Project Story: Vine Hill
We had new clients call us after purchasing a home in the crazy period of Covid when the housing market was moving at the speed of light. They wanted to create a modern farmhouse feel in the house they had just purchased.
The house was in pretty rough shape and needed a heavy dose of renovation work and design vision.
The upside was that it was located in one of the prettiest areas of Sebastopol.
One of the things that bothered me right off the bat was that the front entry and door was tucked back behind the garage and second level of the home. I wanted to figure out a way to create a proper entry and more inviting first impression when driving up.
Here was the vision…
New siding, new windows with a four light pattern, and a new paint palette of course…
We also added a small addition to the front to balance the garage side, added a small addition to what would become the living room and created a covered entry porch to make the front façade feel more scaled and balanced.
The inside floor plan was chopped up at the entry and needed a bit of refinement as the paint palette was a rainbow of primary shades. Here are a few before images from the first floor.
This is how the first level was originally laid out. As you can see the entry was set pretty far back with an elongated entry with a coat closet. Upon entry to the left was a sunken living area with a step up to the carpeted dining room. The configuration made the space feel closed in and broken up.
The second living area had nice light but the fireplace felt monolithic, off kilter and dark. The kitchen, well it was dark red and tiny. I know they say red is a good color for stimulating one’s appetite, but I just don’t subscribe to that.
Here is the final floor plan with the addition at the front.
We opened up the entry and created a living room with a large bench seat and built-ins. The dining room was moved into the back living area in front of the fireplace and the kitchen was able to have more room to breathe at the back of the house as we snuck in the range into a bump out towards the new living room. A large island acts as the focal point.
Here’s what it looks like now…
The entry gained a little breathing room for a dropping off point. The light from the new entry makes the space and draws you into the house.
Warm wood floors ground the airy, warm off-white space.
The bench seat is one of my favorite details and adds a bit more functional seating for movie watching or reading.
You can see the space we gained by tucking the range wall into a bump out. To the left of the range is the panel ready refrigerator. I love the clean, classic feel of the space.
It Feels to me both modern and farmhouse but not in a cliché way.
We added plank walls to the dining room and you can just make out the jib door that leads to the lower level.
We continued the planking on the ceiling, cleaned up the beams and skylights and updated the fireplace by removing a large swath of the brick and replacing it symmetrically with a more neutral stone product.
Upstairs, we made minor adjustments to the floor plan to clean it up.
Here are a few after images of the upstairs spaces. Starting with the master suite.
The master bedroom was petite so we designed a custom headboard upholstered to match the platform which spanned wall to wall. We kept the lines low to make the room feel bigger.
With limited space and the vanity size dictated by the tub and shower, we used a trough sink to gain the second sink area for the master bath.
The guest bath got a box wainscot detail which pairs well with the more contemporary white oak vanity. We used a neutral crackle subway tile along with a modern large penny round in matte white and capped the bath off with a beautiful terracotta patterned tile.
Colorful plexiglass skateboard art adds the pop of color to the bunkbed room. We love a good bunk room. Adding rugs and furnishings in soft materials adds a feeling of comfort and we punched up the neutral base with colorful kantha quilts and a custom dinosaur stamped fuschia pillows.
The adjacent playroom is both sophisticated in color and fun with furnishing and art which will make for a space that will travel better over time with growing kids.
This was a fun project to undertake as it was such a huge transformation from the first walk through to the final installation.
We love to come up with a vision that solves the functional problems of a space and presents the client with a house that envelopes them in sanctuary.
Cheers to that!