10 Ways to Bring Art into Your Home

Living Room Sculpture Almost every home we renovate or design from the ground up, includes a generous amount of art.  Sometimes the homeowner has an extensive collection which we place in advance on our drawings.  Existing art objects can be placed  throughout the house providing 'art walls' or niches for specific pieces. More often the homeowner enjoys collecting art over time and placing it where it fits.  Either way, natural and artificial light plays an important role in how [...]

By |2023-02-26T12:22:52-05:00August 19th, 2015|Categories: Design, Family Room, Laundry rooms, Living Room, Miscellaneous, New Homes, Renovations|2 Comments

Pool House in the Country (Featured Project)

Pool and Pool House This pool house/guest house is set in a beautiful rural area of New York.  It is part of a family compound including a main house, barn, and garage.  This building will serve as a place for the owners to live while we work with them to design and build their main home. Kitchen Kitchen with Hidden Laundry Bathroom Covered Patio and Barbecue Front Door [...]

By |2023-02-26T12:30:06-05:00April 14th, 2015|Categories: Construction, Design, Miscellaneous, New Homes, Pool Houses, Pools|0 Comments

6 Carriage House-Lofts

Garage-Guest House Garage-Guest House One of the most cost effective places to gain a bonus space is above a garage.  By picking up the roof a few feet when building a garage, you can gain usable space such as guest quarters, great storage, a painting studio, home theater, or an all purpose loft.  When we are designing a garage we always suggest adding those extra few feet of head room even if there are no immediate plans to finish [...]

By |2022-11-18T12:57:37-05:00January 9th, 2015|Categories: Accessory Buildings, Design, Garages, Home Office, Miscellaneous, Renovations|7 Comments

6 Ways to Side Your Home

Clapboard Siding When we begin to design a home, we generally have an idea of what the exterior material will be.  Often we will try alternate materials either to change the aesthetics, to adjust the budget, or simply at the request of our clients. Many of our projects combine two or more materials. If you are designing a modern home, the exterior material palate is almost limitless as long as it keeps the weather out and doesn’t fall [...]

Lake House-Featured Recent Project

Lake House Porch There is something about any home on a lake that is special. The setting evokes summer fun like no other. When our clients ask us to help them design a family retreat, we knew great things were going to happen here. This home is a multigenerational oasis for friends and family. With plenty of spill over sleeping areas, screened and open porches, a big open plan living room and kitchen, there isn’t anything missing. Since [...]

By |2023-02-26T13:21:41-05:00May 12th, 2014|Categories: Design, New Homes|Tags: , |1 Comment

One House, Plenty of Storage

Pantry Storage I can never have enough places to store things.  From cookbooks to gadgets, power tools to dog toys, winter gear to summer clothes, supply exceeds demand for space. One family, whose home we completely renovated, requested storage any place we could find it.  Although when designing a home or renovation, we are always looking for good places for storage, this home has a great variety of places to store stuff. I have never had a client [...]

By |2023-02-26T20:57:59-05:00February 5th, 2014|Categories: Design, Miscellaneous|Tags: , , , , , , |5 Comments

Simple Home(Revisited)

Whether you are designing an iphone or a country home, keeping it simple is harder than it looks.  Instead of relying on flash and dash, a simple design relies on substance, proportion, and details.  Most people cannot tell exactly what is wrong with a home when the proportions are off, but they know a beautiful home when they see it and good proportions are always the key. In the eighteenth century, nails and bricks, as well as most [...]

By |2014-06-06T13:31:08-04:00January 7th, 2014|Categories: Design|Tags: , , , |1 Comment

One Micro Home

Many people I know are weary of the work required to maintain a large home and the headaches associated with coordinating that task.  Although the idea of living in a very compact home isn’t for everyone, there are certainly days around my house that make me fantasize about living in a home, which due to its size, limits the amount of work required to keep it in good shape. Luckily we are often asked to design exactly that [...]

By |2014-06-06T13:37:18-04:00December 6th, 2013|Categories: Bathrooms, Design, Kitchen, New Homes, Porches|Tags: , , , |40 Comments

What’s Wrong With This Picture(Revisited)

Excerpted from “On the Porch” by Sandee Mahoney and James Crisp Have you ever looked at a house and sensed that something about it wasn’t quite right? Perhaps it didn’t look finished or feel balanced. Was it the placement of the windows? The pitch of the roof? The size of the porch? It’s not always easy to put your finger on what’s wrong, but it helps if you understand a few principles of good design. These drawings illustrate [...]

By |2014-06-06T13:44:42-04:00November 2nd, 2013|Categories: Design, Porches, Renovations|Tags: , |1 Comment

4 Kitchens Before and After Renovation(Updated)

A new kitchen can be one of the most dramatic changes to a home and a homeowner’s lifestyle.  When my wife and I renovated our kitchen, we went from wincing every time we cooked a meal to really loving to spend time there.  The new kitchen is the heart of our home.  It is where our family eats breakfast, does homework, gathers with friends and of course cooks. The layout of a kitchen is critical to [...]

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