A remodel and full interior design project for a contemporary home in Muirfield Village, set on the golf course in Dublin, Ohio. The house already had great bones: soaring white vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, skylights, a floor-to-ceiling stacked stone fireplace and walls of windows onto the trees. Our job was to make it work better for family life and to make that big, bright space feel warm, personal and easy to live in. We started by rethinking how the space was used. A former home gym became a welcoming guest room. A cramped old bathroom and closet were combined into a full bathroom with a tub. And under the stairs, we created a hideaway just for the kids: a cozy nook to read, play and simply be kids. Then we built the palette around soft gray walls and dark wood floors and layered in warmth: a cognac sofa, cream bouclé swivel chairs, marble coffee tables, walnut mid-century chests and deep green velvet in the den. Oversized arc lamps bring the scale of the ceilings down to a human level, and fiddle-leaf figs carry the garden indoors. The primary suite is calm and grounded: a black iron canopy bed, a reclaimed-wood bench, a lounge sitting area and garden views on three sides. Throughout the house, a curated art collection gives every room its own point of view, from bold prints to quiet abstracts. Outside, the deck became a true outdoor room, with a long dining table, lounge seating and an umbrella, all overlooking the fairway. The result is a home that feels open and modern but warm, collected and lived-in. Character preserved, living reimagined.

Dimension: 67" L X 28" D X 30" H Make your offices and home studies emulate a bigwig ambiance with our Ansonville Solid Wood Dual Sided Storage 67" Large Home Office Executive Desk. Featuring a gorgeous double pedestal look, this office desk with keyboard tray evokes a practical yet warm vibe. Not only is it beautiful in looks, it’s also extremely pragmatic. There are a total of 4 pullout drawers – 2 on either sides of a central keyboard tray with smooth wood gliders. There are also 2 large filing cabinets on either side. Each drawer is successfully larger than the one above it so that the top ones are the smallest, the middle ones are larger and the bottom one is the largest. The unique hand-wrought hardware is also a great aesthetic addition. The top of this rustic solid hardwood executive desk is slightly extended in a decorative nosing. The front side features decorative panels marking the design of the pedestals and two cabinets with interior shelf space, while the middle portion is a few inches above ground level. The overall look is highly evocative and beautiful. Beautifully handcrafted from solid Rosewood, this 67 inch executive desk ensures a great heirloom quality along with an excellent durability, strength, and resilience. Another one of its great qualities includes a versatile aesthetic. You can easily set this desk in a number of unique interior design settings. So whether you’re looking to add a charismatic centerpiece to your traditional style executive office, or simply need to add lots of character to your contemporary home office, this desk is definitely going to be the one. Special Features: • 100% Handcrafted • Solid Rosewood craftsmanship • 4 pullout drawers – 2 on either side • 2 filing cabinets – 1 on either side • 2 front facing cabinets with interior shelving • Extended top • Decorative panels on the front and drawers • Unique hand-wrought metal hardware • Executive Desk With Keyboard Tray • 6 Drawer Desk • Easy maintenance Note: Real wood is a product of nature, and as such, no two pieces are alike. Variations in solid wood grain patterns are to be expected and make each furniture uniquely beautiful, just like us humans.

Eichler X-100 Bathroom: A Study in Efficiency, Light, and Modern Living The bathrooms in the Eichler X-100 are a fascinating blend of innovation and restraint—spaces where efficiency, light, and thoughtful design come together in a way that feels both practical and ahead of its time. Designed by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons for Joseph Eichler, these rooms reflect a highly intentional approach to everyday living. A Unique Shared-Core Concept At the heart of the design is the X-100’s central utility core, where the bathrooms are arranged in a paired configuration. This innovative layout allows for: Efficient use of space Shared plumbing systems Simultaneous use by multiple occupants The result is a plan that minimizes wasted space while maximizing functionality—a hallmark of mid-century modern thinking. Light from Above Rather than relying on traditional windows, the bathrooms are illuminated by overhead skylights, bringing in soft, diffused natural light while maintaining complete privacy. This creates an atmosphere that feels: Bright, yet secluded Open, yet intimate Calm, yet visually engaging Light becomes the defining feature—transforming a functional space into something experiential. Clean Lines, Minimal Distraction The material palette is simple and intentional, emphasizing: Smooth, easy-to-maintain surfaces Clean geometric forms A lack of unnecessary ornamentation This minimalism allows the architecture—and the experience of the space—to take center stage. Thoughtful, Human-Centered Design Even the details reflect a deeper level of consideration. Features such as varied control placements and efficient layouts demonstrate a focus on usability and comfort, anticipating the needs of daily routines. Everything is designed to make life easier. Private, Yet Connected Though located within the central core, the bathrooms remain visually and experientially connected to the rest of the home through light and spatial flow. They feel integrated, not isolated. This continuity reinforces the X-100’s overarching philosophy: every space is part of a larger system. A Modern Approach—Decades Ahead What makes the X-100 bathrooms so compelling is how forward-thinking they remain. Concepts like efficient layouts, shared functionality, and natural-light-driven design are widely embraced today—but were radical in 1956. The bathrooms of the Eichler X-100 prove that even the most utilitarian spaces can be elevated through thoughtful design—where simplicity, innovation, and light create an experience that is both functional and refined.

