NW Johnson Street House

This was an extensive remodel of a Portland house built in 1907, which had been subdivided into several apartments at one point in its history. Although the house had been restored to a single family dwelling by the time our clients purchased it, there were still clear signs of its former incarnation -- namely an awkwardly placed back stair that made for unnecessary circulation and an odd phone booth space just off of the main stair landing.

Our first step was to reimagine the circulation throughout the house, which required removing the back stair, opening up the kitchen to the dining room, and adding a master bath where a balcony used to be. In addition to this, we layered on architectural elements like coffered ceilings, columns and ceiling rosettes to dress up a house that lacked a lot of the charm and character that we typically associate with older homes. A comfy built-in sofa occupies the family room for movie nights and lazy lounging, while a large curved sofa in the living room is the perfect place for dressier get-togethers.

Our aesthetic direction for the house was to create "an ode to the Pacific Northwest." The palette is moody, green, lush, mossy and heavy on the western walnut while the decorative lighting and furnishings are markedly modern and playful, which suits the youthful, forward thinking character of our clients and their kids. In the kitchen JHID designer Mira Eng-Goetz hand-painted a mural of sword ferns across all of the walls as a way to create a garden view in a room with windows that look out onto the facade of a neighboring apartment building. The tiles even continue over the built-in fridge to achieve a seamless fern-scape throughout the room.