Organic warmth in detail

Photography: Nic Kasten Photography

FFolded into the tranquility of a lakeside neighborhood in Wayland, Michigan, Hidden Views is a new home build that is the result of three Michigan-based companies—Walker Residential Design of Caledonia, Ridgeline Homes of Hudsonville, and True Vine Creations of Hudsonville—collaborating on the design and build of a minimalistic, open home with an interior dipped in coastal colors. The result of which is a welcoming atmosphere for a couple that hosts family and friends often.

Overlooking Indian Lake on approximately 4.5 acres of land, Hidden Views, a home of 4,665 squarefeet in size, encompasses five bedrooms and four-anda-half bathrooms: an ideal space for hosting overnight guests. The home is simple and minimal in the natural color schemes and design, but one can find custom detail work unique to this specific build in practically every room. The coastal color scheme of organic blues, whites, grays, and natural woods dispersed throughout the home creates a quiet cohesion to the viewer’s eye. Together, the design-and-build team with the homeowners charged their collaborative efforts toward tying together a final product inspired by family togetherness, organic minimalism, and one-of-akind build details.

The team

Walker Residential Design is an architecture and design firm founded by Brad Walker. Walker was not only the residential designer on the Hidden Views project, but also has previously worked with Ridgeline Homes, a construction company led by Owner and Founder OJ Sabin, on designing a residence for the Spring Parade of Homes in 2018. It was that same home featured during the Parade of Homes that would inspire the clients of Hidden Views to work with Ridgeline Homes when they walked through the residence and fell in love with the open floorplan.

Sabin noted that he first spoke to the owners of Hidden Views outside of the home Walker had designed in 2018. The couple had revisited the build at Parade of Homes after purchasing tickets through the Home Builders Association of Greater Grand Rapids, or HBA of Greater Grand Rapids, and expressed their desire for a home with similar floor layout concepts to the parade home, with Sabin.

“We just took the concept of that parade home and used it as a launch-point to design the house to fit their needs,” Sabin said.

“[The clients] did a great job of sitting down and going through the blueprints with myself, Brad [Walker], and Julie [Wynalda] and thoughtfully thinking through each space and wrapping it around their lifestyle, but also the home-site they chose,” Sabin added.

Builder

Since its establishment nearly two decades ago, Ridgeline Homes has evolved from focusing on subcontracting elements of new home builds to navigating the entire build experience, guiding clients throughout the process with communication, scheduling, and uncompromising quality at its core. The company works on approximately three-to-six homes a year, depending on the size and company schedule. Sabin noted that his business focuses their building process on having a hands-on approach, where finish details like the trim-work, custom cabinetry, and builtin features of a home are completed by them.

“Even to the name, I feel like Ridgeline Homes speaks to the protection of the roofline of the house. That is what you need to create a home environment, so Ridgeline Homes was kind of birthed out of that—the roof, the peaks, the curb appeal—just what makes a house a home,” Sabin said.

Sabin also noted that his career first began when he was in high school. At the time, he worked for a builder, then moved onto working for a couple of bigger construction operations, which helped him understand the production side of the business. Sabin also attended a trade school, which taught him other valuable skills in the industry that he carried with him for his own business.

“Through all of that, [I] just honed in on the style of builds in regards to understanding that there is a market for all the different types of contractors and builders, whether it is mass-marketing or the more niche custom

build. I knew that I wanted to focus on being onsite more often than not,” Sabin said.

“Being a part of those different styles of building allowed me to understand what I was looking for with my company,” Sabin added.

The team at Ridgeline Homes comprises Sabin and one other person—although many of their past projects included the work and collaboration of True Vines Creations, an interior design company established in 2003, and its Founder Julie Wynalda. It is a partnership that has been successful, and as Sabin noted, has resulted in a working relationship that often feels like she is part of the build team.

“Julie [Wynalda] is a wonderful asset from True Vine [Creations]. While she doesn’t work directly for me, she melds really well, and it feels like she is one of my team just because of how well we work together. While she is her own person and does amazing stuff, not only for me but other builders, she really is able to set that time apart and just be a part of the Ridgeline team when she is on my project,” Sabin said.

Interiors

With a professional background in pharmaceutical sales, Wynalda recounts her career shift into the interior design field and starting True Vine Creations as nothing short of a miracle that sprouted out of a difficult time for her family.

Wynalda indicated that she had left the workforce when her and her husband began having children so that she could be present during her children’s first few years. One day, while her kids were still young, she got a call at home from her husband, and learned that he had been let go from his company due to downsizing within the business. Wynalda knew that she wanted to help

lift the financial stress off her family, and rather than re-enter into pharmaceutical sales, she was inspired to start a business making grape vine wreaths out of her home.

“That night, I turned over the verse for the day on a little calendar I have, and it said: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branch, and if you abide me, you will bear much fruit.’ With tears in my eyes in my kitchen I was like, ‘that’s what I want to do,’” Wynalda said. “I told my husband that I wanted to call it True Vine Creations.”

