Build Cabinets, Throw Axes
Mathew Blubaugh is the owner of Northwest Woodslayer, a woodworking business specializing in custom cabinetry. There is also an axethrowing station.
Kitchens + Spaces
The “Spaces” part of this feature gives a look at stunning designs for a variety of rooms. Take a look at these beautiful PNW homes.
Kitchens + Spaces
The “Spaces” part of this feature gives a look at stunning designs for a variety of rooms. Take a look at these beautiful PNW homes.
Kitchens + Spaces
The “Kitchens” part of this feature gives a look at the inspiration behind each design for these six kitchens, and kitchen tech recommended by the experts.
Island Cabin to Year-Round Home
This month’s Featured Home is an island cabin near Anacortes. This year-round home has a view of Deception Pass State Park.
Home for the Holidays
This month, our featured home showcases a home for the holidays, with Christmas trees and seasonal decor to brighten and warm the room.
Snohomish Backyard Retreat
Heidi Skievaski and Kryssie Maybay of Sublime Garden Design worked to transform this Snohomish backyard into a relaxing retreat, complete with a waterfall.
Picture-Perfect on Sandy Point
Take a look at this Featured Home on Sandy Point in Ferndale designed by Alexei Ford, built by Ian Hamilton, and photographed by Tim Chandonnet.
Beach Drive Remodel
Take a look at the amazing transformation of this beach drive remodel on Camano Island. This article details the renovations made during this home remodel.
Far East Home Comes West
Take an inside look as Ross Grier builds his dream home in Fairhaven by fusing Japanese elements with a Pacific Northwest Washington feel.
Hamlet Hotel
Downtown, An Old Space Becomes New Again For Fred and Colleen Schacht, the Hamlet Hotel has been a reclamation project, sentimental journey, and business venture wrapped into one century-old downtown building. The Hamlet isn’t really a hotel but a four-suite Airbnb, where guests check themselves in via cellphone and internet (though the Schachts are just a phone call away). The Hamlet’s location, at 1202 Railroad Ave., makes it stand out…
An Anacortes Home for the Sunset Years
Here is a quick glimpse inside this beautiful home in Anacortes, with amazing detail to design and even more incredible views.
Above the Boulevard, A Year-Round Beach Home Shines
Faith Ulate grew up in Whatcom County, and long dreamed of having a beach home. So, she and her family lived in Costa Rica for 11 years. But when it came time to move back, she was determined to bring beach life with her. Ulate, a realtor with a passion for turnaround projects, gutted this three-bedroom, two-bath condo overlooking…
Home, Healthy Home
There’s warmth just looking at this yellow cedar home, originally built in 1927 as a single-story, working-class Craftsman. But in addition to adding a second story and master bedroom to their now two-bedroom, three-bath home (plus basement…
Lake Whatcom Home Gets An Update
New owners of this home loved its sweeping views of Lake Whatcom and its modern character. But sometimes, even modern needs an update. With a family of five, the house was also due for an expansion, and a bedroom and bathroom was added to produce a total four-bedroom, four-bath lake house. Built in 1996 and remodeled last year, the complete custom renovation…
Palatine Passive House
The Palatine Passive House by architect Tiffany Bowie of Malboeuf Bowie Architecture was one of eight homes featured during last year’s Seattle Modern Home Tour in April. Bowie, a certified passive house consultant, fielded questions from tour guests curious about passive construction. “Many people weren’t familiar with…
Birch Bay Mansion
This spectacular Birch Bay estate is what dreams are made of: This private 66-acre property consists of a 12,000-square-foot mansion with 1,575 feet of pristine, south-facing and jaw-dropping Georgia Strait shoreline. And that’s just the beginning. If you prefer to arrive by air rather than land or boat, the…
San Juan Log Cabin Retreat
This striking home in the San Juan Islands started as a log cabin. A full overhaul, led by Bellingham interior designer Lisa Staton and client Kristina Gladstein, transformed it to a lighter, brighter vacation getaway that fits the quiet elegance of its surroundings, just off Roche Harbor. The original logs, whitewashed to create a freshness inside and out, help maintain the home’s historic charm. An addition, built in the back, provides…
Hemp House is Small, but Cool
While the tiny building that sits on Pam Bosch’s property isn’t legally a house, it serves as a model for future construction projects. It was built using hempcrete, a cement-like mixture that’s made from combining the inner core of the hemp plant with lime. The result is a cozy space that stays cool even on a hot day. Even though it’s only 120…
Birch Bay Waterfront Estate
Arrive by land, sea or air to your estate; a private 66-acre compound on 1,575 ft. of pristine waterfront. A 12,000…
One-of-a-Kind Design
RE Store’s Revision Division We love to recycle here in the Pacific Northwest. We’ll divide, compost, and reuse until just about everything gets another home or is made functional again. And while recycling might seem more mundane than stylish, Matt Vaughn and David Spangler at the RE Store’s Revision Division, would beg to differ. Vaughn and Spangler use almost entirely recycled materials to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces, bringing our region’s recycling ethos right to your front…
Chuckanut Bay House
The airy lightness of this Chuckanut Bay home’s interior stands in contrast to its big, bold, concrete frame that attracts attention from those who live nearby or paddle past. The owner, a builder himself, wanted to convey permanence in a home situated between the everchanging water and a boulder wall constructed to highlight area sandstone. McClellan Architects,…
Edgemoor Neighborhood Historic Home
Lairmont Manor Historic homes can be a focal point for neighborhoods. In Bellingham, few are more famous than Lairmont Manor, in Fairhaven’s Edgemoor neighborhood. Originally named The Larrabee House, it was designed in 1914 for local power couple Charles and Frances Larrabee by renowned Seattle architect Carl Gould. Gould designed a 25-room Italian Renaissance-style estate with sweeping views of…
Rustic & Reclaimed
Bath Renovation Antique wood and a sliding barn door in a bathroom? Say it isn’t so! Yes, that is exactly what we incorporated in this recent remodel and the trend has exploded. The juxtaposition of materials and finishes in homes today is exhilarating. As a designer and interior enthusiast, I am…
Gem on the Water
Lake Samish Row House This distinctive home on the shores of Lake Samish was built in 2010 with rowers in mind. We want to say its curvy roof and contemporary, minimalist design evokes the smooth, effortless air of a rowing team in sync. But like the sport itself, looks can be deceiving. Bellingham…
Cheetah-Chic Living
Animal Prints Rev Up a Room It might be safe to say that while keeping the color palette tame on this project, we got wild with the style. Prior to our makeover, we were welcomed with a pet-soiled off-white carpet with poorly placed furniture. My client rarely used this room and wished to make improvements in order to entertain during holidays….
