Kitchen Remodel - Before and After

After



After

Before

Before

Here are after and before photos of a kitchen remodel I recently completed. We kept some of the cabinets, replacing the doors, and did a new island and new wall of cabinetry along the frig wall. The homeowner didn’t like the white cabinets and the color scheme was very dated. A fresher, cleaner look was desired with a softer color palette. Existing floor tile remained to keep budget costs down.

I like the way it turned out with the contrast in the island, countertop, and glass front cabinet interiors. It’s a much slicker look and has a more updated appeal. I would have preferred a new darker floor, something halfway between the light and dark values to ground the space, but the homeowner preferred to keep their existing tile. It is a nice new kitchen that has added much value to the home and is much more enjoyable for the homeowners....and it doesn't look just like every other house next door! I'll post the window treatments we did in this space later in the week.

ASID Award Winning Project

ASID Award Winning Project

I won an award at the ASID Awards Gala last week! I had entered one of my master bath remodel projects and it won an Honorable Mention! Photos of the winning project are shown above.

My wheelchair bound client needed accessibility but did not want it to be obvious. A masculine feel with spa-like quality was desired. Walls needed to come down to provide a luxurious roll-in shower and side entry toilet. Direct access to the sinks was allowed when storage shifted to the side and the countertop was floated on the wall. A reddish toned slate, “painted desert” was used on the walls and floor to continue the exterior brick wall color into the bath and served to marry the indoor space with the garden. Dark mahogany was a rich accent and made beautiful cabinets and trim. The 3 ft. wide louvered mahogany doors added for ease of entry into the bathroom and closet, created a spa-like ambience. The glass block partitions provided some privacy while visually keeping the space open.

During the course of this project, I became interested in universal design and took a course through the GHBA to become CAPS certified. CAPS stands for Certified Aging in Place Specialist. My goal is to design projects that are accessible and beautiful.

Later Updates:

This project later won a national award from the NAHB Remodelers in 2010, the Homes for Life Award, single space.  I received this in Baltimore at their awards gala.  Such a thrill! 

I was really moved though when I found out through the next homeowner of this house, in the fall of 2011, that my client had lived in this home until he passed. The changes he had made to the property enabled him to be at home instead of in a hospital. 

My assistant, Sarah, and I, at our new office!

My assistant, Sarah, and I, at our new office!

We are ready to begin new projects. We love our new office and location and look forward to having new clients stop by and visit. Sarah Bourne has been with me now for the last three months. She is organized and technical and is a wonderful addition to Aston Design Studio. As a degreed designer and Allied Member of ASID, she recently passed her NCIDQ, the qualifying exam for state licensing of interior designers. While I sketch, she operates our CAD and we have double the skills to offer our clients. I'm very happy to have her on staff.

My New Office!

My New Office!

Here are photos of my new office. I really love it! It’s a nice blend of commercial office with a residential softness. The industrial style light fixture and mesh office chairs combine with the soft window valances and shades, residential style of the ghost chair, and linen covered tackboards to create a nice blended look. Design offices can look so cluttered because of all the colors, samples, and paper everywhere, so I chose to have a soft creamy white backdrop on the walls and furniture. The neutral coffee colored countertops, lighting, carpet, and hardware anchor the space and provide a break in the light colored room.

The layout of the room gives the maximum use of storage and work surface and the tackboards are a must in every design office. We even have room for a future intern! Maybe in the fall.

Here it is, finally done!

Here it is, finally done!

I haven’t posted in a long time, too caught up with work and an exciting new venture I’ll discuss later. Here is the bathroom, all finished and beautiful.

I’m so happy with everything. My perfectionism served me well, everything is really just the way I want. I love my plumbing fixtures (they are so solid and function so beautifully), my mirrors (they gleam!), the tile work, the paint job (so smooth), the lighting (fabulous!), my vanity (it makes me feel so special), my storage (much improved!), and how spacious the bathroom seems now. It was a truly successful makeover. Let me know what you think!!!

My business is growing. I’ve added an employee, a young designer, who comes with good technical experience and contacts. She is very helpful.

The big news is that I’ve moved out of my home office to a business location. A local remodeling contractor contacted me last spring to talk about relocating into his showroom space. We will retain our separate businesses, but refer clients to each other. I have been doing contracting on my jobs, but I wanted to stop that and just do the design part. He wanted to farm out the design work and concentrate on the contracting – a perfect symbiotic relationship.

We are remodeling an old house on I-45 North in The Woodlands, a great location and great venue to show off what we can do. We will have a model kitchen (with a built-in cappuccino machine:), a large conference/showroom area, and sample rooms for tile, stone, and flooring selections. His wife is a faux finisher and we have many samples of her work as well. She occupies a separate painting studio in a storefront/garage building on the property. The remodeling business office is upstairs and my design studio with a nice sample room for fabrics and furniture is adjacent to the conference/showroom. I’ll post pictures soon! I’m very excited about this new endeavor!

A New Window!

A New Window!

My new window, shown in the top two photos, has been installed in my bathroom and it is fabulous! Double pane, rain glass, installed properly to sit above the tub deck, not below it! We had rotten wood on the exterior, so it was due to be changed anyway. That cheap single pane window, shown in the bottom two photos, just did not do my bathroom justice. Nor did it insulate any being on the east wall, where we had direct sun in the morning.

You can see in the lower photos that the tile on the tub deck previously died into the glass of the window. By getting a shorter window and installing it 6” above the tub deck, I’ve created a wall for the new granite deck to die into. This window will also have a granite sill, so if a random wet washrag or soap bottle gets put on the sill, the water will not be a problem.

It has been trimmed out in wood beautifully by my carpenter, who thought to add the small crown at the top. I was considering doing an upholstered cornice above that window, now that it is so beautifully trimmed out, I may not. I’m very happy with this installation and my new double pane window!

My Cabinets!

My Cabinets!

I am soooo lucky! I had a wonderful cabinet maker build my cabinets and trim out my bathroom. His work is fabulous! It took about a week and a half, but everything turned out beautifully.

I have my super deep medicine storage cabinet, my custom jewelry cabinet , my tall linen cabinet, my 36” high sink vanity (no more stooping!) with perfectly aligned cabinet drawers and doors, and of course, my beautiful walnut vanity! I have wonderful full extension glides and European hinges. I have my simple recessed panel doors with a minimal bit of routing for detail. Since it was built on site it fits my bathroom like a glove. Well built cabinets are a true luxury and the people that build them are true craftsmen.