WINTER 2023/24 Emilia Callero ADDS SOUL TO SPACES Tricorn Black BRINGS COLOR TO BEND G-Love’s Secret Recipe FOR A WINTER SOUP PARTY Neil Kelly’s Dream Project FOR MULTIGENERATIONAL LIVING What’s Trending: VINTAGE REVAMPS MAKE IT YOURS Homes With Character
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4 | Oregon Home EDITOR’S NOTE ON MY SHELF Uncommon Kitchens: A Revolutionary Approach to the Most Popular Room in the House by Sophie Donelson Abrams Books Vineyard Folk: Creative People and Places of Martha’s Vineyard by Tamara Weiss and Amanda Benchley Abrams Books Midcentury Modern Style: An Approachable Guide to Inspired Rooms by Karen Nepacena and Christopher Dibble Gibbs Smith MAYBE IT DOESN’T surprise you that instead of writing resolutions, my New Year traditions revolve around #housegoals. While everyone else is hitting the gym or trying to change their least favorite habits, all I want to do is dream about the projects my family will take on in the coming year. Is 2024 when we finally decide on a family motto and get it emblazoned in neon for the kitchen? Will this be the year we update our paint from that watery blue in the living room to something a little less out-of-thetube? The possibilities are endless. I’m delighted to report that adding personal touches to spaces is trending — but really, shouldn’t this always be the case? Shouldn’t every home be a natural extension of the people who live there? For our winter issue, we at Oregon Home are taking that idea even further by looking at dreamy projects featuring people leaving an imprint on their spaces. You’ll meet Emilia Callero of Emilia Decor, whose historic home strikes just the right notes between punk and traditional (“Self-Starter Home,” p. 42). And you’ll see a new project in Bend by Heylen Thienes of Tricorn Black, a designer with a knack for adding more life to drab spaces (“Balancing Act,” p. 20). You’ll also encounter what might be the most enviable music room in Portland (“Audio Files,” p. 13), as well as the most perfect soup recipe for your next party (“Chef at Home: G-Love,” p. 66). Whatever your own #housegoals for the New Year, make sure they involve leaving your mark! Emily Grosvenor, Editor editor@oregonhomemagazine.com @emilygrosvenor PHOTO: KAREN OLSON CULT of PERSONALITY
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Oregon Home (ISSN-1536-3201) is published quarterly by MEDIAmerica Inc., at 12570 S.W. 69th Ave. Ste. 102, Portland, OR 97223; 503-445-8811. Send address changes to Oregon Home, 12570 S.W. 69th Ave. Ste. 102, Portland, OR 97223. All rights reserved. Oregon Home is a registered trademark of MEDIAmerica. Copyright ©2023 by MEDIAmerica. Printed in Portland, Oregon. Subscription inquiries should be directed to Oregon Home, 12570 S.W. 69th Ave. Ste. 102, Portland, OR 97223 or call 503-445-8811 (Mon. to Fri., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Pacific Standard Time). TO SUBSCRIBE or change your address online, go to our website, oregonhomemagazine.com. chairman André W. Iseli president/ceo Andrew Insinga secretary William L. Mainwaring treasurer Win McCormack publisher Courtney Tumpane Kutzman editor Emily Grosvenor project manager Greta Hogenstad art director Alison Kattleman contributing writers Jon Bell, Rachel Bucci & Amy Souza contributing photographers Christopher Dibble, Lisa Haukom, Darius Kuzmickas, AJ Meeker, Genny Moller & Zee Wendell staff photographer Jason Kaplan cover photographer Genny Moller copy editor Morgan Stone advertising associates Christine Foe & Evan Morehouse circulation manager Andrew Insinga event manager Craig Peebles controller Bill Lee Also, don’t forget you can get Oregon Home stories right in your inbox. Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter at oregonhomemagazine.com FOLLOW OREGON HOME ON INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK for new articles, updates from the team and peeks behind the scenes. @oregonhomemag Tag us in your home decor photos! #oregonhome
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CONTENTS 10 | Oregon Home 66 42 15 LET’S GO SHOPPING: Get Lit Oregon-made shopping inspiration to light up the darkest days. 13 Audio Files The Northwest Home designs a local business owner a place for listening. 20 Balancing Act Tricorn Black adds personality to a young family’s home in Bend. 73 WHAT’S TRENDING: Soft Skills Vintage furniture gets an upgrade. 66 CHEF AT HOME: G-Love Garrett Benedict throws a soup party. 42 ON THE COVER: Self-Starter Home Emilia Callero found her way into the design world with a 1920 Craftsman. 57 So Happy Together A Neil Kelly remodel creates a dualliving home for two generations. CUSTOM FIT Stories from local experts who help make your home dreams a reality. Metke Remodeling & Luxury Homes Living Large on Lake Oswego Closet Factory Storing Up SORA design Nature, Framed Amy Pearson Design Function With Form Ziebart Construction Distinctive Quality, Transparent Process 25 30 37 48 52 MAKE IT YOURS Homes With Character
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Oregon Home | 13 AN IDEAL MUSIC room requires a balance of great storage, clever curation and understanding of sound. Erica Leader, the designer behind The Northwest Home, accomplished this and more with this music room for Sarah Hefte, the owner of the Pearl music shop Everyday Music. “She really deserved something that showcases her livelihood and her passion,” Leader says. The designer transformed a standard drywall room in the Rose City home into an audiophile’s dream, including custom builtins to accommodate Hefte’s more than 1,000 vinyl records, 8-track tapes, cassettes and CDs. The team worked with local experts at Freddy’s Sound to install a speaker system. A classic Eames recliner was the final design note. “The whole point of a music room is to sit and listen — so it’s worth investing in quality seating,” Leader says. thenorthwesthome.com Oregon Home | 13 PHOTO: AJ MEEKER Audio Files The Norhwes Home designs a local business owner a place for lisening.
