Dwell: Our Townhome

When we moved to Seattle four years ago, we were leaving our first home of 2,400 sqft in Dallas with no idea of what our accommodations might be like.  It was a time when Seattle was having the first home craze and bidding wars were becoming the norm. We were looking for anything at that moment - rent or buy (whichever was cheaper). We saw many condos and townhomes that shocked us with its price compared to size. Little did we know that this brightly lit townhouse was waiting to be ours. 

We had never lived in a townhouse before, that even three story. I was immediately overtaken by the amount of light that filtered through windows on all three sides as we climbed the stairs to see this space. Daylight is the charm of this home, and being in the corner by the main road gave way to beautiful views all around. 

I had to fit in all the furniture that came with us from Dallas into this 1,400 sqft space, wherein I had to sell a few loveseats and small furniture. This home had one large living room compared to the two separate living rooms in Dallas. And so I combined pieces from both spaces to create our living room space. 

The living room is large, and so I divided up the spaces with the twin sofas creating a square space around the coffee table facing the tv wall, and across from that a cozy daybed seat with an art wall. 

Homes in Seattle don't really come with a ton of storage or any built-ins. And townhomes are pretty much bare boxes. So I had to get these Ikea cubby storage for all our books and used the top surface for the everyday mail and knickknacks. 

The orange metal ledge shelves are from Urban Outfitters and they bring a pop of bright over the white walls. 

Right adjacent to the living room is this long balcony that hangs on the facade of the townhouse. 

After a year of living in this home, we decided to completely renovate the kitchen. We both love to cook and our kitchen stuff did not fit into this small kitchen. We had to find ways to increase counterspace and storage and make the kitchen more functional to our needs. 

This is what the original kitchen looked like - for your reference. 

I designed the new kitchen to go all the way up to the ceiling with the cabinets - using all the space for storage. 

I used wallpaper in the kitchen in place of tiled backsplash and installed it myself - super easy. The kitchen has a floating shelf right under the cabinets for our everyday cups and mugs and spices. 

I made sure to get mostly drawers for the lower cabinets. Drawers are way more storage efficient and makes it very easy to grab pots and pans and utensils as compared to shelves. The entire drawer pulls out for you to view what is inside. 

Instead of getting three separate drawers I picked the double drawers with a hidden cutlery drawer tucked inside the top drawer. This was way more cost-effective. 

I had to add a rolling kitchen shelf which holds our toaster oven/air fryer and our snacks. The pantry is quite small for us as we keep various grains and spices on hand. Hence the spice shelving on the wall holding all the small spice jars which are very hard to find if stored inside a pantry or inside a cabinet. This display lets us see all the spices at once and we actually use them. 

This is our dining across from the kitchen. I also had to add more storage (hutches from Ikea) here for all our dishes and serveware. 

Running adjacent to the kitchen/dining is another balcony where we have our grill. The two balconies help create cross-ventilation and fills the home with fresh air and keeps the home cool during summer months. 

All three bedrooms are on the third floor accessed by these stairs with a gallery wall. 

Mid-landing is this wonderful reading nook where we often sit and watch the road that runs parallel to us. 

Upstairs is a small landing with the laundry closet before you enter the three bedrooms. 

This is the master bedroom with attached bath and a walk-in closet. The top floor also has lots of windows filtering in natural light everyday. 

We get a view of the surrounding hills and watch the sky change into vibrant colors during sunset. 

The master bath which could use a remodel in the future. 

This is the bigger guest bedroom again with plenty of light and a view of the hills. 

This is the shared bathroom between the two guest rooms on the third floor. 

The smaller guest bedroom still fits a queen mattress nicely with ample space leftover. 

The townhome enters mid-landing between the garage level and the second floor. Its a small space which is why I placed a giant mirror across from the main door to make it feel visually bigger. 

As you enter the townhome, the landing splits into two ways. This is very common in Seattle homes. One stair leads up to the second floor with the living/dining. And the other goes down to the garage level. So when we come home through our garage, we walk up a full flight of stairs to go up. 

There is a flex room on the garage level. This was additional space to park a third car and for storage, but some previous owner turned it into a room. This worked out great for us since we were moving from a bigger sqft. 

This level also has a powder room which would have been better off being on the second floor. 

The flex room is L-shaped with an attached covered patio. I divided this room into a sitting space and the other end for our study/art corner. 

For the study, I created a custom bench with two work spaces and storage on the wall. This came in handy when the pandemic struck and we all had to work from home....and still are. 

Well I hope you enjoyed that photo tour of our cozy townhome where we spent the last 4 years creating  wonderful memories and relationships.