Home Design Secrets: Top Tips from Seattle’s Experts
Seattle’s top designers on how to get the home you love
By By Jennifer McCullum with Sheila Cain, Brigitte Long and Lauren Mang October 17, 2016
This article originally appeared in the October 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.
Whether you’re a longtime homeowner or just signed the lease to your first apartment, transforming any space from an address to a personal abode can be daunting. In many areas of the Pacific Northwest, there are also the particular challenges of light, space and yes—gray— that interior designers must contend with. To help, we reached out to the city’s experts for advice on everything from maximizing daylight to making your space more eco-friendly.
They shared their secrets for turning any house, on any budget, into a dream home.
LIGHTING
Illuminating Ideas for Interior Design
The Right Shade of White for Every Room
KITCHENS
Tips and Tricks to Brighten Your Northwest Kitchen
Four Great Kitchen Style Ideas
GREEN DESIGN
ROOFTOP DESIGN
The Call for a Practical Rooftop Living Space
HOME ORGANIZATION
Melissa Michaels on Simplifying and Organizing
Nine Principles of Feng Shui That Bring Balance to Your Home
Rebecca West on How Happy Starts at Home
Rebecca West’s Essentials for Containing Clutter
DIGITAL DESIGN
Two Local Design Sites With Great Redecorating Ideas
Follow Us
Blueprints for Building Community
After tragedy struck a local restaurateur family, one of their daughters stepped in to complete the design for her brother’s unfinished home.
Although he was just 35 when a heart attack took his life, Khoa Pham’s imprint on Seattle’s international district was such that the city quickly designated April 21 as a memorial day in his honor. With his rescue pitbull, Pinky, by his side, Pham cut a colorful figure through Little Saigon and became well known…
Tuft Stuff
Tuft Ruft turns fiber art into a social, hands-on experience in Pioneer Square.
It all started with a bout of pandemic boredom. Like many, when COVID-19 hit, recent graduate Carrie Xiao found herself stuck at home, with extra time on her hands. One day, while scrolling social media, she discovered tufting: a textile manufacturing technique that creates a garment or rug with a “pile,” or raised surface. After…
Collaborating Cultures
Looking to build a home to welcome family and friends, one Kirkland couple turns to a sister to design a modern house with influences from the wife’s Thai heritage.
For many years, when homeowners planned to build or remodel, architects and designers advised them to think first and foremost about resale value. From the number of bedrooms to the materials, appliances, and finishes in the kitchens and bathrooms, homes were often treated solely as an investment, with an eye to future sales. In recent…
Whale Of A Remodel
The transformation of an Orcas Island home takes advantage of remarkable views
For many years, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders entertained his Orcas Island neighbors with breathtaking acrobatics in his vintage airplane. Anders and his wife, Valerie, had purchased a five-acre compound on the isolated western edge of the island for its mesmerizing view, a subject he knew something about. As a member of the first human…