Molly Frey Design

Design Idea: Smart Storage for Smartphones

2012-01-05T08:01:00.000-05:00

Along with the latest technologies come a lot of cords and chargers that can make a space look very cluttered. Many older homes aren't designed to accommodate these new additions so we end up with a mess of wires all over the kitchen counter. During the design of this home, we made sure that all of these items had a nice, functional place to be stored.

This desk is located in a hallway between the kitchen and mudroom. The built-in is flanked by two columns which are repeated throughout the hallways of the house.

Below the desk surface are storage and filing drawers. The cords for the lamp, monitor and telephone have all been designed to be hidden away behind the desk. The upper shelf holds cookbooks for the nearby kitchen and above that is additional hidden storage.

Here is my drawing for the cabinet maker which shows dimensions and locations of details.

This little cubby that's suspended over the desk is a cell phone charging station. The charging ends are accessible but all the messy wires and the outlet are hidden behind a removable panel.

Maine Shopping Trip

2011-11-08T09:06:00.000-05:00

Last week I jumped in the car and headed to Maine. The towns of Kennebunk, Wells and York are a little more than an hour a way from me and have a few shops that I love and can always find something at.

My first stop was Old House Parts in Kennebunk. This place always fascinates me - it's a salvage yard and barn filled with every kind of old window, door and antique hardware you can imagine. It's the place I found 10 matching salvaged corbels for my own kitchen renovation a few years ago:

This time I was looking for some antique sliding ladder hardware and I picked up something that I think might work that's similar to this:

The next stop was Antiques on Nine, also in Kennebunk. Here, I picked up a ladder that I had seen a few weeks ago (that I bought the hardware for). This is going to be placed in my new studio space to access a storage loft.

Of course, the shop is filled with beautiful things:

I love the color and texture these items would add to a room. Also, how great would that SEA sign be on the back wall of a poolhouse at the beach?

Pallian and Co. was my next stop, where I bought these pillows as a housewarming gift for a client whose beach house project has just finished up:

They also have some amazing artwork and accessories:

I have been looking for an island/conference table for my new studio space and I absolutely fell in love with this at Bob Wirthington Antiques:

It's a 3" thick white marble slab from an old candy making factory placed on top of an iron base from an industrial factory. I love the worn look of the marble against the silhouette of the black base. Sadly, it's not in the budget for this project and would require a forklift to get it in the space (!) so I'm still on the hunt.

Shops and Addresses:

Old House Parts
1 Trackside Drive
Kennebunk, ME

Antiques on Nine
81 Western Ave.
Kennebunk, ME

Pallian and Co.
2049 Post Road
Wells, ME

Bob Wirthington Antiques
611 U.S. 1
York, ME

Before and After: Family Room

2011-11-04T10:33:00.000-04:00

As is often the case in renovation projects, this project required that we analyze the overall floor plan and layout of the house and adjust it to meet the needs of a family. Here, a ground floor bedroom that was located at the back of the house was not needed and restricted access from the house to the backyard. The room was renovated into a centrally located gathering room where the family could watch tv, play games or read. Making this a public space also increases the accessibility and views to the backyard from the rest of the house.

Before: this bedroom is located at the back of the house on the ground floor.

After: French doors replace a window to add access to the backyard.

At the other end of the space, the room is opened up to the entry and living rooms with a railing and staircase.

On the left you can see a required support post. We mirrored this with a false post on the right, creating a nook for the flat screen tv. The cabinetry at the bottom extends into a closet on the other side of the wall and provides space for tv components and additional cube seating the family can use to pull up to the coffee table to play a game.

The result is a bright and sunny family room with access to the patio and backyard beyond.

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Table Lamps by Ethan Allen

Design Details: Shower with a View

2011-10-31T08:06:00.000-04:00

Remember the project where a water leak destroyed a living room? This bathroom is upstairs where the leak started which was also flooded and needed to be renovated. Because the layout in the original bathroom was good, we didn't do a complete overhaul - we kept the bath fixtures in the original locations and updated some of the finishes. We did, however, switch out a bathtub that was in an alcove for a glass enclosed shower. While this did a lot to open up the room and make it look bigger, the client was also able to take advantage of the amazing view out the windows...from in the shower.

