After relocating from Alaska to Seattle, a retired couple embraced their new city by transforming their home with a Pacific Northwest-inspired design.
While they held onto their home roots, they adopted Seattle’s aesthetics, creating a warm and inviting space that beautifully reflects both their personalities and the city's distinctive style.
The warmer color palette creates a relaxing place to immerse within and admire the view.
Although the existing home was positioned with a stunning view, its all-white interior lacked character and a sense of warmth, presenting a blank canvas for the owners to work with. The couple longed for a design that offered openness and connection between the living room, dining room, kitchen, and study while still maintaining distinct and intimate spaces.
Seattle-based Interior Designer Ashley Zaworska embraced the challenge, crafting a sense of connection and bringing warmth to the existing home. “The couple live a very full life, always cooking and entertaining with family and friends. They are truly so warm and inviting. We needed to design their home to match that,” Ashley explained.
To achieve the couple’s vision, Ashley reimagined the layout, enhancing the flow between rooms while creating a sense of intimacy, while wood and other natural materials were introduced to add warmth and texture.
The Escea KS55 Mesh Gas Fireplace serves as a focal gathering point to entertain friends and family.
There was an existing fireplace that included a large bulky vent which obstructed the room’s stunning view. The couple wished to retain a fireplace, but not at the expense of the outlook.
Positioned at the heart of the main gathering space, the new fireplace needed to be a focal feature without overshadowing other design elements.
Finding a suitable solution posed a significant challenge due to design constraints and lack of suitable wall space for anchoring a new fireplace – one that was, however, soon overcome with the Escea KS55 Mesh Gas Fireplace.
The innovative side-venting technology of the KS55 provided the perfect solution, allowing the fireplace to remain central without compromising the room’s flow, design, or most importantly, the view.
“We had pretty tight design constraints. It was literally the only fireplace model on the market that met all our needs. It was either the Escea KS55 or no fireplace at all. “The fireplace was literally going to be right in the center, so we really wanted to make sure that it would be celebrated without also distracting from the view, and any other visual element in the space,” Ashley explained.
Ashley also devised a novel idea to work with the fireplace’s vent that exited the exterior wall. She concealed the vent outside the house by building a bench seat around it for outdoor dining, solving two problems in one.
Revealing the view transformed the living space into an inviting haven.
To ensure the fireplace felt nestled within the home’s context, Ashley chose a soapstone surround that perfectly fit the brief.
“The soapstone surround felt so right – anchored and subdued, a quiet presence that felt connected to the kitchen nearby.”
The result is a living space that is quietly elegant, refined, and comfortable. “It feels warm, it invites you to nestle in and stay a while,” Ashley described.
The reimagined living space resulted in a warm inviting home.
Working with Escea for the first time, Ashley described the collaborative effort that ensured the fireplace fit seamlessly into the design.
“We were able to share our detailed drawings and sections with Escea’s technical team for feedback, and I think it’s fair to say that every person on the team contributed their expertise to the final design of the fireplace - architect, contractor, subcontractors, and Escea.”
The transformation of this Seattle home is a testament to thoughtful design, collaboration and innovative solutions. Working together, they overcame challenges to create a space that seamlessly blends warmth, character, and functionality – perfectly matching the couple’s lifestyle and their new surroundings.