We used: Custom cherry cabinetry in Arts & Crafts Shaker style by Kabinart in Boulder and Espresso stains. Liberty Hardware Venetian bronze 1-1/2" cabinet knobs. KitchenAid Architect II Series 22 CF counter-depth French door refrigerator. KitchenAid Architect Series II 27" convection single wall oven. KitchenAid 36" 6-burner dual fuel freestanding commercial-style range. KitchenAid Architect II Series 24" dishwasher. Sharp Insight Pro Series 24" built-in microwave drawer (Model #KB6524PS). Crystorama Solaris 12" wide pendant lights in English bronze. Granite countertops in Brown Fantasy. 3"x6" polished marble backsplash. Paint colors: Walls: Glidden Silver Cloud 30YY 63/024 Ceilings/Trims/Doors: Glidden Swan White GLC23 Robert B. Narod Photography

Photo: Lauren Edith Anderson © 2016 Houzz
Photo of a traditional landscaping in San Francisco.

Photo: A Darling Felicity Photography © 2015 Houzz
Example of a mid-sized country porcelain tile mudroom design in Seattle with green walls

**I. Spatial Composition & Architectural Volume** This vignette operates as a masterclass in the choreography of compressed urban space, deploying a classic enfilade strategy to extract depth from a modest footprint. The composition is organized around a cased opening — flanked by heavy, mitered pilaster-style jambs and a substantial crown-capped header — that frames the kitchen beyond like a proscenium, establishing a telescoping sightline from the foreground banquette nook through to the range wall and its marble backsplash. The immediate volume is a canted, faceted room; the angled corner walls and the polygonal ceiling perimeter generate a subtle rotational geometry that is echoed, with deliberate rhyme, in the octagonal tabletop and its faceted plinth base. Architectural discipline is supplied by comprehensive millwork: recessed applied-molding wall panels calibrated to the wall heights, a built-in bibliothèque with adjustable shelving and integrated media niche on the left, and a bench base detailed as cabinetry with a plinth and reveal, so the seating reads as architecture rather than furniture. The crowning gesture is a stone-clad soffit and cove above the multi-part cornice, which visually lifts the ceiling plane and dissolves the corner conditions of the canted plan into a continuous, luminous band. **II. Materiality, Color & Texture** The palette is a study in low-chroma tonal layering, structured on a base of dove-grey lacquered joinery whose cool, faintly greige undertone reads as both patrician and contemporary. Against this, book-matched white marble with grey and taupe veining appears in three registers — the ceiling cove, the kitchen backsplash, and the honed tabletop — creating a vertical and horizontal continuity of stone that binds the two rooms into one material narrative. Underfoot, wide-plank white oak laid in a herringbone pattern is finished in a wire-brushed, cerused grey-brown, its open grain supplying essential tactility and directional energy that counteracts the smoothness of the cabinetry. The tonal reserve is punctured by a single decisive chromatic move: the oxblood-to-cognac aniline leather banquette, its capitonné-adjacent piping and channeled seat cushion delivering saturated warmth and a supple, patinating counterpoint to the cool minerals. Metals are deliberately stratified — brushed stainless on the appliance suite, polished nickel on the cabinet hardware and pendant collars, and a high-mirror chromed column and base on the table that pulls reflected fragments of the room into itself. Textile relief arrives through a heather-grey wool bolster and the woven, honeycomb-textured sconce shades, while the sunflowers and pantry provisions behind glazed muntin doors introduce a curated, humanizing note of the quotidian. **III. Lighting, Atmosphere & Style Profile** The lighting scheme is layered and hierarchical. Ambient illumination is borrowed rather than direct: the kitchen functions as a light well, its own concealed under-cabinet lighting and cove-washed ceiling projecting a cool, diffuse glow forward through the cased opening, so the brighter volume beyond reads as both destination and light source. In the foreground, symmetrically paired wall sconces with textured drum shades cast a warm, amber-filtered ellipse of light onto the paneling — providing intimate, low-level modeling that emphasizes the millwork's shadow lines and flatters the leather's depth. The kitchen's aligned trio of spun-metal dome pendants, with polished collars and diffused lenses, reinforce the axial perspective and supply task-appropriate downlight, while the marble cove above serves as an indirect reflector, softening any residual harshness. The cumulative atmosphere is hushed, refined, and slightly cinematic — a quiet formality more contemplative than performative. Stylistically, the project synthesizes into a form of Transitional Classicism, or more precisely a tailored American Neoclassicism recalibrated for contemporary living: the vocabulary of paneled millwork, crown profiles, and cased openings is retained, but stripped of ornament, flattened in profile, and rendered in a monochrome envelope, then energized by faceted geometries, mirror-finish metal, and a single confident stroke of leather. It is restraint deployed as luxury.

