”Seattle Box” Remodel

“Seattle Box” homes are prized for their stately appearance and generous floor plans. What often isn’t provided, though, is an easy way to convert these older houses into homes with flexible and open living spaces. This project keeps the formal nature of the ‘three in a row’ formal rooms, and opens the back of the house and the final room to the kitchen.

A centrally-placed fireplace is viewable from all the main rooms in the house and helps anchor the plan, forming an axis through the family room, dining room, and living room. A wide galley kitchen opens towards the back of the house with an island facing the new family room. An operable wall of glass helps connect the house to the yard, and lets light pour into the kitchen.

On all three levels of the home, careful design of the casework and trim details — including crown molding — provides a clean and contemporary look that is also aesthetically appropriate to a home built in 1902. Walnut cabinetry and more contemporary accents appear in the home’s bathrooms, and this aesthetic thread is pulled throughout the home, with spaces populated with modern walnut furniture, and anchored by the rich, dark tones of the wood floor. In the basement, besides a bar fit for a bartender, there are three walls full of meticulously organized LEGO bricks in this LEGO lover’s paradise.

Update:
This initial remodel transformed the interior of the home, but since then, phase two, Urban Yard at the Seattle Box transformed the exterior spaces.