Clever, Hidden Storage Ideas Keep This Vancouver Family's Home Super Tidy

When a young Vancouver family wanted to renovate their house, designer Stephanie Brown helped them modernize with a colorful yet down-to-earth Scandinavian look.

September 15, 2021

By: Kassondra Cloos

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Photo By: Phil Crozier

Redesigning a Home for a Growing Family

When Vancouver couple Paul and Jenneh Kearns wanted to renovate their house to accommodate a young and growing family, designer Stephanie Brown jumped into action to plan a top-to-bottom do-over. Their 1990s craftsman-style house was outdated and needed a more open floor plan, and the family wanted bright decor to evoke a sense of contentment. Throughout the course of the renovation, Stephanie and her team took down walls, removed a bedroom to add more space elsewhere, changed a laundry room into a powder room and brought in bright colors to keep the house looking cheerful.

Open Areas Help Break Up Walls of Cabinetry in Interesting—and Useful—Ways

The entryway of the house couldn’t accommodate a mudroom, so Stephanie installed clean cabinetry to stow jackets, keys and other important bits. To break up the wall of closed cabinets, she left an open space in the middle, which hides an electrical outlet which makes a perfect place to charge a phone. That open cube is also magnetic, so the family can leave each other little notes and reminders.

A Small Console Table Makes for a Bright, Clean Entryway

Having a small console table by the front door can tidy up your entryway. One with a small drawer like this one makes a great place to store keys and other small necessities so you'll always know where to find them.

Figure Out What Problems You Need Your Space to Solve

Clever storage solutions are hidden in plain sight all over the house, like this small coat closet by the back entrance of the home. “That tall cabinet hides coat hooks and shoe storage because the clients use their back door a lot,” Stephanie says. “We knew there would be some uncontained clutter back there.”

Create an "Unplugged" Area in Your Home

The Kearnses were willing to lose a bedroom to better use the space in their home, so Stephanie made the principal bathroom larger, moved the laundry room up to the second floor and created this reading alcove at the top of the stairs. “The clients really wanted to have a quiet space with no TV,” Stephanie says. This is an “unplugged area,” she added, with a growing collection of books where the kids can read in a cozy little spot that’s still out in the open.

A Purpose-Built Laundry Room Has Plenty of Built-Ins

The home’s new and improved laundry room, moved to the second floor, has plenty of storage solutions, compact washer and dryer to fit flush with the countertops and space to fold and hang clothes to dry.

The New Open-Plan Living Room Flows Naturally Right Into the Kitchen and Dining Area

The family wanted to have a big, open space with a view into the kitchen, a “do-everything room” in place of a more formal parlor and separate dining room, Stephanie says. “We took that formal living room and dining room and combined the entire thing into the new living room, and opened up the walls as much as structurally possible. It felt a lot more open-concept,” Stephanie says.

A Custom Sofa Might Be the Essential Finishing Touch

This living room sofa, upholstered with wool, was custom designed specifically for the Kearns family and made in Vancouver. Stephanie’s team played with a palette of grays to keep the space fairly neutral even with accents of pink and green. A charcoal area rug, also made of wool, makes those white coffee tables really stand out.

Learn More: 13 Wellness Trends Popping Up in Home Design

The Family Got Creative for Design-Focused Safety Around the Stairs

After blowing out the wall by the stairs to create a more open living plan, everyone realized they’d need to figure out a safety element so there wasn’t just a drop-off between the kitchen and lower flight of stairs. Instead of using a solid wall or a railing, the Kearnses dreamt up this partial wall of vertical white oak slats. “It was really collaborative,” Stephanie says, and made for a cool architectural feature that worked much better than a simple hand railing.

Bright Accent Colors Like Pink Can Be a Fun Risk to Take

The color scheme on this floor incorporates mint, sage and hunter greens, pastel pinks and calming gray. Introducing pink was a bit of a wild card and a risk, Stephanie says, but the family loved the idea and they ended up running with it. The combination is both playful and classy, and with all the green gives a nod to the Kearnses’ landscaping business. 

Funky Pink Armchairs Liven Up This Otherwise Neutral Living Room

These French-made pink Ruché chairs, from Ligne Roset, add a fun vibe and a soft touch to the living room. Stephanie’s team offered the Kearnses quite a few choices, and these were the most unique of the bunch. “We gave them other fabric options, but sometimes it’s really great when clients feel really adventurous,” she says. “Picking the fun option can be really exciting and take the house that much further.” The chairs’ frames are made from solid wood that matches the white oak accents elsewhere around the house. 

Bright Living Room with Gray Furniture and Pink Accents

The home’s original windows weren’t energy efficient, so the family took the redesign opportunity to replace them for better models. The large windows let in tons of natural light to brighten up the home, and the black window frames punctuate the white exterior of the house.

Overlapping Circular Coffee Tables Create Visual Pop in This Living Room

This set of bright, white Canadian-made Tam-Tam coffee tables from Trica was sourced from a local shop in Vancouver called Once a Tree Furniture.

When You Hire a Designer, Bring Your Own Insta-Inspo

When Stephanie is working on a new project, she goes through every step of the design process with her clients. They’ll usually bring Instagram posts to her to share inspiration for the design, then her team will present them with options for furniture and decor before they make final selections. “Even though you hire a designer to, in theory, do things for you, it’s a very personal process,” she says. The vibe the Kearns family was going for was a Scandinavian sense of hygge, a Danish word that loosely translates to a certain kind of coziness that leads to feelings of contentment.  

