To keep maintenance to a minimum, landscaping by modernbackyard consists of concrete pavers and a selection of native plantings. Exterior materials, such as cedar siding and ceiling and Concrete block, extend indoors.
Featured Homes
Nesting Instinct
The interiors of this Bellevue home reflect the natural environment outdoors, which includes an eagles’ nest


To establish a more direct nature connection, floor-to-ceiling windows open the interior to the outside, and large patios provide ample entertaining space in warmer months.


Custom cabinetry by I & B Wood Inc. in the kitchen is straightforward and simple, in keeping with the contemporary palette.


Floor-to-ceiling windows in the master bedroom “make it feel as if you’re really sleeping among the trees,” the wife says. “We wanted the space to become an extension of the exterior,” architect Rick Chesmore explains. “The use of so much glass facilitates that, giving the home a more open feel.”
Just beyond the living room window of this Bellevue home, an eagles’ nest is perched high above in a sequoia tree. Lake Washington glistens in the distance, and the peaceful woods quietly stir below. The nest’s residents, two bald eagles, have called this site home for several years, raising numerous offspring and returning to nest season after season.

So when the homeowners fell in love with the property and decided to build their dream home, leaving their new neighbors in peace was top priority.

The couple hired architect Rick Chesmore of Chesmore|Buck Architecture, with whom they had worked in the past, to lead the inevitably complicated project, with the help of project manager Robb Allen. Chesmore then contacted longtime friend and interior designer Deena Rauen of D Studio Inc. to direct the interiors.

“We always start our projects by being sensitive to two things: One is the site; the other is the owners’ wants and needs,” Chesmore says.

An on-site eagles’ nest not only made the process interesting—particularly when three offspring were hatched in the middle of construction—but it provided for some tricky design solutions. The team built around the tree with the nest, taking heed not to frighten the eagles.

Having grown up in the Northwest—the wife in rural Oregon, the husband in Broadmoor—the homeowners have a natural affinity for the inherent beauty of the local environment.

“The eagles only provided the homeowners further incentive to connect their home with their surroundings, something they’d wanted from the beginning,” Chesmore says.

A close collaboration between architect and interior designer was the central catalyst in creating this award-worthy project. Nowhere in the home does architecture fight interior for the spotlight. Instead, the two take the stage together, and it’s unclear where one influence begins and the other ends.

The home—made up of two wings measuring 3,000 and 2,000 square feet respectively—is a modern space that effectively achieves a compromise between the often contradictory wants of husband and wife. She prefers Northwest contemporary, but her husband had always lived in more traditional homes—like the French-colonial-style home in Clyde Hill where they lived for eight years. When the couple decided to build a new home after three of their five children went off to college, there were inevitable design compromises to be made. “My husband wanted volume in each room,” the wife says. “I wanted spaces that were comfortable and simple feeling.”

A solution was achieved by creating a lofty great-room concept for one wing, consisting of kitchen, master suite, private den and living and dining rooms situated toward Puget Sound; cozier “guests’ quarters,” consisting of a rec room, a guest suite and two additional guest bedrooms upstairs, comprise the other.
Then interior designer Rauen took charge to ensure comfort in each of the spaces.

“Early in the project, the clients described wanting a warm, natural feel to the home with a strong connection to the outdoors,” Rauen says. “I worked closely with Rick to select materials that enhance this relationship with the gorgeous site.”

The cedar ceiling, coated in a warm stain to remove the yellow tones, flows in continuation from the exterior soffit. Slate floors appear to be an extension of the surrounding outside concrete terrace, and concrete block runs along lower walls both in and out. Bamboo flooring delineates the library and master bedroom as “comfortable zones,” Rauen explains, softening the sound and feel underfoot.

 “It was very important to me to use natural elements that really reflect the beauty of the area in which we live,” the wife says. “It was also important for me that we use sustainable and responsibly grown materials.”

To complement these materials and to continue the spirit of compatibility between structure and interior, furnishings were selected to fit within the scale and materials of the space and to not overshadow the architecture.

A Lapchi wool-and-silk rug was custom created by Driscoll Robbins for the living room—its colors chosen to echo the lake beyond the bluff and the clouds above. “Its subtle pattern of blue- grays and taupes seems to change in various lights,” Rauen says.

Furniture is graceful and inviting. Simple lines and watery colors perpetuate the home’s clean palette, while various upholstered furnishings and a coordinating color selection of browns, copper and wood creates warmth. This palette is consistent throughout the home, an intentional design choice to prevent any one thing from upstaging the rest.

In the master bedroom, a walnut four-poster bed gives a subtle nod to the husband’s love of traditional style. Its commanding design by Ted Boerner evokes the tall tree trunks visible beyond the windows.

“The home is very open, with such strong architectural lines and connection to the outdoors,” Rauen says. “So the colors were chosen to complement this—the textures and subtle hues reflect the landscape and further add to the serenity of the space.”

And, according to all involved, it’s precisely the surrounding landscape—eagles and all—that has dictated the entire project from the beginning.

“The home has such a peaceful quality to it,” Rauen says. “It’s hard to imagine until you sit near the living-room windows watching the eagle soar in the sky beyond.”

The wife concurs. “To have your favorite place in the world be your home,” she says, “is a pretty special thing.”

Design Details
ARCHITECT    Rick Chesmore, Chesmore, Buck Architecture, 123 Lake St. S., Ste. 106, Kirkland, (425) 827-1857 or chesmorebuck.com
INTERIOR DESIGNER   Deena Rauen, D Studio Inc., (206) 938-7712
LANDSCAPE DESIGNER   Julie Miles, ModernBackyard, (206) 276-6505 or modernbackyard.com