Mid-Century update to a home located in NW Portland. The project included a new kitchen with skylights, multi-slide wall doors on both sides of the home, kitchen gathering desk, children's playroom, and opening up living room and dining room ceiling to dramatic vaulted ceilings. The project team included Risa Boyer Architecture. Photos: Josh Partee

Kitchen window seat. Photo by Clark Dugger
Small contemporary galley kitchen in Los Angeles with flat-panel cabinets, dark wood cabinets, an undermount sink, wood benchtops, brown splashback, timber splashback, panelled appliances, medium hardwood floors, no island and brown floor.

Photo Credit: kee sites
Small country guest bedroom in San Francisco with white walls, dark hardwood floors and no fireplace.

Photo of a small traditional living room in San Francisco.

This is an example of a small scandinavian living room in Paris with a library, grey walls and medium hardwood floors.

This is an example of a small beach style kitchen/dining combo in Portland Maine with ceramic floors, grey floor, beige walls and no fireplace.

This is an example of a small country kitchen/dining combo in Seattle with beige walls, dark hardwood floors, no fireplace and brown floor.

A romantic corner dining space, with a custom designed banquette, House of Hackney wallpaper and a lovely chandelier.
Small traditional kitchen/dining combo in Seattle with multi-coloured walls, dark hardwood floors and brown floor.

Small country hallway in Toronto with beige walls, medium hardwood floors and brown floor.

This is an example of a small country kitchen/dining combo in Baltimore with white walls, dark hardwood floors and no fireplace.

Small modern open concept living room in London with a library, light hardwood floors and white walls.

This is an example of a small contemporary dining room in Hertfordshire with ceramic floors, grey floor and white walls.

Fotografías: Yanina Mazzei. Diseño, Arquitectura interior y Decoración: Stefan Relic & Paul Valchich
Small scandinavian dining room in Barcelona with grey walls.

This is an example of a small transitional enclosed family room in New York with a built-in media wall, grey walls, no fireplace, light hardwood floors and beige floor.

Jens Kramer, Ulm
Small contemporary living room in Other with white walls, medium hardwood floors, no fireplace and no tv.

Comfortable and inviting wicker furniture provides a comfy sitting area and warm welcome in an enclosed sunroom at the home's entrance.
Inspiration for a small traditional sunroom in San Francisco with a standard ceiling.

Custom Window Seat with Storage : Adams + Beasley Associates, Custom Builders : Photo by Eric Roth : Interior Design by Lewis Interiors
Design ideas for a small traditional u-shaped eat-in kitchen in Boston with an undermount sink, recessed-panel cabinets, white cabinets, grey splashback, subway tile splashback, stainless steel appliances and with island.

Architect Nils Finne has created a new, highly crafted modern kitchen in his own traditional Tudor home located in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. The kitchen design relies on the creation of a very simple continuous space that is occupied by intensely crafted cabinets, counters and fittings. Materials such as steel, walnut, limestone, textured Alaskan yellow cedar, and sea grass are used in juxtaposition, allowing each material to benefit from adjacent contrasts in texture and color. The existing kitchen was enlarged slightly by removing a wall between the kitchen and pantry. A long, continuous east-west space was created, approximately 25-feet long, with glass doors at either end. The east end of the kitchen has two seating areas: an inviting window seat with soft cushions as well as a desk area with seating, a flat-screen computer, and generous shelving for cookbooks. At the west end of the kitchen, an unusual “L”-shaped door opening has been made between the kitchen and the dining room, in order to provide a greater sense of openness between the two spaces. The ensuing challenge was how to invent a sliding pocket door that could be used to close off the two spaces when the occasion required some separation. The solution was a custom door with two panels, and series of large finger joints between the two panels allowing the door to become “L” shaped. The resulting door, called a “zipper door” by the local fabricator (Quantum Windows and Doors), can be pushed completely into a wall pocket, or slid out and then the finger joints allow the second panel to swing into the “L”-shape position. In addition to the “L”-shaped zipper door, the renovation of architect Nils Finne’s own house presented other opportunity for experimentation. Custom CNC-routed cabinet doors in Alaskan Yellow Cedar were built without vertical stiles, in order to create a more continuous texture across the surface of the lower cabinets. LED lighting was installed with special aluminum reflectors behind the upper resin-panel cabinets. Two materials were used for the counters: Belgian Blue limestone and Black walnut. The limestone was used around the sink area and adjacent to the cook-top. Black walnut was used for the remaining counter areas, and an unusual “finger” joint was created between the two materials, allowing a visually intriguing interlocking pattern , emphasizing the hard, fossilized quality of the limestone and the rich, warm grain of the walnut both to emerge side-by-side. Behind the two counter materials, a continuous backsplash of custom glass mosaic provides visual continuity. Laser-cut steel detailing appears in the flower-like steel bracket supporting hanging pendants over the window seat as well as in the delicate steel valence placed in front of shades over the glass doors at either end of the kitchen. At each of the window areas, the cabinet wall becomes open shelving above and around the windows. The shelving becomes part of the window frame, allowing for generously deep window sills of almost 10”. Sustainable design ideas were present from the beginning. The kitchen is heavily insulated and new windows bring copious amounts of natural light. Green materials include resin panels, low VOC paints, sustainably harvested hardwoods, LED lighting, and glass mosaic tiles. But above all, it is the fact of renovation itself that is inherently sustainable and captures all the embodied energy of the original 1920’s house, which has now been given a fresh life. The intense craftsmanship and detailing of the renovation speaks also to a very important sustainable principle: build it well and it will last for many, many years! Overall, the kitchen brings a fresh new spirit to a home built in 1927. In fact, the kitchen initiates a conversation between the older, traditional home and the new modern space. Although there are no moldings or traditional details in the kitchen, the common language between the two time periods is based on richly textured materials and obsessive attention to detail and craft.

Photography: Karina Illovska The kitchen is divided into different colours to reduce its bulk and a surprise pink study inside it has its own little window. The front rooms were renovated to their former glory with replica plaster reinstated. A tasmanian Oak floor with a beautiful matt water based finish was selected by jess and its light and airy. this unifies the old and new parts. Colour was used playfully. Jess came up with a diverse colour scheme that somehow works really well. The wallpaper in the hall is warm and luxurious. ​