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20 | Oregon Home Prop Styling TRACI FRENCH Photography ZEE WENDELL By EMILY GROSVENOR Tricorn Black adds personality to a young family’s home in Bend. BALANCING ACT
Oregon Home | 21 HEYLEN THIENES KNEW the instant she saw the home of her Bend clients that she would have something to bring to the project. The cute, classic Pacific Northwest, builder-grade home located between Bend and Mt. Bachelor was fresh and new — and very, very gray. “That’s not really who they are,” says Thienes, the designer behind the Bend-based interior design firm Tricorn Black. “They really needed those subtle details that fulfill a desire for more without making it feel like it’s too much.” Balance was the key to making this blank slate of a home into a haven of personality for a couple with a newborn who needed it all — stat. He’s an introvert; she’s an extrovert. He prefers minimalism; she’s a maximalist all the way. They both love color — rich, saturated colors and even gem tones that go against the prevailing design aesthetic in Oregon’s High Desert. And they needed it in 1,500 square feet. “Everything was happening for them all at once,” Thienes explains. Thienes started by getting to know them and their needs for this next stage of life. She quickly determined that everything was going to have to do double-duty for the smaller space, and she put together a furnishing plan that worked with some of the larger pieces the couple had brought to the home and had decided to keep. “A side table had to also be a stool, a coffee table had to have storage, a sofa had to be a fold-out for guests,” Thienes says. A balance of saturated color, neutrals and wood textures makes the spaces liveable for people with different personalities and needs.
22 | Oregon Home Wallpaper on one wall creates a cool Zoom background in a bedroom while not overwhelming the entire space.
But her greatest feat was balancing the two personalities of the couple, whose design requirements seemed, in the beginning, at odds. “They really wanted to meet in the middle of their preferences for color and texture,” Thienes says. “And we thought a lot about soft corners for future toddlers.” Thienes might have been the best person to accomplish this. The designer, also a mom, spent seven years flipping houses in the high desert before going back to school at Heritage School of Interior Design. Now she is establishing herself as a color maven in a market where many designers work in neutrals. “People used to be so focused on keeping things neutral and not doing anything that would affect the resale of the home,” Thienes says. “But at the end of the day, this is your home and your space — it’s important to bring that personality into it, because it’s going to make it more comfortable and more you.” One way the team accomplished this was by working in the living room, where a fireplace took up a lot of the space. Thienes toned down the size of the feature by using a dark, moody color on the walls and adding an original art piece of Fort Rock State Natural Area by Richard James Yozamp. “Instead of being this giant fireplace, the entire area becomes more unified,” Thienes says. She also brought in the couple’s personality through a curated selection of objects and by incorporating one of the homeowner’s knitted works, which are soft and bright and add a great pop of color. The couple got a fun new Zoom background when Thienes added the Cole & Son “Forest” wallpaper to a bedroom. Small changes added up to a big impact for the couple, like in their dining room, where all they changed was the light fixture and the dining room table. “We kept the penguin decals on the windows,” Thienes says. “I love keeping things like that — this is really how we live.” tricornblack.com A curated shelf feels timeless while nodding to the couple’s embrace of the period of life they are in. A new teak dining table by Ethnicraft and pendant light by Bend company Wood Lighting Design completely transformed the dining room. Heylen Thienes of Tricorn Black Original art by high desert painter Richard James Yozamp, of Fort Rock, is a daily reminder of the couple’s love of the outdoors.