Opening Up the Dining Room Allowed for New Seating Areas

Previously, the first floor of the house didn’t have much flow, Stephanie says, and the former living room and dining room felt small and closed-off at the back of the house. The new floor plan accommodates a spacious dining area and a sunny window seat flanked by open shelving and small, hidden closets for jackets and extra table settings. To make the family’s existing leather dining chairs blend in more seamlessly with the new decor, Stephanie’s team had custom slipcovers made for them. The Modo Chandelier above the dining table is from Roll & Hill, and the artwork is from Vancouver artist Carla Tak.

Don't Overthink Your Open Shelves — Just Use Them

The door to the original laundry room used to be where the ovens are to the left, she says, so when they moved the laundry room upstairs and turned that space into a powder room, they put the entrance in the hallway so more storage could be added against that wall in the kitchen. The asymmetrical open shelving is as practical as is it stylish — that’s where the family keeps their everyday plates, the things they reach for most. Often, people aren't quite sure what to do with open shelves, Stephanie says, and she advises making them as useful as possible instead of overthinking them as decor.

A Kitchen Island Can Be A Great Way to Add Extra Seating

To add more seating in the kitchen, Stephanie installed an island nearly twice as big as the old one, with white oak trim to match accents elsewhere in the house.

Think About How You Want to Use Your Space Before You Redraw the Floorplan

The Kearns’ original kitchen was already large, Stephanie says, but space wasn’t used effectively and the new design makes it easier for everyone to cook and hang out together in the kitchen.

A Simple Coat of Paint Can Go a Long Way to Modernizing an Exterior

To modernize this traditional craftsman house without extensive exterior renovations, Stephanie’s team painted it all white and added a large, black front door and railings to match. The front steps and porch are made of concrete. “It’s a fresh take on traditional,” Stephanie says, and people are often surprised when they visit to see how modern it is inside in spite of its exterior.

A White Oak Asymmetrical Bookshelf Offers Storage Space for Artwork and Books

White oak shelving and accents are consistent throughout the home, which keeps the palette bright and clean-looking. These bookshelves in the staircase alcove offer a storage solution as well as an opportunity to display small works of art that perfectly match the color scheme and artwork around the first floor of the house.

Bright, White Principal Bedroom with Pink Accents

To keep the bedrooms bright and simple, the family opted for wall-to-wall gray carpeting and white walls. For the principal bedroom, Stephanie found this upholstered headboard from Once a Tree Furniture

Small Yet Bright Accents Liven Up A Neutral Bedroom

Subtle accents in the principal bedroom hint at the bolder color schemes elsewhere in the house without being too loud.

Locally-Quarried Marble Makes a Great Accent Wall—and Story

To create symmetry in the principal bathroom, Stephanie’s new floor plan includes a shower to the right and an enclosed toilet to the left, with a freestanding tub as a centerpiece. The feature wall behind the tub is marble sourced locally from Vancouver Island.

Principal Bathroom with Marble Accents

The white porcelain tile in the principal bathroom is super-practical—it’s really durable, Stephanie says, and you don’t need to worry about resealing it. It’s also stain-resistant. It matches well with the black marble accents quarried locally on Vancouver Island.

A Timeless Bathroom Keeps Kids from Outgrowing the Design

One of the kids’ bedrooms originally had an ensuite bath, but the family decided to nix that in favor of a larger shared bathroom. They wanted to make sure it was something the children could grow up in without getting tired of the design, so they kept the style timeless. The tile backsplash is Bianco Carrara marble in an oval-shaped mosaic.

White Oak and Marble Powder Room

The main floor powder room used to be the laundry room. Stephanie outfitted it with the same materials found elsewhere in the house—white and gray marble from Vancouver Island, and a white oak hardwood vanity.

White Built-Ins Make This Home Office Bright and Sunny

This redesign was completed well before the pandemic, but this space has always been a home office and remained that way even through the renovation. To revive the space, Stephanie had new millwork installed to match the white oak elements elsewhere in the house. The desk chairs were sourced from local shop Vancouver Special.

A Former Nanny Suite Becomes a Family Rec Room

This basement rec room used to house a live-in nanny when the family’s two older children were younger, and was radically renovated during this redesign process. It once had a kitchen, living room, separate bedroom and bathroom, and they got rid of all of that to make an open, walk-out space leading into the lower patio.

A Massive Sliding Glass Door Lets Lots of Light Into the Basement

“We wanted to maximize the light coming in,” Stephanie says, so massive sliding glass doors were added to let light stream in from the lower patio. The rec room’s sectional was custom-made by WD Western Designers in Vancouver, and its colorful rug is from Salari.

A Fireplace Makes This Rec Room Cozy and Inviting for the Whole Family

The rec room was designed to encourage people to want to go down into the basement to hang out, Stephanie says, with a large TV and a fireplace to add to those hygge vibes.

Keeping the Entryway Bright and Simple

A bench by the front door keeps the entryway open and tidy-looking. The new, more modern front door sports a large glass window to make the entryway bright, adding to the sense of hygge the family was hoping for at the outset of the design process.

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