Here we designed a built-in which incorporates a shower bench along with towel storage on the opposite side.

A shampoo niche with a decorative tile detail on the back wall that matches the shower floor.

Project Update: Powder Room Mirror

2011-10-27T13:42:00.000-04:00

Remember my post about finding an affordable powder room mirror for a client? The project is complete and I'd like to give you a sneak peak of how it turned out - what do you think?

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Indoor Rugs at Velocity Art and Design

Design Details: Exterior Spaces

2011-07-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

It's the time of year to get outside and soak up the sunshine. Decks and patios are a great extension of indoor living space and I like to treat them the same way - with some decorative elements to add interest.

When renovating this house, we added a small deck rail detail to the front of the house. It breaks up the monotony of the railing and adds a small focal point

When tackling a landscape renovation the following year, I love that the landscape designer mimicked the railing design in the new garden gate

Landscape design by Lauren Lautner of For Seasons Ecological Design.

Design Idea: Unique Bathroom Mirrors

2011-06-20T10:25:00.000-04:00

A small powder room really benefits from a window to let in some natural light. The difficulty here was we needed to place the sink on the exterior wall due to space constraints, making it difficult to have both the window and a mirror above the sink. The solution was to place a small square window in the center of the wall and mirror the entire wall around it. The mirror helps to make the small space feel larger and the trim around the mirror adds a traditional touch to a detail that might otherwise feel too modern.

Today I'm working on another bathroom design where we have the same issue - in this case a rectangular vessel sink needs to be centered under a small window on an exterior wall. This bathroom will have a more contemporary feel and in this case I've decided to create a custom framed mirror that will be placed on a rolling track. The mirror can slide over to cover the window, creating a shutter for the window and centering the mirror over the sink. Or it can slide to the right and be centered on the remaining wall.

Design Solution: Removing Kitchen Walls

2011-06-13T13:57:00.000-04:00

One of the things I love about designing a renovation is when something that you have to do out of necessity becomes a key feature in a room. In the case of this kitchen and living room renovation it was the structural support posts.

The living room and kitchen in this house were separated by a full height wall, creating a formal living room and a secluded kitchen. When taking on the renovation, the homeowners knew this wouldn't work for the way they lived - they wanted a large, open space for their family and entertaining so it made sense to remove the wall between the two rooms.

Before: Full height wall in living room (left) and kitchen (right)

In many cases it's possible to design a space where I take out walls and replace them with either wood or steel beams (with design help from my structural engineer) but in this case the span was just too large and the beam would have had to have been too big. Our only option was to use a wood beam held up by two support posts. But instead of basic, decorative support posts, we designed cabinetry around the posts and made the entire piece into a furniture-like feature.

The wall has been removed and the support posts placed. The cabinetry is being installed around the support posts.

Upper cabinets are placed directly on the counter top, making the piece feel more like furniture.

The paneling on the living room side is designed to feel like less like kitchen cabinetry and more like traditional column details. I love that the columns look hefty and substantial from this side.

Crown molding and finish details are added to tie in all the components and make the columns feel as if they're visually supporting the beam above.

In the kitchen we gained lots of additional base cabinets for storage with paneled drink drawers in the center. The columns on this side are visually lighter because of the glass front cabinets. This is a great bar surface for entertaining with easy access to glassware.

From the living room side - a functional and beautiful room divider.

I love the peaks of the living room you get through the columns from the kitchen

Project Update: Office Studio Space

2011-06-06T14:43:00.002-04:00

Here's a peak at my new office/studio space. We're converting and renovating a detached garage in our backyard into my office and the outside is finally done is done - the painters just finished up last week and I've had fun in this great spring weather doing some landscaping.

