Project News

Sneak Peek: East Falls Kitchen Photo Shoot

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Take a gander at this lovely image from a photo shoot conducted last week by Mark Gisi of Tabula Creative at one of our kitchen projects in East Falls:

We couldn’t be more pleased with the results of the shoot and of the project itself. When we began work on this kitchen, it was suffering from dated 1970s styling and poor cabinet layout and storage design that made the room feel cramped. Contributing to the problem was the fact that the kitchen was sharing space with the laundry facilities, and the room was also uncomfortably cold due to an inefficient heating design. The customers called us in to fix the temperature issues and make the style/design more harmonious with the handsome1920s house. They wanted a true cook’s kitchen with logical storage areas and a relocation of the laundry area. The reconfigured room now features high-end Thermador appliances, white Medallion semi-custom cabinetry designed by Myers Constructs, beautiful soapstone countertops, a classic subway tile backsplash and 13″ Marmoleum tile flooring in a checkerboard pattern. The result is a crisp, clean, classic room with understated modern touches.

Recently, we’ve seen a substantial uptick in customers calling for kitchens like this one. Many of them have years of equity invested into their homes, which they’re leveraging to obtain low-cost home equity loans to finance the renovations. Some are “empty nesters” who finally want to have the kitchen they’ve always wanted. We love these buyers because they really enjoy the process of working with us to select just the right appointments for their long-awaited new spaces.

Project Slideshow: Center City Kitchen Upgrade

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With their five children grown and leaving the nest, our clients in this Center City rowhome are preparing for the next stage of their lives — and those plans include a brand new kitchen to replace the 30-year-old builder grade space they had been using. The clients wanted newer, more savvy appliances and fixtures, as well as a room that would accommodate their changing lifestyle, which includes entertaining their grown children and extended families. Even though the footprint of the kitchen was on the smaller side, they needed to max out its performance!

After removing everything from the old kitchen, we ran all new wiring and vented the oven hood exhaust to the outside (something the original builder had failed to do). We then installed Euro-styled flat-panel cabinets in a dark wood stain, along with new Bosch appliances that the homeowners had selected. We replaced the old kitchen floor with a comfortable cork product and added a wine and book storage area next to the kitchen in the dining area. Glass backsplash tile edged with chrome and polished chrome hardware on the cabinets provided a little “bling” for the finished space.

Updated Project Slideshow: East Falls Kitchen Renovation

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This home is a lovely, large 1920s stone single in East Falls. The homeowners, who are now “empty nesters,” asked us to renovate their large kitchen, laundry, and breakfast areas at the rear of the house. They felt that these rooms, last remodeled in the late 1970s, were very cold and poorly designed and fitted. In talking to the clients, we learned that they planned to live in this home for many more years before considering selling. We also discovered that they often entertain their children and grandchildren, so it was important to have room for everyone, even though moving walls would not be possible. The couple wanted traditionally styled, long-lasting, high-quality materials in their new spaces.

Our designers’ first step was reorganizing the layout inside the existing walls for maximum comfort and use and reconfiguring the spaces for better circulation. They selected cabinetry that better fit the minimal, but large-scale features in the home, which still contains many of the original modest Quaker-inspired trims and details.

We next installed hard-wearing Marmoleum tile with under-floor heating to warm up the spaces, as well as high-end Thermador appliances and added lovely finishing touches like shiny silver pendant lighting and subway-style backsplash tiles.

View the slide show here.

Bucks County Multi-Room Makeover

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We are in the process of completing a renovation on this 16+ year old Toll Bros. house in Bucks County. The family has lived in the house since it was new, and they plan to remain there as their kids go though high school and college. When we visited the home, we found that many products used in its construction, like cabinets and flooring, were “out of the box,” low-quality goods that had already exceeded their life expectancy.

Our team listened to the needs of the homeowners and discovered the following:

They like to entertain anywhere from 4-40 people at a time. Room for enjoying cocktails, wine, good food and casual living was a priority.
The first floor was broken up into an unused dining room, a large vapid foyer area, unusual diagonal hallways, and a fragmented kitchen area.
They wanted a “cool” house and the removal of what they considered some stodgy suburban interior features.
Streamlining, organization, and big, sexy surfaces were a must.
They were ready to have fun with their project.

