Originally published Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 7:02 PM
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Northwest Living
Chadbourne + Doss create Seattle home for art and entertaining
The homeowners, advocates of urban density, are committed to their Mount Baker neighborhood, enjoying the vibrancy of it, the people, the restaurants. What they wanted in their home, and got, were lots of white walls for art, a real kitchen for real cooking, space for family and friends, a light-industrial look that included rusted steel, and open access to the charm-packed backyard
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BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The exterior is Corten steel, glass and cedar. "The form was generated primarily because they wanted a lot of art and privacy on a tight urban lot," says architect Daren Doss. "So the scheme sets up two high walls for an interior where the experience and view come from the ends of the house." See more Chadbourne + Doss work at www.chadbournedoss.com
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The open living spaces make entertaining easy in a modest-sized home. "We like to do dinners for 10 or 12 people at a time," owner Dan Robinet says. The view is sky high, with windows running to the second-story ceiling 19 feet up. The artwork painted directly on the wall by Chris Buening has been replaced by a new piece. The owners plan to have him return periodically to remake the space.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Chopper makes her way to the back of the house past the kitchen. The cabinets are European birch plywood rubbed with graphite powder and sprayed with polyurethane. The couple wanted no overhead cabinets. Overhead storage and the refrigerator are tucked behind the wall on the left.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The new installation includes block of aerial photographs of Puget Sound that Buening doodled into individual pictures using pen, ink, Sharpies and Wite-Out.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
"The house was made for art," says Robinet. And this mixed-media mural by Seattle artist Chris Buening, which travels across the door to the office, has been done right on the wall. The homeowners threw it a debut party last spring. See more of his work at www.chrisbuening.com
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The couple lived in the old row house for four years before taking it down to the foundation. During construction they lived in a basement in the Green Lake neighborhood. Their new home is full of light and views, as seen in this view from the back.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
"We're huge TV watchers," Robinet says. And now they have a huge TV to watch, on a track and pivot for viewing from the living, dining room or kitchen. The kitchen counter is mill-finish stainless-steel plate.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The little house has a grand entrance with the open custom steel staircase just off the front door. The staircase and perforated-steel fireplace, left, shield the living spaces from street view. Industrial baking pans, right, hold phones, keys, glasses and other whatnots. The encaustic is by Caite Dheere of Victoria, B.C.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Robinet's partner made the steel coffee table and dining table downstairs, among other metal pieces throughout the home. The big white walls are blank canvases for art to come. Upstairs holds two bedrooms and a bath. The plywood half wall is a low library.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
A small office just off the front door offers a view of the neighborhood. The built-in desk is made from a door. This Chris Buening piece has been replaced by a new work. The owners plan to have him return periodically to remake the space.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
"We did green where green made sense for us," Robinet says. The floors, with radiant heat, are reclaimed walnut with an OSMO finish. Paint is no-VOC. The painting at the foot of the bed in the guest room is by Chris Buening.
BENJAMIN BENSCHNEIDER / THE SEATTLE TIMES
The cabinets are European birch plywood rubbed with graphite powder. The counter is Slatescape, a fiber-cement combination used for lab countertops. Sedums grow beneath a skylight and in old commercial baking pans. The shower, left, is Milestone. The window is frosted on the lower half for privacy. The painting is by Seattle artist Joey Veltkamp.
IF YOUR house could be a vegetable, what would it be?
Yes, it's a real question. Yes, you should think about it.
Dan Robinet did. A beet. He and his partner came up with a beet. And it was the seed from which sprouted their new contemporary box of a home in Mount Baker.
"We love beets. We love the color, the saturation," he says. "And if you're going to work with beets it's messy."
So, Beet House it is, their cool home of glass and rusted metal rising from the foundation of what had been an old row house.
The veggie question was just one among 12 pages of them that the couple got from Daren Doss and Lisa Chadbourne in a getting-to-know-you interview. From it the architects learned what music their clients like, which room they use most in the mornings, their definition of a party. And on like that.
"We took an AIA class about how to choose an architect," Robinet says. "We interviewed maybe five architects. But Daren and Lisa were the only ones to take us to their office. It's really cool and contemporary; barn doors and corrugated walls. We walked away with a lot more confidence about what they had to offer, and they sent us away with the interview.
"They asked some Barbara Walters kind of questions in there, but within three designs the house was done," he says. "We didn't have to spend a lot of time having to teach them about us."
The pair, advocates of urban density, are committed to Mount Baker, enjoying the vibrancy of their neighborhood, the people, the restaurants. What they wanted in their home, and got, were lots of white walls for art, a real kitchen for real cooking, space for family and friends, a light-industrial look that included rusted steel, and open access to the charm-packed backyard garden by Allison Greene of Greene Garden Design. On a modest budget (they assembled the cabinets and finished the floors themselves). The home was built by Fackler Construction.
"We like to cook. We like to cook together, but we cook differently," says Robinet, resting a hand on the steel counter. "I stir. He preps and walks away. I make the risotto. He makes the roast." Eighteen flavors of jam line a shelf over the fridge.
The house stands tall in its neighborhood of bungalows, but does not impose. It sits on the original foundation, 1,450 square feet of space over two floors. The blackened-steel staircase, rising in full street view, gives the modest-sized house a big feel.
The art show begins immediately at the glass front door with a large, mixed-media mural in three dimensions done right on the wall by artist and friend Chris Buening. Aerial photographs of Puget Sound are enhanced with doodles in pen, ink, Sharpies and Wite-Out. In beet purple. The couple threw it a party when the piece was completed last spring.
Robinet has a fondness for his home not unlike his feelings for the family cat, Chopper. "This is a house of simple materials. There was no ego involved," he says.
Cabinets are Ikea interiors with birch plywood fronts rubbed with graphite powder. Floors are reclaimed walnut. The built-in wine rack formerly was used to hold nuts and bolts. The desk in the front-window office is a door.
The architects knew their clients well. Not so much their mothers.
Peering out of the shower room's large picture window high over the neighborhood, Robinet notes a small adjustment for modesty's sake. "If we didn't frost the glass up to here," he says, marking a spot armpit high, "my mom threatened never to visit."
Rebecca Teagarden writes about architecture and design for Pacific Northwest magazine. Benjamin Benschneider is a magazine staff photographer.
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