It’s always exciting
to get involved on a project during the planning stages. So when these homeowners came to us with preliminary floor plans for a major renovation, including adding an addition to their home in a prestigious neighborhood, we were thrilled.
The architect had proposed a beautiful new building envelope and facade, however the plans needed to be developed further to determine specific zones and finalize room sizes that would meet the homeowners’ needs. The best way to accomplish this is to spend time getting to know how the homeowners plan to live in their home and adjusting the floor plan accordingly.Often people can’t visualize a space so adding furniture, I cabinets and built-ins will give an accurate idea of the final product.
Part of the new addition included a large cathedral ceiling and arched window in the kitchen, so we were faced with a new challenge of marrying the adjoining ceilings and determining how and where to transition back into the fl at ceiling. It’s best to position these transitions where you have a change in functional zones so we had the cathedral ceiling remain contained in the kitchen proper and continue as a fl at ceiling over the workstation and wet bar areas. This also helped delineate the spaces and create a smoother transition into the family and dining rooms.
The added height in the kitchen also afforded the opportunity to expose some natural light into the homeowner’s second floor dressing room, offering her a priceless view into the backyard ravine.
The kitchen cabinetry is light and neutral in Benjamin Moore’s, Maritime White (OC-5) while the island stands alone with unique leg details and a dark stain finish, making it feel more like a stand-alone piece of furniture. This dark stain is repeated in the neighboring family room built-in, creating a focal point around the fireplace and television. The dark stain helps to disguise the television and speakers when they’re not in use and works as a strong back drop to some of the homeowner’s books and accessories.
The two rooms, now quite large, required almost all new furnishings and lighting to suit the size of the space. The use of larger pieces in neutral tones helped to relax the space and the hits of red in the more impermanent pieces add a certain “spark”. It’s not always necessary to replace all of your furniture when renovating. We helped these homeowners determine which pieces were ready to go and which ones were worthy of refurbishing and giving a second life. Mixing in new art pieces with freshly framed and matted older ones, reupholstering chairs and relocating them in a new area of the home helped unify the existing home with the new addition.
Our overall goal was to update the space and unify the new addition with the existing home. We added elegant touches in keeping with the neighborhood but maintained the warmth and inviting quality, so true to the homeowners’ personalities.