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Oregon Home | 25 CUSTOM FIT: Metke Remodeling & Luxury Homes WITH THEIR DAUGHTERS off to college, new empty-nesters Bill and Lisa Sewell returned home to Oregon, scooping up a 1950s fixer on Lake Oswego’s west bay. Though the lot was tight (5,000 square feet), they were up to the task of creating a lakefront cottage, one where friends and family would feel right at home. “The original home was essentially a teardown,” recalls Crystal Elder, interior architect with Metke Remodeling & Luxury Homes. “The goal was to rebuild it as a modern home with a cottage-type feel and do it all in about 3,000 square feet of living space.” This became a true test of Metke’s prowess. New empty-nesters downsize into their dream home. LIVING LARGE on Lake Oswego by RACHEL BUCCI
26 | Oregon Home A Tried-And-True Blueprint While the specifications were straightforward, the Sewells had a distinct vision. They craved the same layout as their California home but in a more compact form. “We have two dogs, two cats, and two girls who come home for holidays and the summer. I wanted them to feel like this was their home,” says Lisa. “We knew what we wanted it to feel like, and Metke really listened to that vision.” Metke Remodeling & Luxury Homes, known for its precision, approached the project with functionality at the forefront. The three-story home, limited to 32 feet in height, focused on the main floor as the workhorse. “To maximize livable space, there are no real hallways. One space connects to the next. The kitchen is all straight lines, and the great room allows for flexible furniture arrangements,” says Elder, who made clever use of every nook and cranny with built-in cabinets and benches, and expanded the living space outdoors. The result is an inviting home that lives larger than its footprint.
Oregon Home | 27 Clean Design Lets Style Shine Knowing the couple wanted to spotlight art and treasures acquired through thrifting and travels (Lisa is a travel agent), Elder kept the finishes simple. Walls are white, and wideplank oak flooring adds texture and a subtle rustic touch. Ceiling beams are also painted white for an airy feel, and a hand-hewn mantel floats above the white fireplace. Large windows flood the space with light and provide unobstructed lake views. Calcutta marble tops the kitchen island, and a neutral tile backsplash adds texture but doesn’t steal the show. Instead, the spotlight is on a pair of oversize woven pendant lights sourced by Lisa at the Pasadena swap meet, and an eye-catching nickel and black faucet. Accordion doors open onto a covered deck, nearly doubling the functional space of the main floor. The stairwell to the upstairs is a gallery of whimsical artwork by friends and family; many light fixtures in the home were fabricated by artist and family friend Chris Buzzell, of LA-based Buzzell Studios, whose chandelier above the dining table glows with 10 handblown-glass orbs. “It’s a new home, but it was important to have our love of old things mixed with new,” says Lisa. Comfortable Spaces for Family and Friends Elder gave the daylight basement a speakeasy vibe with paneled walls, dark cabinetry and matte black quartz counters. The moody hangout space is fit for a lively party or a quiet night at the game table. A cycling theme — a nod to one of Bill’s hobbies — shows up in a cheeky vintage racing poster the family brought home from France. A roll-up door opens onto an expansive waterfront deck, and an adjacent soundproof rehearsal room gives Bill a dedicated space to jam with his band. There’s also a home office and bathroom on this level. On the upper floor, the girls’ bedrooms are each decorated in a way that reflects their personal style, while the primary suite is bathed in calming neutrals set against a view of the lake. “We’ve really had a nice welcome back home. Our friends and family feel good here,” says Lisa. “And we actually prefer this house to the one in California because we use almost every inch of it.” metkeremodeling.com
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30 | Oregon Home CUSTOM FIT: Closet Factory SINCE THEY BECAME the owners of the Closet Factory in Tualatin in July, Karen and Chris McIlmoil have become very familiar with a particular three-letter word: Wow. “Every client who comes in and sees the finished project in their home, they all say the same thing — ‘Wow,’” says Chris. “Every time.” They’re saying it because of the aesthetics of their new closet or storage system, the design, the materials, the speed of installation — everything about it creates a moment of delight. And that’s just what the McIlmoils are aiming to achieve at Closet Factory. The husband-and-wife team may be somewhat new to owning their own franchise, but they’re hardly new to the company. Karen’s father, John La Barbera, started Closet Factory in California in 1983 when Karen was 9 years old. She later worked for the company in college. Fast-forward a few decades, and Karen and Chris were looking for a new opportunity after Chris sold his longtime veterinarian practices to a large corporation. The Tualatin franchise of Closet Factory wasn’t for sale at the time, but putting the bug in the owner’s ear eventually paid off, and the McIlmoils acquired it at the end of July. The couple also owns a second, complementary business, Wall Beds of Oregon. Karen says what they’ve enjoyed the most has been working The family-owned Closet Factory takes home storage to a whole new, local — and custom — level. BY JON BELL
