A New Beginning

An artist’s touch revives a historic Spokane home

story by Anne McGregor photos by Camren Ebat Inside Spokane

Everyone has a list of priorities when searching for a new home: a desirable city near work or family; two or more bedrooms; a chef’s kitchen; a fenced yard for the dog. When Candace and Mark Rowe were planning a move from the Bay Area, their priority list included a place near lots of fly fishing locations for Mark. For Candace, a watercolor artist, the requirement was a little more unusual.

“I always wanted a house with an inglenook,” she laughs. “I fell in love with inglenooks when I went on a tour of an old house in Flagstaff. And so we were only looking at houses with inglenooks.”

Yes, there’s a filter for inglenooks, which are essentially cozy little walk-in seating areas around a fireplace.

And believe it or not, after narrowing their search to four suitable cities, Mark Rowe found a house in one of them — Spokane — that he thought was a perfect fit for both of them. “He kept sending me this link,” says Candace, who was skeptical. “Like, number one? It’s pink… He finally wore me down.”

They planned a trip to Spokane, but just before they arrived, the house sold. Though they did look at other homes on their visit, they didn’t find one that fit their criteria. “We just went back home and were sad,” says Candace, though on the plus side, they had fallen for their prospective new hometown. “We loved Spokane. We just loved it.” Mark asked their Realtor, Melissa Murphy, to let them know if by some chance the house was ever for sale again.

Just a few months later, Murphy phoned with surprising news. The home’s new owners needed to move, and fast. They had another house in mind to buy. Murphy arranged a video tour. The Rowes bought the house without ever having set foot in it.

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Ready, Set, Renovate

When they did at last get inside, they found their new dream home needed work.

For starters, not one of those inglenooks was accompanied by a fireplace that actually functioned.

After getting the fireplaces working — a complex project involving spraying a coating used on pizza ovens into the home’s fire boxes and chimneys — the couple turned to the kitchen. Since nothing in the kitchen was even close to original, the Rowes set about entirely reworking it in a style more in keeping with the home’s Arts and Crafts heritage.

Inspired by a dark green Motawi tile called “tapestry,” Candace planned a bold kitchen design featuring vibrant green and blue cabinetry, with a combination of natural woodwork set against painted trim for the numerous windows, and a floor crafted from octagon tiles arrayed in a subtle flower pattern.

The focal point for the space is the backsplash of the range, which incorporates a grid of the kaleidoscopic “tapestry” tiles surrounded by field tiles in blue and green. The custom copper range hood’s burnished orange tones complement the surrounding blue and green hues, with the copper repeated in the handles and knobs on the range.

For the cupboards, stained glass door inserts are modeled after the originals in the largest of the home’s inglenooks.

“Whenever we did something, we tried to make it tie into something that was already existing in the house,” says Candace.

Perhaps it’s not surprising, given her fondness for nooks, that a breakfast nook was on the to-do list. Nestled in a south-facing alcove, the newly crafted nook looks as though it’s been a part of the house since its construction. Gracious arched woodwork and practical built-in shelving frame the walnut table-for-two. A closer look reveals the table’s leg features the gentle curves of

The Jones House

Built for his own family home by architect Alfred Jones in 1909, the Jones House was listed on Spokane’s Historic Register in 1991. Though now considered to be a somewhat eclectic example of the Arts and Crafts style, Jones himself referred to it as “Old English style” in a Spokesman-Review story when the home was built. By 1919, the Roman Catholic Church in Spokane had bought the home, which housed bishops until 1968, when it returned to private ownership.

a fish with a cutout flower inlay. “A fish for Mark and a flower for me,” says Rowe.

In the living room, a classic Arts and Crafts fireplace juts into the space with its original green tile surround intact. One of the home’s inglenooks is tucked in beside it.

The room’s curly birch woodwork — columns, paneled half walls, and even the box beams on the ceiling — had survived more than 100 years without being painted over. But dealing with the wallpapered areas adjacent to the paneling was problematic. Removing the wallpaper could have potentially damaged the woodwork, so instead it was painstakingly skimmed over with plaster and then painted. Fortunately, furnishing the room was easy, as the couple’s couch and loveseat from their previous home were a natural fit.

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What’s that color?

paints by Sherwin Williams

KITCHEN:

Passive 50%, Kendal Green, Deep Sea Dive

LIVING ROOM:

Anjou Pear

BAR:

Rockwood Blue Green, Roycroft Bottle Green

WOOD SCREEN

GUESTROOM: Roycroft Rose

DRAGONFLY

GUESTROOM:

Aquaverde

BATHROOM:

Verdant

Reclaimed Space

Much of the most serious restoration work for the home took place in the basement, where the Rowes were able to eliminate previous moisture issues and create a bar area, two bedrooms, a bathroom, laundry room and music room.

Lowering the basement floor created surprisingly high ceilings and ample natural light. Making the space feel authentic to the rest of the home was key, and getting the woodwork right was important. A new bar area anchors the space. “This is my husband’s dream come true. His bar,” says Candace. “We drove up to Addy [Washington] and found the slab for the bar top… And then Tom [Moore] the carpenter built this whole thing.”

Additional carpentry included encasing a metal structural pole in wood, the design an exacting replica of the columns upstairs in the living room. Box beams were added to the ceiling, and the wood was meticulously contoured to hug the fireplace rocks. A comfy sofa and antique butcher block coffee table provide a spot for watching TV.

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The Crew

CONTRACTOR:

Authentic Restoration Services

CONSTRUCTION

DRAWINGS:

Salvaged Designs

CARPENTER:

Tom Moore

LANDSCAPING: Alderwood

Nearby, Candace took charge of the bathroom. Inspired by a scene of Princess Diana’s turquoise-tiled bathroom in the 2021 film Spencer, she grabbed screenshots to guide her design.

“I did find the exact wallpaper that they used in the film. But it’s floor-to-ceiling, so if you were to cut it down, there would just be these gigantic flowers,” Candace says.

So she painted a mural herself, featuring equally colorful but more diminutive flowers and birds. The mural was then coated in a moisture-resistant finish. Other elements in the bathroom were vintage finds on Etsy or eBay, all with Candace’s attention to detail. “The toilet paper holder is the exact toilet paper holder that’s original to the house and the other bathrooms upstairs. I found one — one — on the entire internet.”

Down the hall, peeking into a salmon pink bedroom reveals another mural, this time featuring wood screen room divider. “I came across it when I was researching chinoiserie, and became obsessed with finding that exact screen for the heron bedroom,” says Candace.

Throughout the home, Candace’s eye for design and color are evident. But behind it all is the courage of an artist. “You have to not doubt yourself. Which is hard,” she says. “Sometimes you have to be kind of rigid and just stick to your guns.”

After two years of renovation, the house is complete, and the couple has settled into their new neighborhood, with the goal of staying put.

“We just knew we wanted to make the house what we wanted. We weren’t going to worry about if anybody would ever want to buy it,” Candace says. “It’s fun because it’s really us… We could never get back what we’ve put into it; we just filled the home with what made us happy.”