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NEW CENTURY MODERN Written by RACHEL GALLAHER : Photographed by HARIS KENJAR
“WHEN YOU KNOW, YOU KNOW.” That sentiment’s usually
applied to meeting the love of your life, but for one Washington native, the quip succinctly sums up the feeling she experienced when stepping into her new house for the first time. It was April 2015, and the young woman, who was moving back to the Pacific Northwest from San Francisco, where she’d worked as a tech recruiter for five years, had been searching for houses in the lakeside town of Yarrow Point in an unconventional way. “My parents and sister were going to open houses and scouting out places for me,” she recalls. “There was even a time when they FaceTimed me in on a tour.” Her perfect match turned out to be an off-market property, and she jumped on a plane to view it in person. When she
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walked into the 1965 gem, complete with a sunken living room, “there was a really positive sense of energy,” she says. “I immediately knew it was the one.” Aside from the good vibes, the client was drawn to the vaulted ceilings that had been whitewashed in the ’70s and the large, west-facing windows that would help combat winter’s early darkness. “I knew that with heavy cosmetic work and the right furniture, the house could be totally transformed while still honoring the fact that it was built in the ’60s.” At a friend’s suggestion, the homeowner enlisted designer Brian Paquette, founder of Brian Paquette Interiors, to lead the renovation charge. “The house was beautifully designed but had gone through some light remodeling about 20 years ago,” »
