06 Jun Project Spotlight: Summit Ave

If the key to our Belmont Ave project in Doylestown was location, the key to success in this Fort Washington project was collaboration.   Not only was the interior design a collaboration between two members of our Down2earth interior design team, but collaboration with our long-time woodworker was key to make these custom designs sing!

Jillian’s family was itching for a little more space, and Jillian saw this as an opportunity to put her stamp on every interior design decision.   Her house already had some great built-in features, and she wanted to celebrate and build upon the substantial and tailored nature of her home.  

Jillian was well on her way with the plans for her renovation but turned to Amy for extra support with space planning, casework design, and sources and an in-house collaboration was born.   By sharing in every aspect of the design process together, Jillian honed skills in these areas that she’s able to share with our clients, and together we pushed what we can do with woodworking to the next level.

In order to be able to do that, of course, we needed a fabulous woodworker.   Enter Dave, who has probably done 30 or 40 projects for our clients at this point.   In this blogpost, we’d like to highlight the wide range of built-in features that Dave was able to build for Jillian’s home.  

How many of you grew up watching Scooby Doo?   Ever want to disappear behind a hidden door?   Maybe one that is disguised as a bookcase?   The left hand side of the built-ins conceal a just such a door.

Sconces in the built-ins were found at an estate sale for a soon-to-be-demolished building and Jillian had them rewired, (see Jillian’s previous post) .

Walk through this mystery door and you’ll find yourself in the home office, with more custom woodwork.   Here, filing cabinets were painted black and rustic wood is used for the desk surface and floating shelves.   They are set off by a beautiful black grasscloth. The wallpaper is from York Wallcoverings and is the Grasscloth Sisal from the Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines.

Woodworking comes to the fore in more utilitarian spaces as well.  Custom cabinetry also allows for the opportunity to truly have the space fit the function in the homeowners daily life. Here is a custom beverage center, in an area that can be considered a hub between the kitchen, dining room, and family room. In Jillian’s house, they make smoothies a lot and she didn’t want to constantly take out and put away a blender. The solution was to have one of the “cabinets” in the beverage center actually be a pull-out that is used to store a blender and has access to an outlet. A pull-out cabinet meant that everything is easily accessible, highly functional and can be neatly stored away.

Jillian did a massive search for pantry and laundry ideas.  Here are some of the fruits of her research, see her pinterest board.

In the end, she was super clear that she wanted a gray custom cabinet in her butler’s pantry to show off her white dishes.   Here is an inspiration image that figured heavily into our design.

And this is the final result.  

You can see, if you peek off the left, the laundry room, which was fully outfitted with custom cabinets as well.   The coolest feature?   A laundry chute that connects a window bench in the second floor master suite with this first floor laundry room.  

Below is one more highlight of Jillian’s amazing design.  Photos on the second story renovations to follow later this year.   Stay tuned for a sweet master suite!   And remember, when you work with a down2earth interior designer, you get not just our expertise, but the connection with skilled craftspeople who do amazing work like this!

Please credit for photos: Rebecca McAlpin when applicable Copyright 2019 Rebecca McAlpin. All Rights Reserved.