This small family's Fort Washington two bedroom apartment was in dire need of a refresh. They were receptive to some unorthodox design moves that made the kitchen and bathroom renovation visually fun.
Parker is a residential renovation for a client who valued design risk over conservative finishes. The apartment itself is modest, but the brief unlocked moves that often get value-engineered out of larger projects — oversized cabinet pulls, a Moroccan tile backsplash, a yellow penny-tile bathroom with a single sculptural sconce. The work is a study in concentrating design energy where it actually registers, on a project where the client's willingness was the real budget.
Sole designer through schematic, design development, construction documents, and site visits through completion. Selected and detailed all custom hardware, specified tile and finishes, coordinated with millwork fabricators, and ran punch list. Small project, full ownership.
Owning the full arc. Sole designer from schematic through CD, with site visits through completion. Carrying a project across all phases sharpens the muscle of designing toward what's actually buildable, not what reads cleanly on paper — and there's no one to blame in the field but yourself.
Design risk lives in the relationship, not the budget. Parker wasn't aspirational on its own terms, but the client said yes to oversized cabinet pulls, Moroccan tile, and a yellow penny-tile bathroom. A willing client at a modest scale unlocks more design language than a hesitant one at five times the budget.
Spend the design energy where the eye lives. When the overall envelope is constrained, what matters is where you concentrate the moves. Choosing to invest in the cabinet pulls, the backsplash, and a single sconce over generic "upgrades" elsewhere taught me to put the design budget where it actually registers.