Oregon Home | 31 with each individual client and hearing their unique stories. One client who’d recently become a widow had Closet Factory design an entertainment center that would showcase her late husband’s love of books and reading; another was a tattoo artist with a global tattoo-supplies company who needed a closet storage space done quickly and with little disruption to the family. “We meet the most amazing people,” Karen says. Since taking ownership, the McIlmoils, along with their five children — all of whom help in the business — have been focused on producing that familiar “wow” for their clients. The local, family-owned company specializes in custom closet systems, including walk-in closets, reach-in closets, dressing rooms and wardrobes. Closet Factory also builds custom systems for home offices, garages, entertainment centers, laundry rooms and pantries, as well as specialty areas like wine storage, home libraries and mud rooms. They do commercial spaces as well. A common need for many clients is combining spaces. “Many people have a spare bedroom and would like to turn the space into a home office but don’t want to lose a bed for their guests,” Karen says. “A wall bed with custom cabinetry, such as a nightstand, desk, bookshelves and wardrobe with doors can solve the dilemma in an elegant way.” Several attributes set Closet Factory apart from other closet companies. For starters, Karen’s father, an engineer, designed his systems to be floor-based rather than wall-based. The result is a
32 | Oregon Home stronger, sturdier system. “When he started out, my dad wanted to build a better way,” Karen says, “so he built from the floor up so that all of the weight is evenly distributed on the floor and not hanging on the wall. The systems are heavy, and once all the clothes and shoes are loaded in them, they can be as heavy as a refrigerator. You would not want to hang a fridge on your wall.” Closet Factory also offers extensive custom painting and staining that most others don’t. Unlike other closet companies that have limited selections, Closet Factory carries close to 70 different colors of melamine — the laminated particle board used in construction — and can use natural-wood panels that can be painted or stained to the client’s preference. The company, which uses 99% Oregon- and Washington-made materials, has its shop right behind the showroom in Tualatin, so everything is done locally, which also allows for a quick installation time of just a day or two. “We control the whole process from beginning to end,” Karen says. “Every point of contact that the client has along the way is an employee of Closet Factory.” Closet Factory’s process is custom, too. Prospective clients set up a free, in-home consultation with one of the company’s designers. The designer talks to the client about their needs, their style, their budget and other details before coming up with a design. Every space is different, and each has its own challenges and opportunities. The process also includes meticulous measuring and inventorying. Karen says every item of clothing and every pair of shoes gets measured or counted. Designers have to account for obstacles like outlets and sprinklers; in some cases, they’ll even measure the width of a client’s feet with their shoes on to make sure they design a shoe shelf that is just the right size. “We want to make sure we are maximizing the space so we can store all their items,” Karen says. “It really does take a lot of thoughtfulness. It’s a jigsaw puzzle mixed with sudoku and design, but we love that process. We are building it just for you.” closetfactory.com Closet Factory owners Chris and Karen McIlmoil help clients choose the perfect surfaces and hardware for their project from samples in their showroom.
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Oregon Home | 37 CUSTOM FIT: SORA design SORA design creates a gallery of vistas in a custom Northwest home. BY JON BELL NATURE, FRAMED ONE VIEW IS a perfectly framed green forest out over a grassy slope. Another captures a serene Japanese garden with feathery bamboo and gray, rugged boulders. And yet another showcases one of the signature features that all but defines the Pacific Northwest: 12,276-foot Mt. Adams, in all of its soaring, snowy glory. These are the views out the windows of a stunning home designed by Portland’s SORA design — vistas so masterfully seized in the glass that they appear as landscape paintings on the wall of a gallery. “The idea of the house began with the clients’ primary objective — to take advantage of the breathtaking view to the northeast,” says Akiko Arai, who founded SORA with her husband, Katsuya. “While the active views toward the mountains are dramatic, the long passive views through the house are soothing to the eye.”
38 | Oregon Home Capturing these territorial views was an obvious focus for Akiko and Katsuya, who earned their graduate degrees in architecture and worked on their first projects in New York City before relocating to Portland four years ago. And they had a lot to work with: The site sits on a scenic stretch of land in rural Ridgefield, Wash., with Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood in the distance. They designed the home to have not only large, revealing windows but long corridors that extend the line of sight throughout the home and lead to views of the natural surroundings. Less obvious — and more challenging — was designing the home to incorporate the varying styles of the married homeowners. The husband is Japanese American and wanted aspects of the home that reflected his heritage. His wife longed for the comfort and welcoming feeling of more traditional Western architecture. “There are little pockets where there is one or the other,” Katsuya says. “The spaces take cues from both aesthetics and come together to make a house that both can call a home.” Akiko and Katsuya achieved that balance in several ways. For starters, there is an area near the front door for removing shoes — long a tradition in Asian households — as well as a meditative garden and a Japanese bathing room. In the latter is a soaking tub and slats hung on the wall made from Port Orford cedar, a fragrant regional wood that was also used in the home’s engawa, a Japanese-style wraparound deck. The homeowners went with a neutral palette, cedar siding and glulam beams that give off warm tones. This was a mutually agreed-upon direction that aesthetics of both Eastern and Western architecture could share. The kitchen mixes traditional detail with contemporary language to bring scale and approachability to the space. “It’s modern, but we didn’t want it to feel stark,” Akiko says.
