Client + Site Background
The clients are a graphic designer and fine artist with two kids, a Great Dane, and a cat. The site is a one-acre wooded parcel at the top of a bluff overlooking Puget Sound. The property had been part of larger estate that was subdivided a few years before the clients purchased it.

Project Brief
The clients asked us to design a home for their family of four that was by turns tranquil and surprising, so connected to the trees and the hillside that it would feel like a virtual walk in the woods.

Design Intent
From early ‘homework assignments’, we learned how connected the clients are to the region and how much pleasure they took in walking the property.  Through a series of model workshops, we worked with them to design a house that is vehicle for experiencing the site in different ways, ranging from rooms that are tucked into the hillside to others that float above it.  The spaces are just right, well-proportioned and tailored to the site and the family

For the interior, the owners wanted finish selections for their house that felt timeless and serene while also hewing to their very specific and artistic point of view. Large fields of end grain hemlock with a whitewash finish, white painted trim, and ebonized fir windows are graphic but calm repeating elements. Elsewhere, walnut cabinets, concrete tiles, and porcelain tile set into special layouts appear in smaller quantities.

Primary color is also introduced through the use of red panels in the kitchen cabinets, a red lacquered metal staircase, and red and blue textiles throughout the house. The furniture selections include contemporary classics, a few modern pieces, and enough vintage to provide a feeling that matches the custom nature of the house.

Material Used :
Exterior
1. Corten steel cladding
2. Stained cedar shiplap siding
3. James Hardie – fiber cement cladding - HardiePlank
4. Painted structural steel

Interior
1. Floors – solid end grain hemlock engineered flooring, extra white finish
2. Pental Quartz countertops – Super White Polished
3. Kerf Design –Kitchen cabinetry – walnut plywood
4. Ann Sacks – ceramic tile backsplash – 2x8 ribbed – Savoy Collection
5. Walls – Benjamin Moore – White Dove – OC-17
6. American Universal Corporation – penny tile floors – White Penny Rounds
7. Powder Room sink and counter – custom black concrete – VC Studio
8. Powder Room floors – Ann Sacks cement tiles – Popham Design
9. Powder Room walls – Benjamin Moore – Arroyo Red – 2085-10
10. Master Bath walls – Ann Sacks – custom mix Savoy collection, Graphite