In True Vine Creations’ 18 years as a business, Wynalda has transitioned from selling grape vine wreaths at craft shows for the first few years, to crafting custom arrangements for customers, to eventually curating residential interiors and commercial spaces. Along the journey, Wynalda has worked in wedding décor, ran a home party business, and now has her own

storefront for True Vine Creations, located in Hudsonville, Michigan, offering a selection of furniture and home décor.

“Through doing craft shows, I knew the way to make those connections was to build relationships with people, and just to be faithful in the small. It’s just really been crazy to see how those people are still people that even come to my shop today, and I’ve helped with maybe a wreath on their door, and then later on it was their home, and then because they liked what I did at their home, they wanted me to [design] their cottage,” Wynalda said.

“That is what the goal is—to have those relationships that aren’t just to build a home, but to walk through life with them. It’s a really sweet privilege,” Wynalda added.

The details

With an open floor plan and an abundance of windows scattered throughout the main gathering spaces of the home, light flows through the rooms and brightens the interior.

When one enters through the front door of the house, they are welcomed to the sight of an open and bright interior space, and also to the natural wooded lot on the backside of the home—banks of windows in the central area serve views of the outdoors. Sabin noted that the open floor plan made it so that the living room, dining room, and kitchen all function as one larger space.

“[The clients] have a big family and they wanted to make sure that no matter the location on the main floor, everybody could be able to talk with one another,” Sabin said. “[The clients] love working in the kitchen and making meals and having that be a hub where they can meet, but yet be able to spread out into the dining room and the living room and still be able to enjoy the company.”

In the front entryway of the home and in the living room, stained wooden feature beams are built into the ceiling. Also displayed in the

entryway, a crisp-white slat wall contrasts with the surrounding gray walls. Wynalda noted that another feature wall of a slightly different pattern from the foyer is in the formal dining room, presenting a design of crisscrossed slats, painted a shade named Blue Spruce. The two feature walls are intentionally disparate colors, the entryway being a more subtle focal point of white, so that the diverse design moments did not compete with one another.

The same Blue Spruce shade on the feature wall in the formal dining room is repeated in the coffered ceiling detail in the great room. Wynalda noted that this detail offers a contrast on the great room ceiling that was not as safe as wood or white, but also avoids intermingling so many colors that the design becomes overwhelming.

The kitchen cabinets are adorned in white, with an island in the middle of the space colored an earthy dark gray and featuring carved detailing on the sides. Above the island, sand-colored rope pendants give a nod to the natural coastal look that has become the home’s interior theme.

Off from the kitchen, a four-seasons sun porch offers fresh air and views of nature as it overlooks the lake and beyond the tree line. The porch can even be enjoyed during chillier weather, with the aid of the fireplace tucked into the space.

“There are wall features, ceiling details, and just endless craftsmanship that were in this home,” Wynalda said. “OJ [Sabin] is so good at craftsmanship. We just work really well together. It’s a treat for me, because pretty much anything I give him a drawing of or a sketch of, he might at first say, ‘oh, I’m not sure,’ but ultimately he does an amazing job.”

Basements are often thought of as being dark and closed off, but the Hidden Views home breaks the preconception by creating a welcoming and bright atmosphere in the lower level of the house. A large window above the landing on the staircase shines light down the steps, and that same bright aesthetic is carried into the lower space.

The basement area captures a similar décor theme as the gathering spaces upstairs. A white custom-built TV center develops the ambiance of a space made for movie marathons, while also keeping chords and other clutter hidden away behind refined shelving built into the wall. On the other side of the room, there is a wet bar, which features two mini refrigerators built into espresso base cabinets, and twin, white oak slat walls on either side of the counter; warming up the bar area. A hallway in the lower level of the home also leads to two doors that open to yet another visiting area—presenting itself outside, to lawn.

Envisioned life

The home in its entirety is punctuated by design that is airy and welcoming—the open floor plan, lighter hues, and natural materials

cast throughout the interior create the feeling of the freedom of the outdoors inside the home. Perfect for gathering, guests can either mingle in the open space upstairs, the family room on the lower level, or find solitude and rest in one of the five bedrooms. The same design style is tied together throughout every room, an indication of the team that worked on pulling the project together.

“OJ [Sabin] is an amazing craftsman, he’s not just a briefcase builder, he’s on the site and he’s doing the finished carpentry and he’s managing the project well, and Brad [Walker] does a great job of designing the homes. It’s just a real team situation from all of the many people that work on the home to myself having the privilege of being able to work on it with them,” Wynalda said.

“Without them, we are not able to do what we do, and I am not able to do what I love, so it’s definitely a whole group that OJ [Sabin] enlists. We all just work together to ultimately bring our client’s dreams to life,” Wynalda added.