when they are entertaining. The kids' bedrooms are off a large landing at the top of the stairs - roomy enough to double as an entertainment room. When the adults are enjoying cocktail hour or a dinner party downstairs, they can pull a sliding door across the kitchen/great room area to seal it off from the kids' ruckus upstairs (or vice versa!). From its gray-shingled dormers to its sweet white window boxes, this charmer on Crooked Lake is packed with ideas! - Jacqueline Southby Photography

Built by: J.A. Long, Inc Design Builders
Large craftsman gray two-story wood exterior home idea in Jacksonville

As written in Northern Home & Cottage by Elizabeth Edwards In general, Bryan and Connie Rellinger loved the charm of the old cottage they purchased on a Crooked Lake peninsula, north of Petoskey. Specifically, however, the presence of a live-well in the kitchen (a huge cement basin with running water for keeping fish alive was right in the kitchen entryway, seriously), rickety staircase and green shag carpet, not so much. An extreme renovation was the only solution. The downside? The rebuild would have to fit into the smallish nonconforming footprint. The upside? That footprint was built when folks could place a building close enough to the water to feel like they could dive in from the house. Ahhh... Stephanie Baldwin of Edgewater Design helped the Rellingers come up with a timeless cottage design that breathes efficiency into every nook and cranny. It also expresses the synergy of Bryan, Connie and Stephanie, who emailed each other links to products they liked throughout the building process. That teamwork resulted in an interior that sports a young take on classic cottage. Highlights include a brass sink and light fixtures, coffered ceilings with wide beadboard planks, leathered granite kitchen counters and a way-cool floor made of American chestnut planks from an old barn. Thanks to an abundant use of windows that deliver a grand view of Crooked Lake, the home feels airy and much larger than it is. Bryan and Connie also love how well the layout functions for their family - especially when they are entertaining. The kids' bedrooms are off a large landing at the top of the stairs - roomy enough to double as an entertainment room. When the adults are enjoying cocktail hour or a dinner party downstairs, they can pull a sliding door across the kitchen/great room area to seal it off from the kids' ruckus upstairs (or vice versa!). From its gray-shingled dormers to its sweet white window boxes, this charmer on Crooked Lake is packed with ideas! - Jacqueline Southby Photography