Example of a mid-sized classic u-shaped light wood floor open concept kitchen design in Jacksonville with a farmhouse sink, flat-panel cabinets, green cabinets, white backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island, marble countertops, ceramic backsplash and white countertops

Audrey Hall
Trendy home design photo in Salt Lake City

Inspiration for a kitchen remodel in Chicago

Remodeling your master bathroom in Calabasas offers the perfect opportunity to optimize both functionality and style. Custom features, such as built-in cabinetry and spacious shower designs, can transform an ordinary bathroom into a highly organized, luxurious retreat. I recently worked with a homeowner in Calabasas who struggled with limited storage and a dated design. By integrating custom storage cabinets and a sleek walk-in shower, we were able to create a space that not only looked great but solved their storage woes. The built-in cabinetry, combined with the shower’s marble finishes, added much-needed storage for linens, toiletries, and more, all while maintaining a clean, open layout. The result was a bathroom that was both practical for daily use and aesthetically aligned with the homeowner’s vision.

Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional master medium tone wood floor and brown floor bedroom remodel in Raleigh with gray walls and no fireplace

Scott Shigley
Inspiration for a transitional entryway remodel in Chicago

Photo: Carolyn Reyes © 2015 Houzz
Inspiration for a mediterranean kitchen remodel in Los Angeles

Photo: Garey Gomez
Example of a large transitional u-shaped medium tone wood floor eat-in kitchen design in Atlanta with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, granite countertops, blue backsplash, cement tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances, a peninsula, blue cabinets and black countertops

Randolph Ashey Photography
Example of a country entryway design in Portland Maine

Large beach style master gray tile and porcelain tile porcelain tile bathroom photo in Chicago with a vessel sink, shaker cabinets, gray cabinets, marble countertops, a two-piece toilet and blue walls

Furniture and accessories provided by bdg home staging warehouse.
Inspiration for a large timeless travertine floor and beige floor kitchen/dining room combo remodel in Orange County with beige walls and no fireplace

Inspiration for a small timeless medium tone wood floor mudroom remodel in New Orleans with gray walls

The main client criterion for a home office is desk surface and storage. Here is our criterion when designing: efficient use of space for storage and desk surface, convenient reach/access into storage, good task/ambient lighting, consistent with character of the home, inviting, clutter free and a space where one will want to work. Here is the result!

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

Kitchen - modern kitchen idea in Montreal

Wesley Rice, Crowley's Granite Concepts Inc
Large trendy l-shaped medium tone wood floor and brown floor open concept kitchen photo in Portland with an undermount sink, white cabinets, quartz countertops, gray backsplash, subway tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances and an island

Rachel Loewen Photography © 2017 Houzz
Danish bathroom photo in Chicago

Family Room; photo courtesy of Vera Matson
Example of a classic living room design in Houston

Kolanowski Studio
Elegant kitchen photo in Houston