Remodels

Home Remodels in Nashville — Designed Around How You Actually Live

Your house has good bones. It just never quite got the rest right.

Maybe you’ve lived with it for years — the kitchen that cuts you off from the family room, the layout that made sense for whoever built it but never made sense for you, the hallway that goes nowhere, the living room you’ve arranged and rearranged and still can’t make feel right. You’ve patched around it. You’ve worked around it. You’ve stopped noticing it, because you’ve learned to live around the problem.

That’s what we’re here to change.

Candid Home Design specializes in residential remodels that go beyond the surface — structural transformations, layout redesigns, floor plan reconceptions, and whole-home overhauls that make your house finally work the way it should have from the beginning. This isn’t cosmetic. This is fundamental.

We don’t pick cabinet pulls or light fixtures. What we do is far more foundational: we redesign how your home is built, how it flows, and how it functions — so that when the dust settles, your home feels like it was always supposed to look exactly like this.

What Makes a Structural Remodel Different From a Renovation

A renovation refreshes what’s already there — new finishes, updated fixtures, fresh paint. A remodel changes the structure itself. Walls move. Rooms are repurposed. The kitchen crosses the house. The ceiling opens up. Load-bearing walls come down and the space breathes for the first time.

That level of change requires more than a contractor with a sledgehammer. It requires someone who understands how your home is built — where the loads are, how the framing works, what can move and what can’t — and who can design the solution before anyone picks up a tool.

That’s the work we do. And it’s the work we love most.

With nearly a decade of experience and close to 300 completed projects behind us, we’ve redesigned floor plans from the studs out, relocated kitchens across the house, opened up ranch homes that felt like a series of closets, and transformed outdated layouts into homes that finally fit the families living in them. We bring that experience — and a genuine love for the structural puzzle — to every remodel we design.

Remodels We Design

Whole Home Remodels and Full Gut Redesigns

When the problems aren’t in one room but throughout the entire floor plan, a whole-home remodel is the most honest solution. These projects start with your existing structure — foundation, exterior walls, roofline — and reconceive everything inside.

We’ve designed homes where nearly every interior wall moved. Where the kitchen swapped places with the living room. Where a choppy, compartmentalized layout became an open, flowing home with a primary suite that finally deserved the name. Whole-home remodels are complex, high-investment projects — and they’re among the most rewarding work we do.

Kitchen Relocations and Structural Kitchen Remodels

The kitchen is the hardest room to move and the one that most often needs to be. Galley kitchens tucked away from the family room. Kitchens that face the wrong direction. Kitchens designed for a 1960s household and never updated for how people actually cook and gather today.

Relocating a kitchen involves more than moving appliances — it means rerouting plumbing and mechanical systems, managing structural implications, and designing a new kitchen that integrates naturally with the floor plan around it. We’ve done it many times. We know exactly where the complexity lives and how to solve it.

Open Floor Plan Conversions and Wall Removal

One of the most common — and most impactful — remodel requests we receive: remove the walls and open it up. It sounds simple. It rarely is.

Load-bearing wall removal requires structural analysis, proper header design, and sometimes significant work to redirect loads through your home’s framing. Done without that knowledge, it’s dangerous. Done with it, it’s transformative. We’ve opened up dozens of homes and understand exactly what it takes to do it safely, correctly, and in a way that makes the finished space feel intentional — not improvised.

Layout Redesigns and Flow Corrections

Not every remodel involves taking everything down to the studs. Sometimes the problem is more specific: a primary bedroom in the wrong location, a bathroom that serves the wrong part of the house, a dining room that interrupts the natural flow between kitchen and living space.

Layout redesigns address the root cause of what isn’t working — not just the symptom. We look at how your family moves through your home, where the daily friction points are, and what structural changes would resolve them. Sometimes it’s one wall. Sometimes it’s three. We design the minimum intervention that creates the maximum improvement.

