This entry is not the infamous family drop zone, which makes me just so happy. I really love how the architect, Anne Usher, designed the layout of this house. There are two exterior entrances that lead to the mudroom (up the garage stairs and up the side of the house), allowing the front door entry to be pretty, spacious, and clutter-free. It’s such a dream.
As a reminder, this entrance is up a cascade of wide concrete landings and exterior stairs, and once inside you can move forwad into the living/dining/kitchen area, cut to the right into the game room/library or cut left and see this sweet little sitting area under the railway. But a lot of designing had to happen along the way.
This was the stairway a couple of years ago, before I had even thought about what it should look like. Katie knew she wanted wood (as opposed to metal or glass), but where should it start and stop? And how does it integrate with the railing along the landing above?
At this point, they were so far over budget that doing something super bespoke was not on the table – no intricate carvings or welding this time, which was fine because this house is meant to be simple in its finishes, more eclectic in its styling.
We chose 2×2 squared off white oak lumber, installed vertically with a simple railing along the top. We thought this would create architectural interest, dimensions, and shadow lines, while not breaking the budget nor being too builder-grade.
I remember that we had to stop the vertical wood to float an inch (or less) above the floor, mostly because of timing – it had to go in before the flooring and so stairs could be installed. But the exact measurements (height) were a bit unknown and god forbid if they weren’t exactly flat/uniform that would be a huge pain in the A. So they wanted to give some space as a buffer for a trim piece. I knew that for the most part, your eye wouldn’t clock this and that there would be furniture here, so I was ok with it. I also didn’t want this decision to hold up the rest of the construction, which needed to happen in a specific order. Designers can famously hold things up, especially when we are so myopic and obsessed about the details that honestly later barely matter (I’ve learned this lesson every single project and will likely for the rest of my life, but it’s easier for me to be less perfectionist at my brother’s house, lol).
I’m obsessed with those wood wall washers going up the stairs (from Cedar and Moss), and while I love the Schoolhouse flushmounts on the ceiling, we always meant to switch the bulbs out to be bigger. They are so tiny!
The railing continues up the stairs onto the second-floor landing that opens up to all the bedrooms. I love how it adds a lot, just with one material.
Chandelier (no longer available)
The large chandelier up here is from Schoolhouse Electric. We needed something with a lot of bulbs and a really big scale without being insanely expensive or too ornate. The amber glass is quiet and pretty.
I honestly don’t remember where I ended and Max started on some of these design decisions (or vice versa), but I know that he helped troubleshoot some of the measurements – he’s excellent at making decisions when I got super stuck in indecision mode.
The Finished Staircase
The Alice Sofa | Rug | Pillow | Throw (similar) | Side Table | Lamp | Planter | Wood Sconces | Artwork
I truly love how it turned out. It’s just so striking and simple. Sierra Custom Construction executed it really well, and honestly, it’s just so perfect for the house as a whole. It’s really strong and sturdy (Ken’s biggest concerns) while being visually really powerful.
The paintings up the stairs are by a local artist named Anna VonRosenstiel, which I found at Urbanite (a Portland mall that has both vintage and makers). I can’t believe how perfect they are in size, color, style, movement, scale, price, and the fact that we could get a diptych going up the stairs really nailed the whole look.
The light and shadows give it so much movement and texture, not to mention the “striped” pattern that packed a big design punch.
Stacked Artwork | Wooden Mirror
I hadn’t planned for a sofa to go here, but we had this one from our new collection, the Alice, that found its home. Ken and Katie are, like me, typically scared of a light colored sofa, but this is really just a pass-through space and is visually really important (you can see it from so many rooms), but gets very little functional use, so it was the perfect place to put something really pretty. Originally, I thought I’d put a round entry table with a dope lamp or maybe just a huge tree with a sculptural chair underneath, but once we put this here, we realized it was perfect. Again, they have a mudroom as their drop-zone entrance, but for guests, they can absolutely throw their coats here for gatherings, so it does actually serve a purpose.
The brown amorphous rug was really the best move (it’s not the highest quality, but it’s so affordable and perfect in color, size, and shape, so they kept it here). The plant breaks up the stripes with something organic and asymmetrical. And Katie has kept it alive since January with only mild to mid-level daily fear that she’ll kill it. (Ahem, more to come on the excellent faux house plants/trees that I bought for her after realizing how much stress this real plant created – I found pretty dang great ones, I promise).
This color of the rug is really forgiving (being brown), and a rectangular rug would have cut off the space in a really odd way (and no rug felt sad). Once we put this down, it immediately created the sense of a “room,” even though it’s just a pass-through space. It warmed it up a ton.
The Front Door
Ceiling Lights | Flooring | Wall Color
They chose all glass and white oak front doors and side lights (which they have come to regret, actually, for privacy reasons), but they sure are pretty 🙂 Turns out you don’t want your Amazon delivery friends to have total visibility into your morning (so they might add a film onto it). There wasn’t really room for much of an entry table (we might still add a very narrow one on the right white wall), but we needed something to make it feel special.
Finding this rug was clutch. We put a big mat outside where you wipe your shoes, but I really felt like this should be a special rug since it’s the first thing you see walking up to the house, and really invites you in. But what size? And do you place it horizontally with the door or more vertically perpendicular to the door? I bought two of these green scallop rugs from West Elm in hopes of creating a longer rug, and it looked great in the shots. But that day I realized that if we had 3 of them, sewn together, it would actually act as a long corridor rug leading people into the living/kitchen area towards the view of the river. Like so:
I’m pretty dang obsessed with it. Katie ended up just getting a really sticky rug pad instead of dealing with sewing them together (which would have cost hundreds and taken a couple of weeks), and she swears it’s fine:) You can get a sneak peek of the living room and dining room up there, and I cannot wait to show you the rest of the house in a couple of weeks.
The first impression is pretty dang perfect. And being that mid-tone green, it’s really forgiving (versus a lighter rug). I can’t believe I sold them that vintage Swedish oil still-life painting. Sure, technically it didn’t have a home in my house currently, but I love it so much (don’t worry, I’m charging them a lot for it, lol). The colors look so beautiful here, and it gets a lot of attention and appreciation, which is important to this hoarder:)
The whole vibe when you walk in is honestly so warm, welcoming, and exciting. The green rug takes you straight into the main living space, and you pass by what I think is my favorite room in the house – the game room. A big thanks to Anne Usher, the architect, Max Humphrey, who helped make a lot of design decisions, and Sierra Custom Construction for building the house. More to come soon:)
*Architect: Anne Usher
**General Contractor: JP Macy of Sierra Custom Construction
***Interior Designers: Emily Henderson (me!) and Max Humphrey
****Styling: Emily Henderson (me!)
*****Photos by Kaitlin Green
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