However, it isn’t difficult to create a spa-like atmosphere in your own home. A basket of plush towels rolled up, bath salts, a tropical scented lotion and some candles channels the spa experience. Don’t forget the fluffy robe and slippers.

“I think of Mother’s Day as a day for mothers to take a break, relax,” says Feinmann designer Kate Yurgelun. “I’ve given my mother gifts of spa treatments and bubble bath… I wish I could give her a Jacuzzi tub or steam shower instead.”

Nothing beats a luxurious bathroom where mom can escape into the bathtub or shower fitted with state-of-the-art showerheads and sprayers. Planning a renovation soon? Make up a gift certificate for your own home spa, grand opening next Mother’s Day!

If your mom is an interior design fan, give her a subscription to one of her favorite shelter magazines like Design New England or Dwell. Or maybe an iPad with the Houzz app. She’ll find beautiful and inspiring photos of home design projects. Travel magazines and books make great gifts as well. We love Travel & Leisure and Afar.

Of course you can’t go wrong with the traditional stand-bys of flowers, homemade cards and macaroni necklaces.

Creating elegant, functional bathrooms is a staple of Feinmann’s design work. This beautiful Arlington Master Bath has garnered other accolades as well, including a 2011 PRISM award and is published in the May/June edition of Design New England. Feinmann has won several Chrysalis Awards, most recently in 2011 for a kitchen renovation in a Newton home.

“This company has won 7 Chrysalis Awards in the past 8 years, demonstrating their ongoing commitment to professionalism and excellence,” says Ken Kanline, Director of the Awards.

Continuing to set new standards of professionalism, remodeling companies from across the United States will be named winners at the nineteenth annual Chrysalis Awards for Remodeling Excellence. The winning projects were selected from more than 400 entries. The entries were judged on overall design, the creative use of space and materials, and the degree to which the project enhanced the original structure.

The award winning project was created when the owners decided to add a master bath for themselves and provide a more practical family bath for their children. The challenge for the Feinmann team was how to find a way to design both a master and a family bath out of the existing family bath, master bath and an adjacent closet. Furthermore, the team needed to create a space that had the sensibility and sophistication to match the Master Bedroom Suite.

Working with the original floor plans of the 1886 Victorian home, the skilled Feinmann team reconfigured the space to achieve the desired solution. The Master bath design included cabinetry and arched doorways that create the sense of separate and distinct rooms for the toilet, shower and sink area, while maintaining and openness to create the feeling of a larger space. The sink cabinetry was designed as a free-standing furniture piece which also enhances the sense of openness and larger scale.

“We enjoyed working with Feinmann. We were especially happy with the high quality of their work; everything was done right and beautifully finished. We also appreciated their efforts to make the construction process as easy and least disruptive to our family as possible, which was important because we were living in the house while the work was being done. We would not hesitate to use Feinmann again,” said the clients.

About the Chrysalis Awards program

The Chrysalis Awards program, begun in 1994, recognizes the nation’s best work in sixteen general categories of residential and commercial remodeling. The Chrysalis Awards are open to any professional remodeler and design professional in the United States. Pictures of the 2011 award-winning projects can be seen on the Chrysalis website beginning in mid June. For more information about the Chrysalis Awards, contact Ken Kanline at 888-263-5687 or at info@chrysalisawards.com.

Ceilings are often the forgotten element in home renovations but they need not be. “Just as decorative woodwork like molding and wainscoting can enhance a simple room design, so can a tray or coffered ceiling,” says Feinmann Project Manager Chris Tobin. Think of your ceiling as a canvas – an architectural element that shows off your creativity. Here are five architectural ceiling ideas to encourage you to look upward.

1)   Coffered: Intersecting beams create the coffered effect. They can be square, rectangular, diamond or oval shaped.

2)   Tray: This ceiling treatment creates dimension using different planes. It works great with hidden perimeter LED strip lighting creating a glow on the ceiling.  It looks lovely in a dining or living room.

