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Re-Imagined: A Victorian on the Hill

Lori — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:11:52 +0000

This post was originally published at Urban Turf, The DC Real Estate Guide. It is one in a series of features called “Re-imagined,” which will look at DC homes in need of renovations and imagine what they could look like one day.

Single-click anywhere on the images below to move the slider bar, revealing the before and after photos. Use the links at the bottom to ‘show only before’ or ‘show only after.’

The Living Room
In the living room, there are some great details in the built-in wooden shelves and the fireplace surround. However, it felt a little heavy, with a bit too much going on. Weʼd keep the side shelves intact, and try to make the fireplace feel a little more cohesive with a new stone veneer. Though the original wood trim was beautiful, it felt as if it was competing with the bookshelves, and the stone tiling inside it felt small and overpowered, like it was a design afterthought. Ideally, the fireplace trim could be salvaged and re-used for another project by donating it to a place like Community Forklift.

By creating a uniform center with the new fireplace, the wall feels a little more balanced and the room has a focal point. For the floors, weʼd make the two rooms flow together with the same wood flooring, and, as there are currently checkerboard floors throughout the house, weʼd opt to only keep them in one or two of the rooms to avoid overdoing it. Finally, the large space and high ceilings could benefit from more of a statement chandelier that doesnʼt feel quite as tiny in the space.

The Kitchen
The kitchen offers an opportunity to embrace the checkerboard floors, and the only thing we would do is a little bit of restoration to clean them up. Weʼd choose cabinets and countertops that are light and white tones to avoid competing with the floor, as well as new appliances. Along the right wall, weʼd add a seating area with some pops of bright color.

The Bedroom
The bedroom is in pretty decent shape and could simply benefit from a fresh coat of paint and some refinished floors. A darker stain on the floors and a darker accent wall would help to make the space feel more intimate. We also decided to add a seating area in the curved window area to take advantage of the beautiful space.

The Rear Porch and Deck
The backyard is currently almost non-existent, due to the detached carriage house/garage directly behind the house that takes up much of the lot. Adding a deck on the roof of this structure would help maximize the outdoor space while providing a good place to grill and entertain. Weʼd fix up the wooden porch by adding a new canopy structure overhead, and remove the existing railings for access to the extended deck.

Do you have a room in your house you’d like to re-imagine? All we need is a photo to get started! Get in touch for more information on how we can help transform your home.

Re-Imagined: A Row House in 16th St Heights

Lori — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:27:58 +0000

This post was originally published at Urban Turf, The DC Real Estate Guide. It is the ninth article in a series of features called “Re-imagined,” which will look at DC homes in need of renovations and imagine what they could look like one day.

Here is a re-envisioned a Federal style row house located at 5418 13th Street NW (map) in the 16th Street Heights neighborhood. With a traditional floor plan, four bedrooms, a walk-up attic, basement, and a backyard garage, this home has tons of potential for amazing spaces. Here are a few before-and-after images that show what we would renovate.

Currently: Spacious, with Great Details

Re-imagined: A Cozy Room for Living

The Living Room

The living room is in pretty decent shape, so we concentrated on creating a warm, inviting color palette and functional layout. We chose a darker brown paint for the walls to make the space feel a little more intimate, and concentrated the seating around the edges of the room, letting the fireplace stand alone as its own element in the corner. Weʼd keep the original floors and trim molding as is, and update the hearth to match the existing fireplace brick a little more closely. A large, patterned area rug helps break up the large amount of wood floor surface. Finally, weʼd add some modern ceiling lighting over the seating area.

Currently: Dirty and Mis-matched

Re-imagined: A Clean and Modern Guestroom

The Bedroom

With four bedrooms on the upper floor, weʼd likely turn one of them into a guest room as we did here. For this space, the electric blue carpet, faded pink trim, and peeling wallpaper had to go. Weʼd repaint with more neutral colors, and lay a new hardwood floor (assuming there wasnʼt one underneath the carpet that could be revived), and update the ceiling fan to something more modern looking. Some basic pieces of bedroom furniture and large-scale photography on the walls complete the new look.

