Home + Design

Connie Migliazzo and husband renovated the pool area with textural ferns while keeping it simple for many uses.

Bit-by-Bit

A landscape architect takes it slow redesigning her yard to maximize enjoyment in the creative process written by Melissa Daltonphotography by Elijah Hoffman Passing by mounds of Mexican feather grass rippling in the breeze, the crunch of decomposed granite under foot, there is a feeling of calm walking up to Connie Migliazzo’s house in Southwest Portland. That’s relatively new for the 1953 abode, which before, had a yard as common as they come: lawn, and more lawn at the front, side and back. “There were some intermittent random plants, a crumbling lava rock wall, but mostly just lawn,” Migliazzo said. “I wanted to do my own thing.” Migliazzo, a landscape architect and founder of the firm Prato, relocated with husband, Jonathan Kadish, a data scientist, from Berkeley, California in 2018. Ever since, they’ve been fixing up the interior of the Mid-century home with Helland Architecture—“It wasn’t a cool Mid-century before,”…

On a forest clearing outside of Tillamook, a couple creates its own Oil Can Henry’s architectural style.

A Cabin State of Mind

A photographer and an architect, friends and neighbors, craft a small retreat in the woods outside Tillamook written by Melissa Dalton photography by Shawn Records Both Shawn Records and his wife, Jenny, grew up in Idaho with a “mountain place” in their families. His grandparents had a little trailer at Lake Cascade, while Jenny’s parents built a cabin close to Lake Fork, ten miles south of McCall. Around 2013, the now Portland-based couple—he’s a photographer, and she’s a librarian—started looking for a little extra land of their own to continue the tradition and build a new place for a new generation of the family, said Records. They started scouting out the Oregon Coast, but contrary to so many buyers, didn’t necessarily want to be on the water. Then they found a seven-acre forested parcel outside Tillamook, with a meadow clearing, salmonberry thickets, and deer trails carved through groves of alder…

DIY Treehouse

DIY: Backyard Treehouse

Photography by Christopher Dibble The beginning of Grey Shaeffer’s treehouse adventure was as a child at her parents’ farm in Forest Grove. Her father built an A-frame treehouse that spanned two trees, and as an adult, Shaeffer made some updates to the original. “I was 19, and I didn’t want to move back into the house because I’d gone to school overseas, so I moved into the tree house,” recalled Shaeffer. “So, I actually remodeled that tree house and lived in it, with plumbing and everything.” Years later, as a designer and founder of Willa Work, Schaeffer was building an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in her Portland backyard, and it was a natural decision to add a treehouse, using leftover building materials from the larger project. “I wanted a treehouse for me and my kids,” said Schaeffer, who fashioned hers into an office space, but also saw it get used…

This interior space in Michael McCulloch’s pavilion brings together an absence of adornment and peaceful views of the outdoors.

DIY: Meditation Space

In 2006, Michael McCulloch completed a pool pavilion on the Portland property that the architect shares with partner, Maryellen Hockensmith. From the start, this wasn’t just any pool pavilion, as the site is an 80-acre working lavender farm that hosts a 1980 house designed by famed Oregon architect Pietro Belluschi. “We designed [the new pavilion] intentionally to be like a piece of the original building broken off and put out in the garden,” said McCulloch. The resulting structure is multi-functional, with two rooms that can be closed from one another and a bathroom in the middle. The front “expansive” section of the pavilion captures the site’s far-reaching views, as well as the nearby pool, while the rear “introspective” room has three walls composed of sliding glass doors that frame the natural crawl of the surrounding land. The entire building is constructed of Port Orford cedar, which was chosen “because it’s…

Oversized pendants with an open-weave pattern complement a leathered amazon granite slab on the island in this Bend kitchen.

