These clients loved their home’s location—just not their home. After looking at different houses and finding none that could match the privacy, convenience and natural beauty of where they were, the couple decided to renovate and update, exchanging 80s awkwardness for contemporary ease. Frequent hosts, the clients wanted a more open and inviting layout for entertaining, a reconfigured kitchen, and a modernized master bathroom.

Upon passing through the front door, guests were previously greeted by a wall directing them down a hallway before they could enter the kitchen. The kitchen itself was huge, but little of it was useful for food preparation due, in part, to an overly large kitchen island. On the other side of the room, a seldom-used desk area blocked the view of the woods and creek below, while the fireplace in the corner lacked seating space. We decided to flip the kitchen layout, allowing the entry-blocking wall to be removed and creating a view into the kitchen and woods beyond, which draws people into the space rather than cutting them off. The over-sized island was removed, and a new fireplace and seating area now reside where the fridge used to be, along the same wall as the dining room entrance.

In the dining room, an unused patio slider was eliminated and replaced with a large picture windows for an uncluttered, expansive view to the outdoors. The door between the dining room and kitchen was widened, and a six foot wide pocket door that slides behind the new fireplace was installed so the dining room could be open or closed to the kitchen. However, an obstacle was discovered in trying to install it: the floor was not level. The trim on the pocket door needed to line up with the new dining room windows, and it also needed to be level with the kitchen windows; given the un-level floor, precise calculations were made before ordering the new adjacent doors and windows to ensure that everything would be level.

Originally the clients wanted hard wood floors in the public spaces, but they decided to keep the D’Hanis tile that was used throughout the house. It wasn’t until framing was completed that they went with their initial instincts and opted for solid white oak flooring. The tile had to be demo’ed, revealing that the floor was un-level at multiple heights due to a few poorly integrated additions, some done on slab and some on wood framing. This made the new floor installation particularly difficult, and parts of the house had to be reframed once the floor was made level again.

The master bathroom had a huge tub that the clients didn’t use and a large window over it that was kept closed for privacy. The tub was replaced with a bank of drawers for linens, towels and clothes, and, with the tub out of the way, a new high window was placed over the drawers, allowing the clients to view the tree tops while maintaining privacy. A walled-in shower space was replaced with a walk-in shower—tiled with glass and natural stone—which stands adjacent to the drawers. Having the drawers built against the shower complicated the process of waterproofing, since there was no surface for the waterproofing fiberglass to turn up against other than the cabinets it was protecting. As a result, a thin wall was built between the shower and drawers, with the fiberglass installed along the wall.

Wallpaper was replaced with 12”x24” porcelain wall tiles in an elegant earth tone to balance the D’Hanis tile, which was kept and stained. Silestone countertops add lightness to the color palette, and stained white oak cabinetry add to the feeling that one is almost in nature.

Ariel nebula silestone was used for the kitchen countertops and backsplash, creating a sleek, modern backdrop for the new stove. A new island and cabinets, both made of bamboo, add warmth to the clean lines and light palette, while blue light pendants over the kitchen island add a touch of color and a sense of division between the kitchen and sitting area. The bamboo motif carries over to the dining room thanks to a new wine bar.

With one client preferring a clean, crisp aesthetic and the other wanting warmth and wood, the result is a subtle and luminous blend of natural colors and materials. The neutral colors create a gallery atmosphere when paired with the clients’ extensive art collection. Stone mosaic covers the new fireplace, with the mantle and hearth made of limestone; together, they bring into relief a column accent, whose stonework connects it visually with the horizontal lines of the fireplace while grounding the new space. The entryway, now visible from the rest of the kitchen, makes a statement with a new steel door and bee hive light fixture. Overall, the home feels more open, airier and far more modern—finally befitting of a location that is too good to let go of.