May 01, 2007 | by EH Staff

Gold Winner: Professional Designer Raises Bar in Her Own Home As the head of her own interior design company, Amy Finley brought plenty of style, elegance and creativity to working on her own Southern California residence. When she joined forces with electronics system designer and installer One Touch Audio & Video Intregration, the result was a home run—something her professional baseball player husband, Steve Finley, can relate to (he’s belted more than 300 of his own home runs throughout his career).

Silver Winner: Full Control: From TVs to Tiki Torches It takes a good imagination, close collaboration and strong determination to pile a mountain of electronics into a home without disrupting any of its natural beauty and tranquility. The electronics design team at Art and Automation in Wailuku, HI, demonstrated those qualities by infusing this 25,000-square-foot Hawaiian rendezvous with miles of cabling, dozens of speakers, several flat-panel TVs, and one control system intelligent enough to manage the operation of everything from a music server that can hold as many as 250,000 songs to an assortment of gas-powered tiki torches by the infinity-edge swimming pool.

Bronze Winner: A Stickler for True Home Theater The family room has a state-of-the-art video projector concealed in a metal oven hood. The projector and custom-made 138-inch curved screen are not only capable of showing CinemaScope movies—in a superwide 2.35:1 aspect ratio versus the 1.78:1 of widescreen HDTV—they can also show Ben-Hur in its original, very seriously wide 2.76:1 format. In the billiards room adjacent to the kitchen are four 32-inch LCD HDTVs behind a mirror, so they’re only visible when turned on. And that’s just the first floor.

Runner Up:
If You Want to Sell ‘Em, Join ‘Em
William Heafner wanted to add technology into his business, but first he had to get smart about his own home.

Runner Up:
Heavenly Safe Haven
Phase two of this 10,000-square-foot project added peace of mind without taking away from the greatness of the outside surroundings.

Runner Up:
A Simple, Open Plan
This old factory gets the business, from a fancy kitchen to the great room.

Runner Up:
Theater Mission Not-So-Impossible
This homeowner was told that his project was the impossible dream. Now it's a reality.