We are now a little over a month away from our 6th and largest Fine Home Source Home show.  We have enlarged the tent and added vendors and have reached a milestone of 6 years keeping craftmanship and quality design alive.  Join us in the celebration of quality services,craftsmanship, and design on September 28th in Millbrook, New York.  Here are a few of the vendors who will be there: [...]
White Kitchen This isn’t the first time I have written about white kitchens, but since we are asked to design kitchens with white cabinets so often, I thought they merited another review. First, to be perfectly accurate, the title of this article should be 10 Kitchens with White Cabinets, but that title didn’t quite roll off the tongue. Now to be fair, we love the natural finish cabinets that our favorite cabinet makers build as well as the [...]
Kitchen After Kitchen Before Homes built before the advent of efficient heating systems and proper insulation often used fireplaces both as a source of heat and a place to cook. Lower ceilings and smaller rooms were much easier to heat with fireplaces, therefore many period farmhouses were built with a seven-foot or so ceiling height. Today, we can increase the insulation, install state of the art mechanical systems in these wonderful old homes, but we cannot [...]
About half of the work in our office is new construction and half renovations and additions. When designing a home from scratch some of the most important elements to study(besides the clients wishes) are views, site features, sun and wind direction, and the approach to the site. The most important single element in an addition/renovation is the existing building. Sometimes the portion you save and restore is key to the rest of the project. Although it is almost [...]
According to Merriam Webster, a transom is: ‘a window above a door or other window’. The experience of a transom is so much more. On the exterior of a home, it is the window to the sky. Sometimes we include transoms on doors leading to a porch. The additional window space allows more light in. Inside it helps bring light to interior rooms, to hallways and accessory spaces. Before the advent of central heating [...]
As far as we know, the Dutch door originated in the Netherlands during the 17th century and was very popular with the settlers of Dutch and English origin who colonized what is now the United States. The door worked well to keep farm animals out of the home while keeping small children safe.  The families enjoyed additional light and fresh air when the upper half was open. One of the major advantages of the modern Dutch door is [...]
One of my favorite times in the kitchen is Saturday afternoon, all by myself, making a big mess preparing Creole and Cajun dishes. Whether I’m trying to cook my roux(flour and oil) to the perfect nutty brown for Gumbo, or making a simple pot of Red Beans and Rice, it is my place to unwind and anticipate the good food to come. At our home like most of the homes we design, the kitchen is the [...]
One of the pleasures of working with a great photographer(Rob Karosis), is the thrill of seeing new photos of one of our projects for the first time. After spending months and sometimes years, on a renovation project it is always gratifying to go back and see what the space looked like before anything was done. It is easy to forget how far from the original house a design has come. We hope you enjoy some of our favorite [...]
We have designed many kitchen islands and every one is a little different. Oh sure, there are similarities between them all, but the differences are easy to find. Some islands have sinks, some have seating, a few have stoves, and most are within the very important work triangle of the kitchen. At a recent client meeting many of those features were discussed and we also puzzled over the best material for the countertops. It is not uncommon to [...]
White kitchen cabinets always remind me of the beautiful butlers’ pantries in turn of the century great estates. Tall cabinet doors and glass panes and solid hardware made a functional yet stunning place to work.  White kitchen cabinets never seem to go out of style-and if they do, it is easy to change the color.  In my own kitchen, we have changed the wall colors several times, but never changed the white cabinets.  Almost any counter and floor [...]
