From Dark to Light – Construction Photos of a Cottage Home Remodel

Farrah Residence:  Construction progress photographs.  From left to right:  existing kitchen before remodel; earlier stages of construction showing new beam at longer span opening; new kitchen in construction with mosaic tile backsplash and fresh coat of paint on the walls.

The clients approached us after seeing their friend’s remodel plus addition project we worked on completed successfully and having witnessed the entire process from design through to completion.  The couple had a general sense of what they wanted to do with their house  but was open to ideas that we might have, which would be explored and uncovered through our unique and time tested process.  Their main request was that they wanted a home that was beautiful inside to match the charming exterior lemon yellow siding and cottage style detailing.  There was some work involved to transform the dated dark wood paneling and dark heavy beams with low ceilings that had some presence but felt overbearing.

We knew from our first site visit what not to do–that is to demolish and throw out the ceiling beams.  We were going to keep them and transform the beams entirely by making it something else.  Below is a picture of how the ceiling beams were updated along with the ceiling design being transformed into something else entirely.

Family Room Ceiling Beam Construction Progress Photographs.  From left to right:  existing ceiling beam before remodel; earlier stages of construction with existing ceiling beam; freshly painted new wrapped ceiling beam with existing T&G wood ceiling.

We were asked by some of our facebook page followers whether the wrapped ceiling beam was going to remain tan and white.  The picture below shows the ceiling beam before it was painted white.

If you see the “On the Boards” page from our website, there’s a sketch rendering showing how this space was envisioned during design.  As you can see, the color scheme was altered but the overall strategy of opening up the kitchen into the family room and repurposing the existing beams remain.  It takes some practice, well actually years of training to be able to visualize the end result of the spaces envisioned in design.  It also takes patience and some faith to be able to sustain the initial design intent and execute those ideas into reality successfully.  All the clients go through some fear or doubt at some stage during construction, but once the finishes start coming together the excitement kicks in.  It’s the stage that makes everyone happy and anxious to finish so they can enjoy the newly created space.  The day we photographed the wrapped beams, we were told by the clients that they LOVED the beams.  We knew they would.  We just had to wait until they could see for themselves.