While shopping for a new residence with remodeling programs in mind, bring your builder home hunting with you personally if you can. Architect Frances Zook checked her out clients’ top real estate options together to see which one had the best possibility to eventually become their perfect home.
Zook, of Clark and Zook Architects, watched plenty of chances in a typical suburban ranch home. The clients love fun, and there was room to make a large, open kitchen and living room around the back. There was a walkout basement with a bedroom for their eldest child, a high school junior. They scooped it up, and she put the remodeling strategies together.
The springs included altering the front facade, turning the carport into a two-car garage, extending the back of the home and opening it to the landscape, creating a new master suite and including a screened-in porch.
at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their two teenagers
Location: Atlanta
Size: 3,200 square feet on the first floor, 900 square feet on the basement level; 5 bedrooms
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
The first space was badly proportioned. Zook extended the home about ten feet out from the first footprint and created a new kitchen that opens into the family room. New doors and windows open the home to backyard perspectives.
Cabinets: habit, Jackson Cabinet Company
Zook & Clark Architects
“There was not really a fantastic space to float a kitchen table, so a built-in involving two openings was perfect,” Zook says. The feast’s tall back stands up into the high ceilings, and a pocket tucks out of the way. The homeowners like X-shaped particulars, which appear on the cabinet doors, trestle dining table and island.
Zook has been back into the home for a couple parties because the work was completed. “It is a real chance to have the ability to experience your work after a job is done and see that it is really working … you get emotionally attached to jobs, and frequently after the work is completed, you can’t get to see them,” she says. “My clients entertain a great deal, and this space functions really well during a celebration.”
Zook & Clark Architects
The old ceiling used to hang around as low as the bottom of the new coffers, which hide two large structural beams. The coffers fit the scale of this large, open room and make continuity between the kitchen space and the family room space.
All paint by Benjamin Moore. Walls: Creamy White; cupboards: Berkshire Beige; island: Texas Leather
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
The family room in the other end of the dining and kitchen area is its own cozy place for watching TV and enjoying a flame pit. A wall accented with boards and recessed markets with oak shelves anchors the space, and subtly distinguishes it from the kitchen.
Zook & Clark Architects
A vibrant barn doorway in Benjamin Moore’s Rhumba Orange conceals the laundry room.
That’s the household dog, Leo.
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
A screened-in porch supplies almost year-round living room, thanks to some wood-burning fireplace. “I had been here in December, and also with all the curtains closed and the flame going, it was really warm,” Zook says.
She placed a new master suite supporting the new garage. A soothing color palette, high ceilings and views into the backyard make it a calming retreat.
Duvet cover: DwellStudio
Zook & Clark Architects
The client fell in love with this St. James vanity from Restoration Hardware, so Zook made the master bathroom around it. The counter tops and backsplash are crema marfil marble.
Wall paint: Woodlawn Blue, Benjamin Moore; doorway paint: Urbane Bronze, Sherwin-Williams
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
The open doorway contributes to a separate toilet room. The shower is on the left, with convenient hooks for towels and robes on either side, and another doors result in closets.
Before Photo
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
BEFORE: The landscaping had some dangerous trees and cleaning up. Front door was far over on the right, and there was only a carport for home cars and other equipment.
Clark & Zook Architects, LLC
AFTER: Zook extended the roofline about 4 feet to cover a new front porch. “We added three sets of French doors throughout the front for equilibrium, and fresh measures across the front give it a courtyard feel,” she says. She replaced the briefcase using a enclosed two-car garage. “The home is understated; it fits into the atmosphere in a very natural manner,” she says. Redesigning the yard is next on the clients’ list.