The goal was to take a minimal structure and turn it into a spectacular environment for first-time homeowners. The existing home had a dark, oppressive interior with little flow, a tiny, isolated kitchen and no basement space for mechanical systems or basic storage. From a mere 1,033 boxy square feet, the design team created an environment that is inviting, lives large and has pleasing aesthetics.
They enlarged the foyer, which provided an art wall. It retains the hallway, which provides privacy to the bedrooms and bathrooms. The existing living room, dining room and kitchen were all opened up, and a vaulted ceiling in the living room now additionally provides vertical space. The kitchen design is clearly upgraded, and service to the dining room is now convenient. Despite the open plan, the living room is defined by the 15-foot-wide, deep-jambed portal that separates it from the other rooms. The open plan is inviting and full of natural light, with views to the front and back yards.
The portico addition to the front of the home provides a welcoming entry point, as well as coverage over an outdoor sitting area. The exterior was re-sided and all the windows were replaced. Enhancing the curb appeal is a dark roof and standing seam metal roof accent.
Cabinets: Miller Built Custom Cabinets Flooring: WiseWood Flooring Paint: RRD Painting Windows: Marvin Windows & Doors
Located just south of the Kansas City Country Club Plaza, this five-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath single-family row house was conceived as a brick monolith on a limestone plinth. The carved areas within the monolith are expressed in ceramic tile.
Outdoor Space or Landscape The Captiva The Captiva model home in Lenexa features an outdoor oasis carved from the natural planes of the wooded lot. The team was challenged to
Design Detail Modern Stonework The owner of Jack Stack Barbecue wanted to update his Country Club Plaza restaurant’s classic ambiance with modern elements. The renovations included a new bar, bathrooms
The homeowners, who host frequent gatherings with their large family, needed an efficient working kitchen that was comfortable for entertaining.
Interior Project Making an Entrance The flow and style of this house were desperately dated and stuck in the 1960s. It had a Palm Springs vibe mixed with mid-century modern
Interior Project A Stylish Ensuite This primary bath redesign presented several challenges for the team. The ceiling was more than 1½ inches out of level, so furring strips were installed
Design Detail Floating Staircase The floating steel-supporting staircase is a feat of engineering and a work of art. Quartzite treads “float,” while the glass handrail provides safety without detracting from
Custom Residence Living Large The goal was to take a minimal structure and turn it into a spectacular environment for first-time homeowners. The existing home had a dark, oppressive interior
Interior Project Leawood Modern Mix The vision for this project was a light, warm and inviting contemporary space that blends white high-gloss cabinetry with other muted warm tones throughout the
What is your publishing background?
My father was in printing with GSA as I was growing up and I was able to spend time at his plant. I never met anyone that took so much pride in his job as my father. This was my first introduction to printing.
At the age of 24 I answered an employment ad for an account executive position with Relocating in Kansas City magazine. This company also published Kansas City Homes Gardens. I found that I loved working with small businesses and learning I had a good ear in listening for problems and helping to solve them. I then was asked to help the company expand. My wife and I moved to Las Vegas to launch relocating in Las Vegas magazine during the boom. My first Publisher role. I continued to sharpen my skillset and understanding for Publishing. In Las Vegas my son Evan was born and we wanted to find a way to get back to KC and I was approached by the Ashley group a division of Cahners Publishing, to launch The Kansas City Home Book, a hard cover annual luxury design book. After two years, and a very successful launch, I was asked to come back to KCH&G as Publisher. My life had now come full circle. These experiences and design products I managed and created help formulate what design KC is today.
What is your favorite issue?
Every issue is always exciting. When I pick up the first issue at the printer, it still feels like Christmas every time. However, for me our premier issue will always be my favorite. To take something from concept to actual inception is an amazing feeling, and it was always have a warm spot in my heart!
What is your home’s design style?
I am a minimalist…. I hate clutter (although you can’t tell that from my office always), I even have a hard time putting things on the walls… I like clean and simple, and lots of color.
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
I absolutely love my primary bedroom, bath, and shower. Not that I spend all my time there, but every morning it makes me happy getting ready for the day.
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
Laguna Beach, CA right on the water. When I lived in Las Vegas we would drive the high dessert several times a year and enjoy Laguna
If you could make your current home better, what would you do?
Raise my basements ceiling so I could have a golf simulator.
