Color Your World!

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colors for house interior

One of the most fun parts of my interior design work is when it comes time to select paint colors. Usually this starts out as a time of terror for our clients, but they soon realize that color is an opportunity for great creativity and self-expression.

So how do you start?!

Instead of thinking about color right away, think about how you want to feel in your home. Color affects how you feel in a very direct way; a space can promote calm and peace, boisterous laughter and rowdiness, restraint and orderliness….on and on. SO if, say, you want a dining room Where your guests laugh a lot, stay late, and enjoy telling stories over good wine, you might lean towards brighter, bolder colors that vibrate with each other. Happy colors!

Putting together the palette of colors for the entire house is critical. All the colors must work together, whether they are in the same rooms or not; this creates the continuity within a home that is so important.

A great way to jump-start your palette is to browse interiors magazines and look for carpet ads. Find a carpet whose colors you like, and then look closely at the colors that are within that design. Often you’ll find a surprising number of shades, including accent colors you’d never thought of!

Another great source for color inspiration is literature or websites of the major paint companies. each year these companies come out with new palettes: combinations of colors that work beautifully together. And you’ll see that each of these palettes has a “mood”….which is what I was describing initially….that feeling you want to create in your home.

One last tip for color: as Seattle architects, we are very aware of the grey, often diffused quality of light. So interior colors can be a critical tool in warming up an otherwise cool, darker natural light. Exercise caution in using dark, saturated colors throughout your home. It can feel oppressive very quickly.

Think of color in the same way you choose what clothes you put on for the day ahead…often your mood dictates what you reach for. Have fun!

REMODELING OLDER HOMES — SIZE MATTERS!

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We often get called into a project where a homeowner’s challenge is that they don’t have the space for some necessary function – like a family room that’s connected to the kitchen, or an additional bedroom, or a master suite. In most cases, our homeowner comes to us with the belief that they’re in need of an addition to their house. After studying the problem, we often find ourselves in the happy position of advising not an expensive addition, but rather a reconfiguration of existing space within the house!

Most older homes consist of separate, contained rooms, and often have rooms that are under-used (like that big old living room or dining room that’s totally disconnected from the rest of the house!). Today’s lifestyle calls for connectedness and openness in our living spaces. So in the quest for extra room we usually tear out walls and rearrange room functions in a new way, and can often create the spaces desired without adding any square footage.

The driving philosophy here: smaller is smarter. In some cases, you don’t really need more space…you just need what you’ve got to work better! It’s a win-win situation: Smart design gets you all you need, without the baggage of a bigger house. Less cost, less maintenance, more sustainable, more yard! There are some tricks to this approach though. Spaces should serve dual functions; since every inch counts, smart storage details are essential; and to make a home feel expansive, connection to the outdoors is critical. There are many more tricks – these are just the basics.

There are some really good websites/publications that speak to this directly. The master of living less large is Sarah Susanka. Her books are fantastic, but check out her website: http://www.notsobighouse.com/ And of course Dwell Magazine always inspires us! www.dwell.com

The Importance of Thoughful Interior Design

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As observers and creators of our built-environment we get truly excited when all the pieces come together to create a harmonious space from outside to in. So, what is it about these spaces that make them work? It’s not unlike a mathematical equation, where A+I = great space, where A is the Architecture and I is the Interior Design. Good Interior Design is a deep understanding of how to select and use materials, finishes, textures, color, light and more! Too often, when it comes to interior design these elements fall short and the whole building suffers. Whether building a new home or remodel, doing a room refresh or building out a retail/restaurant space, utilizing the knowledge and resources of both an architect and interior designer can make the difference between a good project and a GREAT project! Take a look at some of these examples of interior spaces and detailing we have been working on at CTA, incorporating holistically the architecture, interior design and contracting. It’s the intimate knowledge of how all the many pieces come together, including the numerous interior pieces that really make the project a success! Cabinetry, built ins, trim details, tile selections, paint & stain colors, flooring patterns and selections, countertop materials, plumbing & lighting fixtures, etc. all have to be considered just as much as you consider the floor plan of your space.

