Media Center
Grand Award Winner

Brief explanation of the project including scope and retail price

The initial desire of this couple was to take a number of smaller rooms on their first floor and merge them into one larger media space which also would work as a family room and enable better first floor flow. This involved taking an existing porch and opening it up to the dining room and to an existing bedroom and removing an existing first floor bathroom to combine them all into one larger space. This room with its budget of $100,000 was designed to fit in nicely with the brick vernacular architecture of upper Northwest DC.

Unusual constraints or challenges and Creative solutions to the challenges

There were a number of bearing walls which needed to be removed with attending supporting beams. Even though we used the existing porch, it was in poor condition and needed to be completely rebuilt.

To really tie the space together a cove lighting design element was introduced into a tray ceiling utilizing rope lighting. As the most unique element which would fit within their budget, it anticipates the theater experience.

Compared to someone with the space and budget for a dedicated media room, these clients needed a space which served many functions and this was the chief challenge for their project.

Overall results of the project

The room needed to serve his need for a large screen television viewing experience and audiophile listening experience; it needed to serve her function as a family room; it also needed to serve as an extension of a kitchen as a bar area. Visually it needed to open up the home to back yard and the back deck. It serves all of these functions gracefully. The whole room is wired for a carefully designed home visual/audio experience. The homeowners told us they never used the back of their house before and now it creates a nice flow from the kitchen and dining room and it is used every day.