We collaborated with architect John Dearth and interior designer Susan Marinello to update and redefine a grand Mediterranean-style home on Lake Washington, sprucing up the exterior, transforming the interior, and improving home’s connection to the water.
The goal inside was to improve the connection between spaces and to reshape some of the primary spaces so that they felt more comfortable. This involved bringing the largest spaces down to human scale, for instance, by adding a frieze molding at 11 feet in the over 20-foot-high living room, so your eye would rest there. Throughout the interior, we paid careful attention to moldings, casework, paneling, and trim, as these would add detail you could feel.
Fine details, whether in wood, stone or plaster, were an opportunity for our master carpenters to work alongside skilled craftsmen in other fields. On a given day during the height of construction, you might find one of our lead carpenters, plane in hand, shaving a fraction of an inch from a piece of molding, while masons install a flamed limestone fireplace mantel and an artisan applies Venetian plaster to a wall.
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The house sits so close to the lake that being inside makes you feel like you’re on a boat. New steel-and-glass doors in the living room further strengthen the connection, expanding the view and opening out to a gracious lakeside terrace.