Beautiful Utility

home + design

The Tetherow kitchen combines farmhouse function and modern details.

Heaven McArthur for Timberline Construction of Bend

Beautiful Utility

These two kitchens don’t just look good—they’re ready to work

written by Melissa Dalton

Modern Traditional in Tetherow

WHEN BUILDING a brand-new house, the options can seem endless, which sometimes leads to “analysis paralysis” in certain clients. The owners of this recent build in Bend’s Tetherow development avoided indecision by identifying what they didn’t want first. “Especially in Tetherow, a lot of the houses are super modern, but they didn’t want a super contemporary home,” said Bend-based interior designer Lucy Roland of Harper House Design. In 2015, Roland joined Timberline Construction and Tebbs Design Group to guide the owners, a couple in the brewery business, through the design and build process. “[The wife] definitely errs on the side of more traditional,” Roland said. “So, they wanted something that can bridge the gap between modern and traditional.”

On the surface, a “modern traditional” aesthetic might seem contradictory, but it’s all about striking a balance. Think of it as

farmhouse function meets the restrained detailing of modernism, with a few rustic and industrial accents thrown in for good measure. The kitchen’s scheme started with the wall treatment, which, at first glance, appears to be a very simple subway tile. “But instead of the 3-inch by 6-inch size, we took the shape to a modern 2-inch by 8-inch,” Roland said. “Then we set it in a brick pattern because stacking it would have been too modern.” Wrapping the window sills in tile and carrying the pattern up to the ceiling conjures a commercial kitchen, Roland said, which nods to the utilitarian purpose of the room within the open floorplan.

The combination of a cement counter and Shaker perimeter cabinets is equal parts industrial and classic, while the similar tonal qualities in their colors—dark charcoal and a soft grey—unite any style differences. The mod-trad mix continues in the adjacent dining room, where a substantial handmade wood table, so heavy a crane had to place it, is partnered with streamlined black chairs.

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