We got word of a beautiful and unusual renovation featuring Marvin from Wooden Window in Oakland, Calif. They graciously provided us with photos and a history of this project.

The owners of a 1930s San Francisco home  have been restoring it for the past nine years. After several door and window projects with Wooden Window, they proposed their most challenging job yet: the design and fabrication of a 10-foot-wide picture window that integrated a deco design the couple had seen as a railing in another nearby neighborhood.

Their original design posed structural concerns, so Wooden Window and Marvin collaborated with the clients through eight rounds of revision until, as the client put it, “we arrived at a design with which I was pleased and that Marvin was comfortable building.”

The result was a stunning work of art and craftsmanship that exists as the focal point of their deco facade. Wooden Window Inc. also won a Northern California NARI award for this project.

The next step is the replacement of a different window with French doors that will open to a step-out balcony. They plan to again work with Wooden Window and Marvin. ”The renovation is a continual work in progress,” according to the homeowners. Following a recent paint job, tiling, the addition of a marquee and neon house numbers, their home will have you turning your head next time you find yourself on Monterey Boulevard in San Francisco.

During the past several weeks, we’ve shared a series of videos featuring designer P. Allen Smith. Today we’re going to take a look at some of Smith’s techniques for bringing the beauty of the outdoors in.

Smith takes us on a tour of his Garden Home Retreat, showing some of his favorite spaces and how they are designed to show off and accentuate the best of the outdoors in through the use of windows and doors. A key tip: Think of your windows as an opportunity not just to let in fresh air and light but as a way to frame specific views of the outdoors.

Watch the short video above for more, or check out our YouTube channel for other videos from Smith.

During the past couple of weeks, we’ve shared a series of videos featuring designer P. Allen Smith and his Garden Home Retreat. Today we’re going to take a look at how he used natural light as an important element in his home’s design.

Smith demonstrates how a home can feel more open and welcoming by using large and effectively placed windows to let natural light pour into the home. Watch the short video above for more, or check out our YouTube channel for other videos from Smith.

During the past couple of weeks, we’ve shared a video that introduced you to P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home Retreat and another that explained Smith’s approach to sustainability. Today we’re going to take a look at how his Garden Home Retreat manages to maintain an authentic, historic style while using the newest of construction techniques.

The Garden Home Retreat was designed to fit a traditional Greek revival style of architecture. Though it’s only two years old, the home looks right out of the 19th century. Watch the short video above for more, or check out our YouTube channel for other videos from Smith.

Marvin Windows recently visited designer and artist P. Allen Smith at his Garden Home Retreat in Arkansas to shoot a series of videos about the building, his work, his design inspiration and more. Allen has great taste and impeccable style, so we’re sure you’ll find some useful ideas and inspiration in these videos.

We’ll share the series here over the coming weeks, or you can head over to our YouTube channel to see these videos and more right now. For now, let’s get started with this introduction to P. Allen Smith and his Garden Home Retreat:

We’ve written in the past about kid-friendly room design ideas, and more recently, we came across this post from DigsDigs, which shares some great modern kids’ bedroom designs, created with furniture by Italian company Callesella.

They are mostly done for teens and feature everything they need to study, play and rest. The color themes are chosen stylish and funky. With these ideas and such furniture you easily can transform the children’s bedroom in a young, dynamic and functional space.

The photos on DigsDigs are a good source of starter inspiration for designing your kid’s room — either by adding some modern elements or starting from scratch with a new approach. And few thousands more ideas, flip through this photo set on Flickr dedicated to kids’ room design.

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Megan Mullally, known for her tenure as Karen on “Will & Grace,” and Nick Offerman, Ron Swanson on “Parks and Recreation,” are more homebodies than house flippers, so the chance to move out of their West Hollywood duplex into a more stylish, comfortable and spacious place they could make their own was appealing. As told by Elle Decor magazine:

The couple purchased their home in 2003 after living in a West Hollywood duplex they decorated with flea-market finds and other humble treasures. They were attracted to this house’s crisp modern architecture, the generous scale of its rooms, the sensible symmetrical floor plan, and glorious views that capture the sprawling L.A. basin, Century City, downtown high rises, and, off in the distance, a swath of the Pacific Ocean. [...]