Artistic Accents

Two kitchen remodels stay true to their owners’ artsy backgrounds written by Melissa Dalton Bend: For a stylist, a kitchen curated like a killer outfit For every kitchen remodel, Sarah Westhusing takes as many cues as possible from the clients to shape the new design, from learning their favorite hotels, to whether they can abide counter clutter. When the interior designer began working with Beny and Leslee Rabuchin on their Bend home in 2021—he’s a mortgage broker and she’s a stylist—Westhusing immediately noticed Leslee’s artistic flare. “She always has the most fun and playful outfits and hats,” said Westhusing. But the couple’s home, a ranch built in 1984, “and not a cool 1950s ranch,” noted Westhusing, was not fulfilling Leslee’s innate sense of style. Functionally, the kitchen layout needed some tweaks. A dropped ceiling and too many upper cabinets made it feel dark, and an L-shaped counter effectively cut off…

The Farmhouse overlooks the pastures of Tabula Rasa Farm in Carlton, a leader in the regenerative agriculture movement. Relax on the deck and watch cows graze.

Home Stay

What makes an Airbnb retreat feel special? Two popular Oregon hosts offer tips for your home or rental written by Melissa Dalton Tabula Rasa Farms: A Scandinavian-Influenced Farmhouse in Carlton The Airbnb reviews of The Farmhouse@Tabula Rasa Farms are effusive. “This home was beyond amazing,” reads one. “If you appreciate design, this is your spot,” goes another. One really makes their case: “Every single light has a dimmer in the entire house.” After all, when the farmhouse’s owner, Brenda Smola-Foti designed the farmhouse more than a decade ago, she paid careful attention to the details, especially lighting. “I did a lot of things to get north light, because that’s the steady light that a painter likes,” said Smola-Foti, who grew up working on her father’s cattle ranch in Oklahoma, and now describes herself as “an artist who made the jump to farmer.” In 2008, Smola-Foti bought twenty-three acres of farmland…

A covered deck lets you take in the bucolic scene from The Farmhouse at Tabula Rasa Farm.

DIY: Tips for a Successful Airbnb

MAINTAIN INVENTORY No guest wants to have to run to the store for a sponge or toilet paper on vacation. Higgins uses Amazon’s subscription service to stay on top of supplies for the River Cabaan. “A lot of the admin of an Airbnb is the stock and the cleaning,” said Higgins, so streamlining the process with regular deliveries is a time-saver. Have on hand things that visitors commonly forget to pack as well, such as extra toothbrushes and deodorant, said Smola-Foti. DON’T FORGET THE OUTDOORS While the Carlton farmhouse has a lot of dedicated outdoor space, including a deck and covered porch, Smola-Foti makes sure to populate it with ample seating so that guests can take advantage of finding a place in the sun. Likewise, at the River Cabaan, there’s a hammock, too. KEEP IT FRESH No one wants to dry off with a towel that’s lost its fluff, or…

French doors open a room to create a more spacious feel, refreshing it with natural light.

Form, Function, Financially Fit & Fabulous

Oregon designers spill the smartest ways to use $50,000 in home equity written by Melissa Dalton In the past year, our homes have taken on new significance. We relish the comfort they provide, while pondering possibilities for making them even better. We asked three Oregon designers to weigh in on how they’d recommend homeowners spend $50,000 in home equity. Turns out, a little can go a long way, if you know where to use it. HOUSE OF MILO, BEND Sarah Westhusing | Remodel a kitchen or bathroom People tend to look at the question of remodeling in two ways, said Sarah Westhusing, interior designer and founder of House of Milo, a Bend-based studio which tackles everything from new builds to renovations. “The first are the people that really focus on return on investment,” she said. They only want to invest an amount in updates that they’ll recoup when they sell…

DIY wainscoting in this bathroom adds dimension, interest and a shallow shelf, too.

DIY: Tips for Installing Wainscot in Your Home

Wainscot, or wood-paneling installed on the lower section of wall in a room, can have a big impact, as seen in the custom treatment in Stephanie Dyer’s bathroom. Apply wainscot to one wall as an accent, or wrap the room, for instant depth and character. Here are our basic tips. MIND THE PROPORTIONS The key to getting wood paneling to look appropriate is to get the proportions right. First, measure the height from floor to ceiling. One approach is to have the height of the wood paneling, including any trim, be either ⅓ or ⅗ of the total wall height. Pay attention to how the paneling height will interact with all of the other elements in the room, such as windows, light switches, towel bars, the mirror and existing trim. Use a level and a pencil to draw a light horizontal line around the room that marks the desired height….