Water’s Edge Home Tour | Step Inside This 20,000 Square Foot Home With Us!

Welcome to our Water's Edge project. This is a large estate home that we've been working on for several years. I first worked with this client years ago before Studio McGee was even an idea. And we had the opportunity to work with a lot of repeat clients. And I am so glad that this family trusted us with their forever home. On the exterior, we worked with Think Architecture and Killowen Construction. And you can see from the outside, it has a very sprawling layout. And then once I take you in, you will see the beautiful views of the river behind me, which is why we call it the Water's Edge project. And the materiality is a mix of painted brick, a beautiful vertical stained siding, limestone exterior finish. And then we have cedar shakes. And then throughout on the exterior and interior, you see this stained beam detail, everything from headers to porch details as well. Starting with this massive front door, and I will take you inside. We're also doing a photo shoot at the same time, so you might see me in a few outfit changes throughout. This entryway has a lot to love. It is, first of all, it's massive. It has this gorgeous barrel vault ceiling that extends from the front all the way into the staircase. And we have done a really beautiful plaster detail. So you get this nice kind of cozy movement happening. And then we brought the exterior stone onto the walls in here. And I feel like it just helps bring the space in. It makes it feel more textural and gives you a good peek at what the rest of the home is all about. And to me, that's what an entryway should do. This entryway is so large that we wanted to add some layers. So we did a really grand rug that has this really soft palette throughout. We incorporated this floor mirror. This is one of my favorites from McGee & Co. It's the Giada. And one thing I love in design is the opportunity to create vantage points. So you see that when you walk into this entryway, but you also see it down the hallway as well. One perk of being a Studio McGee client is that we take our clients on sourcing trips if they want to go and we'll go to Round Top and take them through all of our favorite vendors and source one of a kind pieces. And we have a few of those pieces in this entryway. Our client found this beautiful piece with our designers, and it sets the tone for the entire entryway. In this space, we have some mixing when it comes to the wood stains, and it really works to keep it feeling warm and collected rather than all one note. And we have the wood tone on the floors and the door. Then we have the jam detail. So these are reclaimed timbers that we have in these openings here that carry to one wing of the home and then also to the main living area, which I will take you into next. This is the very great, great room, and we had a very voluminous space to work with, and the key to working with a long, very open space is good space planning. And that's all about creating zones for different purposes. And this is the TV hangout area. So we did a big sectional. We did a very large coffee table in the center, and we had to have this custom made so that it would fill the space nicely. We did this huge vintage rug to ground the space. And I love that we get these dark brown tones. And those tie in with the tones that you see on the floor and on the ceiling. We have a lot of ceiling to work with and floor square footage. And so we really needed to nail those finishes. And I, I really wanted the floors to be a bit warmer, a bit darker so that we got that richness so that you knew that you were in the mountains and they would ground the entire main floor of this home. So you can see that wide plank, really beautiful texture that carries throughout. We had a few different ideas and iterations for the ceiling. And ultimately, I really didn't want the ceiling to be white because I knew that we had a lot of ceiling to work with and we had to really actually make the ceiling feel lower. And I wanted to bring the feeling of this living space in a bit. And the way to do that was adding a little bit of depth. That said, we had a really gorgeous wood grain to work with. So we wanted to make sure that you get that rustic feeling with the knots and the texture of the wood coming through. So we did so many different iterations of a stain on this ceiling. And we finally got this kind of like warm gray stain that carries throughout the entire ceiling and then allows these reclaimed timbers to really shine. When you're working with a lot of different wood tones in a space, the key is sampling and holding them all next to each other so that you can feel if it works. I don't have a special formula. It's more about just testing, trying and holding up the samples altogether. Test and try, test and try. Our client really wanted to be able to have a game table where you sit down, you spread all the game pieces out or puzzles or whatever and be able to watch TV. So we decided to do a big round table and round tables are great for gaming. But also it helped break up the fact that we have a lot of angular shapes happening in the living room. And then we had this long table happening here. Another good fit would have been like four chairs in a circle or maybe a couple of chairs facing each other. But the key here was to just break up the shape and create a different zone between these two main anchors that we have on the ends of the space. Over here on this wall, I came across this gorgeous hutch and we found that there was like this extra space that we were going to have to style. And I was like, we have got to talk them into doing this. And I am so glad that our clients went for it because it adds it adds a lot of character. The antiques are key to making it have some soul and some interest, especially when the home is new and large scale. It's safe to say that this kitchen is my favorite room in this home. You can tell that our client is in the restaurant industry because of all that was incorporated. And I think if you're building a new home