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Posts Tagged ‘color’

Some Great Recent Work

Posted in Design Projects, tagged Accessory Dwelling Units, Berkeley, bright colors, cabinets, color, details, Emeryville, energy efficiency, framing, Limeplaster, process, skylight, small buildings on December 1, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We have been busy with all sorts of great projects the last few months. Here are a few snapshots.

Mudroom Bench – Very similar to one we did 10 years ago, but customized to perfectly fit the new space: narrower on one wall than the other. The lid is solid ash and the rest is painted. I need to get some photos of the blue interior. Thanks to Kelly Best and McBride Construction for the excellent craftsmanship.

Copper induction range with battery and walnut knobs (Berkeley company!)

SANCO₂ heat pump hot water heater (tank inside, heatpump outside) that doubles as house heating system (Harvest System)

ADU slab..getting ready for the concrete pour

The slab was poured and beautiful saw cut control joints added. Now the structural framing is underway. The tolerances are very tight in these small living spaces. Every inch matters. I was delighted to discover that the concrete work and framing has resulted in walls that match my drawings to the 1/16 inch.

Framing Underway (Oscar of McBride Construction hard at work)

A small addition at the back of a small Berkeley house (we moved the storage, laundry and water heater to the middle and put the kitchen, dining nook, half bath, and reading nook at the back of the house by the yard. I like the deep eave over the door and windows and the pretty fir rafter tails

We added a skylight in the middle of the house…a lot of bang for the skylight buck. To right of skylight is laundry, pantry, and mechanical space and to the left is the kitchen and then the back yard.

Finally did a photoshoot at a recently finished Accessory Dwelling Unit in the Berkeley Hills. Below you will see the photographer, Lenny Gonzalez, and the photoshoot models Eowyn & John.

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Visit to Island Remodel Project

Posted in Design Projects, tagged British COlumbia, clean lines, color, fir, Galiano Island, green, green building, houses, Kable lighting, kitchen, lighting design, passive solar, remodel, simplify, steel, wood on June 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

My client for a remodel of a 1960s house on Galiano Island invited my family up to see the almost finished house. (a few details and exterior paint not finished yet)

The location is truly spectacular and I was very happy with the improvements that we made. Improvements included: on the practical side: tightening up the exterior envelope (including new fibercement rainscreen siding, all new windows, & insulation), upgrading to an energy efficient heating system, and adding a HRV, and then rearranging the interior extensively to simplifying and improve the transitions between spaces. The lower level was majorly improved, but it was a pretty straight forward rearrangement breaking it up into more usable rooms, guest suite, familyroom, office and storage. I didn’t include those photos.

The main event is the view to the south to Active Pass and all the way to the Olympic National Park 70 miles to the south. We spent many hours enjoying the view of wildlife and boats from the covered porch.

You can see some before shots of the house here.

View of the house from the water. we simplified the roofline and deck

View from the gate – Red windows and trim on this side to give it some personality from the road. New cedar entry porch with benches was a big improvement for easy access for all. (Old one had uneven stone steps down from driveway then back up several steps to the porch.) (I & AI added the ferns to the photo in the foreground, and strangely also a fish amongst the ferns)

BC Ferry Salish Heron with Mayne Island, Prevost Island, Pender Island, and The Olympics beyond

Long south side covered porch. We eliminated the non structural posts that went to the roof and did not miss them despite my concerns that it might look odd without some posts.

kitchen transition to living and dining room – vaulted ceiling to flat ceiling. This was a tricky structural bit for the builder because he had to modify the existing trusses and I am thankful that the owners saw the value in making the transition what it should be rather than the easiest way. Kitchen counters are Paperstone – made from recycled paper and both warm to the touch and acoustically dampening.

Livingroom – My favorite detail is the steel beam supporting the wood stove shelf

looking downtown the bedroom hallway – we made it more private but kept a slot at the top of the wall to let light through. Aimable recessed light at the end illuminates a painting.

Looking past entry toward kitchen – ceiling transition and four fir posts creating an elegant transition

Interior window detail – painted wood jamb on all 4 sides.

Relocated stairs to the lower level. (Old ones were in the prime real estate between kitchen and dining room.)

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Berkeley Hills Accessory Dwelling Unit Getting Close!