Bedroom - mid-sized transitional guest carpeted and gray floor bedroom idea in Omaha with gray walls and no fireplace

TruCedar Steel Siding shown in 10" Board & Batten in Napa Vine.
Beige two-story metal exterior home idea in Grand Rapids

Chris Golden
Inspiration for a transitional carpeted living room remodel in Phoenix with beige walls, a standard fireplace and a tile fireplace

Mountain style freestanding desk carpeted home design photo in Orange County with white walls

Wavy mother of pearl porcelain tile, wavy white tile for bathroom shower or backsplash. Perfect for fireplace or accent wall
Example of a trendy bathroom design in Los Angeles

Muffy Kibbey, Photographer Keith Carroll Bupp, General Contractor
Living room library - craftsman light wood floor living room library idea in San Francisco

Alpha Closets and Murphy Beds
Inspiration for a timeless living room remodel in Miami

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Small eclectic light wood floor living room photo in San Francisco with white walls

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Inspiration for a contemporary living room remodel in San Francisco

Our San Francisco studio designed this beautiful four-story home for a young newlywed couple to create a warm, welcoming haven for entertaining family and friends. In the living spaces, we chose a beautiful neutral palette with light beige and added comfortable furnishings in soft materials. The kitchen is designed to look elegant and functional, and the breakfast nook with beautiful rust-toned chairs adds a pop of fun, breaking the neutrality of the space. In the game room, we added a gorgeous fireplace which creates a stunning focal point, and the elegant furniture provides a classy appeal. On the second floor, we went with elegant, sophisticated decor for the couple's bedroom and a charming, playful vibe in the baby's room. The third floor has a sky lounge and wine bar, where hospitality-grade, stylish furniture provides the perfect ambiance to host a fun party night with friends. In the basement, we designed a stunning wine cellar with glass walls and concealed lights which create a beautiful aura in the space. The outdoor garden got a putting green making it a fun space to share with friends. --- Project designed by ballonSTUDIO. They discreetly tend to the interior design needs of their high-net-worth individuals in the greater Bay Area and to their second home locations. For more about ballonSTUDIO, see here: https://www.ballonstudio.com/

Contemporary Parisian style artwork in a bedroom setting.
Example of a minimalist bedroom design in Los Angeles

