i'm sara gore and this is "open house." this week, a team of l.a. designers add their personal touch to an english home built in the roaring '20s. >> my business partner and i created the quintessential english cottage from what used to be an old, run-down stables. >> on "the rescue," george is in long island helping a family that's doubling in size double their living space. >> are you ready to check out what we've been doing? >> yes. >> i really thought you'd be coming in with triplets. on "designer living," a look inside a unique apartment with an unexpected color twist. and we'll go behind the doors of a home considered by some to be the best modern estate to hit the bel air market. you won't want to miss this. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

welcome to "open house." whether you're buying, selling, redesigning or just dreaming, we've got you covered. today i'm coming to you from a stunning four-bedroom duplex in manhattan's upper east side neighborhood with custom lewisite banisters and an expansive dining room, perfect for entertaining. now on "tips of the trade," we get inspiration from this year's pasadena showcase house of design. four l.a.-based designers teamed up to donate their time and their talents to infuse their personal style into an english home built in the roaring '20s. take a look. >> hi, i'm david dalton. i'm one of the four interior designers here today who will have the pleasure of introducing you to this year's pasadena showcase house of design that benefits music programming and the arts. so, we're here today in this beautiful english country manor

house designed in 1927 by noted architect paul williams. we started the design in this great room around the idea that we wanted to create a new interpretation of what english country style might look like today. the fabric collection was designed by isaac mizrahi, the fashion designer, and included the classic elements of country style, which would be florals, chinss, glazed linens and plaids. in a room this size, the scale is really critical. so, rather than filling a space like this with a lot of smaller pieces, i chose to do larger pieces and fewer of them. >> i really had fun in this room with my use of paint and wallpaper. i used a great metallic gold for the ceiling along with both the bedroom and the bathroom. the gold actually brings your eye up into the room rather than kind of having the room feel like it had low ceilings. the sconces have all those jewel tones that tie the whole fabric and wallpaper and paint theme

all together. you can't think too much about always matching everything, but the layering is what creates the depth in this beautiful, regal retreat. >> hi, my name is jan ledgard. i create ad a kitchen using all the modern appliances and amenities of today but kept the same integrity with the paul williams design built in the kitchen in the 1920s. as a designer, i love doing period homes and salvage and reuse as many of the original products that i can. in this room, what we were able to salvage, firstly, is the philippine mahogany countertops, also the sink and the faucet, and the pantry, they are the original from the 1920s. the estate has over four acres of beautiful outdoor gardens and spaces, and down behind the guest cottage, i created a fun and very functional outdoor kitchen, which is great for entertaining just for the family or getting together with lots of

friends. >> i'm interior designer joshua cain. my business partner, jeff, and i created the quintessential english cottage from what used to be an old, run-down stables. the space you're in is designed for maximum entertainment purposes. first of all, it's a large space which i've made seem larger by opening up the ceiling and installing these great big structural beams. fabrics that are durable and easy to live with are one of the most important elements in this design. i used a lot of distressed leather, linen, things that are either easy to clean or indestructible, in case it's ruined with red wine. the adjacent kitchen is great for the entertainment flow in and out of this room. one thing i love to use is a neutral color palette in order to keep the space sophisticated and timeless. this kitchen is a great example of that concept. the backsplash is shown in a white marble with some soft onyx accent colors. and in the adjacent bunk house, there is a bathroom with an amazing glass tile wall.

this is done also in neutrals to keep it simple, but it's in a period-correct pattern that ties in with this amazing paul williams estate. bree: sis, help me create my oasis. marcy: ok, romantic garden? bree: oh, is there a castle nearby? marcy: no, but there's a charming farmhouse. bree: right next to my posh castle! i'm sensing a theme here. well, i am the queen, dear sister.

