interiors + architecture
Central to the kitchen in this Mercer Island spec house is a Carrara marble–topped custom island. RIGHT: The entryway features a rug from Brian Paquette at Home; the Lawson-Fenning stools are upholstered in fabric from Glant Textiles; the mirror is Ben and Aja Blanc. OPPOSITE: The living room rug is a sisal piece from Stark Carpet. The sofa is Lawson-Fenning. THIS PAGE, LEFT:
SPEC-TACULAR Written by RACHEL GALLAHER : Photographed by HARIS KENJAR ONE MORNING IN EARLY 2018, Seattle interior designer
Brian Paquette received an urgent text from a former client. She and her fiancé (with four children between them) had recently bought a spec house on Lake Washington’s Mercer Island, and the builder, Millad Development, would allow them to swap out and customize all the tile, flooring, hardware, paint, decorative lighting, and plumbing. The catch? It all had to be done in just two weeks. “We didn’t waste a second,” Paquette recalls. “That afternoon we were at the stone yard picking out slabs, and for the next two weeks we were texting, calling, and sharing
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pictures.” The spoils of that first shopping trip—six slabs of Carrara marble from Meta Marble & Granite—would become the primary material used in the kitchen (counters, island top, backsplashes), and its soft gray and white veining would become the gentle driver of the hues selected for the home’s other rooms. Paquette received the client’s carte blanche for the interiors, with the stipulation that the colors had to remain neutral. He drew upon the understated luxury of Mexico’s Sanara Tulum resort as inspiration. “The palette was derived from images of sun-drenched rooms,” he says. »
