House Remodel Part 1

By: Tessa Smith lead designer

I met the Demich’s at a tour of homes several years ago, as we stood in my project they described wanting a similar sensation of light and balance in their own home, a small mid-century house on the water.

The Demich’s needed a whole house remodel, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a great room and all the floors needed to be addressed, as well as the tired, flat roofed exterior. The Demich’s pictured coming home to a contemporary cottage retreat, soothing and flooded with natural light. Their budget was tight considering the scope of work and the design team worked hard to help value-optimize all decisions and selections.

First we addressed the crowded traffic patterns into the living room, by getting rid of a leg of the monstrous brick fireplace; we then faced it with sheetrock and painted it a rich red color, making a great place to put artwork! We also removed some fairly constraining walls around the kitchen, successfully allowing the existing wall of windows towards the water view to be more panoramic and dynamic; it certainly improved the relationship to the site also.

For less functions is a great way to make smaller homes live larger. The new kitchen layout is casual and open, more conducive to entertaining with more storage and countertop space. In the schematic design stage we spent a fair amount of time considering the traffic patterns, and entry process, both are cleaned up and straight forward.

The finishes are simple in nature, but beautifully composed and very finely installed, resulting in a space that’s richness greatly outweighs the fiscal cost. There are plenty of soft neutral colors and spaces for your eye to rest as you visually take in the space, making the peaceful interior an effective backdrop for the view. Design subtleties such as pendant lighting over the island to lower its scale and an “implied” hall at the back of the stove to the art/laundry space add up to make a naturally elegant space, supported by an underlying organization it lacked in its previous life.

In my visit even I was overwhelmed by the success of the changes to the spaces, it felt like I needed to be in my pajamas with a cup of hot cocoa, vacationing at a wild Washington beach, a blissful study in serenity!

Tessa