Sean Hughes Designs Partnered with Coastal Building Company Start Your ProjectStart

Southern California

One vision. One team.One stunning result.

Design, project management and real-estate expertise in one place — from the first concept through the final detail.

Start Your Project See the Transformations
One point of contact Design to completion Licensed GC — Coastal Building Company

A different approach

One point of contact,
from vision to completion.

Renovating a home usually means coordinating designers, contractors, vendors, suppliers and trades — while making hundreds of decisions yourself. Sean Hughes Designs exists to simplify that.

Sean works with you to establish the vision, develop the design, select materials and finishes, coordinate the project and keep the finished result cohesive from beginning to end. When it's time to build, Coastal Building Company provides the general contracting and construction expertise to execute it.

The result is a collaboration where design and construction work together rather than independently.

01 / Design

Seeing the home first

Every project begins with understanding the property. Sean develops the design direction — layouts, finishes, materials, colors, fixtures and architectural details — with an emphasis on complementing the character of the home.

02 / Project Management

Holding it together

A great design only matters if it can be executed. Sean manages the countless details — decisions, selections, vendors, schedules and communication — while maintaining the overall vision throughout the project.

03 / Real Estate

Understanding the property

Roughly a decade in Southern California residential real estate brings another lens: whether you're renovating, preparing to sell, or hunting for untapped potential, the property gets read through both design and market eyes.

Our work

The best explanation isn't a paragraph.
It's the transformation.

Drag any image to move between what the home was and what it became.

AfterBefore The Craftsman bungalow after renovation: repainted body, restored porch piers and a new lawn.
The same bungalow before renovation, with worn paint and a bare dirt path.

Craftsman Bungalow — Front Elevation

Exterior
AfterBefore The living room finished: white coffered ceiling, oak floors, a green fireplace surround and open dining beyond.
The same room mid-renovation, with stripped subfloor and unfinished millwork.

Coffered Living Room & Dining

Living Space
AfterBefore The kitchen after: pale cabinetry, brass hardware, wood floors and a breakfast nook beyond.
The kitchen before, with tile flooring and dated fittings.

Galley Kitchen & Breakfast Nook

Kitchen
AfterBefore The Spanish-style home after: soft grey body, clean white trim and a re-landscaped front yard.
The same home before, painted blue with security bars across the windows.

Spanish-Style Home — Front Elevation

Exterior
AfterBefore The bathroom after: full-height tile, a frameless glass shower and a long floating vanity.
The bathroom before, with periwinkle walls and a framed shower enclosure.

Primary Bathroom

Bath
AfterBefore The finished kitchen: charcoal island, marble backsplash and an arched opening to a window seat.
The same space stripped back to bare plaster around the original arch.

Kitchen & Original Arch

Kitchen
AfterBefore The mid-century house after renovation, photographed at dusk with warm light in every window.
The same house before, with dark trim, small windows and overgrown planting.

Mid-Century Hillside Home

Exterior
AfterBefore The vaulted living room finished, with a lit fireplace, arched windows and a large chandelier.
The same room before, with dark laminate flooring and a stone-faced fireplace.

Vaulted Living Room

Living Space
AfterBefore The kitchen after: a stone waterfall island open to the dining area and breeze-block screen.
The kitchen before, closed off with dated cabinetry and a wall oven.

Opened-Up Kitchen & Island

Kitchen
AfterBefore The breakfast nook finished with a built-in banquette beneath the original arched window.
The nook before, with tile flooring and sheer curtains.

Breakfast Nook & Banquette

Living Space
AfterBefore The bathroom after: patterned cement floor tile, a freestanding tub and a steel-framed shower screen.
The bathroom before, with a travertine surround and a framed sliding shower door.

Bath & Freestanding Tub

Bath
AfterBefore The bungalow after: olive body, crisp white trim, restored porch and mature hedging.
The same bungalow before, faded and patched, with an antenna still on the roof.

Bungalow Porch & Street Face

Exterior

Drag to compare  /  arrow keys when focused

See the potential

Some people walk into an outdated house and see everything wrong with it. Sean sees what it could become.

That comes from years of working with Southern California homes — Craftsman and mid-century properties, traditional houses needing complete reinvention, and everything in between.

The approach isn't forcing the same design onto every property. It's understanding the architecture, recognizing the opportunities, and creating a design that makes the home better.

Respect the character. Rethink the space. Transform the home.

A renovated single-storey home at dusk, warm light spilling from the windows onto a new lawn.
Exterior renovation · Southern California

The construction

Built by Coastal
Building Company.

Sean Hughes Designs partners with Coastal Building Company for the general contracting and construction side of every renovation.

While Sean leads the design vision and project coordination, Coastal Building Company manages the licensed construction work and the trades required to bring that vision to life.

  • Licensed general contracting
  • Trade coordination and site management
  • Structural, electrical and plumbing scope
  • Permitting and inspection support

It's a collaboration built around one objective: taking a great idea and executing it beautifully.

An interior stripped to the studs, floors protected, mid-renovation. A bathroom taken back to framing during demolition.

Real estate + renovation

Don't just find the right house.
Create it.

As an experienced real-estate professional and designer, Sean can help you evaluate a property not for what it is today, but for what it could become.

  • See an outdated kitchen? Sean sees where the walls could move.
  • Awkward floor plan? There may be an entirely different way for the home to live.
  • Ugly house in the perfect neighborhood? That may be the opportunity everyone else missed.

For buyers, Sean can provide real-estate representation while developing a vision for the property's renovation potential — often before the keys change hands. For sellers, the question is where to spend and where not to: which improvements actually matter to buyers, and which don't earn their cost back.

Find it. Design it. Build it. Love it.

The team

Two people, two disciplines,
one project.

Sean Hughes, seated, in a blue checked shirt.
Design · Project Management · Real Estate

Sean Hughes

Leads the design vision, selections and project coordination, and brings roughly a decade of Southern California residential real-estate experience to how each property is read.

Chris Darrah in a black Coastal Building Company polo shirt and cap.
General Contracting · Construction

Chris Darrah

Runs the licensed construction side through Coastal Building Company — trades, site management and the physical work of turning the drawings into the finished house.

Finished work

A closer look.

A renovated Craftsman bungalow with olive siding and white trim in full sun. A kitchen with soft sage cabinetry, stone counters and light oak floors. A bathroom with patterned floor tile, a built-in niche and a bright window. A dark green Craftsman with drought-tolerant planting and a stone porch. An open white kitchen with a peninsula and a wide garden window. A long side walkway with fresh concrete, hedging and roses.

What we take on

From a single room
to the whole property.

  • Kitchen renovations
  • Bathroom renovations
  • Whole-home renovations
  • Flooring
  • Interior & exterior paint
  • Lighting & electrical design coordination
  • Finish & material selections
  • Built-ins & millwork
  • Exterior updates
  • Curb-appeal improvements
  • Landscaping coordination
  • Pre-listing improvements
  • Post-purchase renovations
  • Investment-property improvements
  • Construction & trade coordination

Start here

Ready to see
what's possible?

Whether you already own your home, just bought one that needs work, or you're still searching for the right property — start with a conversation.

Tell Sean what you're working with. Tell him what isn't working. And tell him what you'd love your home to become. We'll take it from there.

Tell Us About Your Project See the Work
Phone
(310) 699-3500
Email
[email protected]
Serving
Southern California
Construction
Coastal Building Company

Design, real-estate advisory and project management are led by Sean Hughes. Licensed general contracting services are provided by Coastal Building Company.

© 2026 Sean Hughes Designs CSLB Lic. 1095567 — Coastal Building Company DRE Lic. 01924925 — Sean Hughes