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    Long-time clients approached interior designer Nancy Barrett of Beautiful Rooms in early 2015 about renovating their dated kitchen and expanding its size by knocking down a wall and adjoining the space with an attached sunroom. "The overall goals were to open up the space and brighten up the kitchen," the homeowner explains. "My previous kitchen had dark cabinets, and while working I couldn't see outside unless I was standing at the sink. I wanted to bring the outdoors in."

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    For Kim Sieli and her husband, Mark, renovating the kitchen was both an absolute priority and a slow-going—albeit deliberate—process. “I used to work in the emergency room, and with my patients, finding a solution was immediate,” Kim explains, “but for some reason the color choices and the palette being open just gave me…anxiety. A lot of anxiety.”

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    While there were plenty of doors and windows built into its original layout, this retro two-story house was always dark. When he was ready to revive his outdated kitchen, the homeowner initiated a major remodel by eliminating features that obstructed natural light: Old-school sliding patio doors – the kind with light-diffusing screens – were swapped for clear-panel French doors, and windows with between-the-glass blinds were replaced with sleeker double-hung models.

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    After more than a quarter century in their Webster Groves home, empty-nesters Anne and Karl Dunajcik were ready to freshen up spaces that had scarcely been altered since the Clinton Administration—a time when light, bright and airy weren’t necessarily high on the design aesthetics checklist.

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    When Elaine Herbst moved into her Eureka home two years ago, she looked forward to downsizing from the sprawling home and 3-acre lot she’d maintained before. But with an aging cedar deck threatening to thwart her move, she put a redesigned outdoor space at the top of her priority list. The result is a safe and functional deck and porch that effectively expand her living space into the great wide open.

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    Christa and Dave Guilbeault’s home was roof-to-foundation traditional when mother-and-daughter design team Shirley Strom and Katie Marvin of S&K Interiors first set eyes on it last spring. And then the Glen Carbon, IL, couple proposed a lower-level redesign that was right up the designers’ alley.

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