Posted in Design Projects, tagged accessory dwelling unit, ADU, Berkeley, color, Lime Plaster, process, small buildings on June 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Here are a few exterior shots of the integral color plaster walls. Action shots of the plastering team at work courtesy of Michael Scott.

The tiny house with its venerable mother house adjacent

Interior and detail shots will hopefully be forthcoming, (hard to get photos in such a small space with ongoing work and protection in place) but the exterior is really looking good.

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Corpo Kinetic Rehab & Pilates Studio

Posted in Design Projects, tagged color, housing, infill, lighting design, mixed use, native plants, Oakland, Pilates, ventilation on November 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I have been spending some time enjoying the Pilates and Rehab studio that McBride Construction and I finished last year. At long last PGE hooked up the electricity and the mostly native plants that I helped select and install in front are growing in fast and the studio is shaping up nicely. Calscape has a tool where you can enter your address and it will give you a list of plants they consider native to that spot. This guided some of our choices.

The project involved remodeling the existing floor of the single family house into two residential units – a two bedroom in front and a one bedroom ADU in back, and adding a brand new accessible Commercial space below. (It was a dirt crawlspace)

In the afternoon sunlight streams into the entry making its way deep into the studio

The main studio – radiant heat in the floor and a way beyond code heat recovery ventilation system that keeps the air really clean during flu season and wildfire season.

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Bathroom

Posted in Design Projects, tagged ash, bathroom, Berkeley, color, lighting design, marmoleum, metrolighting, paperstone, wood on May 14, 2024| 2 Comments »

I just realized that I never added this recent bathroom remodel to my digital diary. I wish I had a photo of the tiled shower surround because it is really pretty, but here is the vanity.

The countertop is Paperstone (FSC certified and also acoustically and thermally more like wood than most counters, but very durable) The bright purple floor is Marmoleum. The cabinet and mirror frame are ash. The light is from Metrolighting in Berkeley. The white rectangle is a secret cabinet. 🙂 There is space under the vanity for scale, stool, & waste bin….even a basket of bath toys.

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More Sun Rays in SF

Posted in Design Projects, tagged color, details, fun, houses, patterns, Sun Rays, victorian, whimsy on August 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

On a recent trip to San Francisco I saw two more nice examples of Architectural sun rays. First has metallic gold rays and the second one has little stars at the tip of each ray. Both houses are on 25th Street.

The rays on this one are metallic gold with a dark blue-black background.

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Sunrays

Posted in Design Projects, Found Objects, tagged Berkeley, color, details, fun, historical styles, house, Sun Rays, sunrays, trim details, whimsy on July 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

We stole this detail from the Victorians for two projects underway in Inverness, California and North Berkeley, California.

Here are a few of the inspirations, mostly from the early 1900s in Berkeley & San Francisco:

Someone else was recently inspired by the sun rays –

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Painted Beam With Piranhas & Diamond Post Detail

Posted in Design Projects, tagged Berkeley, color, decoration, details, interiors, paint, painted beam, patterns, small buildings, whimsy on September 26, 2020| 1 Comment »

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Mexico City Architecture

Posted in Found Objects, tagged color, mexico city, patterns on October 29, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Last year I spent a week in Mexico City with my aunt, a retired Mexican history professor. What an architectural treat! I’m finally getting a chance to share a few of the highlights.

Palacio de Bellas Artes- Inside this recently restored, golden-topped, art nouveau building are several spectacular murals by Diego Riviera

Casa de los Azulejos- This is the dining court inside a department store in the Centro Historico. The mural wraps around all sides of the light-filled courtyard. I don’t have a photo of the outside of the building, and old palace covered in blue and white tiles

Bold red-orange facade in Centro Historico

Another facade in the Centro Historico, this one a bit less flashy, but has a variety of artful details

Aunt Susan at the giant sundial at UNAM

Approaching the Biblioteca Central UNAM – This walkway seemed a bit out of scale, but the shade was nice

Biblioteca Central – UNAM – The Central Library at UNAM was built in 1948, a collaboration between artist and architect Juan O’Gorman, and Architects Gustavo Saavedra and Juan Martinez de Velasco. The exterior is covered in murals depicting the history of Mexico and made out of stones collected from around the country.

Biblioteca Central - UNAM

Around the Biblioteca Central was a grid of grass squares and concrete pathways that seemed like they could be a giant board for a game. The simple white painted arrows on some of the paths direct bikers properly through the maze.