Best of Design 2026: Best New Home

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

When the homeowner first bought the property in Edgeworth, the plan was to renovate it. The setting itself was compelling — leafy, almost bucolic and improbably calm despite its location near the heart of neighboring Sewickley’s bustling business district.

Once Heather Wildman, principal and design director of Wildman Chalmers Design, began studying the structure, though, it became clear that the existing envelope, with its low ceilings and inflexible layout, wasn’t going to stretch far enough.

“What the homeowner wanted was not more space, but a different kind of space,” she says.

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

The homeowner’s wish list informed the brief: something small but open, easier to live in, set on a flat lot that could support serious gardening. Crucially, the house also needed to support long-term living without ever feeling overly earnest about it.

So, the owners and Wildman decided to start over, building a new home on the already established lot.

From the street, the house Wildman designed flirts with a fairytale cottage, just one that’s been edited with a modern touch. The longer you look, the less it settles into a single identity. Gables flare slightly, windows shift between arches and straighter lines, and the roofline lifts and dips just enough to keep things interesting.

There is no shortage of delightful details.

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

Judges in this year’s Best of Design contest agreed, naming it their Best New Home for 2026.

“One of my favorite parts on the exterior is the copper flashing and the corbels under eaves of the roof,” says judge Stephanie Schill Hayden, an architect at Schill Architecture in Cleveland. “You don’t see that done in most designs today. It really adds a historic flair to a new home.”

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

Inside, everything sits on one level, a decision underpinning the entire project. The homeowner desired a house where they could age in place in, but without any tell-tale visual cues.  Some discrete accommodations include wider-than-standard doorways, a curbless shower in the primary bathroom and broad circulation paths that could accommodate a wheelchair if need be. In a secondary bathroom, a linen cabinet can be removed in the future to create additional clearance without reworking the layout.

“You don’t want it to feel like a compromise if someone has an injury,” Wildman says. “It should still feel like a lovely home.”

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

The guest room and primary suite sit side by side, the former doubling as a yoga and workspace. Between them, the living areas move from kitchen to dining to living and out to the garden. Clear sightlines create a sense of scale without increasing the footprint.

“We think about how someone actually lives in a space,” Wildman says. “How they move, what they see, how time is spent within it.”

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

Not surprisingly, the kitchen is the focal point; the homeowner loves to cook and entertain. Just beyond, the breakfast nook introduces a more intimate moment, a built-in table within a box bay window and a banquette oriented toward the garden. It’s one of several small adjustments that keep the openness from tipping into emptiness.

The home’s three sets of French doors extend the interior outward to a bluestone porch fitted with automated screens. Positioned at the front, the garage leaves the backyard uninterrupted and, more importantly, usable.

“I love to garden,” the homeowner says. “And I wanted to be able to step right outside.”

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

Inside, materials carry on that sense of continuity. Wide-plank white oak floors run throughout the home; walls and millwork remain within a narrow range of off-white tones that shift subtly with the light.

“It’s more about layering,” Wildman says. “Different materials, different finishes, but all working together.”

Texture carries much of the visual interest. Beams run across the living room and kitchen, breaking up ceiling height without lowering it. In the foyer, a barrel-vaulted ceiling frames a round stained-glass window, filtering light into the space. The motif appears again in the primary bedroom.

“The attention to detail makes you see there was a lot of thought and care to how they designed it,” says judge Crystal Knapik, a senior associate at CannonDesign in St. Louis, who described the round dormer window as “simple yet elegant.”

PHOTO BY ERIN ASH KELLY

Custom millwork provides another consistent thread. Cabinetry, built-ins and the fireplace share proportions that are not immediately obvious at first glance but are cohesive nevertheless.

“I think every single moment in this house was thought through,” says judge Katie Savakis, a project designer at Vocon in Cleveland. “Although it’s neutral, it’s not boring at all.”

There are eclectic touches, too, such as a patterned powder room, a beautiful mudroom in a green-gray palette, and perhaps most delightful of all, a pantry that expands into a working flower room, where the homeowner cans vegetables, arranges flowers and stores orchids. The house continues to evolve with its use.

“It’s aesthetic and functional,” the homeowner says. “You live there comfortably. You move easily. You have space for people, but it still feels cozy.”

Vendors

Architecture: Wildman Chalmers Design
Interior Design: Wildman Chalmers Design
Stylist: Danny Mankin
Contractor (including countertops and millwork): Peerless Renovations
Doors & Windows: Marvin
Tile: Tile and Design
Lighting: Circa Lighting, Visual Comfort
Cabinet Hardware: Allegheny Millwork
Landscape Architecture: Kendall Landscape ArchitectsStory