We began by removing walls between the dining room, entertainment space and kitchen to create a more open floor plan. We then selected sleek silver and white Euro-styled cabinets, extra thick white Caesarstone countertops, colorful clear glass tiles, and high-end Thermador appliances. The old out-of-the-box floors were patched in (since there was no original flooring under the cabinets) and refinished in a deep, bold black to pull the space together. Opulent and fun lighting fixtures and furnishings added the final touches.

We love projects like this one, when we are asked to stretch with the dreams of our clients.

Part I In a Series: When Vintage Decor Meets Modern Renovation – and a Giveaway!

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If you follow our blog regularly, you may already know that we’re doing a long-awaited renovation of the master bedroom suite at our 1950s Sputnik-era split-level rancher in Flourtown. Happily, the construction phase is over, and we’re now on to the finishing touches and decorating stage. This is when we get to install all of the shiny and pretty bits. Shopping for just the right decor is, for me, one of the most fun parts of the project. Because I love old, quality crafted furniture, I really enjoy the process of combing the local antique and high-end consignment shops to find pieces that will not only fit the space properly, but also tell the right story about our home.

Read more

Irene’s Local Effects

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By all accounts most of us in and around Philadelphia dodged the very serious potential effects of Irene. Our hearts go out to those who were not as lucky as we were.

Here are some snaps of what I saw the day after in my own neighborhood;

  • Local streams and rivers were 5-10 feet above normal causing low-lying areas to flood. Some people even had to be evacuated by boat.
  • Because the storm threw weather at us from unusual directions, new leaks were discovered;
  • At our house, some water came behind the brick screen wall and into the house via the window below.
  • Crawl spaces got wet because the ground outside was so saturated.
  • Tenants at our rental house let us know the old chimney let some moisture in and it stained the plaster ceiling.
  • A customer called to let us know she too got some rain in through her very old worn brick wall, a place that doesn’t normally leak.
  • Tamara reported that a light fixture in her house was dripping too, again with the rain coming in from a new previously unknown leak source.

We were well prepared for much worse. You can see in the photo one neighbor boarded up his large living room window to protect himself. Like many in my neighborhood, I was on my roof the day before the storm clearing gutters and checking caulking. But you may need the best replica watches for daily life.

If you have experienced storm damage we are here to help.

A Visual Breakdown of Kitchen Renovation Costs

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I asked Dana, who is very good with the computers, to give us a simple pie chart of one of our recent kitchen projects. Here you go:

I wanted this tool because many homeowners think the most expensive stuff in their kitchen is the cabinetry and counter tops. You can see from the graph that this is not the case at all. In this case its less than 18% of our typical kitchen project.

“How come?” you ask. Let me explain;

The only way your biggest cost would be in cabinets and counters would be if you were swapping out the exact kitchen you have now; same layout, with new cabinets and a new counter top, or re-facing the kitchen you have and adding a new counter top.

Most of the people who call us want a completely new kitchen space with the room stripped to the subfloors and studs. So all the stuff that is in the walls; your pipes, wires, insulation, and often even the structural elements, doors and windows, gets moved or changed or replaced. And then we have to put in all the new stuff you do see like drywall, stone, tile, paint, cabinets floors, lights and outlets, heating and cooling and ventilation and lots of other stuff.

That’s a lot of stuff! Some of it isn’t very sexy the way cabinets and counter tops can be. But it all needs to be done if your kitchen is going to work well.

Luxe Details Make Even a Small Project Sing

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This small master bath renovation that we’ve been working on is coming to a close, and the final “shiny bits ” are now going in.

Along with the sleek chrome lighting and plumbing fixtures, we selected two small custom granite pieces for the shower bench and the doorway threshold. We selected Absolute Black granite in 1.25-inch thickness with an “eased edge” to complement the minimal modern bathroom we designed for this 1957 split-level home.

The wall tile is a 12×24″ porcelain that looks like travertine, and the floor tile is a 6×12″ porcelain that looks like black slate. We think the granite is a nice, crisp addition to the scheme, and, while it is a very deep black, you can see from the lefthand photo how its crystals sparkle.

Tell us what you think.