A full gut renovation over three floors transforms this 1890-era house into a modern retreat while weaving together old and new.

Like many houses of this era, the interior consisted of a series of small rooms, meandering circulation, and inadequate storage. The full gut renovation right sizes and rearranges rooms to be open to one another and efficiently utilize the existing square footage. The resulting home, with its bright white and light wood palette combined with black accents, feels larger and more spacious. The design weaves in existing amenities, such as the beautiful original stair and high ceiling heights, while modernizing the detailing and finishes. The building performance is also updated with all new systems, the elimination of fossil fuel use, fully insulated walls and roofs, and all new windows and doors.

On the first floor, an open-plan lifestyle is created by eliminating several small rooms and having the living room, dining room, kitchen, and foyer flow seamlessly to one another. Given the style of the 1890-era home, large cased openings connect the rooms together, creating an open-plan ambiance while remaining in keeping with the context of the original house.

The original upper floors were very inefficient, with small bedrooms, tiny closets, too much circulation, and cramped bathrooms. The renovation reconfigures the second floor layout to create two front bedrooms with ample closet space, a primary bedroom with an adjacent office, and an efficient bathroom and laundry area. The bathroom is designed in a Japanese-style layout with the three functions (double sink, bathing with shower and tub, and toilet) each in separate rooms so that multiple family members can use the area simultaneously. Up in the attic level, the former series of small rooms are combined to create a large, flexible lounge space where the sloped ceiling under the roof becomes an aesthetic amenity. Similarly, closets are combined to create a generous full bath along with additional storage rooms.

The design creates a modern update to a traditional house and transforms it into a spacious, light-filled home.