A 2005 painting by Clayton Marsh, Horizon: Abstract w/ Lines (detail), hangs in the entry.
Featured Homes
Modern Turns Organic
Brian and Kathy Wolfe transform their 1980s modern country house to make room for their art. Gone are the black tile and low lighting; the Wolfes’ home now has new interior surfaces against which to display an eclectic collection

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At one end of the house’s primary axis, a portal reveals a compelling view of trees.
Brian and Kathy Wolfe moved into their new home in 2001, but they didn’t make any changes for a few years. After all, the unusual, imposing house, designed by architect Roger Newell in the early 1980s, is a powerful piece of architecture.

Rising out of a four-acre site on a wooded hillside overlooking the flower fields near Bow, northwest of Mount Vernon, the unadorned, two-story structure features multiple sharp angles, inside and out—and few of them are the predictable 90 degrees. Nevertheless, the Wolfes loved the house enough to snap it up, settle in and see how it worked. “Except we did add a few doors,” Kathy notes, “because there weren’t any. Not even to the master bathroom.”

As time passed, they noticed drawbacks more serious than a lack of doors. Aside from the home’s early-’80s palette, which included an abundance of shiny black tile and mirrors, and a “Hugh Hefner-inspired” oversize whirlpool tub in the master bedroom, the interiors were poorly lit—a significant problem for the art-collecting Wolfes. Kathy is a docent for the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, and the couple has a large collection of international and Northwest art.

More fundamentally, the circulation was awkward, and “it was a little severe with all the angles,” Kathy says.

The couple wanted the project to be a do-it-yourself fix but quickly realized they were getting in over their heads. Poring over past issues of Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, they admired a house designed by Garrett Kuhlman of H2K Design. Soon the Wolfes had hired the Stanwood-based firm of Kuhlman and partner Wendy Kennedy.

“Most design firms have a ‘look,’ ” notes Kuhlman, “but we try to find our clients’ aesthetic and work with it.” With this project, the designers were thrilled to have the Wolfes’ art collection for inspiration, but they also had to “embrace the angles,” Kennedy says—meaning they had to respect the existing architecture, since it was the strength of that architecture (and the inspired site) that originally appealed to the clients.

The architecture has been duly respected, but the renovation still amounted to major surgery. In the most significant structural change, the designers lowered a large section of the living room, transforming the former dining area into an informal TV-watching den. The designers also cut off one sharply angled corner of the living room, squaring the room with a grid of art-display shelves.

They replaced the glitzy tile-and-mirror fireplace finishes with bronze and sycamore, in keeping with the “organic but textural” quality of the new interiors and the understated, natural-toned furnishings specified by Kennedy.

Every interior surface in the house—white oak floors, granite and mesquite counter tops, cross-grain doors, neutrally painted walls and ceilings—is new. To accommodate the varied ceiling heights, new lighting dramatizes the art collection while warming the once-dim interiors, which now serve as a “subtle background for artwork,” Kuhlman notes.

A new bank of southern-exposure windows in the former family room helps reinvent the space as a dining room at the far end of the house. At the opposite end of the 90-foot-long hallway that serves as the house’s primary axis, the designers removed a stained-glass panel so that clear glass now frames a view of nearby trees. To fill a double-height void above the main entry, Kuhlman and Kennedy suspended a trio of elegant Noguchi lamps.

Upstairs, in the master suite, the giant whirlpool tub was replaced with a more modest model, and a partial wall now screens it from the bedroom. Complementary organic-toned materials supplant mirrors and flash in the master bath.

Throughout the house, artwork has been positioned and illuminated to offer dramatic visual vignettes that serve as counterpoints to the rich views visible through the many windows: distant fields, surrounding forests and sculptures that highlight the newly landscaped grounds.

The house still projects a powerful architectural presence, but it has been immeasurably warmed and transformed into an ideal gathering place—the Wolfes are inveterate hosts and community activists—as well as a showcase for a colorful, eclectic art collection.

Justin Henderson is the author of several books about architecture and design, travel guides and three murder mysteries.

Design Details

INTERIOR DESIGNERS
Garrett Kuhlman and Wendy Kennedy, H2K Design, P.O. Box 1270-10031, SR 532, Ste. B, Stanwood, (360) 939-2085