Project Update: Beach House

2011-03-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my weekly meeting at a new house that I've been working on for over a year now. It's at the stage now where finish work is being done and it's wonderful to arrive each week and see great progress - tile has been placed, built-ins are being installed, doors and windows are getting cased. And now the painters have arrived and it's so refreshing to see the wood moulding get covered in a nice coat of white.

This is one of my favorite parts of my job - it's thrilling to see all of the details we've been discussing come to reality and you really start to get an idea of what the finished space will be:

Project Details: Living Room

2011-03-15T21:44:00.000-04:00

This is a sad story with a very happy ending. These homeowners returned home from a trip to find a pipe had burst in an upstairs bathroom and completely flooded their living and family rooms. It was devastating to see this beautiful old home with high ceilings, original detailed mouldings and great ocean views destroyed by water damage.

The rooms had to be gutted down to the studs and almost all of the furniture thrown away. Luckily, a good contractor was able to save many of the original mouldings and details, including 8' pocket doors that open to the adjacent family room.

During the construction the homeowners went all out and updated small, sliding doors with French doors and classic double hung windows with a cottage sash. We decorated the space with beige, white and pops of blue in a large scale pattern that ties in beautifully with their antique blue sideboard.

The result is a very light and airy space with a great focus on the views. The moral of the story - make sure you have good insurance (and a good designer!).

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Living Room Chairs by Old Hickory Tannery

Design Details: Powder Room Mirror

2011-03-06T15:17:00.002-05:00

I was just doing some online shopping for a client and stumbled across a good find. I'm working on a powder room design and, unlike other bathrooms in a house, I like a powder room to feel more like a furnished room and a little less "bathroomy". So I like to choose fixtures and finishes that are interesting and special and that can be dramatic in the small space of a powder room.

A while back my client and I had seen this mirror and fallen in love with it:

However, with a price tag of $2,895 it wasn't in the budget for this project. You can imagine how excited I was when I found this mirror online today:

While it's not exactly the same, it invokes the same feel as the more expensive mirror and at $199 it's a very affordable way to make a powder room special. In fact, I think I like the clean lines and simplicity of this one even more - what do you think?

Design Details: Master Suite

2011-02-01T07:45:00.000-05:00

I'm so flattered when I come across one of my design projects featured in an interior design blog. One project that seems to be popular is a turquoise and white bathroom that was shown on House of Turquoise and Willow Decor and a few others in the last year. Here's a look at some of the details of that project:

The master suite is located in a wing off of the first floor living space. The client wanted to take advantage of a water view at the back of the property which meant that the bedroom itself needed to be located at the end of the wing. The challenge was to create a unique way to access the master bedroom from the main living area, preferably without creating a dark, narrow hallway. So I designed a gallery-type hallway that is open with French doors to a patio on one side and to the vanity portion of the bathroom on the other side. This light and bright hallway is open to the outdoors and is decorated with beautiful artwork.

In the bathroom, beyond the vanities, is a set of french doors that leads to a large outdoor shower. The vanity space can be visually closed off from the hallway with a pair of sliding shutter doors which provide privacy but still allow a breeze through the space.

The vanities consist of two drawer banks which flank a frosted sea glass tile countertop and front face. The three mirrors above are built-in with sconces between and tie into the mouldings of the doors the side of each vanity. A beautiful bubble glass chandelier in the same frosted sea glass color hangs in the center of the room and creates a visual statement.

Part of the reason I feel this design works so well is that the room and the details are all very symmetrical. Each vanity on each wall is flanked by two doors.

On one side of the room, one door leads to a private water closet and the other to a large shower.

On the opposite side of the room I wanted to create the same symmetry. One door leads to the walk-in closet and I felt it was important to also add a door to the left of this vanity. Behind this door we custom built a large medicine cabinet. From the outside this looks like a regular door but when it's opened you find narrow shelves that are the perfect depth for medicine and cosmetics and we even added electrical outlets and cut-outs in the shelves to hold a hairdryer.

From the walk-in closet you can conveniently access the laundry room. And one of the the homeowner's favorite features is the pocket door that leads from the laundry room to the walk-in pantry off the kitchen - making it easy to sneak a cup of coffee from the pantry in the morning without changing out of your bathrobe.