a landmark of liberty and opportunity. at bank of america, we live and work here, with thousands of employees and hundreds of branches and atms. every day, we're working to help set opportunity in motion... from supporting the arts and howard university to helping revitalize anacostia and downtown d.c. because when you're giving, lending, and investing in more communities across the country, more opportunities happen. ♪

welcome back to "open house." now on "square feet," we go inside an amazing estate in chicago. homeowner david takes us on a ♪ hi. my name is david kremin and this is the house that i built. so, i can't wait to show you the whole house. as i promised you, this house has the wow factor ingredient. it's combined with so many

different types of material. and to get them to look right all together is an art in itself. the feel of this house was to bring the outside inside. so, everywhere you look, every window, you will see a tree. so in the winter, you could be cheered up by seeing green, green, green. as you all know, you can have the biggest house ever, but where does everyone hang out? in the kitchen. so, i added on a huge area where you have a play room, a tv, a fireplace. at the same time, you can look out at this beautiful view, and it's just a great hangout room. and looking down in the kitchen, you have the fan here. things are moving in the house.

they're not stagnant. the house has character. and as we talked about, another unique room which has everything in it. the headboard and drawers, they are all part of the same wood, so it all flows together. and as we go down the hallway, we get to a wine cellar that holds 1,000 of your best wines with a stainless steel floor. and we have a jumping room, which is literally two trampolines that your child can play in. and to continue that on, i've put a complete gym. i sincerely appreciate that you came to my house, and i hope that the buyer of

coming up, learn the dark secrets behind a bold color choice. and on "the rescue," george takes on triplets and transforms a basement for a growing family. [ male announcer ] it was forged from the fires of imagination.

sculpted by an unyielding passion for design. ♪ and tempered by 125 years of legendary performance. introducing the all-new 2012 cls from mercedes-benz. where the world's greatest automobiles take shape. mercedes-benz. the best or nothing. . in. welcome back to "open house." this week on "designer living," stefan boublil takes us inside

his client cindy's home. what's unique? well, it's almost entirely black. stefan shows us how he uses pops of color and fun decor in this dark apartment that's anything but drab. >> hello. i'm cindy gallop. welcome to the black apartment. i actually bought this apartment as completely raw space. there was literally nothing here. and so, i wanted this apartment to be the ultimate bachelorette pad. the terrific benefit of building an apartment from the ground up is that you can make everything work exactly the way you want it to. and now i'd like to hand over to stefan to take you on a tour of the apartment and show you the very many ways in which he and his team made this a really amazing place to live. >> first thing you do when you start interior design project is you have to know your client. and understanding and knowing cindy gallop put us in a position to understand her as

one of the most open people we had ever met. when you first come into this space, you don't notice the black. you notice cindy, you notice her life, you notice her pieces. this is about her. that's really the power of a place like this. living life in the open for cindy meant that everything in her life is in the open. and that also means, you know, her clothes, her shoes. and so, we devised and built an apartment-long double shelf to be able to expose her over 300 pairs of high-heel shoes. it's almost as if it was a high-heel museum. now, inevitably, when you're talking about an open space, you're going to start talking about the bathroom, and cindy was even cool with that. and so, we started building and thinking about a bathroom completely open, and we decided to build it around the one element that would not be black in the entire space. that's the marble wall, which contains all the plumbing for

the bathroom. first, we thought of the bathtub as an elevated platform from which you could survey your entire domain. and on top of her, in order to simulate the idea, the feeling of a waterfall, the faucet is actually on the ceiling and fills from above, which is a pretty amazing thing to do in a new york apartment. we wanted to find a way to texturely differentiate the bathroom from the rest of the apartment. and so, we needed kind of a boarder feel. and so, we chose to fill the troth with these river stone and even your feet know you're in the bathroom even when your eyes do not. building a home as opposed to merely decorating a house is about showcasing all the things that you love. it's about finding out who you are and putting that on display for yourself and for others to see, and that equates for meaning much more than it is simply a quest for mere beauty. that is what we do with every one of our projects and that's what i suggest i do for you. still ahead, we visit a

