Happy New Year! We were busy remodeling and expanding our Stapleton Design Studio as 2015 came to a close in order to offer our clients the most comfortable space and more room for the most up-to-date finish samples and catalogs….
This basement has everything you could want – an amazing family and entertaining space with sit-down bar, fireplace, and rec room. It has the all-important guest suite with the fanciest guest bath, plus a home gym…
I posted an interior remodel a few years ago of a home in Stapleton where the family room had the unfortunate condition of the dreaded TV “hole” and fireplace off to the side. It just always makes TV-watching and furniture placement here awkward….
We combined the outdated kitchen and dining room in this 1920s Park Hill bungalow to become a bright and cheery, but period-appropriate, open kitchen and new sitting room. The former living room at the front of the house has become the formal dining room. The homeowner told me after the project was completed that she didn’t realize how negatively the kitchen had affected her mood until now. She is happy now to start off every day in her new kitchen!
Click on photos below to see larger:
The wall between the original kitchen and formal dining room
The original kitchen
The original kitchen: one obstacle was the exposed slope of the stairs to the basement
Mary enjoys the construction progress. The archway was made slightly smaller to allow for a TV wall in the new sitting room.
No more wall between the two rooms! We created a bright open kitchen with peninsula seating for two.
White quartz counters and plenty of cabinet storage make this a very functional kitchen.
Pullout pantry next the refrigerator allows pantry items to be viewed from both sides.
The sitting room as seen from the kitchen.
Beautiful Ann Sacks herringbone tile accents range area.
Sometimes you don’t have to start from scratch. The kitchen layout works, storage is fine, but the finishes are not your style and are just a little tired. In this Stapleton kitchen, the homeowners wanted a larger island and fresher finishes. So we added a base cabinet and also wrapped the island with trim and added legs as the overhang was going to be too large to not have added support. The perimeter cabinets received undercabinet molding and crown before professional painting. The garage became the painter’s paint booth for spraying all the doors. Quartz counters that look like polished marble, a new undermount sink and new Viking cooktop were the splurges here. We also added a new faucet, pendant lights and cabinetry hardware, and a beautiful 4×8 travertine subway tile back splash and woven window coverings.
Kitchen Before
Kitchen After
Here are some of the details that made this kitchen remodel special.
Island Detailing
New quartz counters, sink and faucet
4×8 Travertine back splash
And a very important change to the kitchen was opening it up to the dining room, allowing light from the southern-facing kitchen to pour into the dining room.
New opening between kitchen and dining.
Safest place to buy Viagra online – Making this decision helps a lot.
This summer, in addition to my usual 20 or so projects, I was adding a much needed 110 square foot mud room onto my Stapleton home of 10 years (with the help of Best Builders). The goals were to connect the house to the garage, add a second pantry, and a much-needed dumping ground for cell phones, shoes, backpacks, coats, etc. Here are the viagrapill.com start to finish photos. (Feel free to click on the first photo to scroll through the large photos.)
Marking the foundation.
After 2 days of digging, ready for forms.
Rebar is tied.
Brick peeled off of house where addition will be connected to house.
Slab poured after footers have cured.
Wall #1 is up!
Starting to take shape.
Kind of a complicated little roof line for a small addition, it required many custom trusses.
All dried in.
Ready for rough electrical and mechanical, then insulation and drywall.
Drywall.
Drywall.
Floor heat is down, ready for tile.
Luis laying the handmade glazed terra cotta tile.
New arched entry from dining room / kitchen.
Second pantry on left was a must.
Oval window on right looks out to garden as one descends the two stairs into the mud room.
Bench area for storing shoes in drawers.
Phone charging station and hooks for coats and bags, cubbies with antique locker baskets hold hats and mittens.
Mahogany wood counter and glazed painted custom cabinets.
View as one enters from garage.
Addition connects the main house to the garage and forms a courtyard at the patio. Both brick and siding were used to merge the two buildings.
Once Kris and her husband decided to add a master bedroom suite onto their Bonnie Brae Tudor, the perfect space at the back of the home was free to become a large family kitchen. Kris hired me to design a layout that would incorporate a large island, two sinks, two dishwashers, a built-in banquette, and lots of old house character. The result is everything she and her family were always hoping for! (Click on first photo to view all larger.)
