19 Stories of Unusual Remodeling Requests and Odd Situations
Pros share lighthearted — and sometimes cringey — tales of homeowners with preferences that are anything but ordinary
Design and remodeling pros help homeowners create spaces that reflect their personalities. But because there are multitudes of personalities out there, some pros inevitably encounter unusual homeowners with quirky or downright odd remodeling requests. To show a little of the strange currents moving through the design world, we gathered a few examples from pros with stories of head-scratching situations. Their tales do not disappoint.
Rare Requests
Many designers consider the client the boss. And sometimes, when all attempts fail at persuading a client that a particular design feature isn’t a good idea, the designer decides to go with the flow.
Kate Moore of Kimball Modern Design + Interiors encountered clients who must really like staying hydrated. “They requested CamelBak-style tubes coming from the wall by their bed so they could drink water at night without lifting their head up,” Moore says.
For designer Linda Sasson, the odd request wasn’t even entirely for a living creature. “My most unusual design request — apart from the usual bachelor with the mirrored ceiling — was from a middle-aged woman who was redoing her bedroom,” Sasson says. “There was a separate vanity and dressing area and she wanted me to design bookcases and shelving that would allow her to display her doll collection but which would also fit into the decor of the room. In addition, she had a nearby walk-in closet in which she wanted me to design a space for hanging and displaying her doll’s dresses and clothing right next to her own hanging dresses and clothing. It was quite a challenge designing these miniature spaces to match her full-size decor.”
One of the most unusual requests for Marissa Houston of CKF came from a client who tasked her with remodeling a closet with 11-foot ceilings and a large window. “She wanted to take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling and wanted us to cover the window with the closet units,” Houston says. “Then she complained that she couldn’t reach the items at the top of her 11-foot-tall closet.” The large walk-in closet shown here by Workshop/APD has a ladder-and-rail system that allows access to items stored in higher cabinet areas.
Inappropriate Inquiries
Designer Sarah Gallop has had her share of curious requests. “Many years ago I had a single male client who asked me to ensure he had a ‘very sturdy’ dining room table, and was alluding to it needing to be able to hold a woman’s body weight for some extracurricular activities,” she says.
Many designers consider the client the boss. And sometimes, when all attempts fail at persuading a client that a particular design feature isn’t a good idea, the designer decides to go with the flow.
Kate Moore of Kimball Modern Design + Interiors encountered clients who must really like staying hydrated. “They requested CamelBak-style tubes coming from the wall by their bed so they could drink water at night without lifting their head up,” Moore says.
For designer Linda Sasson, the odd request wasn’t even entirely for a living creature. “My most unusual design request — apart from the usual bachelor with the mirrored ceiling — was from a middle-aged woman who was redoing her bedroom,” Sasson says. “There was a separate vanity and dressing area and she wanted me to design bookcases and shelving that would allow her to display her doll collection but which would also fit into the decor of the room. In addition, she had a nearby walk-in closet in which she wanted me to design a space for hanging and displaying her doll’s dresses and clothing right next to her own hanging dresses and clothing. It was quite a challenge designing these miniature spaces to match her full-size decor.”
One of the most unusual requests for Marissa Houston of CKF came from a client who tasked her with remodeling a closet with 11-foot ceilings and a large window. “She wanted to take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling and wanted us to cover the window with the closet units,” Houston says. “Then she complained that she couldn’t reach the items at the top of her 11-foot-tall closet.” The large walk-in closet shown here by Workshop/APD has a ladder-and-rail system that allows access to items stored in higher cabinet areas.
Inappropriate Inquiries
Designer Sarah Gallop has had her share of curious requests. “Many years ago I had a single male client who asked me to ensure he had a ‘very sturdy’ dining room table, and was alluding to it needing to be able to hold a woman’s body weight for some extracurricular activities,” she says.
Cool Spaces
Sometimes odd and unusual turns out to be kind of cool and interesting. Architect Sam Kachmar says his most unusual request was for the basement plunge pool shown here. “The clients are extreme-temperature people, who have a sauna in the backyard,” Kachmar says. “We created access to the basement from the backyard so they could jump out of the sauna and run down into the cold plunge pool.”
Meanwhile, many people associate cigar smoking with “man caves,” but designer Amy Guess of BGI Design got a request from a single woman who wanted a “female cigar lounge.” “I was so excited for this out-of-the-box space, complete with a photography collage of women smoking, a luscious green velvet sofa, zebra hide chairs, a leopard print spiral staircase and an electric-blue-and-black bar with leopard gold hardware,” Guess says.
