Design Blog
Thoughts & Musings
Mission District Restaurant I designed with custom metal cut out sign- it was a Paella Restaurant before its time!
We used the metal cut-outs from the exterior sign on the wall of the restaurant. Metal cut-outs were also used on the guardrail of the entry ramp. The cut-outs were also used as hanging art= never waste a thing was out motto!
Bronze Sink in the shape of a shell at http://solerasinks.com/
Sea Urchin shaped Bronze Sink by the same company
These are some of the nicest sinks I have seen on the market for that special powder room application. The company also does copper kitchen sinks. My cousin is installing on his boat- perfect, right? The shell sink is especially great the way that the water is going to follow the shape into the drain.
Kohler Tub Filler is mounted in the ceiling of this Master Bath with a waterfront view. Kohler SOK Tub is paired with it to create a Zen home SPA experience. Granite Tub surround. Glass tile face.
The tranquility of this Master Bath is achieved with the use of serene soothing colors of Celadon Green and light blue from the recycled glass tiles from Hakatai Glass.
Working on an "Infill Addition" for a house in Santa Rosa, CA to create a new entry and connect the garage to the main house with a laundry room/mud room. Used Google Earth of the property-worked out great to show the existing site/driveway with car with the 3D model on top!
Not sure what I would have done in the old days of hand drafting to communicate design ideas. So much has changed in the industry in the last 15 years, to make communication with clients so much better. With 3D modeling, it is easy to show a client what an addition is going to look like. With the software that I use called "Vectorworks", all the walls that I input in the 2D plan, have 3D values set into them already. I set the height of the walls when I create them and then switch to a 3D view to see what they look like. I create the roofs on a separate layer stacked above, and can see what the different options look like.
Kitchen remodel with 60" Gas Professional Stove for a food writer. Maple cabinets, slate floors, granite counters w/ 1.5" round bullnose edge= YUMMY!
You can tell that this is a cook's kitchen. I put in the signature shelf at the back of the back-splash to put condiments up off the counter, for easier cleaning. The hood is bigger then the stove by 6" on either side, so that grease is better handled. The upper cabinets have glass in them so the cook can see what they contain. The floors were slate because she had 3 dogs that trashed the former wood floor. The slate really held up to the constant movement in the kitchen around the central island!
Up-lighting above the upper cabinets of this Victorian's kitchen remodel I did, gives the room a sense of being washed with light.
Lighting in a kitchen is so important. It is the heart of the modern home, where everyone gathers. Even if you don't have tall ceilings, if you can get in some in-direct lighting under the upper cabinets, it gives more lighting. LED stripe lighting is a cost-effective way to get more lighting onto the work surfaces. And the more lighting, the better.
If youhave tall ceilings, then definitely use LED up-lighting above the upper cabinets, to wash the ceiling with in-direct lighting.
This is a bathroom I did in a Victorian over 20 years ago, and the clients really wanted to have two pedestal sinks. The challenge was what to do for storage? I designed a storage tower in-between the sinks which also came in handy for towel bars and an art pedestal all in one.
For some reason, in the old days, they would soffit down (drop the ceiling) over a shower to make it feel more cozy? Retain the heat?
In thenew remodel, we tore out the drop down soffit to open up the bathroom and retained the existing cabinets. The bathroom seems light & airy now with nes fixtures and lighting.
Here is a CAD generated 3D model of the proposed Kitchen addition to the back of the house
From more of a head on angle
And from the left side
Here is an example of some studies I did for a client to help visualize how the kitchen addition could look. The slanted roof up helps to capture the Western facing views of the mountain top ridge that is currently blocked with a down sloping low roof eave.
Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday!
Here is our house up in Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, WA all decked out for the Holidays. The great room has a vaulted ceiling with a scissor truss above, but we added the cross beams as a way to break up the space and add lighting. The Coast Salish lived in "Long Houses" on our Mitchell Bay 5,000 years ago for the summer months. It was "communal living" at its finest with partitions off the main space for each individual family that shared the Long House. So the house I designed on Mitchell Bay has one huge open space with the traditional Long House in mind. We rent it out as a vacation rental on VRBO.com ( https://www.vrbo.com/344649 ) with 4 bedrooms (2 mini-Masters facing Mitchell Bay West). It is great for a family vacation, where everyone can hang out in the huge kitchen and enjoy sunsets off the central deck facing West. Much cheaper then renting 4 hotel rooms! Blessings to all for the New Year!
