By Lisa October 27th, 2013
Most of us add on to our homes when we need more space and don’t want to move. And of course most of us are on a budget. It’s a designer’s job to help identify how much additional space is needed and how to lay it out most economically, staying within a client’s budget and […]
By Lisa September 2nd, 2013
We all love rooms filled with light. Certainly we also have our days when we crave the coziness of a dark paneled library, a good book and a glass of red wine, but maybe that’s why homes need balance. I was inspired today by a photo in the Minneapolis Star and Tribune of a remodel […]
By Lisa July 15th, 2013
We’ve been thinking about front doors lately-one of our clients has a uncovered entry with a south facing exposure, a painted door and a storm door that is left on all year (as opposed to swapping out the glass panel for a screen panel). In our tough climate, storm doors are very popular for […]
By Nancy March 20th, 2013
Who remembers the Xanadu house in Wisconsin Dells? I went there on a family vacation, I’m sure it was in the early 1980’s, and I will never forget that house. I thought it was the most amazing place ever and I wanted so badly for my family to move to Wisconsin Dells so I could live […]
By Nancy February 6th, 2013
A contractor friend and I were talking about common “design mistakes” we’re often called on to fix, and he showed me a picture of a bathroom project he’s working on. Take a look at this picture, it’s not hard to find the flaw in the layout. There is over eight feet of space devoted to the toilet, which by […]
By Nancy August 8th, 2012
If walls could talk, we might not always want to hear what they say! Sometimes walls DO talk though, in their own way, and every house has a story. Sparrow and Stoll recently completed a design for an extensive remodel of a kitchen and its adjoining spaces for a house in Edina. The house was built in the […]
By Lisa July 22nd, 2010
It’s a lucky side effect of being in the design business that leads me to seek out interesting neighborhoods when on vacation. And boy did I find a great one in Petoskey, Michigan while at my cousin’s wedding. Petoskey is a charming resort town on Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan. There is an area […]
By Lisa August 13th, 2009
I don’t know much about world expos—in fact, I didn’t realize there was one in the planning. However next year in Shanghai, China the next expo will be held and it will showcase innovative solutions to common urban problems. That would be interesting enough, but what really caught my eye was the Polish Pavilion. The […]