Special attention was paid to the smallest details, such as the transition from wood floors in the family room to the tile floor in the kitchen that mirrors the curve of the island. The curve of the transition from tile floor to wood floor matches the curve of the island and a custom metal strip was made to edge the tile.

Stamped concrete driveway before pressure washing.
This is an example of a large front yard driveway in Detroit.

Paul Zimmerman photo. The chipped edge Travertine tiles gives a rustic feel to the floor.
Example of a small mountain style multicolored tile and stone tile travertine floor alcove bathtub design in Phoenix with furniture-like cabinets, dark wood cabinets, a two-piece toilet, green walls, a vessel sink and tile countertops

Elegant stamped concrete patio photo in Boston

Minimalist dark wood floor kitchen photo in San Francisco

Design ideas for a mid-sized modern beige and partial sun one-story and front yard brick garden path in Tampa with a shed roof for summer.

This project entailed sanding and refinishing Southern White Oak flooring and then adding Country White Stain we completed for Tuf Flooring.
Cottage hallway photo in Boise

Home design - mid-sized industrial attached home design idea in San Francisco

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

Example of a beach style bathroom design in San Diego

This is one our longest running projects, developed in phases over ten years. Cobblestone driveway, old world craftsmanship, one of a kind elements.
Inspiration for a large timeless backyard patio remodel in Baltimore with no cover

Vicenza Grigio Limestone
Large beach style backyard concrete paver patio photo with no cover

Darby Kate Photography
Example of a farmhouse master white tile and ceramic tile ceramic tile and gray floor double shower design in Dallas with shaker cabinets, gray cabinets, gray walls, an undermount sink and granite countertops

Custom Surface Solutions (www.css-tile.com) - Owner Craig Thompson (512) 430-1215. This project shows a complete remodel with before and after pictures including tub-to-shower conversion using DalTile L191 Chenille White Limestone with Arabesque mosaic, 4" x 12" plank herringbone floor, 8" x 22" plank wall tile. screen random mosaic shower ceiling and flat pebble shower floor. Kohler Kohler Poplin 36" Vanity Cabinet in Felt Grey quartz top and Kohler Purist Vibrant Bronze vanity and shower plumbing fixtures. Feiss Arabesque Silver Leaf Pendant Light and Hudson Valley Lighting Wylie wall sconces. Pottery Barn – Astor Beveled Mirror.

New Installation of Red Oak Wood, 3 1/4 in width. White-washed Bona Stain was used, Bona Finish, as well as Bona Traffic HD. **This photo is of the Red Oak Wood (3 1/4 inch) prior to the application of the white-washed Bona Stain.

Coral Pool and Spa
Hot tub - large contemporary backyard stamped concrete and custom-shaped natural hot tub idea in San Francisco

Detailing and borders for Old World feel of Cobblestone streets are added to this Imprinted Asphalt driveway (shown here before a faux stone finish and grouting was added).

Home design - contemporary home design idea in Toronto