Oregon Home | 39 “The overall palette is neutral, so there’s lots of room for them to grow in the space.” SORA’s approach also segmented the home into what Akiko calls multiple volumes, separated by the long corridors that welcome in natural light. There’s a gym and office, the living room, kitchen and dining area on the main level. Another volume is home to the primary suite, and the lower level was carved out for a reading nook, a family room and kids’ bedrooms. These different volumes serve a practical purpose inside but also add to the home’s exterior appearance. “Outside, the layering of volumes and material adds depth and interest,” Katsuya says. “The simple rooflines are dramatic, and there are unique perspectives from all sides of the house.” Those kinds of unique perspectives — and incorporating oneof-a-kind views — is what SORA strives for in all its projects. “We hope to achieve timeless architecture,” Akiko says. “We like to design simple and intentional spaces that come to life with the owners’ individuality when they occupy them. We design homes custom to each person.” sora-design.info Katsuya and Akiko Arai
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42 | Oregon Home SELF-STARTER A Portland designer found her way into the design world with a 1920 Craftsman. By EMILY GROSVENOR Photography by GENNY MOLLER and LISA HAUKOM Styling by COLLEEN MOTE ~ ~
Oregon Home | 43 PERFECT PLACEMENT: ABOVE THE MANTLE and Jake Creviston first entered the Portland real estate market in 2016, they had certain expectations about how it was going to go. The city was in one of its hottest real estate bubbles in history, and properties were going in two days, with several offers. The couple had planned to search for a few months before landing the right place, but they ending up touring — and eventually buying — one house. It was a bank-owned, “marked” property in North Portland’s Arbor Lodge neighborhood where the owner, a vet, had died by suicide. “Most people are really spooked by that,” says Callero, the lead for the interior design firm Emilia Decor. “We weren’t.” Most historic homes need a lot of love — but Callero and Creviston might have been the best, most qualified people for the job. At the time, Callero was a budding interior designer eager for an all-consuming project she could use to build her portfolio. Her husband, Jake, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who was working with veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. He also loves to build and was ready to take on major DIY house projects. “The whole place felt like it needed an injection of something,” Callero says. “I wanted a place where I could really get my hands dirty and learn.” The first room they tackled was the kitchen — which was really just a closed-in butler’s pantry about the size of a closet. It HOME When Emilia Callero
44 | Oregon Home had no cabinetry, no room to move around, so they took it down to its studs, completely redid the floor plan and opened up the space. Today it’s a place of love and light perfect for a young family life (they are also parents to children Olive, 5, and Lucca, 2). In the living room, they peeled off red-and-white circus tent wallpaper and added a large globe pendant light. Callero found workarounds for the Craftsman’s storage limitations by reupholstering an IKEA bench for the kids’ gloves and hats. In the library, they added built-in bookshelves with their own lighting system designed by Creviston. He also styled their stairwell at the back of the home with cheeky black-and-white photography. They set up the main living room to be a calm space where their daughter can play “office” and the whole family can have second breakfast on the weekends. As they shape their spaces, the couple has been figuring out how to meld their very different styles and persuasions, much the way a couple might find balance in a marriage therapist’s office. Hers is a playful mix of modern, traditional, global and bohemian, and his is a little punk rock. “He’s way more edgy than me,” Callero says. “He grew up in mosh pits, and I was that dreamy kid over there reading books in the sun.” Callero might throw Grandma’s handmade lace on the dining room table, while Creviston paints all of the trim in the upstairs black. Callero will pick a muted graphic wallpaper inspired by her time living in Mexico,
Oregon Home | 45 “I wanted a house where I could get my hands dirty and just really learn,” Callero says.
46 | Oregon Home Callero loves working with juxtapositions and things that are eccentric — which tell a deeper story and have soul.
Oregon Home | 47 while Creviston hangs a skateboard on the wall. It all works — an eclectic mix that feels personal and soulful. “I see this with every couple I work with,” Callero says. “Every single time, the couples learn about what they each like and how they each relate to things like color and pattern.” Callero, who is self-taught, has seen her own style grow and change throughout the process. With kids in the home, she’s less in love with open shelving in the kitchen — “Never again, for me,” she says — and more confident and bold in how she sees and uses color in her designs. Her overall color palette has changed a bit, but not her intuition with color, something that attracts clients to her design work. “I’m always drawn to color — across the spectrum of tones and hues,” Callero says. And living with someone who has his own aesthetic drives and desires — and who works as a therapist — has given them both a great understanding about the everchanging conversation that needs to happen about how to occupy a home in a partnership. Callero has built those discussions into her design process, always starting with those crucial conversations necessary to really get to know her clients. “Design is kind of like marriage,” Callero says. “We are never like: Oh, we got it, we figured out your style and my style and how to blend it. It’s been great to just realize that we’re always going to be tweaking things, in every house we live in, forever.” emiliadecor.com “You can get a degree, but that doesn’t really change the way I see the world and the way I express myself and the way that I help people,” Callero says, on being self-taught.