modern-day masterpiece in bel air. and later on "the rescue," george helps a family of three prepare for three more. [ banker ] mike and brenda found a house that they really wanted. it was in my sister's neighborhood. i told you it was perfect for you guys. literally across the street from her sister. [ banker ] but someone else bought it before they could get their offer together. we really missed a great opportunity -- dodged a bullet there. [ banker ] so we talked to them about the wells fargo priority buyer preapproval. it lets people know that you are a serious buyer

because you've been credit-approved. we got everything in order so that we can move on the next place we found. which was clear on the other side of town. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. with you when you're ready to move. welcome back to "open house." on this next installment of "square feet," we head out to los angeles to go inside this 12,000-square-foot home. it took three years to complete this contemporary masterpiece. take a tour with the designer behind this beautiful property. >> hi. i'm billy rose, the designer of this organic, modern home in a gated community in bel air. this project took about three years to complete. we maintained the brick exterior because it's classic. it's got an east coast feel and it gives a sense of permanence. the home has an abundance of

light, from the many sky lights and walls of glass. the broad and tall walls give great opportunities for art. so, we thought we would treat the entry staircase as a piece of art in and of itself. the stair treads are solid white oak timbers, and the wavy wall, which was carved within an airplane hangar and installed on site, is designed to make you feel like there's a drape which was blown by the wind and then frozen in place. the home is great for a family, but it's sensational for entertaining. greet your guests with an entry drink at the bar, which is adjacent to the 1,200-bottle walk-in wine room and the state of the art theater with its 15 leather reclining seats. the living room, as well as the other rooms in the house, have 13-foot-high ceilings and 10-inch-wide plank white oak flooring. i love how the posh concrete floors cascade down to the wood and one of the steps extends to form a hearth for the fireplace.

as the kitchen seems to be where everyone ends up these days, we designed it to be a comfortable place to hang. grounding the kitchen is this 20-foot-long stainless steel and wingay wood island and two massive side-by-side all refrigerator units. the formal dining room is immediately adjacent to the kitchen. upstairs are the primary sleeping quarters. occupying the entire second story rear elevation is a 2,100-square-foot master suite comprised of a light-filled sitting room and a generously sized master bedroom. both rooms overlook the rooftop garden, rear yard and panoramic views. it's unusual to find a modern home on such a large lot. here we have an acre and a half of land, so we wanted to accentuate the indoor-outdoor flow. the backyard has a lot to offer, from the louise bargawn-inspired

waterfall to the two fireplaces within the steel wall. there is a resort-size pool with infinity have edges. outdoor dining covered by a concrete trellis. and of course, it overlooks the expansive city of lights view. this project was a labor of love for me. i hope you enjoyed touring it as much as i enjoyed creating it. after the break on "the rescue" -- >> whoa. >> oh, my god. >> wow. wow. [ male announcer ] washington, d.c. a landmark of liberty and opportunity. at bank of america, we live and work here, with thousands of employees and hundreds of branches and atms. every day, we're working to help set opportunity in motion... from supporting the arts and howard university to helping revitalize anacostia and downtown d.c. because when you're giving, lending, and investing

in more communities across the country, more opportunities happen. ♪

welcome back to "open house." it's time for a rescue. this week, george is in long island to help sean and michelle get their home ready for some very special guests, their unborn triplets. ♪ >> we have an idea of what it's like with one baby at a time, and we know how stressful, and you know, how it can be with just one. and then, all of a sudden, someone tells you you have three coming at once. it's hard to imagine. >> i mean, i think on the drive home it was just like, oh, we need a new car. then it starts hitting you, like oh, we don't even have a dining room table big enough for a family of six. i'm like, we only have a two-bedroom house! so, yeah, a lot of stuff started

hitting us. we're hoping to take that middle bedroom that has been our office for the last, you know, number of years, and convert that back into a nursery for the three girls. the basement, you know, since we bought this house from my grandparents, it was just a whole lifetime of stuff down there. we need a play room for all the kids, so we're going to create a play room down there and potentially create another bathroom for ourselves, too. the weeks get closer and closer and we still have an unfinished basement. the stress has just been growing and growing. >> when you've got three babies on the way, you need three experts, so i've got designer extraordinaire katie lydon, architect mark specter and contractor steve fanuka. guys, triplets. this family is in for a rude awak awakening. >> yes. yes. >> yes. and upstairs, they have just enough room for them. no other room. so, hence, we are in this basement. we need to make it a bathroom, laundry room, play room, office, storage.