3)  Exposed beams: Whether showing the aged beams like in our kitchen remodel below – or boxing them to make the room feel more formal – exposed beams combine the architectural with the decorative.

4)  Plank: Beadboard on the ceiling? Sure. Moldings and paneling are another great way to create dimension and the illusion of a larger or smaller space.

5)   Soffits: In the photos below, “the soffit is used to play off the tray ceiling and further define the TV area from the table area beneath the tray ceiling. It also grounds the cabinetry, making a transition to the sloped cathedral ceiling above,” Feinmann architect Kert Heinecke explains. In the kitchen photo, the soffit defines the kitchen and gives it a feeling of greater height by accenting the raised central portion of the ceiling. By creating a soffit over the peninsula, the pendant lights have a place to reside rather than just floating in the middle of nowhere if the ceiling were flat. Finally, the soffit provides visual texture as well as a way to keep the kitchen and dining area connected while creating some kind of separation.

No matter what ceiling treatment you choose, lie back and look up awhile. Inspiration is sure to hit. “Things really are looking up!”

An exceptional lighting fixture can bring a space to life. “Clients often want to make a dramatic statement by using a unique lighting fixture as the focal point in a room. A simple design can be enhanced with a novel fixture over a kitchen island or dining room table,” says Feinmann interior designer Kate Yurgelun. She chose three fixtures for this week’s Feinmann Finds. You can find these fabulous lighting fixtures (from left to right Adirondack, Tango and Mambo) from Corbett and Troy in a WaterSpot showroom.

For those who either don’t have the time or expertise to make repairs, Feinmann’s HomeCrew™ can handle just about any task. We perform a custom home inventory and evaluation and then provide you with a report detailing the annual maintenance we recommend for your home and any issues that might need immediate attention.

What’s on your list?

Today’s find is from senior production manager Tammy Russo. She likes Stone Forest vessel sinks in granite and stone because “people love using natural materials.” Below are the Antiqued Milano Vessel sink, Drop in Bar sink and Beveled Round vessel sink in granite.

A board member since 2007, Peter has been involved with the annual Shake-It event in Lexington and recently attended the annual New Directions fundraising luncheon. “We are proud of our association with COMPASS for kids and our contribution to this great organization, providing single parents and children the chance to leave homelessness behind them. Everyone deserves a place to call home,” Feinmann said.

Peter Feinmann and Susan Leger-Ferraro

COMPASS for kids honored Lt. Governor Tim Murray, board member Yolanda Taylor and Horizons for Homeless Children CEO Asa Fanelli with the Beacons for Homeless Families Award, held March 8^that the Wharf Room at the Boston Harbor Hotel. COMPASS for kids Advisory Board member Susan Leger-Ferraro delivered the moving keynote address, telling the story of her journey from single, teenage mother to owner of a thriving childcare company, Little Sprouts. “We have a birthright of belonging,” Leger-Ferraro said in her remarks. “There is great power in connection, connecting what is in our head to what is in our heart.” Leger-Ferraro is a living example of that and works at “manifesting consciousness, love and abundance rather than fear and scarcity.” She is a big believer in “acknowledging people’s worth and value.”

Leger-Ferraro has been recognized for literacy advancements through her work at the Literacy & Leadership Foundation and Imajine That.  She has been a great partner for COMPASS and the innovative Community College Collaborative, which provides educational opportunities and work experience for homeless parents.

The New Directions luncheon program was emceed by WHDH reporter Janet Wu and Executive Director Jodi Wilinsky Hill. Several recent participants in the COMPASS CCC program were introduced and spoke with great emotion about how they have benefitted from the organization. Without the continued support of private donors and supporters like Feinmann, COMPASS could not reach so many families in need.

“Peter Feinmann is a dedicated Board member of COMPASS for kids, providing multifaceted support for an organization that works to ensure that the least fortunate families in Massachusetts have housing, and the education, skills and support needed to maintain and thrive in that housing,” said Hill.

