Locals remodel entire home, but one room stands out

October 25, 2018

12:00 AM

After

Remodeling one room within a home is always thrilling. But when that updated space stands out amongst the outdated rooms, it’s time to roll up the sleeves and keep moving forward.

Back in 2015, a Westerville couple decided it was time for an entirely new home-interior aesthetic. The homeowners chose Dave Fox Design – Build Remodelers, and over the course of a couple years the company redid their entire first floor, added a front porch and completed multiple bathrooms upstairs.

Overseeing the design aspects on most of the projects was Michelle Mixter, an interior designer at Dave Fox. She consulted with the homeowners to decide the best layout for the rooms, color schemes, appliances, lighting fixtures and more, and claims the process was exciting.

“Realistically, there really isn’t a room in the house that we haven’t touched,” Mixter says. “It has been a fun treat because not often do you get to affect the entire home in multiple phases or one solid swoop.”

Tips from Michelle Mixter: Remodeling a Small Space

• Bigger is better. Often people think that for a small space you have to have small things, but the opposite is often true. For instance, large tiles, can actually make a room feel larger than it is.

• Mirrors are your friend. Mirrors make every space feel bigger. Don’t be afraid to oversize the mirror or take it wall to wall. Here are some examples by Dave Fox: https://www.davefox.com/photo-gallery/bathrooms .

• Take a risk. Small spaces are so much fun because they can have a personality of their own without affecting the whole house. Choose a mosaic tile, bold paint color or an over-the-top light fixture.

The Crown Jewel

Amongst all the renovations, the tiny upstairs hall bathroom is what really made an impact though, and the project actually won a 2017 Contractor of the Year (CotY) Award from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry of Central Ohio (NARI).

“I think for the size of the project and the cost of the project, it was a giant transformation,” Mixter says. “And I think that’s really what (NARI) is looking for: creativity in a small space that can make a big impact.”

The bathroom went from dark painted walls with outdated fixtures to a bright space that seems significantly larger, even though it was not expanded. An aspect that makes the room clearly award-worthy is the customization of the beadboarding along the walls.

“We found this beautiful beadboard tile for the shower and a beautiful tile chair rail, and we wanted to create a uniformed look throughout the space,” says Mixter. “So, in talking with one of my project managers, Mike Tenney, he suggested that we reach out to our local mill shop and have a custom product made that basically creates that same tile and chair rail out of a piece of wood.”

Mixter says it was a thrilling task that added significant value to the space without breaking the budget, since tile is more expensive than wood-paneled beadboard. With any project though, there’s always a set of challenges to overcome.

“Besides the small space, the low-angled ceiling was the most challenging existing feature that we had to design around,” Mixter says. “We had to determine the best way to light the space without installing an overhead vanity light. In the end, the mirror (with the mounted scones) makes the space feel larger and diminishes the impact of the sloped ceilings.”

Overall, Mixter says it was invigorating to work with the homeowners, and that doing long-term contract work with a single company has its benefits.

“It’s truly a treat when you get to work with somebody time and time again,” Mixter says. “It also allows you, when you do repeat work with a client, to get a better understanding of how far you can push them on a design aspect. The more time we spent with one another, the more we really started trusting one another on suggestions and how they would work.”