The house’s most eye-catching design feature is also its most basic—Mullally and [designer] Ingham refreshed the walls with a coat of bright-white paint and refinished the floors with an ebony stain for contrast. That device of interior chiaroscuro set the stage for a decorative drama of contrasts: restrained modern furniture accented with highly figured Asian antiques; neutral fabrics and finishes with occasional pops of intense color and graphic rugs; and comfortable, introspective rooms with expansive views of city and sky.

A slideshow of photos from the couple’s home shows the great use of contrast with white walls and ebony-stained wood floors; the floods of light pouring in through large windows and glass doors; and their stunning views of southern California and the ocean.

For more, check out the article in Elle Decor.

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We were delighted to have architect and author Sarah Susanka as a guest of Marvin Windows and Doors at this year’s Remodeling Show. Here are some tips from Sarah’s latest book, “Not So Big Remodeling,” written with Marc Vassallo.

1. Two Become One. Make two smaller rooms feel more spacious by opening a shared wall to create a framed opening. This is most effective when it provides a wide connection between spaces while maintaining the differentiation of each room.

2. Columns Instead of Walls. Columns allow for differentiation of places with minimal view obstruction while providing the structural support of a load-bearing wall. Particularly effective where the kitchen connects to adjacent spaces.

3. Let There Be Light. Increase the size of existing windows or place them adjacent to perpendicular walls and ceilings, allowing those surfaces to act as giant daylight reflectors. Bringing in more daylight is one of the best ways to increase the apparent size of a home without adding on.

4. Look to the Ceiling. Unify a remodeled space by creating a spatial theme with varied ceiling heights.Use lowered ceilings over subordinate spaces, higher ceilings over the more important rooms.

5. Use the Floor. Differentiate activity areas in an open space with a change in floor material or level.

6. Connect With the Outdoors. No matter what climate a house is in, it will feel several times larger if the location of the doors and windows draws in the surrounding views and allows easy movement to outside.

7. Bring the Inside Out. Create another room by sheltering an exterior sitting space with a widened overhang or new section of roof. The addition of a screened porch can also serve as an excellent connector between inside and out.

8. Increase the Apparent Size. Differentiate surfaces with a beltline or headband — a continuous line of trim that divides the uopper part of the room from the lower part, such as a chair rail, wainscoting or molding that ties together the tops of all windows and doors. Make the area below the line darker than the area aobve, and the ceiling will look higher, making the whole room seem bigger.

9. Create Visual Vitality. Make a living space come alive by accentuating a focal wall with a saturated paint color.

Good taste and restraint can go a long way in designing a home remodeling project.

When the owners of this bathroom were looking to remodel, both they and architect Jean Rehkamp Larson understood that the existing layout offered the best configuration.

“The space was already well laid out, and as we weren’t making any changes to the size of the bathroom’s footprint, it was decided we could better improve the functionality in other ways,” says Rehkamp Larson.

Built in the 1890s, the home features a great deal of traditional detail, which the owners were keen to reference within the bathroom.

The Marvin windows used fit the style created throughout the bathroom. Marble countertops, bronze accents, and dark wood trim complete the look.

Kind of makes you want to see the rest of the house, doesn’t it?

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The Universal Design Living Laboratory is a demonstration home in Columbus, Ohio, built to illustrate the power of universal design. Marvin Windows and Doors is a sponsor of the project.

The home is the brainchild of Rosemarie Rossetti, whose lower body was paralyzed after an accident. According to the group’s statement:

Life in a wheelchair inspired her to build home based on the concept of universal design, which makes a facility’s level of livability beneficial to the widest possible range of people in the widest range of situations without special or separate design. The home will be able to accommodate people of all sizes, ages and abilities.

I encourage you to check out the project’s progress in the UDLL’s photo galleries and this “virtual flyover” video:

For more information on the project, visit www.udll.com.