50 years of interior design, it hardly seems possible. Yet here I am, my wife and business partner Sally by my side. I invite you to join me as I look back and celebrate our years together. We each took different paths along the way to our careers in the business. Sally was living in...
Interior Design Trends are something that Sally and I usually don’t pay much attention to. We write them off to media and marketing hype. Having said that, discussions about emergning 2020 Interior Design Trends in several private FB Groups I am a member of caught my eye in December. The first was a conversation about...
Design a French style master bedroom suite in a Colonial style home? Convention would dictate a New England style interior if you’re renovating a New England Style home, or perhaps today’s mid-century modern look with it’s rooms stripped of detail. On the other hand, “Why not French?” So many clients tell us, “We love to...
Is it possible to find design happiness thru digital design? On the surface, the answer may appear to be “No, it’s too impersonal. It’s too much like paint by number. Point and click”. On the other hand, digital design’s ability to customize and it’s capacity to let you see before you buy, offers you the...
This past weekend I spent time revisiting and remembering one of our favorite projects, the renovation of the Forster – Leach House an 1804 Federal Period home in Manchester, MA, whose design is attributed to well known Salem architect, Samuel McIntire. Sally and I have been decluttering and cleaning the office because in the next...
Renovation projects. They’re never ending. It’s home ownership’s dirty secret. The one no one ever tells you about – until after you’ve purchased your first home. Sally and I are in the process of selling our home and doing the downsizing thing this summer. Going thru photograph albums of the work we’ve done on the...
Sally and I covered some of the hidden costs of construction in our most recent post about our bathroom renovation. In that post we discussed why you need a contingency budget, which is intended to protect you from two major sources of hidden renovation or construction costs. Unforeseen conditions Scope creep There are other hidden...
“A construction contingency budget? Why should I need one? I mean, what can be so hard about this? It’s four walls, a floor and a ceiling?” our client asked in disbelief. Then the contractor opened up the walls… CONTROL WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL As I wrote in our most recent post, a proper set of construction...
A renovation project, whether it’s a bathroom, kitchen or entire house, is complex, disruptive and can be filled with unknowns and uncertainty. Virtually all of our clients have never undertaken a renovation before. Since most renovations have a life cycle of 25 – 30 years, they may never undertake another again. It’s called a Low...
Please join Sally and me as we tackle our own family bathroom design. Take a peek behind the shower curtain with us as we share our design thinking and decisions. In follow up blog posts we’ll break down the contractor’s pricing for you and tell you the good, the bad and the ugly of our construction...