Feast your eyes on the list of exciting attributes that now adorn this ultimate outdoor entertainment area, complete with every functionality you could think of: there’s a bar in there, and a pizza oven as well, there’s a sauna and spa (with stories to tell). Open the stackable doors wide, bring the outdoors inside… and no it’s not Play School. This is a seriously extraordinary transformation, from a suburban backyard of an older weatherboard home on a large block of land, to a place you can truly call ‘paradise’.

Cole Valley Remodel

Mark Brand Architecture

For this kitchen and bath remodel in San Francisco's Cole Valley, our client wanted us to open the kitchen up to the living room and create a new modern feel for all of the remodeled areas. Opening the kitchen to the living area provided a structural challenge as the wall we had to remove was load-bearing and there was a separately owned condo on the floor below. Working closely with a structural engineer, we created a strategy to carry the weight to the exterior walls of the building. In order to do this we had to tear off the entire roof and rebuild it with new structural joists which could span from property line to property line. To achieve a dramatic daylighting effect, we created a slot skylight over the back wall of the kitchen with the beams running through the skylight. Cerulean blue, back-painted glass for the backsplash and a thick waterfall edge for the island add more distinctive touches to this kitchen design. In the master bath we created a sinuous counter edge which tracks its way to the floor to create a curb for the shower. Green tile imported from Morocco adds a pop of color in the shower and a custom built indirect LED lighting cove creates a glow of light around the mirror. Photography by Christopher Stark.