At the end of the hall is the master bedroom. While the ceilings are already high, we added a bumped up peak treated with tongue and groove paneling. The French doors provide an indoor/outdoor feel while offering great views to the pool and the water view beyond.

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Pillows by Horchow

Before and After: Dining Room

2011-01-18T21:54:00.001-05:00

"Out with the old and in with the new" as they say at the start of a new year. Here is an example of just that in a recent kitchen and dining room project of mine:

Styling by Stacy Kunstel and photography by Eric Roth.

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Ceiling Lighting by Eric Cohler

2010-12-23T10:29:00.001-05:00

I'm about to head out for vacation but before I go I wanted to say that I truly appreciate everyone who has taken the time to stop by here this year and for those of you who have left such wonderful comments. It's so fun for me to hear your feedback and it's great to feel connected to the design community. I've got lots of exciting projects coming up in 2011 that I look forward to sharing with you. Happy Holidays and all the best to you and your families....see you in 2011!

Design Details: Window Seat

2010-12-16T08:48:00.000-05:00

In this project we took a large, spare sitting room and renovated it to become a master bedroom. Along one wall of this room there was a set of four windows with an especially deep window sill. The set of windows is large - about 15 feet long - and I knew this space would be tough to deal with. It wasn't deep enough to be a window seat, but it was also deeper and longer than a normal window sill so it looked kind of bare with nothing on it. I was worried that it was the kind of surface that could quickly get junked up with nick nacks and decorative accessories.

In the new layout, this set of windows is at the foot of the bed - sort of a focal point - so it was important to treat the space right. I designed a window seat in front of the windows to add a comfortable, sunny nook to the room. Notice that the seat doesn't extend all the way across the full set of windows - this would have been too large and overwhelming for the room. Instead, the sides were kept at the original depth - leaving the perfect amount of space for reading lamps and a pile of books - and adding some much needed dimension to the wall.

I felt that window treatments on these windows would be too busy so I also designed a window trim that completely hides a window shade system. The shade is tucked up under the top piece of molding and is invisible while the shade is up. However, for privacy and light control the shades can easily be pulled down - essential in a bedroom.

Styling by Stacy Kunstel and photography by Eric Roth.

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Bedding Pillows by Serena & Lily

Project Update: Shower Tile Pattern

2010-12-08T09:22:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a beach house in another state - one of my long distance projects. These projects are fun to do but I find myself eagerly waiting for photos from clients since I can't just pop by the job site to check on things. I recently received this construction photo of my client's tile in the master shower. We used the tile in alternating colors to create a large scale stripe pattern - I love it so far and I'm looking forward to seeing the final results!

Project Details: Front Entry Facelift

2010-11-30T08:20:00.001-05:00

Front entryways should reflect the style of the interior of the house as well as give a subtle hint of the homeowner's personality. The outside of this house did neither of those things:

While the homeowners had done a great job of updating the interiors in a perfect mix of contemporary and traditional styles, the outside did not reflect this. Part of it had to do with the building style; this type of house, called a Garrison Colonial, is characterized by a symmetrical front facade, a cantilevered second floor, narrow eaves and a low pitch roof. Because the house lacked eaves which create a shadow line, the house felt very one dimensional. The large, empty space over the front door made it feel as if something was missing. And the front door was unwelcoming and didn't functional well since it provided no protection from the weather.

Here is the house after we made some significant design changes:

Construction by: Castner Carpentry, Marblehead MA, 781-706-4572

Want a similar look?

