RESIDENTIAL KITCHEN OVER $70K
WINNER: Custom Kitchens Inc. with trade partners Thos. Somerville Co. and Morris Tile Distributors
Photo by John Magor
Jennifer Duncan can’t remember exactly what inspired her, but it was made of copper and it was in Elizabeth Hendrick’s living room. The two were brainstorming about Hendrick’s hopes for a “farm-country feel without the farmhouse” for her rural river house in Gloucester, and copper seemed like the perfect foil for the kitchen’s driftwood and white palette.
Duncan found vintage industrial pendant lights with a copper finish to hang over the central island. She commissioned a metalworker to give the copper range hood an antique luster and asked the same artist to create a ceiling fan out of galvanized aluminum with copper accents. Two hammered-copper sinks can be wiped with mild acid until they gleam like new, or be left to age to a warm patina. “The copper thing kind of grew,” Duncan laughs. “We just kept adding elements as we went along.”
Runner-up: Custom Kitchens Inc.
RESIDENTIAL KITCHEN UNDER $70K
WINNER: Reico Kitchen & Bath
Photo courtesy Napier Signature Homes Inc.
When a builder, a contractor and a designer worked together on a residential remodel this year, they created an award-winning kitchen. Homeowner Rich Napier is a builder by profession, so he had “a more in-depth appreciation for this type of project,” notes designer Deb Tomlin of Reico Kitchen & Bath. “We were all partners because Rich and Judy were so involved. To see their excitement as they worked through the details of their own project was really gratifying.”
Unoccupied since its construction during the economic downturn, the home needed an update. They took full advantage of 10-foot ceilings and installed glass-front display cabinets overhead for the Napiers' pottery collection. The dishwasher and refrigerator disappeared behind cabinetry, as did refrigeration drawers, warmer drawers and a wine storage unit. A semicircular island with separate elevations for work and entertaining was oriented on the diagonal. The warm texture of an unfinished wood archway with curved trusses, a sliding barn door and a rustic chandelier contrast with ivory walls and gray cabinets.
Runner-up: Custom Kitchens Inc.
RESIDENTIAL BATH UNDER $35K
WINNER: Custom Kitchens Inc. with trade partners Thos. Somerville Co. and Morris Tile Distributors
Photo by John Magor
Jennifer Duncan’s peers call her “queen of the small bathroom,” proving her to be a worthy conspirator for owner/architect Jay Moore when he set out to remodel his small bath in the Fan.
Moore chose a clean color palette to open the space. “The back-painted glass tiles create the illusion of depth,” Duncan explains. “Using white on the side walls gave the appearance of expanded width. We used floor-to-ceiling tile to avoid a visual break. Then we ran the floor tile up the back wall to create the look of deeper space there.”
They chose a smaller radiator, a shallow vanity and a recessed medicine cabinet for their economy of scale. Moore knew that a wall-mounted toilet would maximize floor space. “The frameless glass shower surround gives an unbroken view of the room,” Duncan says. It was Moore who suggested removing the shower wall bump-out to expand the shower space and using a concealed drain to reduce clutter.
Runner-up: Hampden Hill Custom Building with trade partners Siewers Lumber & Millwork, Mosaic Tile, and Ferguson Enterprises
RESIDENTIAL BATH OVER $35K
WINNER: Custom Kitchens Inc. with trade partner Carroll Plumbing & Heating Inc.
Photo by John Magor
Barbara Harvill’s bathroom got caught up in the expansion of her walk-in closet. Now she has an elegant dressing-room suite with a brand-new bathroom and the feel of a boutique hotel. “She liked what we’d done with the closet makeover,” says Richard Hendrick of Custom Kitchens. “And she wanted the adjoining bathroom to have the same look.”
The bold palette that Harvill originally chose for the closet helped inform the bath, where maple wainscot panels, painted gray and then glazed, merge into a course of custom cabinetry to pull the room together. The walk-in shower with its frameless glass panels is lined in striated bronze ceramic tile. The neutral granite of the countertop is repeated in the shower threshold, shelves and seating. Silhouetted against the same bronze ceramic tile backdrop is a freestanding tub, catching water as it cascades from wall-mounted faucets. A built-in TV hangs just below the ceiling line, visible but not distracting from the clean lines of the room.
Runner-up: Custom Kitchens Inc. with trade partner Thos. Somerville Co.
OUTDOOR LIVING
WINNER: BK Martin Construction with trade partners Siewers Lumber & Millwork and CL Shade Drafting
Photo by B. Kyle Martin
Her grandmother’s porch swing needed a new home. But Janice Mark and her husband Bob lived in the Fan, in a home without a porch. So BK Martin Construction built a new front porch on the concrete footprint of their original portico.
The new structure was designed to honor the home’s 1920s heritage. Its painted standing-seam metal roof is supported by three Doric columns. Above the doorway, the peak of a gabled roof echoes the gable on the main roof two stories overhead. The brick foundation was restored, the existing concrete floor and steps stained a solid color and a black cast-iron railing added to the perimeter. And, hidden above a sky blue, tongue-and-groove ceiling is a sturdy beam, strong enough to support the treasured swing and its inhabitants as they sit and sway below.
“We are introverts who now sit on our front porch and talk to our neighbors,” the Marks say. “It has changed our lives.”
Runner-up: Hampden Hill Custom Building with trade partners Ferguson Enterprises and Riverside Brick & Supply Co. Inc.
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR SPECIALTY
WINNER: Leo Lantz Construction Inc. with trade partner Morris Tile Distributors
Photo by John Magor
Leo Lantz says, “They could sell memberships,” commenting on the appeal of the pool room he built for Alexander and Clenise White in the West End. More likely it was a solitary swim that inspired the serene sanctuary.
