When a couple wishing to update their Beaverton home approached Garrison Hullinger Interior Design, their goal was to preserve the integrity of an iconic property while lightening up the space and skilfully integrating contemporary elements.
“The house now feels inviting and warm with bright finishes,” explains Nikki Maeda, Lead Interior Designer on the project. “It’s both modern and livable.”
With its glass atrium entrance, midcentury styling, and interior glass sliding doors, the property was characteristic of a classic Robert Rummer dwelling, built in and around Portland during the 1960’s and 70’s. More efficiently lighting the home, with its classically dark spaces required ingenuity. In the kitchen, the design team brightened the work areas despite limited power access with a soffit that pulls electricity from the garage. Can lights were added over the sink, and under cabinet lighting softens the room alongside bright new glossy white cabinetry and crisp ivory Caesarstone.
Distinctive globe lights were repurposed in the dining room alongside new up lighting, which warms the space. A fresh set of built-in walnut shelves along one wall helps seamlessly blend in with the more contemporary surrounding details.
The master suite layout was thoughtfully revised to limit the view of the master bathroom from the front hall. A smartly designed, expanded walk-in closet with a new sliding door provides a place for the homeowners to dress without disrupting one another when alternating schedules require it. Yet another existing globe fixture was refinished in brushed nickel and added, while a long linear LED fixture in the closet elegantly highlights the original dark wood.
An updated master bath vanity integrates plenty of storage below it. In the laundry hallway, the existing washer/dryer set was replaced with a smaller set cleverly hidden behind new cabinet doors. “We added beautiful glass and mirrored mosaic tile in the room, too,” explains Maeda. “It’s a jewelry box of its own now.”
Alison Fedderson, Senior Designer, helped guide the homeowners to update their existing textiles and furniture. “They asked us to freshen up the space to convey more of the modern mid-century style along with added function in larger-scale pieces and more play with colors and textures,” she says. Warm walnut casegoods were placed alongside rich navy upholstery and contemporary patterned pillows and rugs.
Perhaps no part of the remodel better epitomizes the beautiful blending of the old and new than the renovated atrium, which the homeowners hoped would become a more striking focal point. “You enter through the front door into that space,” says Maeda. “It’s the very first impression you have.” The team added new cedar decking and river rock accents, up lighting and patterned concrete tile on one wall. A beloved circular piece of art from the couples’ travels personalizes the area.
“Pops of bright citron show up in the modern, geometric metal chairs there, too,” says Fedderson. “Those are layered alongside a nature-inspired palette.” The result is a magnificent space, inviting and elegant, visible throughout much of the home, that captures the essence of both a historic Rummer house and the unmistakable present.
