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Friday, March 22, 2013

Totally Renovated Townhome Part VI - The Loft

Here's the last stop on our totally renovated townhome tour: the loft. First of all I want to pause on these gorgeous custom stained stairs again!


 BEFORE: The loft had hunter green carpets and dark taupe walls. (Photo from Century 21)
 PROGRESS: During demolition, carpeting and underpad is cut into small manageable pieces, rolled and disposed of.
AFTER: The loft was painted the same beautiful grey shade (Benjamin Moore's Wickham Gray HC-171) as most of the hallways and spaces of this house. A large open space like this also required a substantial light fixture. I chose a chrome "sputnik" type design, that would diffuse light throughout the large space
 Another look at the newly redone stairs and hardwood flooring. It is very important to keep the hardwood flooring consistent throughout the house! (With very few exceptions)
A shot of the staircase looking down to the main level.
That concludes the tour! Hope you enjoyed and please do drop us a line if you have any questions about renovations or get your very own quotation.

Totally Renovated Townhome Part V- Master Bedroom & Bathroom

We're nearing the completion of this tour of our major renovation for this totally transformed townhome, and I wanted to show you the amazing renovation of the master bedroom.
 BEFORE: Master bedroom closet - the room featured two separate closets with sliding doors.

 PROGRESS: The clients wanted to have a flat screen tv mounted in their bedroom, and the closet  wall was the only wall that it was possible to do so. It was also still the only wall in which we could have a closet, so I designed another custom built-in closet still with plenty of space to store clothing.
 
AFTER: In keeping with the rest of the house, we had the popcorn ceilings scraped, pot lighting installed, and shaker style cabinets. The flooring was also changed throughout. Slate grey roman blinds were also added to help soften up the room without making it look fussy.

BEFORE: A yellow victorian style bathroom

 AFTER: Sleek, modern yet still classic, featuring ajax marble 12" x 24" tiles, a custom vanity and a spectacular shower!
 PROGRESS: The client loved to go on the sourcing trips, so we scoured showrooms for the perfect shower fixture. Believe it or not, this shower kit is actually a fairly decent price at $1000 considering you receive 4 body sprays (usually about $300 each), a hand shower with a slide bar, and a rainfall shower head. Of course in my opinion the best part of this would be the thermostatic valve, which allows you to control the water temperature to a tee.
 Anoter look at the rainfall shower head, which is controlled separately. These can be mounted either on the ceiling or as seen above in the showroom. Notice the beautiful detail of the grigio 1"x4" tiles on the ceiling and the floor!
 The glass shower was designed to sit slightly on top of the bathtub, so the clients can rest their amenities on the ledge. A good glass shower door swings in as well as out!
Another shot of the gorgeous tilework.

PROGRESS: Every detail counts! The design process included picking out all the hardware in the house. Length, feeling and look are all very important factors when picking hardware.

 I custom designed this vanity with the client's requests in mind for a place to do her makeup and put her cosmetics. The countertop is a beautiful Caesarstone quartz, and it features two undermount rectangular sinks with waterfall faucets.
 This vanity should hold plenty of bottles, lotions and necessities. The cut out in the middle is to accomodate the plumbing.
This is the makeup drawer that was put into the vanity to accomodate nail polish bottles, powders, and everything you would need to get ready!

Totally Renovated Townhome Part V- The Second Bathroom

This post will be short and sweet until I get photos of the bedroom once it is completed. Until then, I'd love to share photos of the renovation we did in the second bedroom with you.
BEFORE: The bathroom was certainly in keeping with the country style the house had. Photo by Century 21.


 AFTER:  A custom designed vanity with a beautiful Caesarstone countertop (4600 Organic White) with an undermount rectangular sink and a waterfall faucet.
The flooring is a warm grey polished 12" x 24" ceramic tile which main design function is to warm up the space.
 The walls are painted a gorgeous hue of blue green. The shower was tiled with a off white 8"x12" tile from Ciot, and we installed the soho shower system from Ginger's.

