Contemporary Home With Chef’s Kitchen

When the homeowners wanted to add another floor and update the odd layout of their pink Wallingford home, the best solution was a whole house remodel. We took the home down to the foundation and rebuilt a contemporary home with vision and guidance from architect Forrest Murphy of CAST Architecture.

The home centers around the huge chef’s kitchen, with attention paid to increasing the amount of natural light, giving the living spaces more height and creating a separate dwelling area in the basement. Pops of color inside and out give it character and reflect the personalities of the couple that lives there.

The kitchen has a massive, singe-slab quartz countertop and an adjacent, stainless steel prep area. A Wolf stovetop is accompanied by a sleek, non-ducted Zephyr range hood on the ceiling. The accordion Kolbe doors open to transition the entire home into an outdoor living space that views out to the Fremont bridge and docks below. The homeowners cook a lot and love to entertain, so this space was to be the focal point of the home. With built in nooks for cutting boards and the array of eclectic cookbooks they own, the space is truly built to serve their needs.

The lower level is sectioned off so that family, friends or even renters could use the basement as a semi-separate dwelling unit with it’s own bed, bath and side door. The upper level is one large master suite. You enter through a full-height, 220lb door that disappears into the wall upon opening. This technical feat was the brainchild of Forrest Murphy, and was brought to life through thoughtful execution from our team who ordered the slab and researched the proper hinges. While the bedroom may appear simple, it’s the details that make it so special: a reclaimed wood wall using lumber from the original home’s fir flooring and in-wall lighting illuminating the ceiling.

The master bath is a playful spa bathroom with in-shower bathtub. A unique blend of multi-colored subway tiles and Popham Design hexagon star tiles—it’s fun, but feels modern and clean. The ipe floor in the shower is extremely durable and resistant to rot. In tandem with the rainfall shower head, it’s as close as you can get to bathing in the rainforest without heading over the Olympic Peninsula.

We’re excited to see the project wrap up and become the a dream home this lovely Seattle couple has always craved.

Photos: Cindy Apple Photography