and you're trying to decide whether or not to do two islands, I'm actually asked about this a lot when we're starting that process with new clients. And I think that the benefit of having two islands, if you can fit it in your home, is that it's great for entertaining because you have one entire island dedicated to laying out the food and having people walk around and the other one can be for prep. I would say that the downside is just that you have more ins and outs in places to walk to move through your kitchen. But two islands was the perfect solution for this kitchen because you get two symmetrical islands that frame this beautiful walkway to the focal point. We wanted to incorporate the stone from the exterior of the house all the way across and then do an integrated hood. We also knew that we wanted to do a reclaimed timber across the front that would tie in to the timbers that you see throughout. We also incorporated the plaster that's on the barrel ceiling in the entryway. And that is on the backsplash and on these niches on the sides. And it wraps as well. So it just adds this really great textural feature and a nice kind of break from the stone that still feels warm and in line with the same color palette. We've done a mix of finishes on the cabinetry. We have a really beautiful white oak that's a shade lighter than the floors. And then you have this awesome cooktop here. And we did a dark countertop on this range wall. So a very mix and match look. And I think that that's what adds a lot of depth to this kitchen. Then on the islands, I was just in love with this gray green and our whole team was in love with it, too. But, you know, presenting something with a green tone to it can sometimes be a little bit nerve wracking when we present to a client because it's not that neutral. But I love that you're getting this gray green that still reads soft and really timeless. And it adds so much to this kitchen and this entire home to incorporate that green. I would say that this countertop is one of the show pieces of this kitchen, and it may surprise you, but this is actually a porcelain, not a Calcutta like it looks. We've used porcelain a few times, and I would say that the key is getting a fabricator that really knows what they're doing so that they can create seams that are hardly visible. And I love that we went with a boulder veining so that it makes a statement on these two long surfaces that we have to work with. We have three sinks in this kitchen, so we have a prep sink and then we have this massive galley sink. And then we did two semi-pro faucets here with the spring detail. And it's pretty awesome. In a kitchen that is new, you've got to look for places to add some charm. This reminds you of my kitchen, probably. And I love this look because I think it helps break up the length of a really long stretch of cabinetry. And so then we opened it up. I think if you have a kitchen that's very symmetrical, I would look for one opportunity to make it asymmetrical. Just add some interest and keeps everything from being so, so perfect. Off to one side of the space is the dining room, and we lovingly refer to this table as the last supper table because it is the longest table we have ever designed, the most seats. And you can see they're all about hosting and entertaining. We have kind of these soft, curved corners that we designed. And then the chairs are substantial. Our clients sat on a lot of different chairs and decided that this was their favorite due to the leather and the clean ability. And then this handle makes the chairs nice to pull in and out from the table. You know, styling a table like this, you just got to lean into the length. And so we did these like vintage troughs with moss in them that can live there all the time without having to refresh fresh flowers. We have a lot of vintage and antiques and rustic materials. And I think a nice modern surprise goes a long way. And so we've done that with this really beautiful light fixture here that follows the length of the table. On each side of the kitchen, we have the dining room and then the hearth room. And I'm excited to take you into this space because it's one of the coolest rooms in the home. When you're designing a custom home, transitions are really important. Really, when we were like in framing, I was like, I can't I can't handle all of this drywall right here. Let's talk about doing some stone. So what we did was we decided to do stone framing out this hearth room and make it symmetrical on both sides. So then that way, this becomes this really beautiful, more intimate look off of the kitchen in this room. It's all about creating warmth. So we have the stone on all of the walls. And if it's not stone, it's a wood detail. So there's no real drywall showing. And I think that that helps add that texture, that mountain home feel. And when we saw the plans, the timbers that came down here, we were like, OK, so how are we going to arrange this room? If we do two chairs, we've got two posts and two chairs. How do we put the sofa here? But we have a desk here or it was just kind of we had to go through a lot of different iterations. And ultimately, what we decided was do two symmetrical sofas and facing each other. And then just create this kind of like blockade between the two timbers as the timbers frame out the sofa and you just have to enter from the sides. And I also like that that creates that additional separation because this room is supposed to feel like its own space. And then we have the cutest custom gingham Ottomans here. I want to take these home from my own house. You've heard me talk about breaking up symmetry with a little bit of asymmetry and in here, the furniture arrangement is very symmetrical on these large pieces. But then it's the accents that break it up. So we only did one lumbar on this sofa and then a collection of pillows over here. And then the room itself, even though it's symmetrical in scale, we have different things happening on the end of the room, the fireplace on one and then this desk on the other. Selecting lighting and