Does your space feel like “you”?
Perhaps you’ve found yourself the “perfect home”– it’s in the best neighborhood, or has the best schools, or had the best price– but, still, it’s lacking that “you-ness”?
Or, perhaps you’ve been living in your home for years, but are at a loss for how to move it from good to great?
Often, we find that our clients come to us needing that professional eye and touch to transform their spaces into a place that captures the full essence of them. After all, your home is the place you and your family will make memories, share endless laughs, and recharge after busy days. So why not love coming home to it?
In our most recent project, our team at Concetti helped to transform a stunning home with great bones into a cohesive, completed environment using purposeful materiality, complementary furniture and strategic design. When we were through, everyone agreed the new space felt complete, and like their very own retreat to enjoy day in and day out.
How To Transform Your Home From Sterile to Serene
Upon first glance, many people would consider this home “perfect” — it was stunning! The framing of the house was gorgeous, with modern amenities, floor to ceiling windows, and sweeping views of the lush woods surrounding the property. Heck, the home had even won a Detroit Design award!
Despite these accolades, though, the homeowners knew there was still something missing. After living there for a few years, they came to us with a feeling that their home did not feel fully complete. To them, it felt ‘sterile’ and lacking in warmth and personality, which was a stark contrast to the lush landscapes just outside the doors. They were ready for an upgrade, but needed our design expertise to get them there.
Understand The Home’s Owners, First and Foremost
Concetti’s first step was to get to know the homeowners’ personalities, as well as their bigger wants and needs for their residence. Through our Discover+Co-Create process, we learned that they adore entertaining their friends and family, they have a great appreciation for the outdoors, and that they equally enjoy cozy, relaxing time spent together. They needed a space that could cater all of these wants, and express their genuine styles and personalities throughout all rooms of the home.
Get To Know What’s Working… And What’s Really Not
Just as important as what the homeowners want, we also learned their pain points. Since they had already lived in the home for a few years, we were able to do a ‘Post Occupancy Evaluation’, which meant we could quickly decipher what was working and what wasn’t across all spectrums of living.
In addition to the general coldness and sterility throughout the home, the set up of the space wasn’t conducive to their needs. For instance, their living room was set up with a large sectional that blocked the views outside and obstructed the space at large, hindering gatherings or conversation time.
Additionally, we learned that the owners wanted a master bedroom that better incorporated the nature outside, and application of design elements that would create a more cozy and relaxing space to sleep.
Finally, just off of the bedroom, their master bathroom felt extremely incomplete. It had beautiful large windows that overlooked the outdoors, but didn’t have any other finishing touches to make the room feel cohesive and settled.
With their hopes in mind and the pain points decided and discussed, it was time for Concetti to get to work transforming this house into a home.
Blurring The Line Between Indoors and Outdoors
If you ask us, you can’t get a more beautiful palette or backdrop than Mother Nature herself. And with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the house, we agreed it was important to find methods to tie the beauty of the outdoors into the styling of the indoors for a cozy, natural effect.
Thoughtful materiality decisions were made in upholstery, rugs, wallpaper, and window treatment to enhance the tones of the gorgeous stone and wood details of the existing space while infusing bold pops of blues and orange.
Beautiful bones, but lacking the feeling of “home”
The bones of the living room were everything designers dream of– large windows, tall ceilings, wood-and-stone features, and a balcony to boot. Our focus, then, was to choose thoughtfully curated furniture and materiality choices that would accent the space, as well as some fun accessories to give the room that extra dash of personality.
In order to enhance the tones of the gorgeous stone and wood details of the existing space, we utilized a palette inspired by the wooden floors, stone fireplace, and forest backdrop. Using natural, muted tones for the furniture and fixtures, we then added pops of oranges and blues in the rugs and pillows throughout the room. Additionally, we loved the stone around the fireplace, but noticed that it felt somewhat incomplete. To fix this, we extended that same stone wall from the fireplace across to the window, blurring the lines between inside and outside.
