Ashbury Heights
Completed: 2025-2026

“The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.” — Louis Kahn

This gambrel-roofed Edwardian had already lived a long life when we were brought in to give it some care and attention for its next chapter.

Our clients, both retired from careers in healthcare (big hearts and minds), came to the project with very different ideas about what they wanted to do. What they shared was more important: a desire for the house to feel calm, comfortable and deeply livable. They wanted a bathroom that felt like a retreat, a kitchen made for people who love to cook, and a cozy place to sit and watch their beautiful, established garden—and the birds, butterflies and other small creatures that call it home. Sunlight was a key factor; the way it hit the building and different times of day, the way it drenched the breakfast nook and came through the skylights in the bathroom (changing throughout the year, of course).

Much of the project became an exercise in preservation as much as design. We repaired and restored original woodwork and Douglas fir floors, replaced many of the windows with historically appropriate replicas, and worked throughout the house to bring back the warmth and character that had been there all along. The contractor crafted excellent coved ceilings from drywall in areas that the plaster was starting to show its age.

New window treatments, lighting, furnishings and subtler interventions were layered in around the old, allowing the house to feel refreshed without feeling newly made. The result is a home that belongs very much to its owners, but still feels unmistakably like the 1915 house it has always been.

Photography by Ari Hildebrand