House Crashing: Elegant & Fresh

We shared a smidge of Kirsten’s remarkable house in last week’s Portland post simply to get you excited, but here is the whole House Crashing monty for ya. The exterior of her and her husband Kyle’s house is a rich gray color and the porch has the most remarkable over-sized white corbels on either side of the door (note: house numbers have been changed to protect the innocent).

Here is a shot o the outside of the house from further away (wish we had been able to see it in all of its spring/summer glory when more is in bloom).

When you walk inside, there is a charming little entryway directly across from the door between the dining room and the living room. It is such a sweet (and functional!) area that Kirsten squeezed into the room. They were in fact made by a local woodworker (she said it saved her plenty of money in comparison to some ready-made systems that she saw) and the excellent giant N is from Anthropologie.

Aside from immediately going crazy over everything from the excellent paint colors (this room’s Benjamin Moore’s Copley Gray) to that genius oversized map (from Schoolhouse Electric, by the way), we simply snapped our way around her house – oohing and aahing the whole way.

The wood-burning fireplace in fact works (so cozy) and Kirsten mentioned that the patterned rug from Crate & Barrel has been an excellent choice since sometimes a bit of soot or ash can get on it down at the end there, but it blends right in. Oh and that mirror above the fireplace is a craigslist find.

This wood-chest turned side table (found on craigslist!) was such a lively pairing with the colorful ikat chair from Urban Outfitters.

Oh and the coffee table was a wedding gift that a number of relatives went in on from Crate & Barrel.

Directly across from the living room is the dining area, complete with a cool slightly arched doorway…

… and an excellent fixture from Ballard Design.

Everything from the thin black frames on that back wall to the table made from reclaimed wood that has special meaning to Kirsten and her hubby Kyle (it is from a barn that was taken down in his hometown of Sweet Home, Oregon) had us threatening to move in on the spot. Oh and the paint color in here is Quill by Olympic.

For more on those frames and the art within them, you can check out Kristen’s journal here (the prints have a truly interesting origin, and the frames were garage sale finds). Even the little console table behind the dining area was truly sweetly accessorized. I remember telling Kirsten that she has a serious knack for decorating, as in: she should do it full time – and I meant it!

Check out their remarkable kitchen! It used to be a narrow galley kitchen (where those hanging pendants are was once a wall). Kirsten and her husband got their wood counter handcrafted by a local woodworker for a steal (a serious steal- like a few hundred dollars for the whole thing, including the hole for the sunken cooktop).

She said they had repainted the walls quite a few times, simply to get the ideal color – and this putty color (Benjamin Moore’s Rockport Gray) was the bee’s knees. I enjoyed how rich it made the cabinets look without feeling dark at all.

Here is the sweet eat-in area on the other side of the room. Is that yellow poster the bomb.com or what? It is from here (and the remarkable yellow peppermill is from Anthropologie).

Oh and I had to share this shot of a small staircase right off of the kitchen that leads to an exterior door. Kirsten hoped to dress up the stairs without spending a ton, so she simply used Benjamin Moore’s porch and floor paint (in White Dove and Van Cortland Blue) along with a stencil to give them a pick-me-up.

Here is the guest room, complete with a charming metal bed and the coolest old wood dresser we have seen in a while.

It was totally something you’d see at Anthropologie for a cool grand, but it was in fact a free hand-me-down that Kirsten inherited, painted, hated the paint, and then stripped and sanded. Is not that an remarkable “accidental” effect that she ended up with? It is so weathered and cool. Oh and the drawer pulls are from Anthropologie and the wall color is Behr’s Pebble Stone.

Here is the backyard, which was so lush and green thanks to all that Portland rain. That little deck that you see is off of the kitchen, and there is a fence and some fairly bushes behind where we stood to take this picture.

All in all: a especially charming house, with a especially charming owner. Thanks so much for inviting us to crash your house Kirsten!

For more on Kirsten’s paint colors, click here, and for more on her house/neighborhood, click here. And click here simply to check out her excellent journal in general. Now let us play the what is-your-go-to part game. I am fully obsessed with the giant map in the living room, the dining room chandelier, and the wood trunk in the living room. And of course John wants to fight me for the map, and also loves the yellow sign in the kitchen along with the wood counter in there. Your turn.

Psst- Check out over thirty more House Crashing features right here.