Ohashi Design Studio

Aug 2013

The owners of this hillside home had started making improvements to the street façade and wanted the design theme carried throughout the upper floor interior space. Entering the home, new floors, stair railing, lighting and a slender opening to the kitchen gives a sense of what is beyond. Open to the living room, the new dining room has a close relationship to the kitchen with the family room fireplace, which is on axis with the dining table and kitchen skylight. Many colors and materials went into the kitchen design composition including two colors of cabinets, thin quartz counter tops, glass tile backsplashes and dark wood floors. Unique owner requests included a breakfast cabinet holding the toaster and other morning items and equipment, and a pantry with a wall-colored sliding door. The island drops down to an attached breakfast table and from the garage you can sit and change your shoes with a bench seat hollowed out within a cabinet.

San Mateo, CA

Jan 2013

This project is a careful remodel of a 3,000 square foot home in Menlo Park that had a quirky makeover done by a prior owner, which involved inward angled walls, a circular window and shingle siding. Due to a strict budget, we decided to keep the shingles, clean up the exterior elements-with the major change being a new trellis over the garage door, and push the entry forward to enlarge the existing cramped entry hallway. The new entry is a two-story light filled volume with glass and views to the backyard. A simple straight run of steel and maple stairs invites you up, or cantilevered shelves draws you into the living and family rooms. The master bathroom was cosmetically facelifted with new tile, cabinets and shower enclosure. In the rear yard the existing pool received a new travertine paver surround with simple fence hiding pool service equipment.

Menlo Park, CA

Aug 2012

The owners of a single-story, 1920's-1,800 square foot, two-bedroom one-bath home suddenly found themselves out of space with three young children. Loving the neighborhood and never planning to move, an extensive remodel with second-story addition gave them a four-bedroom, three-bath two-story new home of their dreams in 2,700 square feet. Being very environmentally-conscious they did not want ducts or air conditioning and opted for hydronic radiant heated floors, natural air circulation with many operable windows providing cross-ventilation, and on-demand hot water heating. San Mateo's planning rules mandated a design friendly to the traditionally-styled neighborhood, not allowing flat or metal roofs. The response is a design solution that is now viewed by the city as a prime example of how to meld contemporary design into a traditional community. This family plays and works hard together. The father is a professional chef and has gourmet kitchens inside and out. The living room becomes the entertainment center with television and high-end surround sound systems. Instead of a family room there is a study center area with four computer workstations for homework. Off the master bedroom is a hot tub and outdoor dining area with fireplace and overhead lighting.

San Mateo, CA

Sep 2011

Sitting on top of a hill in Tiburon with great views of the S.F. Bay this 3,500 square foot home was re-skinned with new heavy-duty aluminum windows and doors, roof, natural cedar siding and stucco exterior walls. An existing wood deck on columns was re-designed into a more solid cedar clad box enclosure with custom glass and stainless steel railings, and it was expanded in size to the limit allowed by the setback rules to wrap around the entire house linking the living room to the backyard. The house appears to be two volumes joined together by a linking element, the front entry. The proportions of cedar to stucco and the clean silver aluminum windows make the overall composition light and airy. New basalt paving and cedar-clad pavers gives a nice visual flow to the entry then you enter the living room with new windows that frame the views. Both husband and wife like to cook together and the kitchen was set up to accommodate working on either side of a shared island. The island end is a big cantilever of steel reinforced stone for bar seating, and the views from the island to the Bay are dramatic. The new wrap around deck completes the indoor/outdoor living concept.

Tiburon, CA

Jul 2010

An existing 3,000 square foot traditional home that had some new remodels completed previously, the goal was to create a new second floor addition consisting of two bedrooms with shared bath above a remodeled entry, dining and living room area. The concept was to not touch the wings of the home on either side of this area for cost reasons and to add drama and scale to the previously bland front entry and curb appearance. The new second story gave the opportunity to raise the ceiling height of the spaces below it, so the entry, dining and living rooms went from eight-foot ceilings to ten. A two-story entry atrium was created with cantilevered steel and glass stair climbing up to a glass floored walkway to the bedrooms above. Deck terraces were created in front viewing the street and to the rear facing the backyard. The dark and dated entry has become a light-filled glass box with beautiful views of the landscaping, trees and surrounding neighborhood.

Menlo Park, CA

Apr 2010

Common in San Francisco this Eureka Valley complex of a front multi-unit building on the same lot as a small Victorian at the rear, all one property, sharing a central courtyard. The client wanted to convert the 2-unit rear Victorian into a guest home for his family when visiting from overseas. San Francisco would allow the project to proceed only if the Victorian's exterior and 1,800 square foot, three-story configuration were unchanged. Added was a new three-story stair structure that connected all floors together, designed in a modern contemporary style. The interior of the house was gutted, floor levels adjusted to provide adequate head height on all floors ending up with three-bedrooms, two and a half baths in a tight footprint. The possibility of using a wheelchair for elderly parents was maintained with a concrete ramped courtyard designed around existing mature trees, and inside Universal Design details such as handicap accessible bathtubs and vanities were employed

San Francisco, CA

May 2008

Located at the border between Oakland and Piedmont an interesting street, more like an alley, winds through the rolling hillside and without sidewalks each home directly abuts the street. To give the house more street appeal and buffering, a new double-sided ipe wall was built of horizontal planks with other walls utilizing sandblasted glass for light and to maintain privacy were all designed around a serpentine Oak tree. The new decks wrap around the entire house and on the far side where the hill drops off sharply, great views of the Bay are revealed. Slate paving, new cable rail stairs, Zen-like black rock fountain, controlled exterior lighting, tree branch support and well-placed house numbers complete the effect. The house sits in a picturesque and enclosed setting in total privacy.

Oakland, CA

Jun 2006

The project started off as a 1960's ranch-style home, single-story, 2,500 square feet with Swiss chalet details and trim. The plan was to open the rooms to the view of the Bay from the rear, create a soaring living room with dining and kitchen area more open to entertaining and bring the whole house up to a modern, contemporary level with the use of many materials including several woods, concrete, stone, standing seam metal roof. New systems were designed including a thin-film solar laminate photo-voltaic electrical system, on-demand recirculating hot water system and radiant heated floors. Finer details included showers without thresholds with water flowing to flush strip drains, new aluminum windows, interior red cedar walls with built-in walnut cabinets, stained Canadian tight-knot white cedar and stucco exterior walls. A 600 square foot new deck terrace provides a level outdoor space with gorgeous views of the Bay.

El Cerrito, CA

Jun 2000

The owner purchased an aging three-story, 3,000 square foot, two-unit apartment building in the Upper Market Street area of San Francisco. The bones of the structure were good and the request was to meld the two upper units into one space to become a single-family home. The basic shape of the building remained un-changed, but new aluminum doors and cable railing gave the structure the San Francisco styled live/work loft that was desired. A new stair goes from the street to the main entry space on the second floor, the first floor consisting of parking. The new entry atrium is two stories of air and light traversed via a glass catwalk and capped by a large skylight. The ceilings were raised to the maximum allowable and eight-foot tall doors and windows bring in sun and views. A new freestanding fireplace anchors the living room while large French doors frame the sitting room at the other end of the catwalk bridge. The master bath was made more compact by stowing the sauna within the new steam shower keeping all the wet elements behind glass

San Francisco, CA