Guemes Cottage
This peaceful retreat on Guemes Island designed by David Hall (since retired) of HKP Architects draws on Finnish and Scandanavian summer houses for inspiration. Situated on the the north end of Guemes Island with expansive views of Bellingham Bay, this 625 square-foot cabin combines the best of comfort and tranquility Hall worked closely…
Broadway Beauty
The beautiful thing about ranch-style houses is the way in which a good designer can open up the interior, build in great storage, and add light and space. Many of these homes have…
A 1940s Camano Island Log Cabin Remodel
A classic log cabin on Camano Island’s North Shore offers stunning views of Utsalady Bay and has been in Neil Hampson’s family since the 1940s. Hampson’s grandfather Dr. Russell R. Bradley, an Everett optometrist built the cabin himself. The preface to a 1944 publication of the U.S. Forest Service entitled “Building with Logs” assures the would-be cabin builder, “The art of log construction is relatively simple and easy to acquire, once a few basic principles are understood.” But after such…
Orcas Island Beach House–Featured Home
This beautiful Orcas Island beach house is an island paradise, nestled among towering evergreens and set right on the water. As with most things Orcas, this home is the perfect balance of architectual distinction and cabin-like intimacy. The natural wood beams and finishes complement each other, incorporating the context of the surrounding…
Palatine Passive House
The Palatine Passive House by Architect Tiffany Bowie of Malboeuf Bowie Architecture was one of eight homes featured during the 2016 Seattle Modern Home Tour in April. Bowie, a certified passive house consultant, fielded questions from tour guests curious about passive construction. “Many people weren’t familiar with the concept of a passive house,…
South Hill House
You know what it’s like when you paint your living room, and then the adjoining dining room looks drab, so you paint that, and the next thing you know, the kitchen, bath, and laundry room are all now newly painted? Well, a similar scenario played out in this beautiful South Hill home. What began as a renovation of a one-car…
False Bay Writer’s Cabin
This stunning San Juan Island beauty is a perfect metaphor for a writer’s personality — open, receptive, and unguarded at times, and closed, private, and introspective at other times. A beautiful example of contemporary architecture, this cabin folds up into a neat little package, or opens up to a big, expansive view. The interior is thoughtfully designed to be completely functional as well as luxurious. An ideal retreat for anyone, it lives up to its name as…
Northwest Modern Luxury Home – Featured Home
Perhaps the crown jewel of the entertainment space, a glassed-in wine display room showcases a wine library and is conveniently located near the wet bar, an upgrade from the traditional bottom-floor wine cellar.
Eldridge House – Featured Home
The couple set about remodeling, using mostly local artisans. The result? A comfortable, unpretentious, and yet artful home that accommodates family, friends, and even a lovely bald eagle who lurks in the trees above
Net Zero House – Featured Home
Sean Haven of Haven Design workshop took on the challenge of designing and building a Net Zero house.
Bay View House – Featured Home
Natural textures like wood and stone complement the white walls and countertops.
House in the Field
Built to blend unobtrusively with its landscape, yet maximize views and interior space, the House in the Field takes the lines of a traditional…
Lopez Island Getaway
When architect Don Larkin and his small Eastside architectural firm were asked to design a Lopez Island vacation home on…
Chuckanut House
In partnership with the Northwest Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, we selected this exquisite home perched above beautiful Chuckanut Bay. This project began as a remodel, but the needs of the family were greater than the existing house could provide, and a rebuild ended up being a more affordable option….
Tiny Tack House
Q & A on the Tiny Tack House Bellingham Alive: What is your background and interest in building a tiny house? Malissa Tack: The Tiny Tack House was our first adventure building anything of this size. Both Christopher and myself had only constructed a few projects, back in our high school shop classes. So to us this was a large scale undertaking that we were both excited to take on. We spent a good amount of time…
Woodland Retreat
This issue we feature two small spaces that are nestled deep in the woods and surrounded by mature forest. The paths around the property teem with wildlife, the trees are alive with birdsong. A peaceful spot…
Samish Island Cabin
This lovely house is located on the tip of Samish Island, just above high tide. It is owned by an oyster farmer who farms the surrounding waters of Samish Bay. Built to withstand harsh conditions — the salt, sand and constant breeze of the island elements — it’s solidly built and yet graceful. Amenities include heated concrete floors without a crawlspace, which is ideal for minimum…