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Queen Anne Fire Restoration

Location: NorthWest slope of Queen Anne

Architect: Carlisle Classic Homes

Completion Date: 2010

The brand new owners of this Mid-century Modern home in Queen Anne were literally on the brink of moving in when they received a call letting them know that their home had caught fire. They were not planning to remodel right away; however, as unfortunate as a house fire is, it did open up an interesting opportunity for the homeowners who did in fact choose to “put back what they wanted” in lieu of “what was originally there”. Having little time to spare and essentially no time to plan, we embarked on a design-build journey in the truest sense of the term.

One of the key desires in creating a new layout was developing a much more open floor plan to allow the rather small footprint to feel much larger and blur the dividing lines between living, dining, cooking, and working. Essentially, the living room, dining room, kitchen and office are within one large open room but defined by the use of furniture, cabinetry, and built-ins. Wide plank ash hardwood flooring flows seamlessly between the spaces and using the same style of cabinetry throughout the home gives a sense of cohesion to the design intent.

Another desire was to develop a more spacious master suite; particularly increasing the square footage of the very small master bathroom and closet. The core of the house where the fire started was where the original master bathroom and guest bathroom were located. Since all the plumbing and electrical had to be re-done anyway, it didn’t add a lot of cost to adjust the layout of these two spaces. Floating vanities, heated concrete floors, “stacked” tile patterns, and the selection of plumbing fixtures gave the spaces a much more contemporary feel.

The last major component in creating a more functional layout was giving the home interior access to the attached garage. This was important for 2 reasons; one – it rains a lot in seattle so parking in a garage just to walk back outside to get into your home just isn’t reasonable for 9 months of the year; two- the future plan was to utilize a portion of the garage as a studio/home office. While it meant having a rather long corridor which is usually not desirable, this hallway is utilized by the laundry room which is essentially in a closet with double doors that open into the hall creating a very useable space. The raised ceilings and addition of a skylight give the space a more pleasant feel keeping it from becoming cave-like.