AIA Home: An Artful Kirkland Abode
| By Shannon O'Leary |
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Architect Milan Heger went for a contemporary design
(Photo by Frank Jenkins)
An Eastside couple’s new home embraces color and culture
Bring together an architect raised in Czechoslovakia and clients from India and Colombia and what do you get? A decidedly cosmopolitan new house that embraces color and culture.
Carri Roman, from Colombia, and Ajay Nair, a native of India, wanted to replace their conventional 1960s ranch-style house in Kirkland with a dwelling for themselves, and their young son and daughter, that richly captured their contemporary tastes and cultural heritage. After interviewing a handful of prospects, they found a kindred spirit in Seattle architect Milan Heger, also a skilled furniture designer and fine artist (his paintings often are exhibited at Seattle’s Patricia Cameron Gallery). Says Heger, “Ajay and Carri are from two different cultures, and yet there’s a common denominator that I love, which is a warmth and a sense of family.” His challenge: “How would I marry those cultures in one house that would flow?”
His solution is a three-story jewel of a house that is at once open and intimate, exotic and elegant. The couple, who puts entertaining family and friends at a premium, wanted the focus of their new home to be an open-plan second floor that plays host to the expansive kitchen, great room, dining room and master guest bedroom. Upping the entertainment ante is a third-story nest, accessible by a stunning metal-and-birch spiral staircase imported from Germany, which offers dreamy views aided by a wet bar and an outdoor deck.
To make the most of the site’s previously unrealized lake views, Heger adroitly repositioned the new house. “Before, it was parallel to the street,” he explains. “Now the house is completely skewed on the lot…and it really worked out beautifully.”
The family’s own bedrooms are on the ground floor, secreted behind the entryway’s floating staircase. “There comes a time about eight o’clock at night,” says Carri, “when we go downstairs and it’s just our bedrooms and the kids’ and the TV and the computers, all our family area. It’s completely private.”
Another key ingredient for the couple was a marvel of a kitchen. “I told Milan, the kitchen is going to be worked in,” stresses Ajay. “We cook a lot. Our parties are 40-people plus.” Acknowledges Heger, “They warned me that Ajay is a chef and that when he cooks, the kitchen flies. It is completely used up to the last inch.” He gave Ajay a double-galley design with plenty of splatter-friendly flat surfaces to work with and all the bells and whistles any chef could wish for. There are a professional cooking range, two sinks, two dishwashers, a warming drawer, an ice maker and a pantry stocked with a dumbwaiter and, in addition to a slim fridge for-everyday-use in the kitchen, a nicely out-of-sight industrial-sized fridge and freezer.
Equally impressive is how Heger deftly delineated spaces via such seemingly simple elements as ceiling, lighting and color design. “Each space has to be like a different room and each room like a different mood,” he explains. For example, “You can structure a ceiling. In your mind, you’re connecting it—this is the kitchen, the hallway and the main space—without chopping it up.” He also was guided by the couple’s overall aim for their abode. “One of the key things we told Milan,” says Carri, “is it has to feel warm.” Heger accomplished this with a paint palette that employed an astonishing 34 different colors. “Just saying that could scare some people,” he admits, “but none of it is overwhelming because it’s a balance.” His inspiration for the color scheme was the warm spices found in the open markets of the couple’s respective native homelands.
Heger included another cultural touchstone that is particularly fitting for a house designed with family and friends in mind. A custom sculpture of the Hindu deity Ganesh, prominently positioned inside the home’s entryway, was an Ajay special request. “Almost every Indian home has Ganesh at the entrance,” he explains simply. “He welcomes everybody.”
Open House Tour
Our ongoing partnership with the American Institute of Architects Seattle Chapter (AIA Seattle) continues our commitment to bring the experience of Puget Sound–area residential design to our readers. Each month, we showcase an architect-designed home, selected by AIA Seattle and Northwest Home, which will be open to the public for a Sunday-afternoon viewing. We invite you to tour this issue’s featured home, designed by Milan Heger of Heger Architecture, located in Kirkland at 11233 Champagne Point Rd. NE, on Sunday, January 17, between noon and 3 p.m. For more information on the tour and the Open House program, please visit nwhome.com or aiaseattle.org; 206.448.4938.
