After 2+ decades, one Texas family was finally ready for their home to have a modern refresh. “The homeowners, Amy and Nick, have been married for over 25 years. They have called this home since the early 1990s and have done their own renovations in various parts of the house,” designer Juliana Oliveira tells us of her recent project in Plano. “They have 3 lovely children: a college grad, college student and the youngest is about to graduate high school. Their family dog, Levi, was thought of consistently during the project as well.”
The home was outdated — wallpaper, closed off spaces, drop ceilings, and old can lighting. Juliana, who is the Founder & Principal Designer of Beyond Interior Design, definitely had her work cut out for her. “It incorporated old brass throughout that was harsh to the eye as you looked around the space. The living room had paneling and carpet running up the staircase. Also, there were a handful of unnecessary doors in every room that made it a challenge to position the furniture in tight spaces,” she recalls.
The family has a fairly active lifestyle, keeping busy with community outreach programs, church volunteering, and sporting events. They told the designer they needed additional storage, and wanted the space to feel quite organized. The Beyond Interior Design team kept this top of mind, while blending a style that was clean, streamlined, transitional with some unexpected contemporary details.
The living room was opened up by removing the walls that separated the space from the dining room and kitchen. “This room has a two foot higher ceiling than the adjacent rooms because the previous owners added a second story to the house,” Juliana shares. “We re-engineered the structural bones of the house in order to provide the open concept living. Since each room had a different ceiling height, we set out to make the space feel and look uniform.” Juliana also took out a few doors here — the French doors to the sunroom and the door to the den, creating a more cohesive flow and allowing for a better furniture layout and a large gallery wall of family photos. The staircase got a new, sleek, modern railing with metal decorative spindles and the old carpeting was removed. The open concept is one of the elements of the home that Juliana is most proud of. “Since we eliminated walls it allows your eye to wander throughout the space and gives you the illusion of much more volume and space. The spaces are all interconnected in a way that makes it more in line with the way we live and interact today.”
In the kitchen, they echoed the look of the wood beams on the ceiling by incorporating exposed wood on the backsplash behind the sink. (It’s actually a high-performance laminate!) On the other wall, a porcelain countertop goes all the way up to the open shelving, which makes the space feel light and airy while showcasing a unique meeting of materials: wood, stone, and metal. Juliana also incorporated custom Café Appliances in white with brass details, which are a stylish addition. “We were able to add some beautiful accents in the handles and knobs making them part of the design not just a utility,” Juliana says. Of course, the most important element here was storage. “We added a cabinet to house all appliances with integrated hidden doors to house items when they are not in use. We included a spice rack and a desk valet into the side of the cabinets, and large drawers for the lower cabinets for optimum storage capabilities.”
The previously crowded dining room was also pared down. “We added two built in china cabinets on either side of the window to allow for a visually centralized dining room. This allowed for a larger expandable table so the family can host holiday parties with ease,” Juliana explains.
From the moment they started placing orders for materials to the completion, the makeover took 3 months to complete. “The homeowners were ecstatic when they saw the completed project and loved how much light and openness there was to each space,” the designer concludes. See the impressive transformation in the slideshow.
