Ladue Project 2

1 • Ladue MO 2 living room

LADUE, MO 2 • Phase 1 of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home • an ongoing 4 year project • THE LIVING ROOM

The room was vertically challenged with 18’ ceilings. None of the upper vertical space was being used effectively to make you feel comfortable in the room’s expansive volume.

The display tower unit & entertainment center was designed to create vertical interest showcasing objects in voids & on shelves with accent lighting & of course the TV.

The owners love fires, but not running outside in the winter to get wood so storage was designed into the unit.
The addition as well of a large light & airy chandelier, that softly fills the center vertical space
The sensuous curves of the new furniture brought new life into the long rectangular space.
All of these changes brought the whole room into balance visually & functionally making the room warm & inviting.

1a • ladue 2 living room cont

LADUE, MO 2 • Phase 1 of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home THE LIVING ROOM continued•

The room was vertically challenged it had
18’ ceilings with none of the upper vertical space
was being used effectively so you felt comfortable
in the room’s extensive volume.

As with the display tower unit & entertainment
center I created vertical interest with a cluster
of hanging mirrors of various sizes & shapes
punctuated with cascading succulents.

All of these changes brought the whole
room into balance visually & functionally
making the room warm and inviting.

The other major issue I saw with the space was
the entry into the kitchen. It was closed off, uninviting, with no visual flow.

This was corrected by opening the window opening & pass through into one large inviting passage into the kitchen. This was done before the remodel of the kitchen.

The handrails were
updated as well to a
lighter transitional look.

2 • ladue 2 the kitchen

2 LADUE, MO • Phase 2 of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home • THE KITCHEN

This Project phase started with one of the owners desire to have a working space in the kitchen that could be closed off when she was not working. This along with her husband’s desire to have more usable prep space for one of his favorite passions, cooking. The wish list also included a rich combination of materials not usually seen.

The kitchen before had a typical traditional look with raised panel cabinets, one material & crown moldings, with short typical kitchen windows on the sink wall. I opened the lenght of the windows to counter top height to bring in more light & give it a contempoary look. Every aspect of the floor plan & design was choreographed to flow visually & physically with large open pass throughs to enjoy the kitchen from multiple viewpoints on the main floor.

2a• LADUE 2 KITCHEN continued

LADUE, MO 2 • Phase 2 of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home • THE KITCHEN continued

The conceptual design stage lasted a while with multiple detailed 3D renderings floor & cabinet plans to aide them in fully visualizing the concepts as the design developed.

They were able to easily see that their evolving and growing list of wants & desires were coming to life.

The time spent in this phase was so worth it in the end giving them a sense of security with their final approved decisions to move into the fabrication phase.

Another fun and unique design desire came up, my client loves nature & wanted to incorporate live plants into the kitchen design. I love this type of out of the box thinking, so I created an irregular recessed area in the large island where pots of plants could be placed, watered with ease & changed regularly.

The room is full of wonderful texture & material changes, that are highlighted and enhanced by task & accent lighting.

It is so wonderful to have and work with clients that love the unique & unconventional!

3 • Ladue, MO 2 phase 3 lounge bar dining room

2 LADUE, MO • Phase 3 of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home • THE LOUNGE BAR / DINING ROOM

The owners wanted to convert the traditional dining room into a bar / lounge. The design challenge was that they still wanted the room to be comfortable & inviting for cocktails, intimate dinner parties as well as functional for large family sit down meals for up to 12. The room was basically being used only occasionally for large family dinners with the dry bar that was very user unfriendly lacking enough storage space for all of the spirit bottles, bar accessories & glassware. She wanted to see all of the bottles, and have everything that was needed at her fingertips while creating her drinks.

My solution for the room to be flexible for small intimate gatherings to a large one was of course the table. Seating for 4-12 was the desired number. A standard height table was also an issue if you were to dine comfortably with barrel chairs. There was nothing on the market like this so I designed an extension table that goes from a 60” D to a 120” oval having it fabricated along with the new bar & walnut paneling.

This room has been transformed to one that is now used all the time for meeting friends, playing cards & relaxing fun dinner parties, small to large.

4 • the front entry and staircase

LADUE, MO 2 • Phase 1a of the evolution of a project & the transformation of a home • THE FRONT ENTRY DOOR & HANDRAILS

The door was done at the same time as the Living room & the staircase remodel after the kitchen & before the dining room transformation.

The front entry door establishes the first impression of what the home will be. In my opinion this is an extremely important design feature for any home.

Although as you can see in the before, the wood door had 3 lites, the door system still felt visually heavy & uninviting.

I took the height of the door to the top trim, put one large sidelite and did an articulation pattern on the solid section that repeated with the lite squares giving the one sidelite a more expansive feeling.

All of the wainscoting was removed here & up the stairwell. Painting the walls with a dramatic color to give the entry the transitional feel.

The decision was made to keep the crown molding & existing base boards for budgetary reasons.These choices have to be made on any project when the budget is a consideration. The decision becomes which design elements will have the most visual impact for the budget.

The staircase as well needed to move from traditional to transitional, however again a complete remodel proved to be too costly so, the decision was made to change the balusters to simple black metal with modern profiles, change the round starting step, newel posts & handrails to square profiles then, paint everything black.

These changes took a very traditional staircase to the transitional look that was desired & on budget.

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St. Louis, Missouri

Tel: 310 435 3294