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
I was born into an Italian family in Boston. I was raised in East Boston, and my memories of Sunday dinners with my whole family are some of the fondest memories of my life. As a result, I love to entrtain and cook. Growing up, we didn’t have much, but we didn’t do without. My parents were great providers.
Do you have a personal motto or life philosophy?
The World is very round. You get back what you put out. I live and die by that motto.
What is your publishing background?
From a fairly young age, around age 10 or 11, I had always wanted to work in publishing, especially in news publishing. I wanted to be a journalist but quickly discovered in college that my skill set was better suited for the marketing and advertising side. I started my publishing background with a community newspaper called the Northeast News, in Historic Northeast Kansas City, Mo., then moved up to The Kansas City Star for more than 18 years.
What is your favorite DKC issue?
It’s always the next issue coming up! As a team, we are always trying to push the envelope and improve. The features continue to get better and better! However, if I had to choose one that has already been published, it would be Summer 2022. I love the cover and the trend-setting articles!
What is your home’s design style?
A mess—ha, just kidding…kind of. It is a mix of a farmhouse and a lodge. The focal point is the living room fireplace that extends up in a vaulted ceiling. My wife handles the interior of the home; the exterior is where I rock—literally, I love landscape rocks. The front exterior has a Cape Cod-style landscape—think Table Rock Lake/Ozark mountains campfire feel. My jam is outdoors!
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
In front of the fireplace or in the backyard around the fire pit near our water fountain. I love water, earth and fire.
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
A 1.5- story timber home in the woods near a lake—Lake Tahoe, perhaps?
If you could make your current home better, what would you do?
Add an addition to expand our dining room for hosting dinner parties. And a bigger walk-in closet for my wife.
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
I grew up in the best home and best floor plan ever, in my ever-so-humble opinion. It was a 1.5-story home with a finished basement in DeSoto, Kansas! It had a wraparound porch, an attic fan, and killer entertainment in the basement for 1990s standards! It was great.
Do you have a personal motto or life philosophy?
Motto: Do your best at whatever you do, don’t sweat the small things, and all things are small things. Life philosophy: The Lord God is sovereign and in control—let go, surrender your life to Him and allow Him to work in your life.
What is your publishing background?
Being a housing geek comes naturally to me because of my background in publications involved in the housing and design industry. I’ve been with Kansas City Homes & Gardens and RELO Magazine—and for many years, as a staff vice president of the Home Builders Association, one of my responsibilities included the design, editorial, implementation and sales of the two Parade of Homes guidebooks that the association produced each year.
What is your favorite DKC issue?
I fell in love with designKC two years before we started publishing it, and each time a new issue comes, I’d say that the new issue is my favorite!
What is your home’s design style?
Having grown up with antiques, I still like the clean lines of American antiques, but I love the eclectic touches that I continue to find for my home.
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
As the weather gets nicer, my favorite place is reading on the patio while my dog sleeps.
Are there any home goods you can’t live without?
I love to cook, but like so many of us, I need to rely on shortcuts, so in my kitchen I need my slow cooker and my food processor. While they’re just basic, I save so much time when I cook and couldn’t live without them.
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
A beachfront home somewhere in Florida. While my style in Kansas City is an eclectic mix of American antiques and new, the home on the beach would be very beachy, light and open.
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
My favorite memory of home was the end of each day when our family of four would have dinner and share our stories from our day’s experiences. When I was in high school, my mom went to work as a designer, and the world of design became part of our family and the conversation around the dinner table.
Do you have a personal motto or life philosophy?
“Never assume anything except possibly a two percent loan!”
What is your publishing background?
None! My background was as a lead dental assistant for more than 20 years. This has been an exciting and fun journey for me.
What is your favorite DKC issue?
That’s too hard to answer as they’re all wonderful.
Which of our features have resonated most with you?
I would have to say there are two: “Home or Museum” in Winter 2021 and “Captivating Mix” in Fall 2021.
What is your home’s design style?
I’m a simple country girl, so I love the rustic, western country feel of a home!
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
Outside, anytime I can, relaxing on my deck or playing in the dirt—I love to garden. Or in my craft room, creating pyrography art (the art of wood burning)—it’s my Zen me-time!
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
On acreage in the country with a Victorian-style home, featuring a big wraparound porch, and, of course, lots of farm animals, especially horses, as I love to ride! And I wouldn’t forget all my pups, goats and chickens!
If you could make your current home better, what would you do?
Remodel the primary bathroom and expand the deck to a second lower level, with a fire pit as the central attraction.