Designer Sarah Cummings of Hillside Manor Decor got a kick out of a recent client request. “I am currently working on a new-build home and designing a small custom sneaker closet with wall-to wall and floor-to-ceiling sneaker and accessories storage, along with an area to mix beats with a DJ mixing table and a 3D modeling maker,” she says. The room will be accessible only by a “secret” jib door that hangs flush with the wall and has invisible hinges that make it virtually undetectable.
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Sometimes odd and unusual turns out to be kind of cool and interesting. Architect Sam Kachmar says his most unusual request was for the basement plunge pool shown here. “The clients are extreme-temperature people, who have a sauna in the backyard,” Kachmar says. “We created access to the basement from the backyard so they could jump out of the sauna and run down into the cold plunge pool.”
Meanwhile, many people associate cigar smoking with “man caves,” but designer Amy Guess of BGI Design got a request from a single woman who wanted a “female cigar lounge.” “I was so excited for this out-of-the-box space, complete with a photography collage of women smoking, a luscious green velvet sofa, zebra hide chairs, a leopard print spiral staircase and an electric-blue-and-black bar with leopard gold hardware,” Guess says.
Designer Sarah Cummings of Hillside Manor Decor got a kick out of a recent client request. “I am currently working on a new-build home and designing a small custom sneaker closet with wall-to wall and floor-to-ceiling sneaker and accessories storage, along with an area to mix beats with a DJ mixing table and a 3D modeling maker,” she says. The room will be accessible only by a “secret” jib door that hangs flush with the wall and has invisible hinges that make it virtually undetectable.
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Spanish architect Jorge Campreciós of JC architect designed this unique pool for a homeowner. The design features two underwater peekaboo windows that connect swimmers to an outdoor dining area, shown here, and an interior living space.
Pros Reveal the Design Features Their Clients Want Right Now
Pros Reveal the Design Features Their Clients Want Right Now
Delivery Dilemmas
We’ve all heard the stories about supply chain woes, but delivery issues can happen anytime.
For designer Mary Adams of Kitchen Cove Design Studio, the unusual encounter came when she had to explain to her client a rather unfortunate scenario. “We had a delivery truck that was on its way to a job site for a cabinetry delivery when the truck broke down with electrical issues and ended up catching fire,” she says. “The entire truck burned to the ground on the highway with our client’s kitchen inside. Imagine that phone call to our client.”
A similar situation played out for architect Alan Ohashi. His clients wanted to reuse two cherished doors from their old Vermont house in their remodeled home in San Francisco. “They were very unusual in dimension and thickness, being pre-Civil War possibly,” Ohashi says. “They were put in a van to be driven to California and during a stop the van was stolen. The contractor had to have custom-made doors fabricated for the door frames that were in place already.”
A delivery dilemma recently plagued design-build pro Greg Alsterlund of McDonald Remodeling. “We were asked to remodel a summer house on the St. Croix River in Minnesota,” Alsterlund says. “Access for the workers and materials in and out of the home was only available by a boat, and by taking a 10-minute walk downhill (much longer going up) on a dirt path, or by driving across the frozen river in the winter. When the owner invites you into their project, you figure it out and go do it. Needless to say that we’ve gotten to know the barge service on the river very well over the course of this.”
Designer Olga Adler faced a different kind of delivery challenge. Her clients gave her a strict deadline to deliver on a major basement remodel. “Many years ago a client in New England asked me to renovate their finished basement and turn it into a Texas-style game room with tons of custom built-ins, a pool table, a bar, a home theater — all clad in wood, slate, leather, plaid,” Adler says “The best part was that they gave me three months to do it just in time for a specific football game, for which dozens of friends and relatives were flying in from all over the country. No pressure! But I made it happen and I enjoyed the party, too.”
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We’ve all heard the stories about supply chain woes, but delivery issues can happen anytime.
For designer Mary Adams of Kitchen Cove Design Studio, the unusual encounter came when she had to explain to her client a rather unfortunate scenario. “We had a delivery truck that was on its way to a job site for a cabinetry delivery when the truck broke down with electrical issues and ended up catching fire,” she says. “The entire truck burned to the ground on the highway with our client’s kitchen inside. Imagine that phone call to our client.”
A similar situation played out for architect Alan Ohashi. His clients wanted to reuse two cherished doors from their old Vermont house in their remodeled home in San Francisco. “They were very unusual in dimension and thickness, being pre-Civil War possibly,” Ohashi says. “They were put in a van to be driven to California and during a stop the van was stolen. The contractor had to have custom-made doors fabricated for the door frames that were in place already.”