Outdoor Lighting at Circa Lighting

Design Idea: Design it Differently

2010-11-19T09:16:00.001-05:00

Sometimes in design you need to think a little out of the box to make a space unique and special. In many cases these custom designed items send everyone running for the hills when it's time to build them - the contractor, the installer, the plumber or electrician. That’s because these things sometimes take some extra thought and problem solving. That’s why I love to work with tradespeople who have an open mind; they're excited by a challenge and love to figure out a way to make things work. Here’s an example - a sink I designed in a kitchen a few years go:

While it’s a common farmhouse sink - the difference is what’s going on behind it at the faucet. There are actually two sinks in this kitchen, each located under a window. Rather than mount the faucets on the counter top as usual, I decided to mount them on a window sill made out of marble. The marble fabricators made a box and a sill out of white carrera marble and the finish carpenter brought the window trim right down to the marble sill. The faucet is actually a deck mounted faucet that we split up - the plumber was able to mount the faucet on the top of the sill and the handles are mounted on the face of the sill. It took a little extra work for the plumber and marble fabricator but what do you think - was it worth the extra effort?

Project Details: Beige and White Bathroom

2010-11-12T08:37:00.000-05:00

Here's the follow up post with the details of the adjoining bathroom:

Project Details: Beige and White Bedroom Suite

2010-11-05T08:58:00.001-04:00

Here's a soothing bedroom suite that I designed, which includes a custom headboard wall. Up next, details of the adjoining bathroom.

Creating your own beige and white bedroom retreat? You can find similar items here:

Pillowcases & Shams by Pine Cone Hill
Comforters & Duvets by Restoration Hardware

Design Idea: Use the space you have

2010-10-28T09:12:00.000-04:00

I recently worked with a family to redecorate the first floor of their home. While we were only working on picking out furniture and fabrics, they kept expressing their frustration that the house didn't have a bathroom anywhere on the first floor.

They asked if I would design an addition for the house to include a powder room. My immediate reaction was that it would be a very expensive addition on a cost per square foot basis and that there had to be a way to create the space they needed without adding on.

I found this space in the large, oddly shaped dining room. The room had stairs to a lower level family room protruding into it which wasn't giving the room the formal dining room feel they were looking for.

Dining Room Before:

I added the small powder room in the awkward space in the corner of the dining room which helped to achieve two goals - it gave them the powder room they needed and transform the dining "space" into a dedicated, formal dining room.

Dining Room After:

The new powder room is located in a hallway that we created between the dining room and kitchen and across from the stairs to the family room. And because it's in this hallway, it feels very separate from the dining room. While it's small, we were able to incorporate some beautiful details.

The dining room now is a more formal space that is perfectly symmetrical, with the original built-ins mirrored on the other side and the window moved to the center of the space.

The best part is that guests that see that powder room now tell my clients that it feels as if it's always been there...the ultimate compliment.

Want a similar look?

Dining Tables by Ethan Allen

First Renovation

2010-07-09T11:53:00.001-04:00

I'm working out the details of a trip to San Fransisco in September; it's always fun to go back to the place we lived for 10 years. Maybe we'll take a drive through the hills of Sausalito and past the first house we ever owned, which is also the first renovation we ever tackled:

Project Details: Beach House

2010-06-29T08:29:00.002-04:00

I've been working on designing a new house for a client the past couple of months. It's on a great piece of property, just steps from the sand. The contractor just broke ground on the foundation this week and it will be a busy year managing the details as it's being built. We're just about finished with the interior elevations and the next step is to start focusing on the fixtures and finishes.

Project Details: Master Bedroom

2010-03-29T09:43:00.004-04:00

It's been a busy couple weeks. Not that I'm complaining - I'm so lucky to be working on some fun projects with great clients. In the midst of everything, I did have a chance to visit a project that finished up this fall where I helped redecorate at dated master bedroom. Here are the results:

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Striped Pillows at Ralph Lauren

Some of my favorite: Design Drawing Tools

2010-03-09T15:27:00.003-05:00

As a designer I need to convey my ideas to clients and the best way to do this is through pictures. Luckily there are some great tools out there to help me and my clients visualize the potential of their houses. Here are my favorites:

AutoCAD
I use this software for all my design drafting. I draw floor plans, elevations, electrical plans, construction documents, etc. with it. It's fast and easy to use once you learn it.

Revit
I use this in conjunction with Auto-cad to create 3-D models of my drawings. This tool is really helpful to clients to visualize designs.

