In Michigan, the temperature can swing by 38 degrees Celsius between summer and winter. ‘We consider ourselves hardy folk as we endure a lot,’ laughs Liz Hoekzema of KLH Homes, a construction studio based in the gloriously named town of Kalamazoo.
But there is ‘a beautiful cadence to the seasons that informs our lives in a cool way as well’, she adds. It shapes her practice, with exuberant splashes of colour and bold design touches alongside quieter moments and negative space. ‘You need both, right?’ she says. ‘The quiet season, then summer comes and it’s long days full of life.’
That attitude came into its own when her firm was commissioned to design, build and decorate a house that needed to satisfy its owners’ very different outlooks. ‘In his words, he would live in a log cabin with furs hanging on the wall, then on the other side, she loves art and whimsy and reading,’ Liz explains.
Being responsible for every aspect of a house build, from the exterior to the final details, is her favourite way to work. ‘It allows us to embrace the setting, the clients, all of it, in a very intentional way.’ And, from the start, functionality drove the brief, with a reading room, indoor-outdoor entertaining spaces and dog-friendly hardworking finishes on the couple’s wishlist. Design-wise, they were really up for anything. ‘It was a wonderful partnership because we would present ideas and it was always a resounding yes,’ says Liz.
The long, low-slung house is tucked away among trees at the end of a lane. The clients were keen on a sunken living room – what Liz calls ‘every designer’s dream’ – and they had to find a clever way to transition from that space into the dining room and kitchen, making each zone feel special in its own right, without being blocked off.
A perforated partition was the solution; ‘you get these little peekaboo sightlines, and the way the light casts through is a beautiful thing,’ Liz observes. Those groovy circles became a decorative motif, appearing everywhere from the entrance-hall lights and door hardware to the kitchen cabinets, lending a satisfying coherence to the scheme.
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Perhaps the most striking element is the timber cladding that envelops walls and ceilings, giving the home a 70s-tinged mood and a warmth that captures the couple’s love for ruggedness (him) and cosiness (her). While some might find it a ‘scary commitment’, Liz and her team, she recalls, were ‘elated’, loving the way their palette of saturated shades – powder blue, olive green, terracotta Saltillo tile – came alive against the wood.
‘It’s a beautiful way to play with colour,’ she notes, adding ‘it’s fun to go head on into that vibrancy, then back off and see what those paler, more nuanced things do with the rich tone. No colour was off limits. It brought out new things in the way we designed and in the materials themselves.’
The studio’s ‘all-in’ approach turned some potential headaches into creative opportunities. ‘You know, you do all these careful measurements and get everything just so,’ Liz says, recalling the day they installed the bar on the lower ground level. ‘The island is built. The flooring is in. The tile installer does all that beautiful work. But, despite checking and double checking, the counter was a half-inch short.’
They decided to try an idea they had wanted to do forever: butting up different natural stones in a two-tone effect. ‘It became one of our favourite moments,’ she says, smiling. ‘We try to embrace those things because in every project, despite your best-laid plans, there are still things that come up.’
Liz knows her clients are making the most of their home. ‘It’s been beautiful seeing our client curled up on the couch with her laptop, the dogs running around… It doesn’t feel fussy, like you’re living in a catalogue,’ she says. ‘We’re not designing a museum. These are the walls they wake up within every single day, so we wanted to honour them and their story.’ klh-homes.com
