Modern Kirkland Home Tour

Modern Kirkland Home Tour: We moved back from Holland at the end of 2016, and the housing market in Seattle was on fire. We bought our house sight unseen due to various circumstances. My parents had viewed the property, but it was still in construction and therefore challenging to visualize the finished product. We didn’t know the builder, either, but we did not have many choices being so far away and with such a strong market and a tight timeline.

In the end we bought the house for the location. It’s in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle, two blocks from Lake Washington, in walking distance to trails, restaurants, art galleries, beaches, bike paths, grocery stores, pretty much anything you need.

Because the market was so strong, the basics were really all the home came with, so in 2020 we replaced pretty much every surface in the house. Here are the end results, our renovated Modern Kirkland Home Tour:

Renovated Modern Kirkland Home Tour:

As you can see, I love black and white, natural materials like the flooring and countertops, and antiques mixed with modern pieces. Most of the antiques were purchased in Holland, as were some of the furnishings.

We replaced all of the existing flooring with wood throughout the house. Marble was used in all of the bathrooms for the countertops. We had all of the doors and window frames painted out, and we added two steam generators to the master shower. I love a steam shower and having your own personal steam shower is at the top of my list.

Steam showers make picking tile a bit tricky, as they cannot absorb much water, so they must be a solid porcelain or ceramic (as opposed to marble or concrete). You also need to pick a tile that can be applied on walls and ceilings as well as floors. I used a hand extruded porcelain tile out of Spain by a compay called Natucer.

Finally, you need a door that goes to the ceiling with a vent, so steam doesn’t escape unless you want it to. In terms of water usage, a steam shower doesn’t require large amounts of water and in that respect is energy efficient. The available features for steam showers include everything from heated bench, lights, speakers and aromatherapy.

On the roof deck, we added an amazing material made for roofs called Roofingreen, manufactured in Turin, Italy. It is a turf tile that has feet, or risers, to meet your existing decking material. This material almost doubled the size of our deck and makes it feel like you are in a luxurious private dining space when you are up on the roof (particularly during the pandemic).

We use the roofdeck for entertaining, dates, camping, yoga, stargazing… It is the space I never knew I needed but absolutely love. Honestly, it’s the best feature of our house. We have our best conversations up there. And somehow, even though you are still in your own home, you feel a bit like you are on vacation, gazing at the lake with your favorite music playing in the background.

Some of the most basic tips for making your home look more custom, in my opinion, are replacing the builder grade bathroom mirrors that are frameless and glued to the wall. And lighting, in general, is a way you can easily customize your home. See my previous post on lighting if you are interested in specifics.

I highly recommend adding dimmer switches to most of your lights, and sconces add a lot of personality to a home, both in bathrooms, bedrooms, and living rooms. You often see sconces or lamps in kitchens now, too, as accent lighting. Finally, replace the hardware on your doors, drawers and cabinets. It can have a huge impact.

Below are professional photos taken by: Paul Clark of Walkthrough Media.