Photo Friday: Timeless and Comfortable

I have come close, but have never actually been present for a home reveal—that magic moment when a family opens the door and steps into their new home surrounded by the somewhat anxious team of designers, builders and crafts people who have done their all to make this exquisitely wonderful experience possible. The morning after I made these shots, the family would walk over the threshold and experience how Lucca Design (Heidi Stewart, Kaycee Metekingi, Brooke Cude, and Lori Chapman), a full-service design team, and Tri City Construction (Dan Stewart) have created a home environment to meet the clients’ desires for a timeless and comfortable home on two large lots in an estate neighborhood on the east side of Sandy. 

The study is intended as mom’s workspace and also a place to interact with the children after school, talk about the day, and get started on homework. The room’s warmth is achieved by the backlit suspended natural wood beams, loose soft drapes, and upholstered comfortable furniture, some with enough space for two. The fabrics’ prints and the furniture’s curves support a feeling that Heidi Stewart calls “country casual” that downplays, along with the unifying gray-green color, any formality from the classic elements of the woodwork’s design and the mullioned windows. Not seen around the corner to the left are bookshelves and a rolling ladder. 

I will walk you through the home starting at the entry. A pair of 12-foot doors open into a foyer. It has a chevron pattern in the hardwood floor and soars up to the coffered ceiling and skylights. A hinged opening window is in each of the sturdy doors. 

A classic archway, consistent with the classic, white, coffered ceiling and paneling, connects the sitting room to the foyer. The natural wood on the fireplace continues a classic design but in warmer tones, and the lowered scale of the fireplace is consistent with the seating arrangement for a sense of cozy. 

A mirrored archway to the right opens to the dining room. The timeless classical elements continue in the woodwork, but the design sets a cozy scale and the furnishings reach for comfort over pretense. 

The big open kitchen also connects with the entry. The beamed wooden ceiling and hardwood floors add the warmth of natural wood, as do the island woodwork in a darker tone and the rattan-backed stools. The three large caged-candle chandeliers lower the scale over the seating area. To the left in back is a walk-in pantry with a transom window over the entry and windows to keep it bright and connected. 

Sharing the open-planned space with the kitchen is a family room with a vaulted beamed ceiling, high paned windows, and a wide, tall stone fireplace that gives it presence. Softness in form and fabrics mark the furnishing selections and also the color palette. 

The master bedroom is the opposite direction from the kitchen on the main floor. As Heidi Stewart explained to me, the massive ceiling with the step-up center adds airiness and additional natural light, but to make the room feel cozier, the team suspended white oak beams. Both the curved stone fireplace and the classic painted wall paneling backing the bed and nightstands continue the classical elements seen elsewhere. The soft shapes and upholstering on the furniture and headboard similarly repeat the softness found in other rooms. 

The home’s orientation and landscaping provides substantial privacy to the master bath. The marble of the floor tiles, shower, and countertops keep the room bright and echo classicism, as does the coffered wall paneling, but the design introduces warmth with the tones in the painted cabinets and the area rug.

I made the photos during midday and took advantage of the daylight reflected by the snow coming through the many sizable windows. I used little supplementary light. As in the bathroom, I felt the home’s lighting added a welcome warm tone against the blue-white of the snowy reflected light. 

It’s challenging on the day before a reveal to get photos without workers streaking through. Everyone is going about their own duties to make certain things are perfect, but we all seemed to recognize that the other had a job to do and worked together well. 

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