Scenes from New Directions luncheon

More than 350 National Kitchen & Bath Association member designers took part in the 2012 NKBA Design Trends Survey to cite the materials, product types, and styles that they’ve incorporated into their kitchen and bath designs over the final three months of 2011. While broad trends won’t be evident in every local market, the following are the top overall trends for kitchens and baths across the United States and Canada.

This Feinmann Design|Build kitchen remodel in Weston, MA shows off the 2012 NKBA trend of incorporating brown with white tones in the kitchen.

Listed below are some of the top trends:

• Cherry wood cabinetry is declining in popularity, and no single wood species is rising to take its place. Lesser-known woods such as oak, walnut and hickory are gaining market share. Demand for bamboo has doubled from 5% in 2010 to 10% in 2011. White alder holds 27% of the market, down from 40% two years ago. Dark natural finishes lead the pack at 53%, up from 48% two years ago. But medium natural finishes stand at 55%, and light natural finishes at 30%. Among painted cabinetry, white is the most popular options (59%) but the distressed look is making a comeback.

• Glass blacksplashes: More than half — 52% — of kitchen designers now use it, trailing only natural stone tile and ceramic/porcelain tile. But glass is gaining on the other materials.

• The initial higher upfront cost of LED lighting is no longer a deterrent for most consumers. Specified by 50% of NKBA kitchen designers going into 2010, that number jumped to 54% the following year and has soared to 70% over the past year. The number of consumers requesting CFLs just keeps dropping. In remodeled kitchens, it stands at 26% today.

• Pull-out faucets are replacing the standard faucet with a detached side spray. In the final three months of 2011, 14 out of 15 kitchen designers incorporated a pull-out faucet in the project. Pot filler faucets are losing their appeal, perhaps because the pull-out can do double duty.

• Whose bright ideas was it to replace medicine cabinets with decorative wall mirrors? Consumers have woken up to the fact that they lost important storage space and are demanding them back. As we enter 2012, 66% of NKBA members have incorporated this element into a bathroom design, compared with 36% last year.

• Browns and grays: Putting aside the always popular whites, gray color schemes in both kitchen and bath keeps gaining popularity. Brown is the third most popular color in the kitchen and fourth in the bathroom, right behind gray. In the kitchen, bronzes and terra cottas have risen in favor. Green is still popular in bathrooms, but blue is the new upstart color.

• Move over, brushed chrome and satin nickel, because polished chrome is back. Polished finishes are gaining more converts across the board and the other categories are sinking in popularity. Only stainless steel managed to hold its own, rising from 46% to 50% in the kitchen and increasingly significantly in the bathroom, from 16% to 28%.

Colonial Times magazine recently paid Feinmann Design|Build the nicest compliment by publishing a photo of Peter and Tammy receiving multiple awards at the Greater Boston Builders Association’s PRISM (Prestigious Results in Sales and Marketing) event.

Colonial times magazine article on our PRISM Awards

Long time partners in life and on the dance floor, they sought a home in which they could practice their craft. They asked our team to create a plan that would transform the main living area from a compartmentalized space to an open floor plan. Visions of pushing the furniture aside, turning up the music and working on their choreography in their own little ballroom fueled the final design.

Working with our client’s request for a contemporary and open space, the plan required removing the walls dividing the living and dining area from the existing kitchen. The kitchen was then relocated to the back of the home, closest to the dining area – overlooking the new deck built to wrap around a cherished hemlock tree.  Open and bright, the kitchen ‘s vaulted ceiling and skylights offer glimpses of the many tall trees lining their back yard. Modern elements like stainless steel appliances, sleek door pulls and ‘green’ cabinetry connect the kitchen to the rest of the updated open floor plan. The living area is now closer to the front of the home, where the kitchen was previously located.  An open floor plan and added length guarantees that dance routines are no longer interrupted.

We wish our clients’ many years of blissful dancing and music in their new home!