Building a Customizable Entertaining Space
When solving for the couple’s combined interests in entertaining and private quality time together, we knew we needed to alter the seating arrangements in the large space. The homeowners mentioned that they did enjoy the comfiness of their original sectional, but after reviewing the layout of the room, we agreed it felt awkwardly sized and placed, and not functional for the room, the view, or for entertaining.
To freshen things up, we chose to build a “customizable entertaining space” using furniture sourced from our partners at Michigan Design Center. First, we found a central sofa that was adorned with plush pillows to mimic the coziness of the original sectional, while stylishly offering users the option to sit, lay, or lounge with ease.
To then round out this design, we added four options for seating, with two modern lounge chairs on one end of the couch, and then two patterned swivel chairs on the other side. And let us tell you… those swivel chairs were a game changer in that living room! With a 360 degree rotation, the homeowners could choose to turn the chairs and face the beautiful outdoors, or during times of entertainment, they could swivel the chair around to face the party and enjoy quality conversation.
A Master Bedroom With So Much Promise
The homeowners’ original master bedroom felt very sterile and empty, despite the gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the vast forest outside. We needed to warm the space up in a way that was subtle enough to keep just the perfect blend of warm and modern.
To do this, we got a little unconventional. We discovered a wallpaper with grass-like natural fibers from our partners at Michigan Design Center, and decided to add it to the ceiling. To show-off the detailed weave clearer, we partnered with Hubbardton Forge to add an uplight around the entire perimeter of the ceiling. This diffused lighting hugged the room’s molding, helping to illuminate the details of the ceiling.
To help soften the room while keeping the natural light pouring in, we used window sheers across the walls of windows. By the bed, we added a custom upholstered headboard to help soften the space and add some height to the bed (since the space itself was so large). One of our favorite creative elements within the room are the light fixtures above the bed, from Hubbardton Forge, that look like falling, abstract leaves. We loved that these were based off of nature, but still clean silhouettes to keep that modern touch.
In tying everything together and providing additional storage, we added custom nightstands on either side of the bed, a bench at the end of the bed, and “womb chairs” to help balance the symmetry of the room.
Lastly, while working through the details of the project, we knew we wanted some form of area rug to “ground” the space, soften the palette, and improve overall acoustics of the room. Since the bed frame was attached to the floor and unable to be lifted, we found a workaround by using a Flor square rug. We customized it to the shape we needed, adding functionality, style and softness to the space.
Bringing the Bathroom from Good to Great
The master bath of this residence was already stunning. Gorgeous modern amenities and floor to ceiling windows with sweeping views of the natural woods outside made the space a lovely retreat.
Ultimately, though, the homeowners felt as though the space was never completed, specifically regarding the large entry wall that was left barren and underwhelming.
In looking for the perfect wall application to complete this space, we discovered an oversized porcelain slab tile from Cercan (sourced from Michigan Design Center) that would be the perfect fit. Not only did it tie together the warm hues of the existing tile to the cool tones that were recently added to the adjacent master suite, but it was also stunning up close and from afar.
The wall itself was highly visible from the exterior living area of the home, which made it crucial that the tile was beautiful even when observing it from the residence’s back deck. The natural motif of the tile helped blend the exterior wooded views with the interior spaces. Up close, the delicate canvas texture almost makes you forget that you are looking at a large scale porcelain tile instead of a true painted piece of art on canvas. Additional lighting details were incorporated into a soffit overhead to illuminate the tile like the true work of art that it is.
A few Changes to make your Home Feel Complete…
Sometimes it just takes that outside perspective to get your home across the finish line. This home was the perfect example, providing us with a gorgeous canvas, but simply requiring that extra professional flair to complete the look. We had so much fun working with the homeowners to discover creative and functional pieces to turn the house into a comforting and nature-inclusive space for its homeowners.
Ready to have us in to make your house a home? Let’s talk!