Totally Renovated Townhome Part IV- The Dining Room

In the space adjacent to the kitchen, was previously a tiled family room (all open concept). Since we were getting rid of the tiny breakfast area in the kitchen and they wanted a larger dining room to entertain in, I suggested that we turn the space into a dining room. In a staging scenario, they could always change it up in the future.
BEFORE This family room was tiled, and had a very strange configuration. We couldnt change the thickness of the bulkhead because it vents the gas fireplace, but you'll see soon what I dreamed up for this space below (Photo by Century21).
The future dining room's tiled floor was removed.

 I went to work custom designing built-in cabinets that would provide plenty of storage for the client's dishware and things. The clients wanted to be able to watch tv while cooking, so we had it pre-wired and ready to go for a tv mount.
 AFTER:  I chose a medium grey tone to contrast the cream shaker panel cabinetry, which matches the adjacent kitchen's cabinetry. The drawers in the middle were designed to house things like flatware and loose items.
We also had custom california shutters installed to create a clean look.
Since we could not change the height of the bulkhead, I had the contractors box out the fireplace and face it with a gorgeous splitface slate coloured stone to create height and grandeur.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Totally Renovated Townhome Part III - The Kitchen

The one place you'll always want to invest in is the kitchen. Indeed, my clients felt the same way and the bulk of the budget was allocated to creating this gorgeous dream kitchen! Let me walk you through the process.
BEFORE: The only thing we kept in this kitchen was the KitchenAid fridge and Bosch dishwasher.


PROCESS: After I spoke with my clients on what they would like to see in their kitchen, I started dreaming it up and created a very general rendering of the kitchen to get an idea of the placement

PROCESS: After sourcing the appliances and giving the specs to the cabinet maker, we finalize the kitchen plan, sign off on it, and they begin making the cabinets. I create a lighting plan at this point as well.
PROGRESS: Meanwhile the kitchen is being gutted!
PROGRESS: For this particular project, my client wanted to go to the showrooms to see the light fixtures (I can also bring photos to show the client). We find the perfect pendant lights for above the island.

 The cabinets have arrived!!
 They carefully begin to install the cabinets
 AFTER: The beautiful result of a fully installed, custom designed kitchen. This kitchen features shaker style maple cabinets, a double wall oven/ microwave convection oven duo, a countertop gas range, and beautiful Caesarstone countertops with a bit of sparkle.
 I also had LED under cabinet lighting installed, which adds a wonderful effect on the carrara marble backsplash.


 Out of dozens of backsplashes, the one we finalized went beautifully with the clean lines of this townhouse. The faucet chosen was from Ginger's.
 I love the features of this kitchen, including a sauce pull out.
 A magic corner pull out feature allows you to store more pots!
 A duo garbage/ recycling pull out is built into the island.
 The client asked for a shoe rack as the back door to the garage happens to enter into the kitchen, so I custom designed this matching cabinet.

Totally Renovated Townhome Part II- Main Floor (Still in Progress!)

The next thing i'd like to show you is the main floor renovation. Other than the walls and the general layout, we completely gutted the space. The space itself was in good condition and had upgraded crown mouldings, however it did not suit the client's taste. Here are some photos from before the renovations.
BEFORE: The living room (Photo by Century21)
BEFORE: The dining room (Photo by Century21)
 
PROGRESS: Gutted and ready to go!

AFTER: I sourced a grey-toned classic pre-finished oak floor, and had the walls painted a light grey to bring out grey in the floors. The popcorn ceilings were all scraped and refinished, and new mouldings were installed. This space will be finished with furniture soon- stay tuned!

 
 BEFORE: The stairwell (Photo by Century21)
AFTER: The staircase removed, re-faced with solid oak, and was custom stained to match the flooring. In this project, the client entrusted me with choosing every design detail including the iron pickets, and the square posts.
AFTER: The powder room was completely gutted. A new floating vanity, mirror, faucet, lighting, tiles and toilet were installed.