Help Us Fixup Our New “Free To Travel Home”

hat is what Diane and John Smith, who were referred to us by Suz and Gary Mahler (Thank You), wanted us to do.

No problem, usually. Only in this case we had no access to the new house until closing. Let me get this straight, you want us to design all these changes/additions for a space we can’t see for a few months, other than the realtor’s pictures and a dated builder floor plan? OK, let’s get started!

Kitchen/Dining Area

Added three red pendants over the breakfast bar / sink area, and new stainless steel sink.

We coordinated the new sink counter with the existing breakfast bar counter.

The “twig” chandelier was replaced with a more fitting design.

We reused their ironwood table and replaced the uncomfortable wood dining chairs with our Comfort-Fit™ faux leather upholstered dining chairs. The fabric selected picked up the colors from the existing walls and tile.

These Comfort-Fit™ chairs have springs in the seat to make the Smith’s guests very comfortable during their frequent 3-hour dinner experiences.

A composite granite, single basin, under-mount sink was selected, along with brushed nickel plumbing fixtures; all to complement their new granite countertop.

Family Room Makeover

Many subtle changes were made the Smith’s family room and front entry to make the space more cohesive and accommodate the Smith’s entertaining.

First we designed and made a custom bar cabinet which shows-off their extensive stemware and provides ample storage below. “The bar cabinet is one of our most favorite things about the makeover”, said Diane Smith. John Smith added LED lighting under the upper cabinet to provide not only workspace light, but to highlight their stemware.

We added a new area rug to anchor the room. This rug gave us the colors to build off of for new and repurposed furniture. We recovered a set of shell backed swivel chairs in tight back swivels with a geometric Southwest print to give them a new lease on life (see lower left hand chair in after image above).

The arm chair in the middle of picture above was reupholstered with a stripe fabric and leather insert mimicking fabric at the state museum in New Mexico. We created a matching ottoman.

To accommodate the Smith’s request for a wine cabinet in a very limited space, we did what we always do…come up with a unique alternative. Kind of hard to see in the photo above, but highlighted in the hallway to the back bedrooms/office is a wine cabinet (recessed into an adjacent closet). We also created a place for Mr. Smith to display his shot glass collection above the wine cooler.

A finishing touch was the stand we had made for their mascot giraffe “BJ”, named in my honor (far left above). They always had trouble keeping “BJ” upright. Now “BJ” has a secure base and is much less likely to be toppled and become damaged. I feel honored to have a place forever in the Smith’s “free to travel home”.

Master Bath Remake

In the master bath we removed the unneeded tub (as we often do in homes today) and expanded and upgraded the shower. The Smith’s wanted his and hers shower areas, which we accomplished by expanding and angling the outer shower walls. A teak fold-down stool improved the functionality within the shower. You can’t see in these photos, but there are niches in each of the outer pony walls for soap and shampoos, improving user friendliness.

Regarding the sink area of the master bath, our original plan was to just replace the counter. But once we removed the old cultured marble top and saw the typical builder grade cabinets, we changed out the cabinets, which also allowed us to add a dirty laundry pull-out in the middle.

New sconce lights as well as additional can lights offer more user friendly lights. All these lights are dimmable of course.

 
Wow!! the dining chairs are just awesome…..you got me just what I requested…very, very comfortable dining chairs. The springs in the seats are great! The new dining room chandelier is great too…Great choices!
Diane & John Smith