SketchUp

This is a free Google tool that I love. When I first start to design something this tool is useful to block out the shapes and forms in 3D. It's super fast to use and is more like sketching than drafting, so you can quickly get an idea of what works and what doesn't before getting too committed to a drawing.

Photoshop
This tool is perfect for my decorating projects. It allows me to compile a bunch of photos of decorative elements and display them as Project Boards to clients.

Hand drawing
This is probably the best "tool" that I have because I can take it anywhere (even to client meetings) as a way to quickly share a design idea. Hand drawings are also less stiff and more free-form so clients seem to relate to them better. Plus you can add shadows and texture very easily as well as the decorative elements that make a drawing more realistic. I also find that knowing the basics of perspective design drawing help to make the software tools above easier to learn.

You can find some of these drawings tools here:

In the News: Cottage Style

2010-03-01T08:55:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine tipped me off that a house that I renovated has been featured in Cottage Sytle Magazine. I went off to the bookstore in search of it and found the 2010 issue on the newstands.

This is a house that I renovated a few years ago - my husband and I fixed it up and lived in it for about 4 years and then sold it. We're now living down the street working on another fixer, but it's always surprising to see this one back in the news. Thanks to Michaeal Partenio for the photography and Donna Talley for the styling.

Design Idea: The Mudroom

2010-02-15T20:57:00.002-05:00

I'm packing for a ski trip to Utah and all of these boots, hats and gloves remind me of how important a good mudroom is to keeping the winter accessories orgazined.

If you don't have the space for a full-scale mudroom with all the built-in cabinetry, here are some ideas for a few things you could squeeze into a niche or a spot by the door to keep things functional and pretty:

You can find similar items here:

More Anthropologie...

Project Details: Kitchen Renovation

2010-02-04T09:05:00.003-05:00

Another kitchen project of mine just finished up. As you can see in the floorplans, the kitchen and other rooms were choppy and small so we reworked the space to open things up:

It's so fun to work with homeowners who have excellent taste; they did a beautiful job choosing the fixtures and finishes to create a clean, modern space:

painting by Cathy Schaefer

Some of my Favorite: Shelf Accessories

2010-01-27T13:57:00.008-05:00

You can find similar items here:

More Crate & Barrel...

In the News: Traditional Home

2010-01-19T14:14:00.002-05:00

Great news from the March 2010 Issue of Traditional Home - not only have they named me one of their "20 Young Designers to Watch", but they also called me "young" which is always nice to hear. I'm honored to be in such great company - I have admired the work of some of the other designers for some time now...especially Brad Ford, Jessica Helgerson and Erin Paige Pitts (since she and I were both featured in Traditional Home June/July 2009 issue). Congratulations to all of the designers featured.

Project Details: Master Bedroom Design Elements

2010-01-15T08:45:00.004-05:00

I just came back from a job site visit for a project that I've been working on for the past couple of months. It's a master suite renovation - here is a look at the tile that was just installed on the floor.

The project is just finishing up; the paint is on the walls and the last of the glass tile backsplash is being put up in the bathroom. I'll post some before and after photos when it's done, but in the meantime here is a look at some of the fabric and furnishings for the bedroom. We carried the colors of the gray and white from the bathroom into the design elements of the bedroom.

Want a similar look?

Dressers by Restoration Hardware

Design Idea: That space above the fridge

2010-01-08T13:41:00.006-05:00

When designing a kitchen for a client, I like to go over the details of what will go in each cabinet with them. This helps determine if they've got space for everything and if things are located in a place that's convenient to where they'll be used.

One of the places I always struggle with is the cabinet above the fridge. It's too high to be accessed frequently and too deep to make good use of the space. Usually it's a place for seldom used large pots or cookbooks - some of which eventually fall behind to a back row, never to be seen again.

In a recent kitchen that I did, I decided to scrap that space as storage and to make it purely decorative.

