At first glance, a run-down Victorian seemed like an unlikely home for the founder of John McNeil Studio and his family. But the home’s soaring timber frame, obscured by a warren of dark rooms—and its location next to John’s creative studio—provided points of departure for our design.

With a nod to Gordon Matta-Clark, the home’s transformation centers on a diagonal swath of space, slicing from front door to rear yard to reveal formerly hidden spaces and the raw beauty of the Douglas fir structure and flooring. Ancillary zones along this slice are rendered in a matte gray, highlighting the chroma and texture of the objects of everyday life.

This play of old and new, materiality and monochrome, sets off subtle design cues linking home and office in a new live-work paradigm. Chrome-finished cubbies and pops of pattern and color offer hints of a family life full of curiosity.