Project: Svenson Residence
Interior Design: Rocky Rochon
Contractor: Willie Conklin
Photography: Ben Benschnieder
Project Description: 9,500 sq. ft. Remodel
Programmatic Issues: Remodel a large farm home that had been through many renovations throughout the years and impose a logical flow and function for a family of working professional parents and four active boys. The existing entry to the home was off of the main front porch Into the Living Room. To get to the Kitchen, at the opposite end of the home, you had to travel through the Living Room, the Dining Room, a Pantry and eventually land in the Kitchen, a 1500 sq. ft., so large that it was impossible to function within it, Kitchen. To get to the upper levels you took a stair that landed into the Living Room.
Design Concept: English men’s club meets Seattle farm home. Comfortable, practical, romantic, and intelligent.
Design Solution: Remodel the room next to the Living Room, off of the main porch, turning it into a formal Entry, drop the existing stair into that room, keeping the existing stair into the Living Room, connect the new corridor to an existing back hall and extending that hall by means of an exterior addition that connected the new Entry through the home to the Kitchen, without going through any rooms and also adding a Mudroom at the Kitchen end of the new corridor system. Retaining and building off of the original natural wood work and carrying it into the new Entry and creating new wood wall paneling, in that room, to match. Use of earthy, rich colors with a range of textures from sand to metallic. Designing a new large family Library off of the entry as a home office and place for the boys to study alongside their dad in the evenings. The Kitchen was turned into a Kitchen/Family Room, so that the family could gather in the evenings and hang out. Interactive communication was a paramount concern for the parents. Lengthy conversation was around the decision of whether to place the stove or the sink at the Kitchen island, where the children’s stools would be. Would mom and dad be talking more to the kids while cooking or cleaning dishes?Furniture choices were made in a very eclectic way, using found pieces, antiques, and designing new contemporary pieces, such as the concrete coffee table in the living room, to the steel top table in the dining room. All choices were made to support a masculine, men’s club, aesthetic, evocative of the original home itself, at the same time being mindful to bring in a few feminine aspects every once and awhile.