Before & After: A Timeworn Midcentury Home Gets a Reverent Renovation

This post-and-beam home in Shoreline, Washington, has lived many past lives. It was originally built in 1959, later divided up to serve as a retirement facility, and eventually purchased by a couple with three children. The family tasked SHED Architecture + Design with converting the structure back into a single-family home (with a larger kitchen and plenty of storage)—without compromising its midcentury character. “There were some existing, beautiful textures that the owners were really drawn to,” says project architect Rebecca Marsh.

The interplay of old and new becomes apparent as soon as you walk into the living room, which showcases the home’s original structure, large windows, and cedar-lined ceiling.

Here, the firm built new white oak storage to frame an L-shaped couch positioned to take in the incredible view. One of the cabinets holds a DJ station, for when the owner wants to spin. “Both clients have a large record collection, and one DJs,” says Marsh. “So that was something that they thought would be super prime to integrate into their living room.”

Before: Entry

After: Entry

The design team also tweaked the layout of the main floor to move the galley kitchen to the window wall. “Even though there were a lot of windows and glass, it was dark in the kitchen,” says Marsh. “One of our motivations was to reorganize the floor plan so that we could locate the primary family social spaces along that wall of glazing, so that everyone could have access to the natural light and the view.”

With the kitchen, dining, and living room joined together, the team defined zones with dropped ceilings—one above the kitchen island, and one over the  stairwell, leading to the primary suite. “We did that to anchor those two spaces and create some separation within the larger volume, while still allowing the living room, dining, and kitchen to feel fully connected,” says Marsh.

Before: Stairwell and Hallway

After: Stairwell and Hallway

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Custom, rift-sawn white oak cabinetry by Beechtree Woodworks lines the sofa, one edge of the dining room, and the kitchen, further connecting the interior spaces. “We chose white oak, as it’s complimentary to the cedar ceiling, but also distinct, with its lighter tone,” says Marsh. The renovation also preserved other key materials—like the slate floor at the entry and the iron railing lining the staircase—while introducing honed Amazon black granite on the kitchen counters and backsplash, and new cork flooring.

Before: Dining Room

After: Dining Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

In the bathrooms, the owners chose more pronounced textures and patterns—including colorful Thibaut wallpaper in a powder room and Ann Sacks terrazzo tile in the primary bath—to create surprising moments. Downstairs, the kids’ bath has bright-yellow laminate counters and colorful hex mosaic tile. The lower level also holds what the designers took to calling the “sibling lair”: a former bedroom now outfitted with two sleeping alcoves and a shared play space. “We just tried to leverage what we could from the original design,” says Marsh. “The goal was not to overpower anything that was there.”

After: Powder Room

After: Primary Bathroom

Before: Downstairs Bath

After: Kids’ Bath

Before: Downstairs Bedroom

After: Playroom (a.k.a the “Sibling Lair”)

More projects by SHED Architecture + Design:

Before & After: A Remodel Brings a Cartoonist’s Former Home Back to Life 

Before & After: A Seattle Midcentury Shakes Off a Wacky Addition

Program Credits:

Architecture: SHED Architecture + Design / @shedarchitecture

Builder: Ambrose Construction

Structural Engineer: Todd Perbix

Landscape Design: Susan Papanikolas

Lighting Design: Sparklab Lighting Design

Cabinetry Design and Installation: Beech Tree Woodworks

Photography: Rafael Soldi