BRAD KATZ

PROJECT / DESIGN

LA-BASED home improvement & project management WITH AN EYE on DESIGN.

Thank you for your interest in Brad Katz Project/Design. Please take a look below at some of the projects I’ve helped take from concept to design… through construction to completion. If you need help getting that idea out of your head and into your home, give me a call. Or if you’re in search of an ally who can get your already perfect plans perfectly executed, let’s make it happen!

Brad 818-653-3521

projects / designs

MORE PHOTOS • ARTERBERRY COOKE ARCHITECTURE

SEE IT BEFORE WE DO IT

  • PORCH BEFORE

  • PORCH SKETCH_A

  • PORCH AFTER

  • FOYER BEFORE

  • FOYER SKETCH_A

  • FOYER SKETCH_B

  • FOYER AFTER

  • LIVINGROOM BEFORE

  • LIVINGROOM SKETCH_A

  • LIVIVNGROOM SKETCH_B

  • LIVINGROOM AFTER

  • exterior upgrade BEFORE

  • exterior upgrade SKETCH_A

  • exterior upgrade SKETCH_B

  • exterior upgrade SKETCH_C

  • girls room before

  • girls room sketch_A

  • girls room SKETCH_B

  • girls room after

  • familyroom back wall plans

  • familyroom back wall SKETCH_a

  • familyroom back wall after

  • pergola before

  • pergola sketch_A

  • pergola after

  • FEATURE WALL BEFORE

  • FEATURE WALL BLUE

  • FEATURE WALL GREEN

  • feature wall terracota

  • FEATURE WALL AFTER

  • BEAM LIGHTING BEFORE

  • BEAM LIGHTING SKETCH_A

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PROJECT / DESIGN bloG

Stuff that I’ve done. Things I can do for you. Other stuff and things…

The first project up is very near and dear to me - the renovation and addition to our 1926 Eagle Rock, California home. My wife Rachel and I acted as our own interior designers and I was essentially self contracting once the foundation and framing were completed. Here’s a little peek into how our open floor plan living / dining / kitchen spaces came together.

We were on a very tight budget and had a whole lot to do. As much as we would have loved to have had teams of world class artisans and designers running all over the place, it was up to us to design with frugality in mind. Everything we dreamed up had to be accomplished economically, ideally by handymen using off the shelf materials. Ikea hacks and DIY videos were more commonly employed than skilled tradespeople.

One example is the family room arch. We wanted a prominent bookshelf to oppose the prominent TV on the other side of the room (“See, we actually do occasionally read sometimes”) but we also needed closed storage for AV equipment, home tech, games, etc. Were money no object we would have hired master carpenters to build us something befitting a midcentury law library. Instead we came up with this quirky, high bang-for-your-buck design that called for little more than standard framing, drywall, and paint.

The doors are custom, but made by us, constructed of simple wood trim pieces. The woven cane-look inserts are speaker cabinet fabric from Amazon. The oak and brass door pulls I found on Etsy. The results look high end, while doing their job of allowing airflow to the AV equipment hidden inside, and the cost was far below that of custom cabinetry.

For our kitchen, we searched many months before discovering the unusual Mediterranean design below. Clean and modern, yet handmade and rustic looking, it was perfect for our chosen Spanish modern boho vibe. More importantly its earthen, almost adobe-like appearance suggested perhaps it could be done relatively cheaply.

After a few weeks of detective work, I finally discovered the modern solution to this old-world Mediterranean kitchen: a hi-tech ultra-durable plastered-on product called “microcement”. Most commonly used in Europe for faux cement walls and floors, I found few examples of these “Ibiza style” kitchens online, and zero evidence of any ever being done in the U.S. But with keyword “microcement” in hand, I was able to find a couple videos from industrious Europeans DIYers. It wasn’t much but it was enough to feel confident we could also do it ourselves.

Our (hopefully) high end custom kitchen would be little more than a rough framing job, built with 2x4s and cement board. Only the white microcement finish and the inset wood cabinetry would require calling in the craftspeople and cabinetmakers with their predictably pricy materials and labor.

But with minimal finish carpentry, no need for other countertops or backsplashes or their fabrication or installation, we ultimately achieved a truly unique, fully custom kitchen at a fraction of the typical cost.

The dining area console was the very last project of our entire renovation and we had reached the end of our finances. The custom hardwood cabinetry we had imagined with doors and drawers was now out of reach. Had we not run cables externally assuming they’d get covered up later we could have lived without one, but we had to something…

I came up with the idea to DIY something similar to this media console. I could frame it with 2x4s, slap slatted panels on the front, and top it with a wood slab. Easy peasy. But I found the slats and hardwood were not as budget friendly as I’d have liked. Also in the final analysis the wood top wasn’t ideal; we wanted a surface to put plants and hot dishes from the kitchen without worry of things like rings or burns. I remembered our architect’s portfolio offered up some really cool and unusual natural stone countertops.

I was a big fan of this new breed of bold and beautiful natural stone being used in designer kitchens and bathrooms as of late - maybe this was a chance to get some of that into our reno before it was all over? I went looking for more of these countertops - but found something even more bolder… even more beautifuller…

The wood slats were out and the monolithic block of natural stone was in. But while these stone plinth coffee tables and kitchen islands are certainly beautiful, they certainly ain’t cheap. Luckily we had a couple things going for us - one, we needed just 2 pieces to achieve the look instead of the typical 5; and two, I had found a stone yard with tons of bargain countertop remnants on the lot. We chose this gorgeous slab at a great price and I went home and built a simple wood structure.

A few days later they installed our funky stone monolith dining room console. It was a last minute Hail Mary that turned out to be one of our and our guests favorite features.

Every project comes together at this crossroads of desire, budget, and design. Meet me here and let’s get your project moving forward today! - Brad Katz 818-653-3521

Below is my initial sketch of the open floor plan’s east wall - it came out pretty close! It’s amazing to see your ideas turn into reality, I hope I can do it for you some fine day…