The challenge for Leo Lantz Construction was the room’s focal point, a ceramic tile image of a Great Blue Heron. “They wanted a piece of art to personalize the space,” Lantz explains, “but whatever we chose had to be able to withstand the corrosive environment of the pool.” Mosaic tile was his idea.
The image of the heron was digitized and converted to glass tile from a photo that Alexander White had shot on the James River. Lantz and his crew proportioned the 3-foot-by-4-foot mosaic to fit both the wall and the budget, framed it in ceramic tile, and fit it into the pattern of the surrounding wall tile.
The heron’s cool color palette is repeated in the room’s white tile walls, soft gray floors and blue-green paint. At night, recessed lighting illuminates the space. During the day, light from four skylights pours in from above.
ORGANIZATIONAL REMODEL/UPFIT
WINNER: Closet Factory
Photo by John Magor
The basement playroom of Richmond’s Ronald McDonald House needed help to cure some chronic clutter problems, so the nonprofit called on neighbor Georgia Kukoski, who designs storage solutions for Closet Factory.
“But I wanted to take on the entire room,” she says, “to be sure that it satisfies the [house's] mission and feels welcoming.” Kukoski recruited an interior designer, painters and flooring experts who were happy to donate time and materials to a good cause.
Melamine panels, shelving and doors, including a laminate desktop, were fabricated off-site and then installed, taking into account the basement’s sloping floor.
Toys and games were organized on new shelving, pullout trays and in chrome baskets, giving the space a sense of order and calm. A new computer workstation was tucked into a corner defined by storage cabinets that distinguish it from the TV area. And all of the improvements are appropriate for resale when the organization eventually moves to larger quarters.
RESIDENTIAL ADDITION
WINNER: HomeMasons Inc. with trade partners Davis & Green Electrical and Siewers Lumber & Millwork
Photo by John Magor
When HomeMasons added a porch to Dicky Hulcher and Ann Andre’s home in Glen Allen, they translated the visual vocabulary of a Georgian Revival home into the language of the outdoors. And because its traditional architecture is finished to the same formal elegance as the home itself, the new porch is truly an extension of the home’s interior living space. White columns and a deep cornice frame views of the outdoors through low-profile screens, while a trio of skylights opens the fir-paneled ceiling to the same airy feel above. Exposed brick contrasts with clean, white finishes. A drink rail is disguised as classic molding.
The practical aspects of the porch’s construction make it as timeless as it looks. Exterior elements like decay-proof PVC and painted composites were chosen for durability. “The columns are cast resin, the floor is composite, the trim is PVC. Come the apocalypse,” contractor Mason Hearn quips, “this porch will still be standing.”
Runner-up: Leo Lantz Construction Inc. with trade partners Costen Floors, RVA Shower Door, Cosentino and Morris Tile Distributors
ENTIRE HOUSE
WINNER: BK Martin Construction with trade partners Siewers Lumber & Millwork, Davis & Green Electrical, Morris Tile Distributors, and RVA Shower Door
Photo by B. Kyle Martin
It was the crawl space that sold him. Andrew Smith was house hunting for a single-story home for retirement. “We looked at several houses together,” recalls Kyle Martin, owner of BK Martin Construction. “When I crawled under this one and found a conditioned space so clean that I wanted to lie down and roll around, I came out grinning. You’ve got to buy this house, I told him.” And he did.
But the 1970s ranch was not retirement-ready. So Martin gave the North Chesterfield home a complete makeover with cosmetic updates like recessed lighting, refinished hardwood floors and a fresh coat of paint as well as a whole-house generator, gas instant hot-water heater, gas stove and new propane tank.
Now, warm wood cabinets, granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances surround an island in the revised kitchen floor plan. A spare bedroom was repurposed as a master bath with a linen cabinet, double vanity, walk-in shower and picture window. The drafty sunroom was insulated, its floor leveled and new carpet installed. A wide new doorway now opens into the great room.
RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR REMODEL
WINNER: HomeMasons Inc. with trade partners Davis & Green Electrical, Closet Factory, Sound & Image Design, and Cosentino
Photo by John Magor
In 10 hours, with volunteer labor and donated materials, the makeover for reality show “Fix It And Finish It” was completed for just $2,000. HomeMasons had converted a basement into an entertainment room with a cocktail lounge vibe, with cameras rolling.
Much of the work was prefabricated and installed the day of the shoot. But contractor Mason Hearn’s biggest challenge was coordinating the installation around TV production requirements and his workers around cameras. “The demo crew got covered in spray paint because we had to finish the ceiling while they were tearing out walls,” he recalls.
They built three rooms, each a distinctive space that flows into the others: a dance floor, a bar and a game room. The silhouette of the black bar top echoes the arc of the ceiling panels that float above, while a disco ball scatters shards of light onto silver wall striping.
“This is the most amazing basement we have ever done!” exclaimed host Antonio Sabato Jr. at the end of the program.
Runner-up: Leo Lantz Construction Inc. with trade partners Costen Floors, Morris Tile Distributors, and Cosentino
COMMERCIAL RENOVATION
WINNER: Lane Homes & Remodeling
Photo by Taylor Bates Photography
Lane Homes
Lane Homes & Remodeling completed this remodel of a dated orthodontist’s office in just two weeks, a project that normally would take 12 weeks. The owners, a young couple, wanted the new office to appeal to parents with a fun, inviting space that children would enjoy visiting. Updates included a calm, crisp foyer with games and iPad stations. Colors were kept modern and clean, from white wainscoting to English oak wide plank flooring with pops of lime green.