can we do it? >> i think. >> absolutely. >> i think so. ♪ >> not that i'm implying anything, but you never know. >> good job! >> thank you. thank you. all right, now that we've got our framing, insulation and plumbing and electric roughed, it's time to hang some drywall. ♪ >> we are done with our drywall, which means it is time to paint. ♪

>> jeffrey, it's the floors that turn a construction site into a home. i've got you here. you're the best in the business, floor craft. vinyl, tile, carpet, laminate, all in one space, all one night. only man for that. thank you. >> no problem. >> hey, gav, high five! welcome home! how are you? i'm glad to see you haven't given birth yet. >> not yet. we've been holding out. >> sean, how are you, buddy? >> good. how's it going? >> you guys doing okay, feeling okay? >> great. so excited. >> ready to see what we've been doing? >> yes. >> i really thought you were coming in with triplets, so i'm blown away you haven't given birth yet. >> wow. >> oh, my gosh. >> wow.

>> oh, my gosh, this is amazing! >> a little different, right? >> wow. this is unbelievable. >> it doesn't even look -- oh, my gosh. i can't even believe this. this is like beyond amazing. it doesn't -- it's like they're not even the same space. >> we're still just the tip of the iceberg. obviously, we moved your office downstairs. so, do you want to see what we did to the old home office? >> yes. let's go! >> you do have triplets on the way, right? >> yes, we do. >> let's go back upstairs. check it out. >> wow. oh. >> oh, wow. >> you know what is totally crazy is we wanted a butterfly theme. >> nailed it. >> that is so cool. >> it's unreal. >> it was actually a reality. when you see three cribs up against the wall, and it's like, wow, there's going to be three little babies in there, and just

seeing it visually is just -- it's a shocker. it's exciting, but it's reality. it's cool. i love everything. i love everything. >> good. >> i really can't tell you how thankful we are. on march 21st, ashley, brianna and caitlyn were born, and brianna is the first one to come home. the other two, ashley and caitlyn are very healthy, but we're going to give them a little more time in the hospital to grow a little bit, and they should be home in the next few days. we're very excited. and once they all come home, then our family's complete. that's all for this week's episode of "open house." join us next week for more of america's top properties and design. and if you missed something on today's show or you just want to see more of these amazing homes, head to openhousetv.com.

you can also join our facebook family or follow us on twitter @lxtvopenhouse. thanks for stopping in. i'm sara gore and i'll see you next week on "open house." can i eat heart healthy without giving up taste? a man can only try... and try...and try. [ male announcer ] honey nut cheerios tastes great and can help lower cholesterol. bee happy. bee healthy. ♪ that's ever happened to cinnamon. introducing cinnamon burst cheerios. 20% daily value of fiber bursting with the delicious taste of cinnamon. new cinnamon burst cheerios. prepare your taste buds.

you can turn ordinary chicken into luscious, delicious, and scrumptious. with recipes from campbellskitchen.com, and campbell's cream of chicken soup. campbell's.® it's amazing what soup can do.™ funny thing about vegetables... they fill you up without filling you out. yes! v8 juice gives you three of your five daily servings of vegetables. that's what i'm talking about! v8. what's your number? a tool where people can enter the terms of the refinance offer they got from their mortgage guy, and know instantly if they're getting bamboozled. and i will start after lunch...tomorrow. don't just think about it. introducing lendingtree's free "look before you lock" tool.