Staging: Nicole Nichols “Revival Designs”
CINCINNATI’S DESIGN-FORWARD RENOVATION STUDIO
YOUR SPACE SHOULD GIVE YOU THAT feeling
Beautiful design. A build that actually executes it. Someone else managing every decision, every trade, and every surprise along the way — so you don't have to.
Women-led · Investor-brained · Cincinnati, OH
Most homeowners end up choosing between a designer who has the taste but no crew, and a contractor who has the crew but no eye. You get a mood board you can't execute — or a build that looks like 2016. Roundhouse does both, under one roof. Beautifully. Practically. On budget.
Women-led. Investor-brained.
One Firm. Design Through Done.
Most renovation projects fall apart at the handoff—the designer hands off a vision, the contractor ignores half of it, and you spend six weeks managing the gap. We eliminated the handoff. Every Roundhouse project is designed, specified, and built by the same team, start to finish. One point of contact. One conversation about budget. One standard for the result.
Homes You Live In
Kitchens. Bathrooms. Living spaces. Additions. We design around how you actually use your home — not a magazine version of it — and we build it with materials and finishes that hold up to real life.
Homes You're Selling
Strategic pre-sale updates that move the number. Not paint-and-carpet checkbox renovations — targeted, design-forward changes that photograph well, appeal to today's buyers, and justify the asking price.
Investment Properties
Design-forward turns for investors who have figured out that better finishes attract better tenants and reduce vacancy. Systematized for efficiency, spec'd for the class of property.
Four things that separate us from other renovation firms in Cincinnati.
Trends move fast. A renovation that looks fresh today and dated in four years is a renovation that didn't serve you. We study what's happening nationally — and then we filter it through a longer lens. Polished nickel. Unlacquered brass. Warm whites. Marble. Exquisite trim work. Wood tones that layer rather than match. Details that respond to the architecture of your specific home rather than ignoring it.
The result is a space that feels current without being captive to the moment — and that's still turning heads a decade from now.
If you're staying forever, we design for the long game. If this isn't your final destination, we design for what photographs, what buyers respond to, and what holds its value. Either way, you're not getting a renovation that looks like everyone else's — or one you'll want to redo in five years.
You get one team, one point of contact, and one honest conversation about money. No designer handing off a spec sheet the contractor quietly overrides. No back-and-forth between two firms who don't talk to each other. We own the vision and we own the result. That's the difference between "close enough" and exactly right.
Co-founder Kate McMinn is a licensed Realtor® with eight years in the Cincinnati market, 100+ transactions, and six investment properties of her own. Every project gets her lens: what will photograph, what holds value, and where your money is better saved.
Which tile reads as custom at a fraction of the price. Which fixtures punch above their weight. Where your money actually matters — and where it doesn't. That expertise is something we charge for, transparently, based on what your project needs. We'll tell you exactly what design support makes sense for your scope before you commit to anything. The goal is always the same: a space that looks considered, feels expensive, and didn't have to be.
"The goal is always the same: a space that looks considered, feels expensive, and didn't have to be."
Four steps. One point of contact. No decisions at 11pm.
You tell us what you're working with, what you want, and what you've been putting off. We ask the questions most homeowners don't think to ask — about how you move through the space, what frustrates you daily, and what "done" actually looks like for your life.
We put together a cohesive direction — materials, finishes, layout, and the small built-in details that make a space feel considered. Everything spec'd to your home, your goals, and your budget. No generic selections. No choices made in a vacuum.
Our vetted trade partners execute to the spec — not their version of it. One point of contact. We manage the schedule, the subs, and the quality checks so you don't become a part-time project manager to get a kitchen.
Before-and-after documentation. Finishses that look intentional. Not a showroom. Not your neighbor's kitchen. A space that is unmistakably, completely yours.
The honest version
Here's what usually happens when you renovate without a designer.
You find a contractor. You get excited. And then — without realizing it — you become the designer, the project manager, and the decision-maker for every single thing that goes into your home.
You choose finishes in isolation.
The cabinet color came from one Pinterest board. The floor from another. The hardware from a showroom on a Tuesday afternoon when you were in a hurry. Each one seemed right. Together, they argue. The result is "ok". But it's not what you imagined.
You miss the details you didn't know to think about.
Where do the dog bowls go? Where do keys land when you walk in the door? Is there somewhere to sit and take your shoes off? These aren't decorating questions — they're life questions. They get designed in or designed out. Most homeowners find out which one after the walls are closed.
You make a technical mistake that costs real money.
Large-format tile on a shower floor has to be cut in an envelope pattern — it won't bend to the slope any other way. The wrong grout width in a small bathroom makes the floor look fractured. These are things a designer knows on day one. They're things homeowners learn the expensive way.
You want to quit before the projet is done.
By week four, you've hit decision fatigue. You pick white. You pick the thing that won't be wrong. And you end up with a space that feels...flat. Generic. And you can't tell your partner, but you're secretly disappointed.
This is where Roundhouse
enters the chat.
Roundhouse is what you hire when you want someone to think about all of it — not just the tile, but the life that happens around the tile. We ask how you want to feel when you walk into this room. We think about color, layering, soul. We catch the technical things before they cost you. And we manage every trade so you don't have to become a project manager to get a kitchen.
The result is a space that is finished and yours. Not just done. Done beautifully.
The roundhouse edit
What's in. What's out. What's worth the money — and what isn't. Straight to your inbox.
start a conversation.
Tell us what you’re thinking. We’ll take it from there.
Rather talk first? Call or text (513) 313-6240.