Queen Anne Hill classic house gets a French accent

INTERIOR DESIGNER Virginia Stamey takes her time creating a home. She and her husband, Dale Johnson, searched long and hard for their classic old house on Queen Anne Hill, and have spent years planning, remodeling and furnishing it.

"We scoured the hill and got it down to this house," says Stamey of the west-facing view home built in 1907. Turns out, after all that searching, the couple ended up moving just down the street from where they'd lived since 1979.

While Stamey and Johnson loved the location, the house was long overdue for an overhaul. Stamey collaborated with architect Pete Sandall of Sandall Norrie Architects on a thorough renovation that ended up taking the house down to the studs on three sides.

"Pete was integral in figuring out how the house should sit on the property and in determining what size and shape the house should be," says Stamey. She laid out the new floor plan, opening it up to light and views. She designed all the windows and doors, and added an interior staircase for access to the new master suite on the home's lower level.

Sandall worked with Stamey's window and door layout to make sure the exterior ended up looking much like the original house, despite 13 feet added onto the front, and a new view deck off the dining room. The 2,700-square-foot revamped house fits comfortably into the neighborhood with its peaked rooflines and multipaned windows. It looks as if it's always stood right here on the west slope of Queen Anne.

Inside, the art is modern and the colors unexpected, but the overall ambience is classic in the timeless, not stuffy, sense of the word.

Stamey's love of all things French, cultivated while she lived abroad as a teenager, shows most clearly in the glossy kitchen. It's as functionally up-to-date as the latest iPod; the cabinets are plentiful, the sink deep, the appliances upscale.

Yet for all its contemporary accouterments, the kitchen radiates Old World, handcrafted charm. A double-oven, French Lacanche range has a black finish accented by gold handles and knobs. The countertops are white marble, and the simple wooden cabinets are designed to look original to the house. Their hand-brushed finish and glass knobs add to the illusion of timelessness. Unless you glance out the windows at Puget Sound and Magnolia, it'd be easy to fancy yourself in a Paris apartment or Provence château while preparing a meal in this pristine kitchen.

Don't you love the names of paint colors? I ask Stamey what she calls the wheat-like tone of the kitchen cabinets. "Well, the color is in the okra family," she says meditatively . . . "It's very Dijon mustard."

Stamey's understated yet vivid color sense continues in the honey-colored guest bath, and on to the red and pink Moroccan rugs in the living and family rooms. Large oil paintings are strikingly modern in contrast to the traditionally detailed and furnished living and dining rooms. Yet the overall effect remains quiet, almost soothing. Stamey believes that her ninth-grade year spent in France was the best thing that ever happened to her. "It shaped my eye, and gave me more of a European color sense of odd combinations," she explains.

"Everything I do for my clients I do in my own house," says Stamey, pointing out the custom moldings and architectural details like the antique fireplace added in the living room. Throughout the house, the woodwork is painted the same warm, creamy beige as the walls. Even the new trim around all the beautiful windows is muffled in the same tone. The uniformity of walls and trim draws attention to the view and the artwork.

"I thrive on understatement," she says. "I want you to be in the space awhile before you notice the detail."

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "The New Low-Maintenance Garden." Check out her blog at www.valeaston.com. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest staff photographer.