48 | Oregon Home CUSTOM FIT: Amy Pearson Design Interior designer Amy Pearson helps restore functionality and charm to a 1907 Portland home. by JON BELL THERE WAS A time when a particular home in Southeast Portland dripped with architectural charm. Built in 1907, the Buckman Classic is a blend between Victorian and Craftsman styles, boasting intricate siding details redolent of San Francisco’s famous “Painted Ladies” but with cleaner lines. However, over the years, a series of what interior designer Amy Pearson calls “unfortunate remodels” stripped the home not only of its original details but also its functionality. Bringing that all back is just the kind of challenge that Pearson likes to take on. “I really love the architecture side of design, the space planning, the finishes, figuring out what an appliance can do to improve my clients’ daily lives,” Pearson says. “And making a space function better is my favorite part.” FUNCTION with FORM
Oregon Home | 49 A Portland designer who specializes largely in residential remodels, Pearson says the Buckman clients’ main request for remodeling the kitchen and upstairs bathroom was a common one. “They needed more space,” she says. “That’s a pretty regular request — clients often need their space to live bigger, but we need to stay within the existing walls.” Before the remodel, the kitchen had very little counter space and limited cabinetry. A bulky refrigerator ate up a sizeable chunk of the room. Upstairs, the bathroom had only a pedestal sink and no usable counter space. And an odd nook once used for a stacked washer and dryer offered little functional space. Pearson’s design for the refreshed kitchen included beautiful Pratt + Larson tile throughout and new custom cabinets. On a previously blank wall, new cabinets offer functional storage, countertop workspace and hidden microwave storage. At the far-end wall of the kitchen, updated windows are flanked by two tower storage cabinets with counter space and seating between. Below the countertops on one side is a set of drawers; below the other is a custom dog-feeding station with a wallmount pot filler for topping off a water bowl. (Though the homeowners’ dog, Lenny, passed before the remodel was completed, the station is ready for a new friend when the owners are.) “The refrigerator placement posed the biggest challenge in the space,” Pearson says. To solve it, Pearson and her team opted to remove an old, nonfunctioning chimney running through the walls from the basement to the roof. Taking it out opened up a perfect cavity for the refrigerator. “That was one of the really cool installation elements of the project,” Pearson says. “The refrigerator is recessed into the wall and visually went away!” Losing the chimney also created space upstairs for a new linen closet.
50 | Oregon Home But it was the primary bathroom that needed most of the attention upstairs. The clients had wished for a larger shower, more storage and, if possible, two sinks. Pearson delivered all of that, as well as a custom floral tile design on the floor. “Oftentimes when I leave a space, I have an idea what our solution may be,” she says. “We go back to the office and draw out the space like Tetris pieces and just see what we can move around to make the room function better.” The project also included a cosmetic refresh of a powder bathroom downstairs, which Pearson described as “its own little jewel box of a space.” Unlike the white trim throughout the rest of the house, Pearson went with a black ceiling and trim in the powder bath. In a nod to the home’s original charm, Pearson and team went with a new cheeky wallpaper — a modern take on toile — depicting safari animals at a cocktail party. Pearson says the whole project went smoothly, in part because of the collaborative approach she likes to take with her clients. It’s not about Pearson coming up with a design but how she collaborates with clients to tailor one for them. That’s something that this client noticed. “She turned to me at one point and said, ‘You are our design sherpa!’” Pearson says. “I thought that was the sweetest way to describe how we work with our clients. It’s not about us, it’s about them. Our job is to guide them to an end design that speaks to them and their story.” She also attributes the success of the project to the incredible working relationship she and her team have established with the general contractor, Creative Design & Construction, and all of their trade partners. “We all agree that it takes a team to get to the end of a perfectly completed project,” Pearson says, “and we all have so much respect for what everyone brings to the project!" amypearsondesign.com
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52 | Oregon Home CUSTOM FIT: Ziebart Construction DISTINCTIVE QUALITY, TRANSPARENT PROCESS WHEN PEGGY AND Eugene Bartman bought their Hillsboro home in 2022, they knew they wanted to change its early 2000s feel to make it lighter and brighter and take advantage of current trends. The 1700-square-foot house had been well maintained but not updated. After researching three local companies, the couple chose Ziebart Construction to handle their downstairs renovation — kitchen, living room, dining room, front bath, primary bath, primary bedroom, main stairway, laundry room and flooring throughout. BY AMY SOUZA ZIEBART CONSTRUCTION BRINGS MID-PRICE POINT LUXURY REMODELS TO GREATER PORTLAND HOMEOWNERS.