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
Our family camping lake trips. Summers at my grandmas. Swimming in the creeks. Digging for crawdads in the ditch in front of our house. Raising rabbits and chickens with my daddy.
Do you have a personal motto or life philosophy?
Motto: Faith over fear! Philosophy: You can have excuses or results, but you can not have both!
What is your publishing background?
I have always loved reading books and magazines—I got my first subscription to Architectural Digest at age 17—and knew as a kid that I wanted to be in publishing. I earned a degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Kansas in 2001. Shortly after graduating, I got my first job at Kansas City Homes & Gardens, and stayed for a decade, only leaving the position of Editor-in-Chief once my first daughter was born. I worked as a freelance writer for other local publications for the next decade while raising my girls and running a successful Airbnb on my property in KCK. When Publisher Keith Sauro called me in 2021 to launch DesignKC, I was ready for a new challenge and excited to use full creative license to create a publication—a full brand—that best represents KC from my experienced perspective.
What is your favorite DKC issue?
I think of all of them as my babies and can’t choose one over the other! Whatever the next one is always excites me the most.
Which of our features have resonated most with you?
Everything in these pages resonates with me on some level! No matter the topic or design style, I most appreciate stories where homeowners are true to themselves and create just-right homes that express their personalities and make for a beautiful and functional life.
What is your home’s design style?
I live in a 1922 bungalow and also own a twin 1933 bungalow next door that we rent out as an Airbnb on 18 acres near The Legends. Both houses have similarities in floor plan, but mine is more modern and cluttered with family life; our inn has mid-century modern influences and feels more like a retreat, as we designed it exclusively for guests.
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
I am a homebody who loves to putter around the house in my slippers. We often leave the doors wide open and transition between indoors and outdoors often and easily during good weather. I love to lounge in the hammock on the back deck with a book and a glass of wine, watching the sunset from our clear view of the horizon line and sometimes getting out our hefty telescope to ponder the moon and stars.
Are there any home goods you can’t live without?
A hand vac for the debris that blows in from said doors being open all the time and the shed fur from our four cats.
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
As a lifelong Kansan, it’s hard to imagine living anywhere else. I love to travel and I love the easy access to anywhere that living in the middle provides. I am definitely happy at the bay of a beach or cozied up among the pines in the mountains, and I feel a strong pull toward the Southwest. No matter where I live, I don’t need a large house, just a functional one, somewhat minimal, with only the things and people I love most in it.
If you could make your current home better, what would you do?
Add a primary suite and give my girls each their own bedroom and bathroom—it’s getting tight in here!
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
My parents made a hobby of moving or building houses every few years, so I grew up with constant change—always picking new floor plans and tile, visiting job sites and refreshing my own room. It was fun to always have a project! And that experience was where my love for home design blossomed and embedded itself into my soul to this day.
What is your publishing background?
I have been doing graphic design for nearly 25 years. I had my own business for 11 years working on websites, graphic design and publications. I have published countless magazines and periodicals over the years.
What is your favorite DKC issue?
The first issue. It was the culmination of a vision, dedication and a lot of hard work. It is great to work with a group of passionate people all pulling together in the same direction. We strive to make each issue better than the last and have fun while we are doing it.
Which of our features have resonated most with you?
Not a feature, but I loved “The City Farm Girl” featuring chicken foot stools in our Creative Type department in Summer 2022. I just loved those things.
What is your home’s design style?
“Country Comfy.” Is that a style? I like for people to walk in and feel cozy and right at home when they are at our home.
Where and how do you like to spend time at home?
Outside. I love to be outside as much as possible since I spend the majority of time in my office.
Are there any home goods you can’t live without?
A coffee maker. I love to start my day with a good cup of coffee.
If you could live anywhere, where and what would your dream home be?
I would love to have land overlooking a lake, pond or stream where I could fish anytime I want. Also, there needs to be trees and nature—kind of where we are now.
If you could make your current home better, what would you do?
Recreate our downstairs living area. I would love to take out the wall in our kitchen and open it up to our living room so we could have a friendlier space to entertain. Probably the bedroom and bath area, too.
What are your best memories of home when growing up?
I grew up having my grandparents as our next-door neighbors. Their front door was always open, and aunts, uncles and cousins were always stopping by. Also, the land we had was great—it was about five acres of mountain terrain and a boy’s paradise.
Do you have a personal motto or life philosophy?
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
