The 80's Weren't Kind To This Room

Intense peach, powder blue, linoleum floors....

they all seemed like good ideas at the time.

This is a master bathroom that I was hired to redesign for some dear friends.  Their house was built in the 80′s in a contemporary style--and they knew that the time had come for a big change.

The existing bathroom was long, low-ceilinged, and narrow, with a single tall window at the far end.

Knowing that the adjacent space was a walk-in closet featuring the same type of window, and that the room was in the front gable of the house, I knew that we had the opportunity to make some really dramatic changes, gaining vertical and horizontal space, to create a stunning and very functional master bath. YAY!

It is hard to believe that the images below are of the same room....but I know they are. I was there for each step of the transformation.

Now with a vaulted ceiling and expanded footprint, the bathroom has a luxurious and relaxing feel.

One of the things I found to be so satisfying and fun with this project was the opportunity to use many interesting and high-quality materials. From the gable end wall highlighted with clear cedar planks (further accenting its vertical lines and feeling so at home in the house's wooded setting)....

to a Mid-Century styled ceiling fixture...to the antique botanical print framed especially for the space, the marriage of traditional and contemporary elements into a funky, eclectic mix, reflects the style of the house and its occupants.

Do you have any rooms in your house that are stuck in a past decade? Perhaps a Disco Dining Room or Flashdance Family Room? :) Take heart! Transformation can happen, and what used to be an eyesore can become your favorite place in the house.

Thinking Outside the Box

There are many ways in which to think of your house. When frustrated with the flow and function of the interior spaces, sometimes it is helpful to envision the building as a large rigid box, with many smaller somewhat flexible boxes inside that can be shifted around and fit back together inside of the whole. The result can be a completely new relationship between the rooms, and a great improvement in the function of the home. In the whole house renovation that I participated in starting this past summer, that is essentially what we did to allow for a modern kitchen to be created, and maintain certain things that the homeowners did not want to change about the original floor plan of the house. You may remember this house. I have written about it here and here, and I am very excited to show you the end result of the kitchen renovation, which did indeed include moving the space from one front corner of the house to the other.

What we started with was a mid century gem of a house that had been lovingly designed by its original owner, an architect himself, for his family. The house was conceived during a time when the kitchen was for those who worked in the house, not for the lady of the house herself, and the kitchen was not the hub for family gathering that it is today. The pictures of the kitchen it its original state say it all:

The kitchen had an awkward L-shape to it, and on one end was an exterior entrance which had always been used as the main way to enter and exit by the family. You can see it at the far end of this picture....

When I proposed closing this door up, and instead turning the opening into a window so that we could have a workable kitchen layout, the response from my clients  was a polite but firm  "Hell No."

So, we were temporarily at an impasse.

Because I didn't want the owners to go through a costly renovation to have a pretty kitchen that would essentially function no better, I went back to the drawing board.

In our conversations about the house, I had learned that while the kitchen door had not been intended to be the front door of the house, visitors interpreted it to be just that. If they had not visited before, or weren't instructed to do otherwise, they often came here to knock, since it was the most visible door when you approached the house. The true front door was hidden from this angle, and therefore very seldom used.  In the picture below you can see the kitchen door as seen from the driveway....it is the one on the right, propped open in this picture taken during construction....

Since it was unthinkable to have this door not be a door (for functional and sentimental reasons), then why couldn't we then solve two problems at once and create an entry/foyer to be just inside of this opening, and then shift the kitchen down the front wall of the house, so that it would absorb the space that was once the entry hall??  The kitchen could then encompass a much larger and more functional space....

The answer I got this time was a resounding "YES!"

Victor Burgos, our so very knowledgeable, always patient,  favorite general contractor, was there to assure that the changes could be done, and we started working out all of the details that would need to be addressed. It is amazing to me that the view of the original front door went from this:

To this (a great but sadly blurry picture of Victor and me going over details during the demolition)....

to this:

Wow.

And here are some more......

Before:

and after:

(The curtained window above in the "before" is the very same window here in the upper left of the frame.)

Before:

and After....

I am so pleased with the way this project turned out. The craftsmanship and materials are just beautiful.

What was once the "front" door to the house is now a beautiful kitchen door, complete with a new light cut in it (asymmetrically placed to be true to the vintage of the house) to allow more natural light to enter the space.

And the staircase, which wasn't able to be fully appreciated before in the dark front hall, now adds so much architectural interest to the kitchen.

So, don't allow yourself to be boxed in! Creative thinking and not being married to the way things are, can help you to look forward to the possibilities of what could be!

Rented!

Today the papers were signed and it is official! Our project house that has been sitting so pretty for so long will have someone new to love her. We are so excited!

I was there today going over the paperwork and working out some details....had to snap a few pictures.

I am so proud of the work I did on this house. If you missed it before, you can see a lot of it here and here.

It seems strange that I won't be able just to pop over just to say "hi" and enjoy all of the pretty sun-filled rooms..... but what a happy ending for what was once a forlorn little cape cod so down on her luck.

Black & White & "Just Right"

Because of recent family events, lots of old family photos and memorabilia have surfaced around here. It started me thinking.... The pictures below are of one of my favorite places on earth, even though to my knowledge, I was only there once. The house no longer exists, but in my mind's eye it still sits quiet and proud on the quaint Santa Monica street where I visited my Great Aunt Margret when I was only 5 years old.

Aunt Margret's House 2

Margret, an avid gardener, lived in this house with her brother, my Great Uncle Dave, who was a landscape architect. The fact that these pictures even exist shows how much these transplanted midwesterners loved their little bungalow, and the gardens around it. Each picture has some type of notation on it...such as the numbers above listing the plants in the photo (on the back: "#2--sweet peas--way high now").

Aunt Margret's House 6

My experience visiting here as a child left a lasting impression on me, to say the least. It was a magical place the likes of which I had never seen in my five oh-so-long years of life, with its fragrant, blossoming grounds, the simple and uncluttered rooms, and the good feelings that seemed to reside there.

Aunt Margret's House 4

Aunt Margret's House 5

Finding these pictures helped me to see how this special place profoundly influenced me when searching for and creating the spaces I would live in as an adult.

Aunt Margret's House 8

In Winifred Gallagher's book House Thinking, she writes of research connecting the recognition of meaningful places in a person's past, and the ability to then create a "just-right home" that provides a "deep, gut-level feeling of identification and comfort." Have you been able to make that connection?

So, what are the rooms, homes and gardens of your past--environments in which you felt truly yourself, truly alive? These are spaces that Gallagher refers to as your "best places." Take some time to reflect, and you may find some clues to help you create a very meaningful, special, and comfortable place in which to live and thrive today.

Exterior Update

Last year I wrote a post about some clients of mine who were preparing to paint the exterior of their Dutch Colonial cottage, and had asked me to help with color selection and other details (you can see the original post here). I recently heard that they had finished painting, so I stopped by to snap a few pictures to share!

Doesn't it look great?

The new two-tone color scheme on the body of the house brings attention to the architectural details of the house...

and I think the richness of the tone-on-tone green grays paired with a warm, crisp off-white for the trim adds an elegance and richness to its appearance.

As you know, I love historic houses, and I am so grateful to have been asked to to be a part of this cottage's rebirth.