Utilizing the right plants can really spruce up the look of your property. But before you go and buy the first plant you see, it’s important to think about how dedicated you are to maintaining them and how much time you are willing to invest in them. All plants are alive and need love and attention. The amount of love and attention can vary depending on the plant. If you are a busy person who doesn’t have a lot of time to dedicate to the care of your plants, this doesn’t mean you can’t have plants and have them thrive. There are many low-maintenance plants that you can choose from. These will allow you to add to the aesthetic of your property, without consuming your time to care for them. We here at Five Star Tree Services have come up with a list of the best low-maintenance shrubs for you to consider. Flowering Shrubs Looking to add colour and beauty to your landscape? You might be thinking regular flowers can do this, but have you considered flowering shrubs? These are something simple and beautiful that you can add to your yard. Hibiscus These plants come in many colours. It is also known as Chinese Hibiscus, China Rose, and Tropical Hibiscus. This evergreen perennial is native to warm temperature, subtropical and tropical places around the world. The flowers it produces can be 3-8 inches in diameter. Some resemble trumpets. Every flower has 5 or more petals and can range in colours from red, orange, yellow, purple, pink, and white. Flowers are constantly produced by this plant but each blossom only lasts a day. Its growth can be 24 inches a year and has the potential to reach 15 feet fully grown. Forsythia This shrub is part of the olive family. It is mostly native to eastern Asia but one is native to southeastern Europe. This plant is also known as golden bells. This is a deciduous shrub that can grow to 3-9 feet but ones with rough grey-brown bark have been known to grow to 20 feet. With opposite positioned leaves, that can grow between 2 and 10 cm in length. They produce bright yellow flowers and will bloom in early spring before the leaves come out. Evergreen Shrubs It is beneficial to have more green plants around you. There was a study done that showed women can have improved mental health and a longer life expectancy if you live in or near green areas. If you have a busy life and don’t have space in your home, you are able to still benefit from and experience evergreen shrubs. They are perfect for small yards and large ones alike. Euonymus This plant is native to places like East Asia, North America, Madagascar, the Himalayas, and Europe. Depending on what country you are in will determine the species you encounter. These have many names and you might have heard them referred to as a spindle tree, burning-bush, euonymus, strawberry-bush, spindle, or wintercreeper. There are 130 species of deciduous small trees, evergreen shrubs, and lianas. The wintercreeper is a herbaceous perennial vine and it can grow to 70 feet. But it usually is left at 2-4 feet as a mounded shrub. It has egg-shaped leaves that measure to 1-2.5 inches long and 1-1.75 inches wide. They can vary in colour, such as dark green, green-gold, or green-white. Blue Star Juniper This is a needled shrub and is a member of the cypress family. It is native to the Himalayas, Afghanistan, and western China. You might also know it as flaky juniper, Himalayan juniper, or singleseed juniper. This is a dwarf shrub and when it gets to a mature size, it is a compact mound measuring from 1-3 feet high and 1.5-3 feet wide. It grows slow and has a tendency to grow out and not up. It has silvery-blue foliage and is densely packed with needles that are awl-shaped. Privacy Shrubs Everyone wants privacy while you are in your home or yard. Some people decide to install a fence in order to give themselves privacy. But there is a more creative way to acquire your privacy; with privacy shrubs! If you are looking for something that is different from a fence and low-maintenance, privacy shrubs are exactly what you are looking for. Not only do these plants provide you with the much-needed privacy you desire, they also add beauty to your landscaping. Some suggestions are as follows: Thuja Green Giant This is a genus of coniferous trees that belong to the cypress or Cupressaceae family. 3 out of 5 of these plants are native to Eastern Asia and the other 2 are from North America. This evergreen can also be known as Thuja green rocket or green giant arborvitae. They are fast growing and can grow to 3-5 feet in one season. Growing in a uniform shape, when mature, they can be 50-60 feet tall and 12-20 feet wide. They have tiny, glossy leaves that resemble scales. These overlap tightly together and create a fan of foliage. Boxwood hedges These evergreen shrubs and small trees are slow growing. You might also have heard them called boxes. They are native to numerous places that include Mexico, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, and southern and western Europe. These plants have been specifically grown for their foliage but they also produce a flower. They can grow from 1-20 feet tall and spread 2-8 feet wide. They have leathery feeling leaves that are lace-shaped or almost round. The colours can range from pale green to dark blue-green. They produce small yellow-green flowers in the spring. WARNIIG: this plant produces a toxic alkaloid that can hurt humans and animals. If a person or animal were to eat the leaves, it can trigger convulsions, dizziness, intestinal distress, and respiratory failure. If you come in contact with the sap, it could cause skin irritation. It is best to avoid this plant if you have small children or pets. Wax Myrtle Tree This large shrub or small tree is native to the Caribbean and North and Central America. There are many names for this plant that include bayberry tree, southern wax myrtle, southern bayberry, tallow shrub, and candleberry. It is very adaptable to various habitats but it naturally will grow near rivers and streams, wetlands, dunes, fields, pine barrens, hillsides, and in mixed-broadleaf and coniferous forests. This shrub can grow 20-25 feet tall with light olive-green leaves that have serrated edges. It also has smooth thin gray-brown bark. It can also produce bluish-white fruit which grows on short stalks in clusters. How Five Star Tree Service Can Help When looking for privacy for your home, utilizing low-maintenance plants is a great way to do this. It is also a great way to add something unique to your yard. Some of these shrubs will require some maintenance, which is where our team at Five Star Tree Services can help! We offer shrub trimming services in Toronto and if you require our assistance, make sure to give us a call at (416) 990-3355.