Built-Ins

Marble mosaic flooring from New Ravenna covers the floor and runs over the bench under the window, another spot for Charlie and Todd’s young daughter to perch. The walls are glazed American quarry tile by Design and Direct Source.

Hess combined a John Boos butcher-block table with a piece carved by local wood sculptor Vince Skelly to create a sculptural kitchen island. "As soon as [Skelly] brought that in there, [Charlie and Todd's] little daughter hopped up on it and owned it. So, that's where she hangs out in the kitchen," says Hess.

After: The soaring new living and dining space benefits from an abundance of natural light from every side, and they spent a lot of time trying to find the best lighting for the kitchen. The final choice: long, narrow copper pendants from Denmark suspended by ultra thin wires to not disrupt the visual flow of the room.

The minimalist exterior complements the rest of the inside, with a fun play on materials and intersecting lines.

The combined kitchen and dining room, featuring two pieces of family-heirloom furniture, feel spacious thanks to a vaulted ceiling; it and the walls are clad in Douglas fir.

Homeowners Heather Thompson, a literary specialist in Lake Oswego School District, and Sam Gaty, executive director at a nonprofit that supports documentary filmmakers, loved almost everything about their spacious, light-filled 1965 ranch house in Portland, Oregon’s West Haven neighborhood. But the one pain point was the kitchen, a cramped, dark space with a bad layout.

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The cork flooring from the den continues into the primary bedroom, which opens to a semi-private outdoor garden.

Floor Plan of Perrier Residence by Cicada

The couple added the wainscot, installed by Seamus, and painted in Farrow & Ball Red Earth to continue the “color story” from the breakfast room. The white oak built-in has much needed storage behind the cane cabinet fronts and display. The Caitlin couch by Everygirl for Interior Define sits atop a vintage checkered rug with an Anthropologie coffee table and Hay Paper Shade overhead.

The couple added curved cabinetry and a window seat to form a breakfast nook, painted in Farrow & Ball Red Earth. The table is discontinued from Anthropologie, where Kara previously worked as a display coordinator, and the overhead light is the Lambert & Fils Waldorf Double.

A guest suite was created from the space that was once a dilapidated screened-in porch, for the owners' in-laws to stay.