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Unique Small Bathroom Remodel Ideas

Unique Small Bathroom Remodel Ideas

The powder room, the guest bath, the half bath, whatever you choose to call it; these small bathrooms are some of our absolute favorite rooms to create and remodel! Guest bathrooms are the perfect example of packing a punch in a small space with endless opportunities for distinctive design elements that show off your personality (and, not to mention, impress your guests!). Here are a handful of unique small bathroom remodel ideas to get your wheels turning when dreaming up your next renovation: 

A Chicago Kitchen Renovation: Old World Meets New

A Chicago Kitchen Renovation: Old World Meets New

Have you heard the phrase “go big or go home?” That phrase encapsulates how we feel about doing a Chicago kitchen renovation. The kitchen is the heart of the home and deserves to be treated as such, so a kitchen remodel is your opportunity to really pull out all the stops! Spiffing up the kitchen not only simplifies hosting and increases your home’s value, but it also provides more opportunities for connection with your family during everyday life. When the kitchen is a pleasant place to be, your family will naturally gravitate there and can create bonding experiences around cooking or just gabbing at the kitchen table. 

How to Preserve Character During a Home Remodel

How to Preserve Character During a Home Remodel

We’ve all seen it: that person who pours a ton of time and energy into completely gutting and renovating an old home, and in the end, it all turns out a bit…vanilla. Sure, they have the fanciest kitchen gadgets and everything looks crisp and clean, but when there’s nothing to capture your eye and attention it all turns out a bit boring! Our modern-day society tends to be all about the latest and greatest, but there’s something to be said for also prioritizing and preserving character during a remodel. By highlighting your home’s distinctive features, you’ll end up with a unique home design that’s sure to capture your guests’ attention and feels more like “home”! 

How to Create a Home Designed for Entertaining

How to Create a Home Designed for Entertaining

If you love hosting parties or family gatherings, you know how the space you’re in can make or break your hosting experience. From a home’s layout to its features to even its finishes, there are so many factors that can either make hosting a breeze or a downright struggle. So, how do you create a home that’s the ultimate entertaining hub? Here are our top recommendations to consider when building or renovating to create a home designed for entertaining.

Journey of a Chicago Home Renovation

When it comes to Chicago home renovation, there’s a lot more to the story than just tearing down walls and fitting new finishes. Chicago is a city that is wonderfully rich with history, which adds a layer of complexity in the world of home construction: historic and landmarked buildings.

Seeing as there aren’t many empty lots to build on in our area, we often work with existing structures to do large-scale home renovations and give outdated homes a major facelift. When that existing structure has been deemed an official landmarked building, there are several more hoops to jump through and rules to abide by during the renovation process. 

Landscape Irrigation and City Gardens

Landscape Irrigation and City Gardens

An urban garden softens the sometimes harshness of the concrete neighborhoods inherent with living in the city. They become an oasis off the street for many homeowners and outdoor living is trending very high in real estate – making it a must have for an urban lifestyle. Middlefork wants to impart our wisdom on what to be aware of, how to assess your space logically and creatively, and how to maintain it easily through landscape irrigation.

Living in the Lincoln Park Neighborhood

Living in the Lincoln Park Neighborhood

“Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated or shut in a small space with nothing to do for an extended period.”

Living in a colder climate Chicagoans relate to “cabin fever”. The weather teases us at this time of the year with promises of warmer, sunnier days and they are right around the corner. In this article, we want to highlight living in Lincoln Park – one of our favorite Chicago neighborhoods! Because we have built and sold many homes in the area, we like to support local businesses and ideas but fear not, you don’t have to live in the area to take advantage of all that living in Lincoln Park has to offer…

With longer daylight hours and the retirement of the parka, Chicagoans are chomping at the bit to go out and have fun – and the much needed dose of vitamin D is welcomed. The top 5 are on our minds and we hope you enjoy these as much as we do. Without much further ado –  number one on our list of favorite things about spring, happy people!

Stone Countertops and Sealing Them

Stone Countertops and Sealing Them

The Last Countertop You’ll Ever Own

Who doesn’t love a huge slab of white stone on an island?  Clean, crisp and classic.  But when selecting a countertop material, all of us are focused on questions like: Will it stain?  Will it etch?  What kind of maintenance does it require?

The answers to these questions varies, depending on the type of material selected.  Every species of stone is different and the same organic properties that make them beautiful also cause different answers. Marble is the softest of all stones – easily stains and etches. Quartzite is more resilient, but still needs to be treated with care.  Granite is the toughest, but doesn’t come in pure white.

Selecting Custom Home Lighting

Selecting Custom Home Lighting

Light it Up!

First impressions matter… Have you ever entered a room and felt an immediate sense of warmth and comfort? What made you feel that way? Perhaps it’s the lighting – creating the “atmosphere” in a space is just as important as the lamp choice you make for the room. Think of lighting as self-expression.