Bring together an architect raised in Czechoslovakia and clients from India and Colombia and what do you get? A decidedly cosmopolitan new house that embraces color and culture.
Carri Roman, from Colombia, and Ajay Nair, a native of India, wanted to replace their conventional 1960s ranch-style house in Kirkland with a dwelling for themselves, and their young son and daughter, that richly captured their contemporary tastes and cultural heritage. After interviewing a handful of prospects, they found a kindred spirit in Seattle architect Milan Heger, also a skilled furniture designer and fine artist (his paintings often are exhibited at Seattle’s Patricia Cameron Gallery). Says Heger, “Ajay and Carri are from two different cultures, and yet there’s a common denominator that I love, which is a warmth and a sense of family.” His challenge: “How would I marry those cultures in one house that would flow?”
His solution is a three-story jewel of a house that is at once open and intimate, exotic and elegant. The couple, who puts entertaining family and friends at a premium, wanted the focus of their new home to be an open-plan second floor that plays host to the expansive kitchen, great room, dining room and master guest bedroom. Upping the entertainment ante is a third-story nest, accessible by a stunning metal-and-birch spiral staircase imported from Germany, which offers dreamy views aided by a wet bar and an outdoor deck.
To make the most of the site’s previously unrealized lake views, Heger adroitly repositioned the new house. “Before, it was parallel to the street,” he explains. “Now the house is completely skewed on the lot…and it really worked out beautifully.”
The family’s own bedrooms are on the ground floor, secreted behind the entryway’s floating staircase. “There comes a time about eight o’clock at night,” says Carri, “when we go downstairs and it’s just our bedrooms and the kids’ and the TV and the computers, all our family area. It’s completely private.”
Another key ingredient for the couple was a marvel of a kitchen. “I told Milan, the kitchen is going to be worked in,” stresses Ajay. “We cook a lot. Our parties are 40-people plus.” Acknowledges Heger, “They warned me that Ajay is a chef and that when he cooks, the kitchen flies. It is completely used up to the last inch.” He gave Ajay a double-galley design with plenty of splatter-friendly flat surfaces to work with and all the bells and whistles any chef could wish for. There are a professional cooking range, two sinks, two dishwashers, a warming drawer, an ice maker and a pantry stocked with a dumbwaiter and, in addition to a slim fridge for-everyday-use in the kitchen, a nicely out-of-sight industrial-sized fridge and freezer.
Equally impressive is how Heger deftly delineated spaces via such seemingly simple elements as ceiling, lighting and color design. “Each space has to be like a different room and each room like a different mood,” he explains. For example, “You can structure a ceiling. In your mind, you’re connecting it—this is the kitchen, the hallway and the main space—without chopping it up.” He also was guided by the couple’s overall aim for their abode. “One of the key things we told Milan,” says Carri, “is it has to feel warm.” Heger accomplished this with a paint palette that employed an astonishing 34 different colors. “Just saying that could scare some people,” he admits, “but none of it is overwhelming because it’s a balance.” His inspiration for the color scheme was the warm spices found in the open markets of the couple’s respective native homelands.
Heger included another cultural touchstone that is particularly fitting for a house designed with family and friends in mind. A custom sculpture of the Hindu deity Ganesh, prominently positioned inside the home’s entryway, was an Ajay special request. “Almost every Indian home has Ganesh at the entrance,” he explains simply. “He welcomes everybody.”
Open House Tour
Our ongoing partnership with the American Institute of Architects Seattle Chapter (AIA Seattle) continues our commitment to bring the experience of Puget Sound–area residential design to our readers. Each month, we showcase an architect-designed home, selected by AIA Seattle and Northwest Home, which will be open to the public for a Sunday-afternoon viewing. We invite you to tour this issue’s featured home, designed by Milan Heger of Heger Architecture, located in Kirkland at 11233 Champagne Point Rd. NE, on Sunday, January 17, between noon and 3 p.m. For more information on the tour and the Open House program, please visit nwhome.com or aiaseattle.org; 206.448.4938.
     Pictured above: The formal dining space features an artful dividing wall fitted with a cozy glass fireplace; the generous great room off the kitchen exudes a surprising intimacy; the kitchen has colorful eye-candy appeal, but was made to be a workhorse; the entryway is filled with bright light and spicy color; the bathrooms share the warm mix of tones and materials found throughout the house |
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