Unique Spaces — Wine Cellars, Mudrooms, Reading Nooks & Statement Staircases

What we mean by “unique spaces.”

Every Swanson remodel has rooms that don’t fit the standard kitchen-or-bath buckets — the wine cellar built into the basement, the mudroom that finally untangles the path from garage to kitchen, the reading nook tucked under the stair landing, the statement staircase rebuilt to anchor a foyer.

These are the rooms that turn a beautiful house into a personal home. They take more design time than they do construction time. They’re where our craft is most visible. And they’re the rooms our clients tend to send us photos of, three years later, with notes about how their kids still gather there.

Four we’re best known for.

Wine Cellars

The most-requested unique space in Vaquero and Carillon. We design wine cellars typically 60-180 bottles for entertainers and 400-1,200 bottles for serious collectors. Custom mahogany or walnut racking, climate control (Wine Guardian or CellarPro dual-zone), glass entry doors with reeded or seedy glass, integrated lighting, decanting stations, and sometimes a tasting table tucked into the back wall. Budget: $45,000-$135,000.

Luxury Mudrooms

The single most-improved space in a Southlake home. Built-in lockers (one per family member, dog included), a bench with drawers below, a dog-shower nook with hand-held sprayer and tile-clad walls, a drop zone with mail slots and charging, and sometimes a coffee station or wine fridge. We design them as the transition point between the garage and the rest of the home — the space your family actually walks through twenty times a day. Budget: $35,000-$95,000.

Hidden Reading Nooks

A favorite for clients with families. A built-in upholstered banquette tucked into a window bay, a stair landing, or behind a moveable bookcase. Built-in book storage, reading lights, and the kind of personal scale that makes the space feel discovered rather than designed. Budget: $8,000-$25,000.

Statement Staircases

The visual anchor of an entry. We rebuild staircases during whole-home renovations when the original spindled-oak railing has aged out — replacing with hand-forged iron, walnut treads, marble or limestone risers, and integrated lighting. The staircase becomes the architectural moment of the home. Budget: $45,000-$135,000.

Plus everything else millwork-and-design-forward.

Custom libraries with rolling ladders. Integrated home bars. Butler’s pantries. Sculleries. Statement powder rooms. Breakfast banquettes. Integrated coffee stations. Custom closets — his, hers, shared. Built-in home offices. Music rooms. Taprooms. Hidden TV nooks. Whiskey rooms.

If it’s millwork-forward and design-forward, we love it.

How a unique-space project works.

The design discovery is more involved than a typical kitchen remodel. we spend extra time on the first consultation understanding how the space will actually be used — who reads in the reading nook, who decants in the wine cellar, who comes through the mudroom and in what order, what the staircase needs to be the visual lead-in to.

From there, the process is the same six steps as any Swanson project: design, estimate, contract, build, walkthrough. Most unique spaces are designed and built as part of a larger remodel; standalone unique-space projects (minimum scope ~$35,000) work too.

A few we’ve built.

Rustic Laundry · French Country Charm — Laundry & Mud Room · Transitional Elegance — Unique Spaces · Transitional Luxury — Family, Dining, Entry · Blue Built-In · Chevron Barn Door · Modern Transitional — Living and Dining

Ready to talk about your unique space?

Talk to Chad about your project — the first conversation is sixty to ninety minutes in your home, free, no pitch.