Our work

Before,
and after.

Three completed renovations in Santa Cruz County, shown the honest way — what the room was, and what it became. Designed by Jennifer and team.

Jennifer has been designing homes in this county since 2016. What follows is a portion of that work, with the dates and timelines it actually took.

Further down are design concepts: the direction we work toward on remodels, kitchens and baths, and ADUs. Those are drawings of intent, not finished projects, and they are labelled that way.

Seacliff, California · Kitchen · 12 weeks · 2025 · Designed by Jennifer and team

The wall that
hid the ocean.

The client wanted a closed-off kitchen opened up, and the ocean view the layout had been hiding handed back. Taking down the wall between the kitchen and the family room made room for an island that is now the middle of the house — for cooking, for company, and for the view.

Scope of work. Removed a dividing wall and dropped ceiling to merge the kitchen with the adjacent family room · custom island built to anchor the newly combined space · full cabinetry and surface renovation · lighting design · layout reconfigured to open sightlines to the ocean.

Before

After

The renovated Seacliff kitchen: navy cabinetry, a walnut island with brass pulls, honed quartzite counters and a brass pendant, with sliding doors out to a deck.

Materials & finishes

Sherwin-Williams Naval

Cabinetry

A honed Taj Mahal quartzite sample, cream with soft grey veining.

Seacliff, California · Living room, same house · 4 weeks · 2025 · Designed by Jennifer and team

A focal point
for cold nights.

The same clients asked for somewhere the room could gather around on a chilly beach night, and more seating for when the house is full. They wanted the living room to read as part of the kitchen and dining areas rather than a room shut off from them.

Scope of work. Custom framing built out for the electric fireplace · floating shelves and built-in benches either side for extra seating · hidden storage in the benches · low solid walls between living room, kitchen and dining replaced with glass and wood railings, and unnecessary columns removed.

Before

After

The renovated living room: a black electric fireplace framed in white with floating shelves either side, woven wall discs, navy armchairs and a pale sofa.

A pale sofa and round walnut coffee table in the renovated living room, with glass and wood railings opening through to the kitchen. — Railings in place of the solid walls

Pajaro Dunes, California · Whole home · 2023 · Designed by Jennifer and team

Six fireplaces
and a dome.

A speculative renovation, taken to move-in ready. Working closely with the owner-builder, finish selections were made across every room so surfaces, textures and materials worked together — around the home's handcrafted wood detailing, its six fireplaces and its spa-like appointments. Custom upholstered pieces were designed and fabricated for the house, scaled to its very unusual architecture.

Scope of work. Finish selections throughout, with the owner-builder · custom upholstered furniture designed and fabricated for each space · wood detailing, fireplace finishes and spa-like appointments coordinated into one aesthetic · five bedrooms, two ensuite, reimagined with custom fireplaces · staged and finished as a fully furnished home.

Before

After

The renovated geodome kitchen: a marble waterfall counter, walnut cladding, black tapware and a linear fireplace beneath the faceted white dome ceiling.

Before

After

A geodome bedroom after renovation: green bedding, a dark slatted timber wall and a linear fireplace. — Bedroom, one of five

Design concepts

What we
design toward.

Below this line are concepts, not completed projects. They show the standard we hold and the way we think a Santa Cruz home should feel — warm, quiet, and built out of materials that get better as they age.

Every one of these decisions — the light, the plan, the materials, how a room meets the outdoors — is one we make with you, priced as it is drawn.

01 / Whole-home remodels

Changing how a house lives.

Much of this county's housing stock was built decades ago — beach cottages, mid-century tracts, mountain cabins that quietly became full-time homes. Small dark rooms, no relationship to the yard, and systems that are past due.

A whole-home remodel is rarely about finishes. It is about removing the walls that stopped making sense, getting light into the middle of the plan, and connecting the living space to the outdoors, which is the entire reason people live here. It is also where design and construction are most entangled, and where an integrated team saves the most money.

02 / Kitchens & baths

The rooms you use every day.

Our bias: spend on the things you cannot change later. Layout, light, ceiling height, where the window goes, how the counter meets the cabinet. Hardware can be swapped. A badly placed sink cannot.

We work in materials that are honest about aging — honed stone, rift-sawn oak, unlacquered brass that darkens with use rather than pretending it never happened.

03 / ADUs

Income, family, flexibility.

An accessory dwelling unit is probably the strongest thing you can add to a Santa Cruz property right now. Rental income in a market with almost none. A place for a parent, or a kid who wants to stay in the county they grew up in.

It is also the project most likely to die on a technicality. Slope, septic capacity, panel size, access for a concrete truck, protected trees. Those facts decide whether an ADU pencils, and they should be found in week one, not month nine. We start every ADU conversation with feasibility, not design.

Read: what an ADU really costs here