A delivery dilemma recently plagued design-build pro Greg Alsterlund of McDonald Remodeling. “We were asked to remodel a summer house on the St. Croix River in Minnesota,” Alsterlund says. “Access for the workers and materials in and out of the home was only available by a boat, and by taking a 10-minute walk downhill (much longer going up) on a dirt path, or by driving across the frozen river in the winter. When the owner invites you into their project, you figure it out and go do it. Needless to say that we’ve gotten to know the barge service on the river very well over the course of this.”
Designer Olga Adler faced a different kind of delivery challenge. Her clients gave her a strict deadline to deliver on a major basement remodel. “Many years ago a client in New England asked me to renovate their finished basement and turn it into a Texas-style game room with tons of custom built-ins, a pool table, a bar, a home theater — all clad in wood, slate, leather, plaid,” Adler says “The best part was that they gave me three months to do it just in time for a specific football game, for which dozens of friends and relatives were flying in from all over the country. No pressure! But I made it happen and I enjoyed the party, too.”
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Pet Projects
Oh the things people will do for their fur babies. And some will spare no expense in integrating design features for pets.
Homeowner and builder Peter Cohen knows about that firsthand — he was his own client on a cat-centric remodel. For his 20-plus rescue cats, he designed and built a series of catwalks, tunnels and hidden litter boxes throughout his Goleta, California, home, shown here.
Designer Jana Valdez of Haven Design & Construction got a similar request, albeit one concerning a cat’s natural prey. “I was once asked to design a bedroom and bathroom for a pet bird,” she says. “The homeowner was a very sweet lady who did animal rescue. The bird’s bedroom was nicer than my bedroom.”
Designer Gabrielle James of The Pavilion Co. loves unusual requests. “The weirder the better,” she says. “This gives us an opportunity to learn more about the homeowner and their quirks. We have gotten asked to build in a dedicated dining area for a cat, and we’ve created hidden doors to house kitty litter boxes with a ventilation fan and all.”
Sometimes a request just isn’t a great idea, and the designer’s job is to do everything in their power to persuade the homeowner to change course.
Designer Stephanie Cole of The Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn was asked to install a pet grooming station with a dog bathtub right in a homeowner’s kitchen. “While she did not seem concerned about all the reasons this would be aesthetically unpleasing, I was finally able to convince her to install this feature in the mudroom by highlighting potential heath and sanitation concerns,” Cole says. “Always important to explore every angle.”
31 True Tales of Remodeling Gone Wild
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Oh the things people will do for their fur babies. And some will spare no expense in integrating design features for pets.
Homeowner and builder Peter Cohen knows about that firsthand — he was his own client on a cat-centric remodel. For his 20-plus rescue cats, he designed and built a series of catwalks, tunnels and hidden litter boxes throughout his Goleta, California, home, shown here.
Designer Jana Valdez of Haven Design & Construction got a similar request, albeit one concerning a cat’s natural prey. “I was once asked to design a bedroom and bathroom for a pet bird,” she says. “The homeowner was a very sweet lady who did animal rescue. The bird’s bedroom was nicer than my bedroom.”
Designer Gabrielle James of The Pavilion Co. loves unusual requests. “The weirder the better,” she says. “This gives us an opportunity to learn more about the homeowner and their quirks. We have gotten asked to build in a dedicated dining area for a cat, and we’ve created hidden doors to house kitty litter boxes with a ventilation fan and all.”
Sometimes a request just isn’t a great idea, and the designer’s job is to do everything in their power to persuade the homeowner to change course.
Designer Stephanie Cole of The Kitchen Studio of Glen Ellyn was asked to install a pet grooming station with a dog bathtub right in a homeowner’s kitchen. “While she did not seem concerned about all the reasons this would be aesthetically unpleasing, I was finally able to convince her to install this feature in the mudroom by highlighting potential heath and sanitation concerns,” Cole says. “Always important to explore every angle.”
31 True Tales of Remodeling Gone Wild
More for Pros on Houzz
Read more stories for pros
Learn about Houzz Pro software
Talk with your peers in pro-to-pro discussions
Join the Houzz Trade Program
A good-feeling home is a priority for most homeowners. But some people really want to feel good at home, and they come up with specific remodeling requests that might assist with those goals.
Elin Headrick of Cast architecture had clients who were thinking about inebriated friends when they made their unusual request, shown here. “They wanted a bed under the stairs to serve as a ‘drunk tank’ for visiting friends,” Headrick says.
Meanwhile, a designer who wants to remain anonymous says her clients didn’t want to stray far from a bottle of grownup grape juice. In addition to two wine cellars, they asked for a wine fridge in every room of their 9,000-square-foot house.
Designer Ariel Richardson of ASR Design Studio probably felt a little funny in the head when she got this request. “We had a client that wanted a secret room to smoke and store their weed in,” she says. “However, there was not enough space in their home to create a hidden room for getting high.”