Most of the time, architects renovate a house the way their clients want. Sometimes, they design it the way they want. But in the case of this midcentury gem in West Seattle—owned by Kirsten Adams and Paul Midgen—the home itself guided the way.

“The house had a bunch of stuff it just wanted to be,” says Kirsten. “The living room wanted to be low. The space wanted to be warm.”

Before: Kitchen

It’s not surprising, really, that the house was so confident and assertive. It was designed in 1958 by celebrated West Coast Modern architect Al Bumgardner, and with age comes a certain understanding of oneself. And with the help of Seattle’s SHED Architecture and Design, the family helped this special house make its ambitions a reality.

After: Kitchen

But first—some background. Paul and Kirsten were living in Amsterdam with their daughter, Lark, hot off the tail of remodeling their 19th-century canal house, when a job opportunity in Seattle beckoned. Unfortunately, leaving the perfect home made finding a new one in their familiar East Seattle neighborhood a bit of a challenge. “Everything was just kind of meh,” says Paul.

They moved into one place that didn’t feel right, and then another that was too small. It wasn’t until Paul was across town in West Seattle for a veterinary appointment that he realized they’d perhaps been too narrow in their scope. “I hadn’t been in this part of the city before, but I drove past a house with a for sale sign that had this amazing garden and a wrought iron gate… so I started stalking it on Zillow,” he says. While it started out of their price range, eventually, that number dipped, and Paul and Kirsten jumped.

Before: Family Room

The house was a West Coast midcentury-modern dream, thanks to Bumgardner’s penchant for wood, glass, and nature-framing windows. “The views sucked you in,” says Kirsten. It was love at first sight—but a closer look at the 70-year-old home revealed that it needed a little TLC, despite a 2005 renovation.

After: Family Room

The finishes were dated (hello, pink granite countertops), the bathtubs low, the walk-in closet awkwardly positioned—but the family didn’t want to destroy the character of the home. “This is not something you come and bulldoze. The question is, how do you bring it forward 70 odd years, but still leave it recognizably his work?” says Paul. “The bones were solid, but the clothes needed an update.”

Before: Bedroom

After: Bedroom

The SHED team—led by design principal Thomas Schaer and project designer and manager Kyle Keirsey—got to work. Part of the firm’s challenge was to distinguish the remodel from the original architecture, so that they could strip everything back to its original intent and revamp the home as Bumgardner might have if he were alive today.

Before: Hallway

After: Hallway

The home’s midcentury heart still beats loud and strong after the revamp, with many elements preserved—oversized windows, light-reflecting mirrors, ample woods. But the programming is pure 2024, with an open kitchen, extensive storage, and decor and furnishings that speak to the family’s passions. Paul and Kirsten have lived all over the world, and they share what Schaer calls “curated and eccentric tastes.”

Before: Living Room

Case in point: The Roche Bobois Mah Jong sofa in the living room. Seeking to replicate the casual, comfortable gathering spaces they saw on travels to Morocco, Paul and Kirsten started thinking about cushions and rugs for the living room. The sofa captures that spirit—it’s low-slung, colorful, and unpretentious. It also acts as a divider in the room—one side is the fireplace, the other is the view—while centering the space around a painting by Anne Siems.

After: Living Room

This painting was in the first design presentation SHED prepared for Paul and Kirsten—a placeholder in Keirsey’s mockups. The couple loved Siems’s work so much that they went out and commissioned a real one. The woman in the painting is covered in tattoos, and each of those tattoos represent an important moment in Paul and Kirsten’s life. “It turned out to be as integral to the architecture as anything,” says Keirsey.

SHED installed a glass front door to create a “wow” moment right upon arrival—walk up to the entry courtyard, and before you’ve even passed the threshold, you’ve already been hit by the views of the Puget Sound. “It’s a vignette that pulls you in,” says Keirsey.

Before: Powder Room

After: Powder Room

The design team also shifted the layout of the home to stop the kitchen wall from blocking those key sight lines and reposition the space as the fulcrum of the home. Paul’s a passionate cook, and Kirsten and Lark can often be found sitting at the counter working or chatting while Paul is cooking. A breakfast nook bridges the kitchen and the more formal dining room.

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

The master closet captured space from an open hallway, creating an unusual (but elevated) passageway into the primary suite. SHED invested in some higher quality casework here. “It’s something you pass through all the time,” says Schaer. “We wanted to make it as difficult as possible to leave a pile of junk in this room.”

The firm also added a powder room lined with luxe wallpaper to the front hallway, and converted two cramped bathrooms with low tubs into one spacious but compartmentalized room. Thanks to sliding doors, someone can now take a bath privately while the rest of the space functions as a powder room.

Before: Bathroom

Not a single square foot was added, and yet the renovated home feels far bigger than before. “So much of it was about pushing and pulling space on a microlevel, making things more functional and pleasing on a subtle level,” says Keirsey.

After: Bathroom

Before: Staircase

SHED wove in materials from the 1958 design to blur the areas where the interventions begin. Mirrored panels are a common tool of midcentury modern design, and SHED happily played with the convention. An original skylight illuminates the hallway and the bathroom, while new, simply framed mirror panels bounce light around the home.

After: Staircase

Before: Lark’s Room

After: Lark’s Room

The same cedar siding that wraps the exterior lines the interior walls in many places, flowing easily from indoors to outdoors. “The house feels like it belongs here,” says Paul.

After: Dining Room

It’s a home that is designed to be lived in, truly. “One of the things we asked for was to understand for the house to look beautiful even when I threw mail on the counter,” explains Kirsten. “Paul hates to have stuff everywhere, but our house has to be lived in. We can’t live in a magazine spread.” Keirsey obliged, sending a rendering with mugs in the sink and the detritus of everyday living spread around.

After: Loft

“There was crap everywhere,” laughs Paul. “But it still looked good with stuff.” To be a functional, inspiring space designed to accommodate everyday life… isn’t that what every house wants?

More Before & After stories:

A Couple Fix Up an Heirloom Cottage in the Town Where They First Met

A Couple Crack Open a Cramped Brick House on a Washington Oyster Farm

A Kandinsky Print Inspires a Seattle Rambler’s Radiant Remodel

Project Credits:

Architect of Record : SHED Architecture & Design / @shedarchitecture

Interior Design: SHED Architecture & Design

Contractor: Ambrose Construction / @ambrose_construction

Structural Engineer: Todd Perbix

Lighting Consultation: Mr. Studio / @mr.studio.designs

Cabinetry: Northwest Custom Interiors / @northwestcustominteriors

General Illumination: ERW Lighting / @erwlightingcontrols

Automation Consultation: Essen Technologies

Living Room Art: Anne Siems / @anne_siems_art

Plumbing Fixtures: Chown Hardware / @chownhardware

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Before & After: After 70 Years, a Seattle Midcentury Finally Reaches Its Full Potential