Aging in Place and Accessibility Remodels

Some of the most meaningful remodels we design aren’t driven by aesthetics — they’re driven by the need to stay in a home you love as your life and your family’s needs change. Wider doorways. Roll-in showers. Eliminating the step at the entry. Relocating the primary bedroom to the main floor so the stairs stop being a daily barrier.

We bring formal training in ADA and accessible design — rooted in healthcare design work early in our career — to every aging-in-place remodel we take on. Accessibility isn’t about compromise. It’s about designing a home that continues to serve you with dignity, independence, and comfort for decades to come.

The Part That Separates Good Remodels From Great Ones

Any designer can draw a new floor plan. What’s harder — and what matters most — is making the remodel feel like it was always there.

The transition where a new wall meets an old ceiling. The way trim details carry through from the original home into the reconfigured space. The moment a visitor walks through and has no idea what used to be there. These are the details that determine whether your finished remodel looks designed or looks like something happened to your house.

We obsess over the connections. The tie-ins. The moments where old and new meet. It’s where we do some of our clearest thinking — and it’s why our clients consistently describe finished projects as feeling complete, like the home they always knew this could be.

One Wall or the Whole House — We Work at Every Scale

Not every remodel is a full gut job. If you need one wall removed to open up your living space, we can design that efficiently and affordably. If you’re ready to reconceive your entire floor plan, we’re built for exactly that.

We also think in phases. If you have a larger vision but want to tackle it over time, we can design it that way — so every decision made in Phase 1 sets up Phase 2 correctly, and nothing you do now closes off what comes next.

Not sure what your remodel actually needs? That’s exactly what the consultation is for. Bring us your frustrations, your wishlist, and your budget reality — we’ll help you figure out what’s possible and where to start.

Why Homeowners Choose Candid Home Design for Their Remodel

Close to 300 completed remodels and additions — the structural complexity others turn down is exactly what we seek out
Structural design knowledge — we work closely with engineers and understand prescriptive structural design, keeping your project efficient and moving
Deep expertise in accessible and aging-in-place design, rooted in formal ADA and healthcare design training
Family-owned and operated — we take your home as personally as you do
Remote-ready process — we serve Greater Nashville (Brentwood, Franklin, Gallatin, Lebanon, Murfreesboro) and work with homeowners throughout the Southeast and beyond
Built on referral — nearly every project we’ve completed came from a homeowner, builder, or engineer who trusted us enough to send someone our way

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a building designer for a home remodel?

If your remodel involves structural changes — moving walls, removing load-bearing elements, relocating major systems, or reconfiguring your roofline — you need someone who can produce proper construction documents before your contractor starts work. A building designer prepares those plans, coordinates with structural engineers as needed, and ensures your project can be permitted correctly.

What is the difference between a remodel and a renovation?

A renovation updates what’s already there: new finishes, fixtures, paint, and appliances. A remodel changes the structure — walls move, rooms are repurposed, floor plans are reconceived. Remodels require design and engineering expertise that renovations typically don’t.

Can you remove a load-bearing wall?

In most cases, yes — but it requires proper structural analysis and engineering to do it safely and correctly. We design the solution and work with a structural engineer to specify the correct beam and support requirements. We’ve done this many times and know how to make it work without compromising your home’s structural integrity.

How long does it take to design a home remodel?

Scope determines timeline. A focused layout change may take 3–5 weeks from consultation to permit-ready drawings. A whole-home remodel with significant structural work typically runs 8–14 weeks. We’ll give you a realistic picture during your initial consultation.

Do you work on remodels outside of Nashville?

Yes. Our design process is remote-first and we’ve worked with homeowners across multiple states. If you have the right project, location isn’t a barrier. Reach out and let’s talk about what you’re planning.

All projects start with our

Build Feasibility Study

Determine whether your project is feasible, BEFORE you spend thousands in design and construction.

Ready to Stop Living Around the Problem?

Schedule a consultation to see if we can help!

Serving Greater Nashville — Brentwood, Franklin, Gallatin, Lebanon, Murfreesboro, and surrounding Middle Tennessee — plus remote home addition design throughout the Southeast and beyond.