Style : HOME DESIGN : SURPRISE PACKAGES

When it comes to home renovation, turning an ugly duckling into a swan is most gratifying when changes are out-of-the-ordinary as well as economical. Although the following three projects weren’t low-cost redos, the ingenuity behind their visual surprises would fit any renovator’s pocketbook. Need more family room but don’t have the budget to add on? Install a fireplace and create a room without a ceiling or walls. Enlarge a tiny bathroom with a shimmering wall of glass blocks. Wrap a carport with fiberglass panels to make an enclosed garage. It’s a sense of fun, not dollars, that makes these renovations work.

Landscape designer Rob Pressman and his wife, Barbara, knew they wanted to optimize the back yard where their family liked to gather to roast marshmallows and tell stories. So architect Jeffrey Michael Tohl brought the outdoors in. For the focal point of his plan, Tohl created a cozy courtyard with a large fireplace and cement pavers set in grass. Flooded with light from doors, windows and skylights, rooms now look out on the open space. Low walls between the den, study and kitchen add to the airy feeling, as does the vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom.

Despite its modern interior, the exterior of this ‘50s house in Van Nuys remains “neighborhood friendly,” nestled among other ranch homes on the street. An S-shaped terra-cotta stucco wall at the entry is the only clue to the metamorphosis within.