“This home is located in Historic Irvington in NE Portland, Oregon,” designer Krisanna Sanders of Recast Homes tells us. “The neighborhood is filled with beautifully designed historic homes and it’s important to the community to keep the architectural integrity of each individual home. This home is a classic Portland 1920s craftsman, with lots of original charm and character in the millwork throughout.”

Krisanna’s clients have lived internationally, though most recently moving to Portland from San Francisco. “When their jobs were able to be remote, they decided to move to Portland for its proximity to the great outdoors and charming neighborhoods,” she shares. “They fell in love with this home’s original woodwork, high ceilings and opportunity they saw in bringing it back to life with modern yet time appropriate improvements.”

The home hadn’t been updated since the 1920s—think original cabinetry, electrical and plumbing—so the designer had her work cut out for her. There were key elements they needed to tackle, like adding a bathroom on the upper floor to make it a full primary suite and gutting the kitchen, back entry, and stairwell to bring them back to life. Aesthetically, it was easy to craft a plan. “We wanted to choose historic elements that still felt fresh and modern but also had the feel of being ‘lived in’ a bit. We did this with soft and neutral paint colors, mixing metal finishes and keeping historic elements like push button electrical switches, a bridge faucet, arched entryways to match the original arches in the homes and refurbishing the original millwork wherever possible,” she says.

In the slideshow, Krisanna shares a bit about each space.