(A note on the wallpaper – we like the look and feel of the old pattern, but judging from the photo, its condition looks like itʼs beyond fixing. Weʼd have to do a closer inspection to determine if perhaps one wall could be cleaned and re-adhered in the parts that are dirty and peeling. It could make for a handsome accent wall. Alternately, if it has to come down, pieces that are removed could still be creatively re-used for things like framed artwork or lining furniture drawers.)

Currently: Unfinished and Messy

Re-imagined: The Perfect-Sized Playroom

The Attic

This attic space, with its lower ceiling and sloped walls, would make an amazing playroom for kids. Weʼd finish off the side walls with a light-colored wood panel system, paint the end brick wall white, and add a new wood floor atop the existing floor boards that would be more friendly to little feet. Weʼd also add some ceiling lights since the semi-circle window would only allow minimal natural light inside. Some built-in cubbies at the left would make great storage for toys and books and the wood rafters a perfect frame to hang a small swing from.

Currently: Unkempt

Re-imagined: Outdoor Seating and Gardening

The Backyard and Garage

The backyard looks like it hasnʼt been tended to in quite awhile. Weʼd replace the old concrete path with brick pavers and add a patio sitting area directly behind the house with enough room for outdoor furniture. A new wooden fence would replace the current chain-link fence at the left, which would provide some additional privacy from the adjoining backyards. Closer to the garage, there is plenty of room for a flower and vegetable garden to be planted. Weʼd fix up and repaint the trim and door on the garage as well. As for the rear of the house, weʼd take down the dated-looking awnings and give the siding a good power-washing so the backyard looks fresher.

What do you think of the re-imagined spaces? Do you see anything you would have done differently?

the “making of” a rendering

Lori — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:12:00 +0000

hit play to watch each step of the rendering process – a backyard transformed

People often think that creating a rendering is as simple as pushing the “Render” button. While I really wish that my keyboard had one of these magical buttons, it’s not always that easy. Creating a rendering involves lots of steps, and is generally a very iterative process. Every artist works in a slightly different way, but I wanted to give everyone a little glimpse of one of my renderings in progress, from start to finish. The two particular renderings posted here were done for a feature article on Urban Turf called Re-Imagined, where I envision how various features of a home could be transformed. You can check out the article to get a better idea of the purpose of these images.

I started with some basic listing photos from a home for sale on Redfin.com. This is the photo that you see in the first frame of the movies posted here. Each step after that represents one more iterative rendering, in other words, each time I hit that “render” button. When each of the images in the process are strung together, you can get a little insight into how I went about creating the rendering. You’ll notice there is a lot of trial and error – adding new lights, adjusting the brightness, rearranging furniture, adding colors, and creating new textures.

hit play to watch each step of the rendering process – making of a living room

In each of these examples, you’ll notice there are about 14-15 steps to creating the final look. Each step can take anywhere from 5 to 45 minutes to do, depending on what is being added or adjusted. Usually, I am working with textures and furniture from my library of resources, but sometimes, I’ll have to build a new custom piece of furniture or create an original texture from scratch, which adds to the time spent on a project. Other times, I will buy a new model or texture from a site like Turbosquid, which saves time. Each project is totally unique in how I get from start to finish.

What do you think? See anything you’d have done differently?

before & after : interior design

Lori — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:13:51 +0000

These are the latest ‘before & after’ interior design renderings that were created for Urban Turf. In the first set of images, we looked at updating a Brookland Farmhouse that was in great need of a facelift. To read the full article, with a detailed description of the changes, check out the article, Re-Imagined. (click the images to view them larger)

This next set of images show the updates we imagined for a true “fixer-upper” located in Trinidad. You can read the full description of the changes here.

What do you think of the renderings? What would you do differently if you were the homeowner?