View of kitchen as one enters from foyer
Alder island with potential seating for five
Main sink with view to back yard and large refrigerator and freezer; granite counters and subway tile back splash
Cooktop and double oven, door to mud room; cabinets at perimeter of kitchen are white enamel
Prep sink on island and second dishwasher; view into living room from island
View into kitchen from living room
Mary called me after seeing a 50s ranch house in Crestmoor Park and was wondering what we could do to update it, still keep it a “rancher,” but a lot more “cute and cottagey.” She had not even shown the house to her husband yet, but I met her there with her realtor. Her first question was, “What can we do with this kitchen?” site – a long galley kitchen typical of the fifties, leading into a very large formal dining room with a wonderful view of the large backyard. My response was, “Mary, this is the butler’s pantry! The dining room becomes the kitchen.” And so it began…
The house was truly untouched and received all new mechanical systems, electrical wiring, plumbing, windows, floors were patched and refinished – the list goes on and on. But here is a look at all the pretty, fun details, starting with the living room.
Original formal living room.
New fireplace with built-ins and niche at entry to master bedroom.
Living room fireplace flanked by built-ins. Hall to kids’ wing has a new 10-lite door to contain noise.
Here is the small original kitchen followed by the amazing new Butler’s Pantry which leads from the Kitchen to the Formal Dining Room located by the front door. The butler’s pantry houses all the pantry cabinets for the kitchen, a trash/recycling center, plus a wine refrigerator and prep sink.The new formal dining room was the original breakfast room, and closets were removed to enlarge the space and open it up to the front entry.
Original Kitchen
Original Kitchen became Butler’s Pantry
Butler’s Pantry, looking toward new Formal Dining Room
New formal dining room at front of home.
This is the large original Formal Dining Room with French doors leading out to the garden. The new Kitchen has inset custom painted cabinetry, crisp white quartz countertops, beautiful pale green hand-glazed back splash tile, JennAir appliances, island with seating for this family of four, plus a cozy breakfast nook.
Original Formal Dining Room
New Kitchen
New Window (at left) and Breakfast Nook at bay window
10 foot long Island
Built-In Refrigerator and Range with Double Ovens
The original mud room and laundry, which lead straight into the garage, were split into two rooms: a small but functional mud room with storage for dog supplies, coats, and phone charging area, and a separate laundry room that can be closed off by a pocket door.
Mud Room and Laundry ‘Before’
Mud Room ‘After’
The hall bathroom serves two bedrooms and also as the home’s powder bath. Subway tile wainscoting, marble floor, and sweet wallpaper make this a perfect guest bath.
Hall Bathroom ‘Before’
Hall Bathroom ‘After’
A den became the master bedroom and an adjacent small bathroom and wet bar were combined to create the beautiful master bath with marble floor, soaker tub with new window above, and steam shower in a separate room.
Former den became master bedroom retreat.
New master bedroom with pocket doors to master bath.
Master Bath ‘Before’
Master Bath ‘After’
Master Bath Steam Shower
This bathroom serves one of the couples’ daughter’s bedrooms, so we had fun with pink stripes and a black and white hex tile floor.
Private Kids’ Bath ‘Before’
Private Kids’ Bath ‘After’
The basement was designed for entertaining as well as a space for the two children to do their homework.
Basement family room with walk-up wet bar and kids’ craft/homework zone beyond.
Basement family room with built-in cabinetry and wonderful new limestone fireplace surround.
Wet bar detail.
Busy parents of an adorable toddler, these past basement clients of mine were ready for a master bath retreat this summer. And a retreat it is! The new cherry and quartz vanity has been expanded in length, offering plenty of drawer storage now, and built-in mirrored medicine cabinets offer toiletry storage. The bathtub is a jetted tub with remote control and aromatherapy well. The shower has a regular shower head plus four body sprays and a teak seat for a space-saving solution. The door to the closet was converted to a pocket door with a full length mirror, and new french doors from the master bedroom provide privacy where before there was no door at all. Wonderful tile work completes the space, a combination of shimmery mosaics with 12×24 inch porcelain tile. Enjoy!
(Click on photos to see larger images.)
Tub/Shower Before
Vanity Before
Tub and Shower
Tub and Shower
Tub and Shower, Vanity, New French Doors
Cherry Vanity with Quartz Counter, Mirrored Pocket Door
Vanity
Tub Detail
Shower Detail
Vanity Detail
I’ve designed several Murphey beds lately in basements. They are great when you want to use a room for multiple uses. Both of the following examples are from recent Stapleton basement I designed. Six foot wide pocket doors separate the family room from this play room/guest bedroom, so when the Murphey bed is up and the doors are open, the room is a play room well connected to the family room. But the room can quickly transform to a guest bedroom. 
And in this couple’s basement family room, not one, but two queen Murphey beds can accommodate all four of their granddaughters for sleepovers in a flash. 
Denver, Colorado
P: 303.355.5666
E: Diane@DianeGordonDesign.com
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