open concept spaces can be a little bit tricky because they need to look different, but they all need to work together. And so when we are making those decisions, we can't just look at the room alone. We can't just pick a light for the hearth room and call it good. We have to compare them with the lights that are being selected in the kitchen and the dining room. We love a hidden door, and that one's one of our best yet. I love to pick a few spots in a home to go really dark and moody with the paint color. And I love that this is a surprise when you walk in from the light walls and wood tones in the main spaces. And they just have tons of storage. And then one of my favorite little details with the storage is actually on this side of the island. Right. How cute are these baskets? I want these in my own house. This is a very beautiful laundry room, but it's also really functional, too. We started with a palette of a warm beige on the walls, and that is on a tongue and groove and carried onto the cabinetry and on the trim. And then we have topped all of the cabinetry with a quartz that has this great kind of like dark fleck throughout and a nice leathered texture. And then the dark hardware ties back in with the countertop material. And those both relate back to the dark windows that we have throughout the home, whether it's a laundry room or a kitchen. If we have a long run of cabinetry, we look for opportunities to break it up. So that could be with an open shelf or it could be what we've done here, which is do a long pinboard with a cute sconce above. It gives an opportunity for our client to have a rotating mix of personal photos and inspiration, and it just brings a home to life when they move in. One of the coolest features about this laundry room is this work table on a casters. A lot of times when we have these laundry rooms, I have a little bit of extra space, whether it's against a wall or in the middle. We'll bring in a vintage table or we'll bring in some sort of functional kind of slim console so that you can use it for additional purposes other than just the obvious washing clothes. If you want to go for that multi light look instead of one center fixture, follow the shape of the room. We've done four flush mounts here to coordinate with the square shape in the room. This light also does one of my favorite things, which is blend metal finishes so that you can use that as a jumping off point to tie in your mixed metals throughout the room. Here we have the brass and the black. You can see the black tied in with the hardware on the cabinetry. And then the brass is on this really pretty bridge faucet over by this apron front sink. This is the office space, and it is on the primary suite wing of the home. We did a tongue and groove and a beam detail and stained it all one color to match the floor color. And the built in is actually a really clever concept that our client wanted in this space. And it's two desks with this L shape that comes out so that you can swivel back and forth between the two areas. Headed into the primary suite. This is a complete wing of its own. We have a really beautiful textural lime wash on all of the walls and then a very Studio McGee signature look. It's to do repeated pendants down the hallway with a beautiful runner. It brings you into the space. A couple of things we learned when designing this bedroom. We started with this vintage rug, which is gorgeous, and it looked great on the plans. But when we put it in this space, we felt like we needed to take up a little more square footage. So instead of doing a whole new rug, we layered it. And we did this really great jute rug with tassels. And you can see it adds a lot to the space to one, extend the size, but also add that layer. Another thing I wanted to point out is when designing your focal wall in your bedroom, usually around your headboard. I like to follow the shape of my ceilings if I can. We decided not to do an additional rug and just do a really large layered rug look in the center of the room and then just have this be a grouping anchored by the coffee table here. We created this niche with open shelves, which I love that it gave us an opportunity to add some decor to the space. And then on the opposite side is probably my favorite vignette in this room, which is this bleached antique chest and this cute mirror layered with vintage objects and even a cute little tassel here. I forgot to mention one of my favorite details on the bench. I'm just seeing it now. So it has actually a little scallop underneath. And this again, we sourced a lot of antiques for this home so that we could add character and charm to this new build. And it's just things like that that just make me so happy. When designing any room, I want to make sure that I incorporate different types of lighting. So we have overhead lighting, we have recessed cans. And this is the ultimate luxury, like when you're at a hotel and they have those additional reading lights that each person can turn on. A floor lamp and then an accent lamp in the corner. So the light is evenly dispersed throughout the room. And then we have different levels of light to create different moods. So beyond the bench, the bed, the seating arrangement, the shelves and this vintage kind of vignette that we have in the corner, we actually had additional space and there was a fireplace on the plans. And so it really made sense to create an additional seating area. So we did this stone fireplace here and kept it very simple with a large scale piece of artwork. And then because we had already done two chairs and a bench, we felt like doing a chaise was a good way to fill this space. Whenever we have the opportunity to bring exterior materials to the interior, we do. And you see the reclaimed timbers that are throughout the rest of the home on the vault in this space. But you also see the ceiling detail. This actually the architect designed it so that it comes from the exterior. And we have this double beam detail that carries into the space. And I like that you get this dark stain and it feels very