With 8,000 lakes, fifth most in the country, Washington is a happy hunting ground for waterfront lots. Highly popular Lake Chelan, the third-deepest lake in the United States, is not on the top of the list of affordable freshwater options, at least not anywhere near Chelan, where scarce waterfront residential lots start at $2 million….

Place two architects, a hedgehog, and more than $100,000 under house arrest, and watch the magic unfold. Sandy Wolf founded Seattle’s Office of Ordinary Architecture in the belief that beauty is found in everyday objects. She and her husband — fellow architect Daniel Ash — were not disappointed in that regard in their long search…

By May 2022, Dilip Wagle and Darshana Shanbhag’s dream of retiring on the beach was dead in the water. The Bellevue couple had spent years searching the west-facing waterfront corridor from Bellingham to Oregon, but always found themselves a step behind the pandemic-induced buying frenzy. They were about to give up when they noticed a…

Their new home, built in the 1990s, stood meekly before them, hat in hand. “There wasn’t anything special, wasn’t anything appealing,” she notes. Remnants of a bygone era included pillars, carpeted bathrooms, a sunken living room and a Jacuzzi in the master suite. The home’s disagreeable floor plan backed the family of five into the…

Harriett “Hatty” Hatch began her career as a confident art teacher, but uncertain artist. In time, she would voluntarily check herself into the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. “I just wanted to be able to design a stable for a horse,” she recalls, “but I didn’t have a horse.” She eventually crossed trails with…

Kirsten Adams, Paul Midgen, and their young daughter, Lark, had no better luck than the three bears when they washed up on the shores of Seattle in early 2018…

Subscribers to the minimalist movement that has dominated American interior design over the past decade-plus may be roughly cleaved into two demographic groups…

“Canoe Trails Residence” is a home art gallery designed with velvet gloves and without velvet ropes. For decades, Ken and Jane Friedman have been serious curators and creators of art. Jane formerly co-owned Friedman Oens Gallery on Bainbridge Island, acquiring notable pieces from around the Northwest and world. Their collection includes…

Miriam Larson founded Story Architecture in the belief that, if she dug deep enough, each house and the family that lives in it would have a story to tell. In time, she would also conclude that some books are perfectly happy to be judged by their covers.

Swivel Interiors founder Kathleen Glossa lured five innovative local artists to a newly purchased vacation property perched on the northern edge of Lake Washington.

Photo by Andrew Giammarco

They had a hard time visualizing what their new home might look like, so they turned to Minecraft, a hugely popular video game Microsoft markets as a tool for creative types to “battle mobs, construct shelter, and explore the landscape.” They had been playing the game for years, and didn’t need to consult the box for instructions. Michael served as Minecraft’s chief creative officer for seven years before moving on to Fortnite.