Jennifer Avellino and her husband, Zachary Levine, are passionate about the outdoors and wanted their 1950s Bethesda home to reflect that passion. So they hired Jim Rill, principal architect with Rill Architects in Bethesda, who, along with architect Linda Gallegos, transformed the dated Cape Cod into a contemporary Craftsman retreat that integrated nature more fully in their lives.
Rill’s design extended the family room into the backyard, converted a mini garage into a scenic screened front porch and reworked the landscaping so it enveloped the house.
“Jim has many great qualities, but one of the nicest things he did when he came to talk to us was ask: ‘How do you like to live?’ ” Avellino said. “Our answer was, ‘We like to live outside.’ We like to see the trees; have a lot of natural light. That’s the way we live; the way we like to entertain.”
Previous owners added a second floor and remodeled the kitchen in the 1990s. But they left a series of ill-configured doorways, and a long, narrow kitchen and family room felt more like a rail car than a useful space. After several years of trying to adapt to the floor plan, Avellino said they decided to have it redesigned.
“I noticed this house in Bethesda that Jim had designed, so I went to his Web site, and I loved all the houses,” Avellino said.
Gallegos focused on extending the family room, using simple and natural design. A wrap-around porch on the back, the screened-in porch on the front and slated walkways help create a seamless and seemingly organic flow from indoor to outdoor spaces.
Fir-paneled ceilings extend from the family room into the outdoor porch and backyard patio. “The ceiling gives the space a Japanese flavor, a little contemporary Craftsman,” Rill said. “It adds more texture and warmth and gives the design rhythm.”
The honey and maple finish on the ceilings blends well with the warm tones Avellino and Levine chose for their Mission-style kitchen. They designed an array of clay-toned tiles to form a backsplash that complements sienna-colored counter tops made of recycled paper from Richlite. They selected honey-toned cabinetry from Crown Point Cabinetry, a New Hampshire-based company. The large ceiling beams and wood trim work well with the Arts and Craft style.
“We both love to cook,” said Avellino, who said the previous kitchen did not work well with the new family room. The family room features a built-in wall system constructed by Danish Builders, the Rockville-based company that also built the house.
Rill said Danish Builders owner Soren Jensen’s background in furniture design gives his buildings a special touch. Brick salvaged from old Baltimore row houses serves as a patio wall and exterior finish. Wide Craftsman-style window and door casings are visible on every side of the house. Even copper gutters appear as art, running along the roof.
“The entire house looks like a great piece of furniture,” Rill said. “Every side of the house is important.”
“We enjoy sitting in the back yard and looking at the back of the house,” Avellino said. “This is where we spend a lot of time, and the back of the house looks just as beautiful as the front.”
