Amy Braswell
Example of an eclectic medium tone wood floor living room design in Chicago with gray walls, a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

Edmunds Studios Photography Warren Barnett Interiors
Large transitional formal and open concept light wood floor living room photo in Milwaukee with beige walls, a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace and no tv

Scott Amundson
Living room - mid-sized farmhouse enclosed and formal light wood floor living room idea in Minneapolis with white walls, a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

Andrea Calo Photography
Mid-sized tuscan beige one-story stone gable roof photo in Austin

Timbered ceilings and the matching dark brown time throughout the home bring warmth to this bright great room. Timber by #MTtimber.
Mid-sized mountain style open concept dark wood floor and brown floor family room photo in Seattle with beige walls, a standard fireplace and a stone fireplace

Kitchen - mid-sized rustic kitchen idea in Calgary with shaker cabinets, light wood cabinets, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and an island

Klassen Photography
Example of a mid-sized mountain style slate floor and gray floor entryway design in Jackson with beige walls and a medium wood front door

Example of a large cottage limestone floor and brown floor entryway design in Portland with a dark wood front door and white walls

Kitchen - rustic l-shaped brown floor kitchen idea in Denver with a farmhouse sink, recessed-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, paneled appliances and an island

Kitchen - cottage l-shaped dark wood floor and brown floor kitchen idea in Other with a farmhouse sink, shaker cabinets, white cabinets, wood countertops, stainless steel appliances and an island

Matthew Millman
Example of a trendy patio design in Other with a roof extension

Sunroom - farmhouse medium tone wood floor sunroom idea in Portland Maine with a standard ceiling

Pinnacle Mountain Homes
Example of a mountain style formal dark wood floor living room design in Denver with a standard fireplace, a stone fireplace and no tv

Large transitional open concept vinyl floor living room photo in Perth with gray walls

Mid-sized elegant living room photo in Los Angeles with beige walls

Photography: Nat Rea
Inspiration for a coastal medium tone wood floor great room remodel in Providence

Our clients for this grand mountain lodge wanted the warmth and solidness of timber to contrast many of the contemporary steel, glass and stone architecture more prevalent in the area recently. A desire for timberwork with ‘GRRRR’ equipped to handle the massive snowloads in this location, ensured that the timbers were fit to scale this awe-inspiring 8700sq ft residence. Working with Peter Rose Architecture + Interiors Inc., we came up with unique designs for the timberwork to be highlighted throughout the entire home. The Kettle River crew worked for 2.5 years designing and erecting the timber frame as well as the 2 feature staircases and complex heavy timber mouldings and mantle in the great room. We also coordinated and installed the direct set glazing on the timberwork and the unique Unison lift and slide doors that integrate seamlessly with the timberwork. Huge credit should also be given to the very talented builder on this project - MacDougall Construction & Renovations, it was a pleasure to partner with your team on this project.

The builder laid custom wide plank flooring in the upstairs hall and flex space stained to match the existing woodwork of the timber frame construction. 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

Nursery - mid-sized rustic gender-neutral carpeted and gray floor nursery idea in Other with white walls