Design Options

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Shed Roof DesignDesign is about solving problems. In remodeling or new house construction, a problem might be “how does the space flow” or “let’s make this lovely to look at”, etc. You want to solve problems beautifully, pragmatically, and functionally. Sometimes there are several solutions to the problem, each solution having it’s own pluses and minuses: one may be the least expensive but lacks a certain functionality, another may better solve the issue of “flow” but is more expensive, and another may best solve the issue of how it uses the site in a particular urban setting but doesn’t take maximum advantage of solar design, & etc.etc. Because there are these numerous ways to solve problems, we provide our clients anywhere from two to four options for their projects. The computer renderings here show two of three options for a new house project in Seattle. Each one deals with volume of the public and private spaces differently, along with different exterior aesthetics. What’s your thoughts?

Front Porches everyone!

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We love residential architecture and we love our neighborhoods, and the two work really well together when each supports the other. It works out best because when synchronous, architecture and neighborhoods together support “community”. In our new digital world, a world of “seemingly” endless interconnectedness, what we really find is a world of individual isolation. People often appear very open and public, but the reality is that the barriers are up all around them. We have a world of emails and texts instead of talk; a world of being at home on screen instead of being out and about; a world where we watch others and engage in downloaded movies instead of engaging ourselves, or even going to the video store to get our movie, a world where… well, this goes on and on. But to my pet peeve of the day – lots of new houses and remodels are being built in the city with a blank wall to the street, “objects” without so much as a stopping place before you enter the house, nary even a stoop, and where to say the least, there is no front porch from which to sit and interrelate to your neighbors, your neighborhood. Sure, sometimes these porches are catch-alls for junk, but they are an important part of the transition from the outside world to the inside, from the public realm to your private world, from your neighborhood, to your street, to your yard, to your home – this gradual transition to your home is simply an extension of what is already going on in the fabric of the city, and creates neighborliness and neighborhoods. So when you’re building, think front porches!

Kirkland Compound Progress

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It’s really fun watching this house develop, and now it is really a house!  Remember, the views are from the 3rd level where the living room, kitchen & big deck are located, bedrooms are in the middle level, and mother-in-law apartment on the lower level for accessibility. In this unique collaboration, the owner will be finishing off much of the interior! 

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We design in a range of styles, and here’s one reason why. This home, owner and neighborhood is nostalgic for the past, for that Arts and Crafts Movement that valued the decorative arts and craftsmanship over the banal machine designs of the industrial age. (Something like that could very well be said for our times too)!  This house isn’t old fashioned, it is modern and contemporary reflecting today’s lifestyles, but – it is respectful of it’s past and what it means.  Stay tuned for pictures as we begin and progress the construction – a backyard 2 story addition plus basement — studio, family room, master suite with balcony.

Island House Rendering Movie

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Island House Rendering Movie Our Island House has been moving right along! We’ve had a number of client meetings to fine-tune the floor plan, which in turn impacts the exterior of the house. Here you can see the latest rendering of the exterior. The opening view is what you’d see approaching the home coming down the driveway. The water is to the right; as the camera moves towards the water, you can see the copse of trees around the back or south side of the house. This is why that upper clerestory has been so critical: to get south sunlight into the house!  Notice the couple of bump-outs on the water side: one is a dining nook, the other is a window seat. Snuggling up in either of these places will be a lovely spot to hang out!

The Remodelers’ Open Homes Tour

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The Remodelers’ Open Homes Tour is right around the corner! We’re show-casing a remodel/addition that was kept “intentionally small” – following the Not-So-Big principals. Laura and Brian started out with a charming but modest tract house in Medina. They needed more space, but wanted to maintain the small cottage-y feel, and not spend huge amounts of money! So this shows how smart space planning and attention to detail in the right places can pack a lot of “bang for the buck”!

Come see this neat little home during the 2-day home tour next weekend. Visit www.remodelersopenhomes.com for tour details. Hope to see you there!

Island House Update!

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After a couple of revision rounds with the little cardboard models, we then turned to our 3-D computer program to really start studying the design. Here are a couple of preliminary computer renderings of the house as it’s taking shape. The first image is the approach to the house; the second is the water side – showing deck and lots of glass facing the water view. Keep in mind that these renderings are more diagrammatic (therefore not much detail); this allows us to focus on the overall form at this early phase in the design process. We are striving to keep this house very pure and simple – it’s the site that warrants all the attention! Stay tuned for more development!