KBF Design Gallery Wins a Silver Master Design Award for a Winter Park Whole-Home Renovation

The remodeled Winter Park great room: a round dining table with upholstered chairs under a brass chandelier, the kitchen island and pale cabinetry beyond, and the fireplace wall with a television at left

Two national judges, six criteria, and perfect marks for both design and construction. Here is the Winter Park house behind “A Childhood Home, Reimagined,” before and after.

By Ashley Sheaffer and Adam Vellequette · September 8, 2026

KBF Design Gallery has been named a Silver winner in the 48th annual Qualified Remodeler Master Design Awards. The award recognizes our Winter Park whole-home renovation, entered as “A Childhood Home, Reimagined,” in the Whole House $500,000–$1,000,000 category.

The Master Design Awards are the premier national competition for residential remodeling, sponsored by Qualified Remodeler magazine and judged across 22 categories. Remodeling firms from across the country enter, and every project is scored on six criteria: aesthetic appeal, construction and installation, handling of unusual situations, attention to detail, functionality, and overall success. Winners are featured in the magazine’s September issue.

Qualified Remodeler Master Design Awards 2026 Award Winner badge

This one means a great deal to us, because the house meant a great deal to the person who lives in it.

The House Behind the Award

The homeowner grew up in this Winter Park house and came back to it as an adult. She wanted to keep everything the home had meant to her family and, at the same time, change how it worked for the next chapter of her life. By her own account, she found it hard to picture what the finished rooms could become, so our first job was not design at all. It was to slow down, listen, and walk her through every decision until she could see what she was approving.

The original floor plan was a series of closed rooms: a separate entry, a walled dining room, a living room, and a kitchen tucked behind a peninsula. The home also had no true primary suite. Our plan touched nearly every part of the house, and the award is for the whole of it.

The remodeled Winter Park great room: round dining table in the foreground, the living room with a linear fireplace and lit built-ins beyond, and the kitchen island at right, all under one ceiling — The entry, dining room, living room and kitchen are now one connected space under a single ceiling.

Four Rooms Became One

The largest move was opening the entry, dining, living and kitchen into one light-filled great room. Several non-load-bearing partitions came out, and the ceiling, lighting and flooring were rethought as one surface so the new space reads as designed, not merely opened up.

The original kitchen before the remodel, seen from the family room: a raised laminate peninsula with dark wood cabinets hung from the soffit above it, and a pass-through to the sink window beyond — Before

The remodeled kitchen from the family room: a long white oak island with five upholstered stools, brass pendants, pale cabinetry and the sink window straight ahead — After

The kitchen had been the room you looked past. A raised peninsula with cabinets hung from a soffit stood between it and the family room. Both are gone. In their place is a long white oak island that seats five along one side, with the sink window straight ahead and brass pendants overhead. The kitchen is now the center of the house instead of a room off to the side of it.

The original living room before the remodel, with a sliding glass door to the back yard at left, carpet, recliners and a television on the far wall — Before

The new eating area and built-in bar after the remodel: a round table with curved chairs, white oak bar cabinetry with lit shelving, and a black-framed glass door opening to the lanai — After

The living room’s sliding door to the back yard is the one thing in this pair that stayed put. Around it, the space became a casual eating area with a built-in bar: white oak cabinetry, lit shelving, and a wide black-framed glass door that now opens onto the new lanai.

The living room fireplace wall after the remodel: a linear fireplace beneath a wall-mounted television, flanked by lit white oak built-in shelving — The new fireplace wall in the living room, with lit built-ins on either side, was designed against the kitchen elevation behind it.

A True Primary Suite, for the First Time

The most complex coordinated move of the project was the primary suite. We converted a spare bedroom into the new primary bathroom and reassigned the original, small primary bathroom as a walk-in closet. That single swap meant relocating all of the plumbing from the old bathroom into the former bedroom, then framing a new private doorway from the primary bedroom into the new bath.

The spare bedroom before the remodel, with louvered bifold closet doors and a doorway to the hall; this room became the new primary bathroom — Before

The new primary bathroom created from the spare bedroom: a glass-enclosed shower with brass fittings at left, a freestanding soaking tub beneath a window, and a white oak vanity at right — After

The result is a bathroom the house never had: a glass-enclosed shower, a freestanding soaking tub beneath the window, a white oak double vanity, and brass throughout. The pair above is the same room. Only the window tells you so.

