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A rain chain fashioned by sculpture artist Christine Clark, who hand-bent every link.

DIY: Hang a Rain Chain

Rain chains have been a mainstay in Japanese culture for centuries, serving to collect rainwater for practical use. They make sense in the rainy Northwest for a number of reasons. Rain chains add personalized décor to the exterior of a house and garden, as well as the soothing sound of trickling water. They’re also practical; slowing down the water’s rush averts soil erosion and prevents gushing runoff from overwhelming the municipal storm system. Locate Choose a location where you’ll be able to see and appreciate the rain chain, and make sure the water drains away from the house and foundation. Consider having a receptacle for the drained water, such as a rain barrel, a trail of river rocks that lead to a garden, or a container of some sort, which could produce a gurgling fountain effect. Install Downspouts funnel rain water off the roof and away from the foundation into…

Designer Spotlight: Designer Jessica Helgerson on chic and timeless kitchen design

Designer Spotlight interview by Melissa Dalton, photos by Lincoln Barbour Twenty-two years ago, Jessica Helgerson started her design career in Santa Barbara, working for a green-building nonprofit called The Sustainability Project. So what’s the greenest move you can make in a kitchen? First, she says, “Get the design right for that house so that the kitchen never has to get ripped out again.” We asked her to elaborate on her secrets for doing just that. 1. Take cues from the existing house. At Helgerson’s firm, designers pore over old photos for inspiration. For instance, in a recent remodel of a Portland home that was once a library, Helgerson referenced the house’s past in the kitchen with built-in shelves and a rolling library ladder. 2. Build stylish storage and, bonus, hide the fridge. To balance open shelves with the room’s storage needs, Helgerson’s firm has recently been installing walls of smart…

Condo Downsizes and Makeovers

Beaverton condo makeover transforms a blank box into a custom-designed sanctuary written by Melissa Dalton   When Maurice and Dori King first walked through the door of the Beaverton condo they now call home, they saw a beautiful tree-lined view through the living room’s tall windows. But that was soon followed by a plethora of drab builder finishes, from taupe carpeting to beige bathroom tile. Turns out, that was exactly what the couple needed. The unit had not been modified much since the building’s construction in the early aughts, making it ripe for reinvention. “What excited me more than anything else was that it was a box,” Maurice said. Before considering condo life, Maurice, a sales director at Nike, and Dori, an educator at Oregon Episcopal School, raised two children and, most recently, lived in a modern Craftsman in Bethany Village. That 2,000-square-foot house served certain purposes well. “We are…

Three Home Renovations

Inside three fantastic remodel projects around the state, including an architect-designed beach house, a prefab cabin in the woods and a historic city loft written by Melissa Dalton   Creativity, elbow grease, patience. All home renovations have the same requirements. We step inside three fantastic remodel projects around the state, including an architect-designed beach house, a prefab cabin in the woods and a historic city loft. What else do they have in common? Homeowners who love where they live. For three years, Cole and Lea Anne Gerst sought a little piece of coastal property to call their own. They came close to buying a different house before they found a true gem. “Cole is a designer. I could tell that his eyes did not light up on the previous property,” Lea Anne Gerst said. “When we went and saw this home, his eyes just went crazy.” Their find was special…

Tetherow home

An architect and interior designer fashion a modern Tetherow home befitting the high desert

written by Melissa Dalton In this house, the formality of a traditional enclosed entryway is a thing of the past. Step inside the front door and you’re greeted with an immediate view out the back—a 12-foot-high wall of glass that frames a grove of Ponderosa pine trees, desert scrub brush and several Cascade peaks in the distance. Putting that view upfront was a priority for Anne Mastalir. When Mastalir and her family relocated to Central Oregon from Portland in 2013, the move was an opportunity for the interior designer and owner of Pringle Design to craft a house that was not only a calling card for her work, but an ode to her new home. “It was important to us to design and build a home that fit in well with the surrounding landscape and fit the Bend environment,” Mastalir said. I figured out a very long time ago that…

Modern Outdoor Finds—Make your patio pop with these products

    If you need an update for a decrepit picnic table, try the Aviara Aluminum Rectangular Dining Table from Restoration Hardware. Made of rust-proof tubular aluminum and available in three sizes, its strong, graphic lines will stand out on your patio. www.restorationhardware.com       The Tolix Marais A Chair may have been created in 1934, but it still looks fresh today. Fabricated from powder-coated steel or galvanized steel, the chair that once sat on the deck of the S.S. Normandie, not to mention numerous French cafés in the decades since, will lend your backyard a certain joie de vivre. www.dwr.com             Barn Light Electric looks to vintage silhouettes for design inspiration. Take the Frontier LED Angle Shade sconce. It riffs off of classic gas station lamps, but the LED technology, which lasts up to 50,000 hours, is all new. www.barnlight.com    

A timber-frame outdoor pavilion draws a West Linn family outside

written by Melissa Dalton An Outdoor Pavilion, rustic and accommodating When Daniel Harkavy and his wife bought their West Linn house in 2013, its 5-acre plot included woodland, pasture and lovely valley views, but the deck off the back door overlooked a swing set. On warm weather days, you might sit on the deck’s built-in bench while waiting for the barbecue to fire up, but there was little else to beckon anyone outdoors. Yet the prospect of enjoying all that acreage was just what had attracted the family to buy in the first place. “We moved from three-quarters of an acre to 5 acres,” said Harkavy, an executive coach. “I always had a dream of living out on a bit more land and having more to play with.” The classic timber-frame home that came with the land had excellent bones, including vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, but the worn fixtures…

A Wine Country Modern Farmhouse

A Wine Country Modern Farmhouse

A design duo crafts a distinct farmhouse for wine lovers in the Willamette Valley written by Melissa Dalton DEEP IN THE DUNDEE HILLS, up a curving gravel drive past a grove of moss-covered oaks, sits a farmhouse with a tomato red door. The home’s silvered board-and-batten siding and standing seam metal roof evoke farmsteads of old, but that’s about where the resemblance ends. This one has a decidedly more contemporary shape. “We wanted to take the idea of the modern farmhouse and flip it on its head,” Matthew Daby said. The residential designer teamed up with interior designer Angela Mechaley, both of m.o.daby design, to tweak tradition in unexpected ways. Picture a classic American farmhouse, and the image that comes to mind most likely includes a pitched roof, front porch, and double-hung windows. Pretty? Yes. Practical? Not for this particular plot, which has a dramatic grade and straddles a driveway…

Portland Condo Interior

An interior designer turns a small Portland condo into a personal haven written by Melissa Dalton | photos by Christopher Dibble Kristen Siefkin is no stranger to reinvention. The Portland-based interior designer first became intrigued with her field while working as a public relations professional for McMenamins Hotels, Pubs and Breweries in the late ’90s. “Design had never really been on my radar,” Siefkin said. “I always hear designers say, ‘I grew up rearranging my family’s living room,’ and that was never me. I learned about design from Mike McMenamin, who was obsessed with the details and history and creating layers and creating spaces that people talk about.” After that unofficial introduction, Siefkin studied the topic formally at the Heritage School of Interior Design and swapped her PR career in 2015 to start her own firm, Interior Design Alchemy. In the interim years, she cultivated her passion for design via…