connected to what's happening outside. And also it creates some intimacy in this additional kind of like overflow area in the room headed into the bathroom. True to the rest of the home, we have generous space, tall ceilings. We've carried the reclaimed beams throughout. The shower incorporates a really cool grout detail. We have this tile that we did, this wider grout detail. So you get a stripe effect. And so you can take you know, this is a really gorgeous terracotta tile that we've done this with. But you could do this with any tile. It's all about layout and creating an interesting pattern. We have a few different materials in the space. We have the porcelain tile on the floor, the terracotta on the walls. And then we have a leathered quartzite. And so this has this really pretty OG detail on it. And then that relates back to what we did on the cabinets here. So quartzite is a great material because it's a natural material like a marble or a limestone or even a granite. It's just a more durable stone material than a marble. This is a leathered finish that you get this like great like kind of textural detail. And then we have this cool it's like an OG, but then it has this more apron front detail that just adds some weight to these cabinet designs. There are a lot of guest suites in this home, and so I'm going to show you a few of my favorites. Keeping the guest in mind, every single guest suite has a built in wall and it has a little desk and then it has a cubby on one side for guests to put their suitcases under, which is really convenient because I know that we've all had that experience of not knowing where to put our suitcase. And so that was a thoughtful detail that our client wanted incorporated, and it turned out great with the wood planking on the back. And we broke it up so that there's storage for guests in the middle. And next, I'm going to take you into one of two bunk rooms. And this bunk room is all about the green. This artwork is the jumping off point for the color palette. We have the wood contrasting with the green and we have six beds in here, six queen bunk beds, which is going to make this a big party when our clients host. We always like to incorporate a niche so people can put, you know, a drink, a phone or whatever they need, and also a sconce that can be turned on individually so that each person can have their little reading light. Down this hallway is one of my favorite views in the home. We've got the gallery wall and this great vintage piece with a pretty vignette above. And then that takes you into another guest suite here. Here we have this gorgeous vintage rug that has this greens and browns and then also the nightstands. And you can see that carry throughout every selection. All right. We have another bunk room and I love the color palette in here. We did dark bunks, you know, it's moody. It feels very refreshing. Instead of a rug setting the tone for the color palette, I think that this Roman shade really sets the tone for the color palette. We call this the fish room because we've got fish sheets, which are so cute. It's a mix of textiles on the bed, but they match on every single bed because we have eight queen size beds in here. And I think that mixing up the pillows on every single bed would be one, a nightmare to put back together, but to feel a little visually overstimulating. So we create interesting combinations and then we replicate them throughout. When selecting hardware, it is common to think, oh, I have to contrast the hardware with the paint color. So if we're doing a dark, we need to do a silver or we should do a brass. But when you're creating a moody look, sometimes doing no contrast on your hardware can help you achieve that look. So we did a dark bronze hardware on these drawers and they kind of just blend in, which is exactly what we wanted here. We've got this great trough sink. We have the vertical tongue and groove on all the walls. We incorporated this little ledge detail because we don't have the traditional drawers or cabinet doors underneath to store things. We've been creative with our shelving solutions. I also love the porcelain levers on the sink. I think that the faucets are so charming. And then that relates to what we have happening in the shower over here. The shower incorporates one of my favorite tiles in the home because the color is really unusual. It is a brown tone. And it's not every day that you see brown tile, but it's done in such a beautiful way with the polished nickel up against it. And then it has this crackle effect. Tying in colors can happen beyond just your stains or your paints. You can do that in different materials across colorways. So brown stain, brown tile. You can do that with really any color you want in a home. So we head down this entryway staircase, and the basement is what we call a daylight basement. So it has a walkout component to it that allows so much more natural light to be in this space. We've got a huge theater room with seating for everyone. And then back behind, we have more of a lounge space and more TVs. So more screens. But I think this room is so charming. We worked really hard to create this gallery wall that had a lot of dimension to it. And that really is the focal point of the space. And then a mix of eclectic pillows, a plaid indoor outdoor rug so that people can run in and out from the fire pit and hot tub to hang out in this space. As if a theater room and a gaming area weren't enough, we have a very large sport court to show you as well. So this part of the home is all about physical activity. So we've got a gym, a sauna and a sport court. So here's the sauna area with storage. And then the gym kind of has its own corner, but it's open to probably the most incredible sport court I've ever seen because of all of the natural light. What can you say? Right. And then I forgot to tell you, there's a golf simulator through here as well. So we've shown you the front exterior of the home, the interior, all the details. And now you can see the view from the back. If you want to dive into the photos, head to the blog.