Oregon Home | 53 “Ziebart explained their process, services and fees. How they approached renovation made sense to us,” says Peggy. “Our project manager [Eric Zappe] was exceptionally good at his job. He was a key person in having our renovation turn out as well as it did.” Matt Ziebart grew up in the construction industry and followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father as a carpenter and general contractor. “Any lifelong professional remodeler can get the beautiful end result the clients want — the real challenge is delivering an amazing process and price,” he says. Prior to launching this company, Ziebart worked in the luxury designbuild industry, which has the results and process everyone wants, just not the price. “I knew how to deliver the process and the results. I set out to discover how to do it all at the mid-price point.” He realized that homeowners had to choose between either “overspending” with luxury firms for a low-risk process, guaranteed fixed prices and a professional design team or roll the dice with “free-estimate contractors,” of which there are thousands in Oregon, providing variable and vague estimates. “That’s where the light bulb went off and I said, ‘Well, I know how to do the luxury design-build company model and have all the contacts. So why don’t we just pull our profit margins down and give the clients what they want.’ That became my obsession — to create the perfect client remodeling experience at a mid-priced point.” Ziebart Construction launched in 2018 and, within just a few years, was the largest full-service kitchen and bath remodeling company in Portland, Ziebart says. The company’s fully transparent pricing, awardwinning design team and team of exceptional subcontractors has led to many happy customers, and Ziebart finds himself getting rave reviews and continuous business with little marketing effort. “We created an entire new segment in the industry — giving homeowners what they want at the price they want,” Ziebart says. “My wife and I were excited after the first year when we realized that the idea worked — homeowners loved the mid-priced luxury model. It took some time to figure out how to make a profit, however, with the key being to do a high volume of work.” Every client gets a three-person team: an initial sales design consultant, a designer and finally a project manager — with responsibilities for different phases as a project progresses. The first consultation in the home determines scope and price range. A week later, homeowners have
54 | Oregon Home a discovery day at the Ziebart design center in Lake Oswego, where they review designs and look at materials, but by then the price has already been set. Clients also are allowed unlimited changes during the design phase. Well-thought-out processes and technology help the company maintain a high volume — anywhere from 75 to 125 simultaneous jobs. Materials get delivered to the Ziebart design center, where designers open each box and do a quality-control check, even checking dye-lot patterns, to ensure everything matches and meets a designer’s standards before anything gets moved to a building site. “We have pretty tight deadlines and have to be really organized,” says Ziebart. “Most professionals have experienced doing a full cabinet or flooring install and then realizing a difference in wood color or density. Just by opening all of those boxes, we eliminate a lot of dead days during production.” In addition, the company uses Buildertrend software, with a client app that displays a project’s live schedule, even showing which subcontractors will arrive on a particular day. Still, some homeowners often prefer to call or text their project manager to get details. “I try to go above and beyond,” says Eric Zappe, project manager at Ziebart. “Sometimes I answer my phone up until 9:00 p.m. All my customers know if they need something or if there’s a problem, they can call me and I’ll figure it out.” Matt Ziebert sometimes still puts on a tool bag and heads to a job site, but these days he focuses more on business operations. “I’m a builder at heart. As much as I love building and remodeling houses, I also love building a business that supports families in the community and supports the whole ecosystem that surrounds us. The Bartman family is a perfect example of my favorite types of clients. They are amazing people who wanted to age in place and needed a low-risk full remodel at a mid-price. They chose to trust us with their investment in their home and it turned out quite well.” ziebartconstruction.com Designers: Danielle Van Leuvan and Abe Werber Project manager: Eric Zappe Subcontractors: MD Plumbing, Portland Millwork, Multi-Phase Electric, QMarvin Painting LLC, Xpert Construction Contractors (flooring) and Gaston LLC (tile)
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Oregon Home | 57 So Happy Together A Neil Kelly remodel creates a dual-living home for two generations. By EMILY GROSVENOR Photography by DARIUS KUZMICKAS
58 | Oregon Home THERE WAS SO much to recommend the 1960s contemporary in the Southwest hills — three separate floors, 4,275 square feet of living space and beautiful views of Portland from the Southwest Hills. But it was going to need some work before it could be the perfect place for a couple and a parent seeking a shared living space. “Working with them was a lot of fun,” says Tonya Bellusci, interior designer for the Portland design and build company Neil Kelly, of her clients. “They are very stylish people and they really knew what they wanted.” BEFORE More families are choosing to live in multigenerational homes, and converting these spaces poses particular design challenges. First there are the functional needs of those involved and the accommodations necessary for aging in place. Then there is the aspect of combining the design aesthetic of two separate generations. Bellusci’s task was to modernize the space by updating the materials, simplifying the home’s overall appearance, providing efficient storage and making it livable for the family where they were. But she also needed to make it beautiful. “They really were one client together with a range of needs,” Bellusci says. “But they did have similar tastes that meet traditional and modern.” For the couple, Bellusci focused on opening up the space and Removing a peninsula and enlarging the kitchen island created a simple yet dramatic space for shared living. Closed, floor-to-ceiling dark cabinetry expands storage without cluttering the space.