Photo by Michael Partenio

Happy Holidays from Molly Frey Design

2009-12-23T09:38:00.000-05:00

Design Idea: Small is good

2009-12-17T12:49:00.001-05:00

I just read this great article in Residential Architect Magazine called "Is the McMansion Dead?". While I have worked on my share of very large houses, I love the challenge of working with smaller spaces. After all, anyone can fit everything into a house if they just keeping adding square footage to it. But making a small space fit everything a homeowner needs while still being balanced, to scale, simple and aesthetically pleasing is a challenge. The end result is usually a more interesting and unique use of space. Here are some of my favorite small spaces and tips for making them great:

Project Details: Fireplace Built-ins

2009-12-10T10:33:00.004-05:00

This week I've been working on designing this built-in cabinetry and fireplace mantel details for a client

A few years ago I helped this same client with some design changes to the exterior of the house

Design Idea: Off-Center Fireplace

2009-11-14T13:38:00.013-05:00

I wanted to follow up on my last post with some details on one of the design challenges of that particular kitchen and family room remodel. As you saw in the before photos, the family room had an entire wall of dated cabinetry with an off-center, mirrored fireplace. Now, I'm a symmetrical kind of person and a fireplace that isn't centered is really tough to work with. It makes it difficult to layout furniture around the fireplace, place artwork on either side of the fireplace and generally makes one side of the room feel visually heavier than the other side.

For budget reasons, we couldn't move the fireplace but with the use of some well-placed built-ins we could help alleviate the problem. We achieved this by designing a bar area on the left part of the wall (which happened to be conveniently located near the kitchen). The bar was completed with a wine fridge, cabinetry, open shelving for wine glass storage and topped with a black granite countertop.

With the remainder of the wall, we added custom, counter height built-ins to either side of the fireplace to store kid's toys and home theater equipment. The fireplace then felt centered in the remaining space and became the focal point of the room. It was refaced with black granite, a beadboard and white trim surround and a flat screen tv was mounted above.

As you can see from the floorplan below, the changes on that wall enabled us to center the seating arrangement around the fireplace, creating a cohesive and visually balanced room.

Project Details: Before and After Photo Gallery

2009-11-10T12:29:00.013-05:00

I love to see the "before" pictures that correspond with the "after" pictures of a renovation. They help to truly appreciate the transformation that took place.

I hope you enjoy these before and after photos of a kitchen and family room renovation that I designed here in Marblehead:

In the News: New England Home July/August 2009

2009-07-29T10:41:00.012-04:00

I'm very pleased to share a project that was published this month in the July/August issue of New England Home Magazine. The feature is "The Homecoming" on page 108.

This home in Marblehead is owned by a wonderful family from California who use it as a summer home. When they purchased the house it had a very odd layout, was dated and in need of everything new - it was both fun and challenging to re-arrange the space and remodel the house to suit the needs of the family. After renovations were complete, I set to work decorating the house with soothing colors and filling it with comfortable furniture, antiques and beachy artwork.

One of the most challenging parts of the design was finding room for an 11 foot tall model boat that had been passed down in the family. I created a spot in the entry way - where we vaulted the ceilings, built a platform for the boat and surrounded it with white wooden cabinetry - complete with boat hardware.

Thanks to Eric Roth, Stacy Kunstel and Paula Bodah.

In the News: Designer Tricks - Open Shelves

2009-06-22T17:22:00.007-04:00

If you've seen any of my kitchen design work, it's pretty clear that I am a big fan of open shelves. In my opinion, open shelving adds character and dimension to a kitchen and helps to break up long runs of cabinet doors. I also love that everyday items such as glasses, pitchers and platters can be put on display to add a decorative touch.
So, it's no surprise when The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine asked me to contribute to their list of "Designer Tricks for Every Room", that open shelves were on my list. To see the feature and to read the other great tips from designers, click below.

In the News: Traditional Home July 2009

2009-06-09T10:19:00.007-04:00

I'm very excited and honored to have my work featured in the June/July 2009 issue of Traditional Home Magazine. The project is a new 3,500 square foot home that I designed in Florida. The magazine article on page 58 "Come One, Come All" features photographs and floorplans of the large, open kitchen.

Thanks to Michael Partenio, Stacy Kunstel and Amy Elbert.