Primary bathroom detail: the white oak double vanity with brass faucets and a hexagon-tile niche wall, the freestanding tub at left — Marble-look tile, a hexagon-tile niche wall and the white oak vanity carry the kitchen’s material language down the hall.

The new walk-in closet built where the original primary bathroom stood, with white built-in drawers, hanging rails and open shelving — Where the original primary bathroom stood, a walk-in closet with storage finally sized to the rest of the home.

Outside, a New Room and a New Face

A completely new covered and screened lanai was added to the rear of the home, on its own foundation with roof framing matched carefully to the existing house. It extended the family’s living space outdoors and gave them the kind of everyday gathering spot Florida living asks for.

The rear of the Winter Park home before the renovation: painted block walls, a chain-link fence, bare ground and a single sliding door where the screened lanai now stands — Before

The rear of the Winter Park home after the renovation, with the new covered and screened lanai extending from the back wall over fresh lawn — After

Inside the new screened lanai: a wood-plank ceiling with a fan, a dining table, a sectional sofa and a wall-mounted television looking out to the yard — Inside the lanai: a wood-plank ceiling, a fan, room to dine and room to watch a game.

New windows, doors and a garage door finished the exterior refresh, and new landscaping replaced a front yard that had gone mostly to bare ground. Inside and out, the home now reads as one design.

The front of the Winter Park home before the renovation, captured from the street: a white single-story house with black shutters, a bare front yard and a large oak over the walk (Google Street View image) — Before · Google Street View

The front of the renovated Winter Park home from the street: a single-story white house with black windows and shutters, new landscaping and mature oaks — After

What the Judges Could Not See

One of the six scoring criteria is the handling of unusual situations, and this project had its share. During demolition, the team found the home’s original cast iron sewer pipes severely corroded, a hidden problem that would not have stayed hidden much longer. We replaced the entire underground sewer system, which meant removing a large volume of concrete slab. While the floor was open, we took the opportunity to remove the existing HVAC system in full and install a new one with all-new ductwork throughout, and to run new drain lines for a sink in the laundry room.

None of that appears in a finished photograph. It is why the house performs as well as it presents, and it is the part of a whole-home renovation that a design-build team is built to handle without a change of direction.

What the Judges Said

Both judges gave the project a perfect 10 for aesthetic appeal and a perfect 10 for construction and installation, and scored handling of unusual situations and attention to detail at 9.5. Their written comments were brief and, to us, exactly right: “A beautiful project, well built,” and “Stunning redesign, light and bright.”

The homeowner put it her own way when the work was done.

“We truly got a new house through your amazing renovations! It feels like home in my childhood home. I know my Dad would be impressed and happy as well. The screened-in patio and primary bathroom are my favorite areas. We can’t wait to start having family and friends over.”
The homeowner, Winter Park

See More of This Home

The full photo set, including every before photo, is in our Whole Home Transformation gallery. We wrote about the design process in From Sentimental Spaces to Seamless Living when the project was completed this spring, and the house anchors our whole-home remodeling page. The 2026 Master Design Award winners appear in the September issue of Qualified Remodeler and at qualifiedremodeler.com.

Let’s Start the Conversation

If you are weighing a whole-home renovation in Winter Park, Maitland, Windermere or anywhere in Central Florida, whether it is the house you grew up in or the one you plan to grow old in, we would like to hear what you are hoping to change. Design and construction are handled by one team here, so the plan you approve is the plan that gets built. We also take on kitchens and bathrooms on their own.

Visit our Maitland showroom or book a complimentary consultation to get started.

About the Authors

Ashley SheafferCo-Principal

Adam VellequetteCo-Principal

Ashley and Adam, co-principals and siblings, lead KBF Design Gallery with a shared passion for inspired living spaces. Ashley heads the design team, bringing creative vision and aesthetic expertise to every project, while Adam oversees production, ensuring that each detail is executed to the highest standard. Together, they blend artistry and precision to deliver the personalized, high-quality remodels that have become the hallmark of KBF Design Gallery.