Oregon Home | 59 BEFORE
BEFORE An eat-in kitchenette provides just enough room for comfort and independence. BEFORE A patterned stair runner adds a bit of excitement between floors.
Oregon Home | 61 BEFORE Higher counter levels, walk-in showers, and better lighting help accommodate older residents. BEFORE creating flow by replacing a peninsula with an island in the kitchen and installing new cabinetry. She tied the range hood into the backsplash to make it feel seamless and provide a stunning backdrop for the kitchen. The designer also transformed the couple’s primary suite by adding a connection to the owner’s bathroom while keeping it accessible to a guest bedroom. For the older resident’s space, the clients wanted a warmer feel in the partial kitchen, as well as specific accommodations for older residents. Bellusci employed classic tenets of aging-in-place design while keeping the finishes beautiful. “Every aspect of the design prepares the space for what might happen down the road,” Bellusci says. “But you don’t want to put pieces in that will give you that hospital feel.” The plan called for widening the doorways and installing hard surfaces to ease movement between spaces. She added ample lighting, as well as grab bars in the shower. She also built structure into the walls so that a chair lift could be installed down the line, if necessary. When the family moved in, Bellusci could feel it all sing. “That’s my favorite part of the process,” she says, “when the clients bring in all of their personal things and it all comes together.” neilkelly.com A new position for the homeowner's bed creates a better view of the Portland cityscape.
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Oregon Home | 67 GARRETT BENEDICT THROWS A SOUP PARTY. CHEF AT HOME: G-Love WHEN HE MAKES SOUP for friends and family, chef Garrett Benedict knows exactly what he wants. “I like a tomato base for richness of flavor and balanced acidity,” says the chef behind the vegetable-forward PDX restaurant G-Love. “But anything made with love will be a hit!” The chef first learned this ribollita recipe — the perfect winter soup — while working at Ubuntu in the Napa Valley. The key, he says, is achieving richness in flavor through deeply caramelized vegetables. “It’s vegan — but you’d never know it,” he says. Serve it with mushroom toast for a full seasonal delight.
68 | Oregon Home Ribollita (Serves 4) • 1 qt small white beans, soaked in water overnight For the sachet: • Splash of olive oil • 1 lemon, washed and halved • 1 medium carrot, cut into 1/2-inch rings • 2 stalks celery, cut similar size • 1 large yellow onion, cut similar size • 2 sprigs rosemary • 10 sprigs thyme Preparation: While the beans are soaking, cut the veggies. Heat a large pan until it is smoking hot with a drizzle of olive oil. Add the lemon, cut side down, to the pan; cook until charred black. Add the veggies and stir. Cook until the vegetables are charred as well; you want them darkly caramelized but not as black as the lemon. Turn off the heat on the pan, add the herbs and let cool to room temperature. Tie vegetables in a little bundle with cheesecloth; if you don't have cheesecloth, you will just have to pick out the vegetables and herbs after you cook the beans. Add the vegetable bundle and the beans to a large pot and add enough water to cover by 1 inch. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender and creamy on the inside, 1 to 2 hours. When the beans are done, let them cool to room temperature in the cooking liquid, and season with a hefty pinch of salt. This liquid becomes the base of the soup. To finish the soup: • 2 C olive oil • 3 C carrot, diced small (1/4-inch cubes) • Pinch of salt • 3 C yellow onion, diced small • 3 C celery, diced small • 1/2 C garlic, peeled and minced • 4 sprigs rosemary, minced • 1 14-oz. can peeled Roma tomatoes, blended coarsely • 1 bunch kale, cut into 1/2-inch pieces • 2 T cracked black pepper • 1 t coriander Preparation: Heat the olive oil in a large pot over high heat until it begins to smoke. Add the carrots carefully, and stir to distribute in the oil. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes with the heat still on high until the carrots just start to get a little darker in color. Add a pinch of salt, then add the onions. Cook the onions for 3 to 5 minutes, just until they start to pick up a little color. Add the celery and another pinch of salt; cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to distribute evenly. Cook the garlic for about 3 minutes until it no longer smells raw. Add the rosemary and fry for 1 minute. Add the blended tomato and stir. Cook the tomato for about 5 minutes, still on high heat, until the tomato has started to reduce and doesn't smell raw anymore. Add the kale; stir and let cook for just a minute or so, until it has wilted. Add the beans and their liquid to the pot and bring to a simmer, stirring the bottom of the pot to avoid scorching. Add a pinch of salt and about 2 T of cracked black pepper. Add 1 teaspoon of ground coriander. Cook over medium-low heat at a low simmer for about 45 minutes to 1 hour; you want the flavor to meld together but don’t want to cook the beans too much. After an hour, add some fresh lemon juice and more salt or black pepper as needed. If time permits, let the flavors meld overnight.
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