Architectural designer Suzanne Stefan says the mere act of driving onto the forested Kingston, Washington, site where she and architect Drew Shawver created a new house is enchanting. “You enter through a narrow corridor of large, dense conifers, and then suddenly you’re in an open meadow,” Stefan recalls. “As soon as we visited, it made sense why the homeowners wanted to be here.”
The couple, who bought the lot during the pandemic, had been living in a compact condo in Seattle but were looking for a retreat outside the city. “This property was formerly a timber farm but had been replanted before being sold,” explains Shawver, who appreciated the mix of old-growth cedars and sapling Douglas firs on the grounds. “They saw the potential for nurturing the land and creating a place where they could watch the forest regrow around them.”
Knowing the owners would retain their urban dwelling, the design team sketched out a plan for a house that would maximize their connection to the land when away from the city. Siting the residence at the edge of the meadow meant less tree disturbance during the build, which was engineered by general contractor Brent Heath, and allowed for intimate vistas of the forest. “We pushed the deck as close as possible to a big cedar tree the clients love,” Shawver explains. “The living room and primary bedroom above look out onto that beautiful tree, which also screens views from the shared drive below.”
Home Details
Architecture and Interior Design:
Drew Shawver, Drew Shawver Architecture + Design, and Suzanne Stefan, Studio DIAA
Home Builder:
Brent Heath, E&H Construction
Landscape Architecture:
Jonathan Hallet, Supernature
In composing the home’s materiality, wood was an obvious choice. “Wood construction is a big part of Northwest building culture and history, so we used it for exterior cladding and parts of the structure,” Shawver says. A black stain on the cedar siding helps the house recede into the forest and establishes a dramatic contrast with the lighter wood used for the interior.
Inside, the team took a different kind of inspiration from nature. “When you walk through a forest, there’s a balance of filtered light with moments of warmth where the sun breaks through,” Stefan says. “The entry vestibule and the kitchen are the first spaces you enter, so we wanted to create that feeling of warmth upon arrival.” Honey-colored oak casework in the kitchen is framed by moments of richly toned cedar paneling. “The darker stain is meant to evoke shadows within the trees, while the silvery tonality relates to their bark,” the architectural designer muses.
In the living room, a concrete fireplace was formed using a mold made with wooden planks, leaving a pronounced wood-grain texture. “It’s another way of celebrating the material that’s such a big part of the site’s history,” Shawver notes. The long, low mantel is mirrored by the profile of the sofa. (The homeowners selected the furniture with guidance from Shawver and Stefan.) “Expressing this horizontality is akin to the feeling of lying down,” Stefan says. “It creates an atmosphere of rest.”
Upstairs, the sleeping areas include a primary suite and a guest room that doubles as an office. Treetop views from this floor continue the connection to the forested site, which the owners are hard at work restoring. “We treated the landscape as more of a restoration ecology project,” explains landscape architect Jonathan Hallet. “Rather than creating a perfect picture on day one, we started planting things like native grasses, manzanitas and yarrow that would soften the edge of the forest and help regrowth happen naturally.”
It is all in service of the home’s place-based design approach, intended to immerse the owners in the landscape both physically and metaphorically. “It’s a universal human tendency to strive for that feeling of belonging,” Stefan describes. “We all want to feel connected to something greater than ourselves.”
