The Home That Made Me Want To Hire ARCIFORM – See Their Open Concept Living Room/Kitchen Done Right

This week we are revealing the most incredible house, built by the owners of the design/build company we hired for our farmhouse – ARCIFORM. This is the house that sold me on hiring them. They typically don’t do new builds (they specialize in restorations of more historic properties) but they built this from the ground up, using the trees that had fallen on the property after years of camping on the land. It’s on a bay in Southern Washington state and I had the pleasure of staying there twice (once with my family and once with my team to shoot). Anne, like a lot of interior architects, stopped at the styling so we had it in our deal that I would help them style and shoot it all out – bedding, pillows, vases, flowers, etc, in exchange for a discount on her design time. We shot this last year before I had my team up here in place and I flew up Sara to shoot it and Emily Bowser to help me style (it was a lot of schlepping and labor and fine, maybe I also wanted an excuse to hang out with my friends). So this week you are going to see the full reveal of this incredible house – the moodiest black bathroom I’ve ever seen, the pretty stained glass doors, and architecture that stops you in your tracks. While I had nothing to do with the design of this space, I am going to go through and call out what is so incredible about it, point out my favorite things and just generally show and tell.

When you first walk in the architecture is obviously STUNNING – it almost feels like it’s a secret industrial building that has always been here, but nope – it was designed and built by them from the ground up (over 10 years). Domino did an awesome story last week (we pitched the exclusive on their story) so head over there at the end if you want more information on how they built it (fun facts like the trees had to take two years just to dry out before they could use the lumber and Anne’s barn inspiration for the architecture).

All the details wowed me – the hinges on the secret doors under the stairs, the railing. And here you can see the same 12″ horizontal bead board idea that we stole for the farmhouse, but Anne used milk paint and I’m still kicking myself for not doing that (so you can see the grain underneath and just feels warmer). The flooring is incredible – a combination of unfinished Spruce and Hemlock…with a dash of Alder – was again chopped down by Richard or had fallen on the property. The wide plank is so pretty and is obviously patinating so well.

The island was custom-made by Versatile Wood Prodcuts, their sister company, who does high-end cabinetry and windows (DID YOU SEE THE WINDOWS IN THIS PLACE???). Anne is obviously a huge antiques collector so most of the furniture was sourced by her.

I loved her combination of marble on the island and a darker soapstone on the cabinetry by the range. We added that vintage painting of theirs (and you probably recognize a lot of our styling pieces from my prop house).

I LOVE this tiny little door. This goes into the pantry and was salvaged and refurbished. It has a back door to the outside that is bigger should you want more space to bring something in, but I think the scale of it is so quirky and cute.

Those chandeliers are so incredible – Anne has such a gift for taking risks and just mixing old-world antiques together. Please note all those stained glass windows – so incredible. The table was also made from fallen wood on the property.

The sheer volume/scale of the space is big, but because of the wood and the double-paned windows, it still feels really cozy. It gets really windy outside there, but inside you can’t hear it so being there during a storm (with the fireplace on) is so magical.

Please note the door within that huge window that was custom-built by Versatile Wood Products (the other company Anne and Richard own) – I wanted to steal this idea so badly and we tried to get it into the house, but didn’t make as much sense for us.

Anne laid it out so that the fireplace was in the middle of the great room, versus just serving the living area. When staying there you could see the benefit of this – you can see/feel the fire when in the kitchen, dining (where they play a lot of games), and living areas.

Bowser and I foraged for huge branches for this shoot (instead of flowers) and boy does it make the shot (the terracotta pot is an antique from Rejuvenation).

Anne used Idris White Zellige by Ann Sacks throughout many of the tiled areas which I truly never get tired of seeing when done appropriately (and super appropriate here). As you can see they used tinted plaster above the paneling which creates so much warmth.

Again, how incredible are those doors and windows? Not surprising as this is what Versatile specializes in, but they are just jaw-dropping.

Anne is originally from Germany and she and Richard met in their early twenties and started this company together, and I think her European aesthetic gives her such a fresh point of view. I just love the bravery and risk-taking in this house – and the attention to detail continues to impress me.

Here they are – Anne and Richard De Wolf (owners of ARCIFORM and Versatile). As I said at the beginning of the post, this week you’ll see more and more of this home that I can’t WAIT to show you/talk about. It’s so inspiring and I wish we all, as design enthusiasts, had the opportunity to actually experience these spaces in person.

There’s me, sweaty from styling all day – something I only do for my projects these days so it was so fun to work with Emily B. and bring some EHD styling to this gorgeous space. Come back tomorrow for their main suite. And if you are in the PNW and looking to hire a team to restore your older space (commercial or residential) this is the team 🙂

*Design by Anne De Wolf of ARCIFORM and Versatile Wood Products
**Chief Lumberjack: Richard De Wolf of ARCIFORM and Versatile Wood Products
***Styled by Emily Henderson (me!) and Emily Bowser
****Photos by Sara Ligorria-Tramp