When Brooke and Erik reached out, they’d been in their Paradise Valley home for five years. They loved the neighborhood, the expansive lot, the mature trees that made the backyard feel like a private world. What they didn’t love — and had quietly tolerated for most of those five years — was the inside of the house.
The bones were good… an open living room with high ceilings and clerestory windows that caught the afternoon light beautifully. But the enclosed kitchen was fighting the space instead of opening it up.
"We want clean and modern. But still us. Keep the edge."
The primary bathroom was barely functioning. And all that brick — warm, rustic, undeniably red — was simply not them. They came to us with one sentence that guided everything: “We want clean and modern. But still us. Keep the edge.”
We heard you, Brooke and Erik. We heard you.
The direction came quickly… cool neutrals, natural materials, layered texture. Nothing too precious. Brooke and Erik have two kids and a dog named Freddie — the design had to be beautiful and actually livable. Those two things are not in conflict when you plan it right.
The biggest early decision was the wall. Taking down the partition between the kitchen and the dining and living room changed everything — suddenly the clerestory light that had been trapped in one corner belonged to the whole space. The kitchen stopped being a room you disappeared into and became part of the conversation.
From there, the decisions stacked: the fireplace surround was reimagined to anchor the new open living area. The primary bedroom entrance was relocated, and closing off the old hallway gave back enough square footage to completely transform the closet. Small move on the floor plan. Significant change to how that room feels every single morning.
And the brick — that undeniably red brick — got painted. Inside and out. It sounds simple. It was the thing that tied the entire transformation together.
A full home remodel isn’t a single decision — it’s a hundred of them, made in the right order, at the right time, with the right people in the room. These photos represent months of site visits, material pulls, measurement checks, demo days, and more than a few moments of standing in an empty space and just thinking. The powder room got X’d out completely. The kitchen wall came down. The primary bath was stripped to the subfloor. The fireplace surround got measured, sketched, and measured again. And somewhere in between all of it — a finishes flatlay on a table that held the entire vision before a single thing was installed. This is the part of design nobody sees. It’s also the part that makes everything else possible.
Every finish in this home was chosen to add clean lines without tipping into cold. That’s a harder balance than it sounds — and the answer, almost always, is personality layered on top of precision.
Brooke and Erik came with something most clients don’t: a great art collection. Pieces gathered over years, with actual stories behind them. Rather than designing around artwork as an afterthought, we let it lead. The cool neutrals, the raw materials, the restraint everywhere else — all of it exists to give those pieces room to breathe and do what they’re meant to do.
The BoConcepts sofa anchored the living room and became the starting point for the entire color conversation. Their mid-century sensibility opened the door to a tile rug that brings in that signature pop of color — graphic, durable, and completely them. The kind of thing that makes you stop and look twice.
But the custom metalwork is what took this space from beautiful to specific. Raw, oxidized, with that copper warmth running through it — it appears at the fireplace surround, carries through to the floating shelves, and lands again in the lower kitchen cabinetry. It’s the thread that stitches every room together without announcing itself. The plant wall does the same thing in a different register — bringing the outside in, softening all those hard edges, and making the whole space feel genuinely alive.
The green cabinets and checkered tile had character — just not theirs. Black shaker cabinets, white quartz, and that stained glass circle window that was always there, just waiting to be the star. The Viking stayed. It earned it.
A closed-off room with builder lighting and nowhere to go. Now it sits open to the whole living space, anchored by an Eames moment and that matte black saucer pendant that looks like it came from a very cool museum café. The art on the right? Already theirs. It was always waiting for this room.
Carpet, wood ceiling, brick the color of a sunset — warm in all the wrong ways for this family. Paint the brick, replace the ceiling, open the kitchen wall, add a plant wall that stops people mid-sentence. Same bones. Completely different soul.
Carpet, brass hardware, purple bedding — it had the energy of a hotel room in 1997. Now it’s airy, calm, and opens directly to the backyard through those French doors. The art collection gets its moment. So does the morning light.
Dark granite, penny tile in terracotta, a vessel sink that felt very 2005. The after is all clean lines, gray tile, white quartz — and then that bold art print above the vanity that reminds you exactly whose bathroom this is. Plants everywhere. Because of course.
Hollywood bulbs, oak vanity, and red brick that was doing a lot of talking. Now it’s clean, crisp, painted brick, black-framed mirror, and just enough personality to feel like it belongs in this house. The kids didn’t know what they had before. They definitely know now.
Carpet, clutter, a printer that had seen better days. Now it’s a proper workspace — walnut credenza, Eames lounge chair, built-in desk running the full window wall, and a floor-to-ceiling black and white photo mural that makes you want to sit down and do something important. That striped rug is doing a lot of the heavy lifting and loving every second of it.
A pedestal sink, a tired fixture, and concrete floors that weren’t intentional. The after is the best kind of small-room surprise — floor-to-ceiling midori green tile, a floating concrete vanity, sculptural pendant lighting, and a piece of art that makes you stop and look. Guests will absolutely comment on this bathroom. Plan accordingly.
Here’s what nobody tells you about “clean and modern”: it’s actually the hardest brief to get right. Anyone can do cold. The trick is keeping the soul in it. Brooke and Erik are honestly two of the hippest people I know — getting this right mattered. Their art collection did half the work for us — we just gave it a home worthy of it.
Every project begins with a conversation… rooted in curiosity, respect, and intent. We listen first, observing how you live, what inspires you, and how your home should feel. From there, we translate that understanding into interiors that are both refined and inviting—where craftsmanship meets comfort and every detail has purpose.
