ISLAND LIGHT

A SEATTLE DESIGNER REVIVED A MODERN HOUSE ON SAN JUAN ISLAND BY WHITENING ITS DARK INTERIORS AND USING A BOLD AND CHEERFUL COLOR PALETTE TO GIVE THE ABODE A SUNNY DISPOSITION

- PAIGE PORTER FISCHER

When interior designer Julie Kleiner hopped aboard a floatplane from Seattle to San Juan Island, she didn't know what to expect. Her clients had invited her to see a waterfront house where the environment, they promised, was magical. The house, they insisted, was not.

Once Kleiner, cofounder and principal of Massucco Warner, and architect Mike Troyer, principal of Studio AM Architects, landed on the island, they made their way down a long and winding dirt road to an unassuming, pine tree-lined driveway. "And then, the view suddenly opened, and it took my breath away," says Kleiner. "Most of the waterfront properties up here are very steep, and the trees make the landscapes rather dark. But not this place. It was more of a gentle slope down toward the water, and the house is exposed to this incredible view of the Sound."

The property itself had so much promise that Kleiner's clients were willing to consider reimagining the house entirely. "The original walls were a mixture of exotic woods, and the interiors were a 1990s version of Pacific Northwest-style design," Kleiner says. "It was dark and a bit dismal, like being on the inside of a boat."