Le Grand Residence

Le Grand Residence is a family house in Snohomish, Washington, for a household with seven children. AVI designed the interior across two floors: the shared rooms, the children's spaces, a primary suite on the main level and the service rooms that keep a house of this size running.

The brief came down to one line: everything had to be durable. The work was to make a house that could take daily life at full volume and still feel elevated, so practical choices and finishes were decided together rather than traded against each other.

The entry opens straight into the scale of the house: a double-height hall with panelled walls, an open oak staircase and a gallery above that looks back down into the great room. The same panelling runs through every public room, which is what lets a very large plan read as one house.

The family rooms sit side by side on the main floor: great room, dining and kitchen. Behind them, a mud room, kitchenette, laundry and utility closet form a working wing, and a playroom and a study give the children their own ground on the main level, close to everything but out of the way.

The kitchen is organised around an island about fifteen feet long. It was planned as a work surface and became the place the family gathers: breakfast, homework and conversation happen along one side while the cooking zone stays clear on the other.

Warm oak cabinetry runs floor to ceiling around it, a fluted panel wraps the island base, and pale veined stone covers the top. A separate kitchenette behind the main kitchen takes the everyday overflow, so the island can stay the social centre of the house.

Across the main floor the walls are panelled in a simple square moulding, painted the same white as the ceiling. It gives the rooms depth and rhythm without adding colour, and it stands up to a busy household far better than a flat painted wall.

Underfoot, wide-plank light oak runs through the great room, dining and kitchen as one continuous surface, chosen to handle traffic and to tie the largest rooms of the house together.

The fireplace wall is the vertical anchor of the great room. A veined stone surface rises from the floor up past the second-floor gallery, framing a black firebox with a warm oak panel above it.

Against the white panelling and the full height of the room, that one continuous surface gives the space a clear centre, and it reads from the entry, the kitchen and the gallery alike.

Upstairs, the children's rooms were designed for the people in them rather than to a template. The boy's and girl's rooms each have their own bath, and the other bedrooms share the same calm base of pale walls, soft panelling and natural textures, so each one can change as the children grow.

In this bedroom a cane-panelled bed and a solid wood bench set the tone, with layered linens and a softly patterned rug keeping the room light.

The house has seven bathrooms, and none of them repeats another. Some have freestanding soaking tubs, several have double vanities, and each has its own tile and lighting. The variety is deliberate: every bath belongs to the room it serves.

The primary bath on the main floor is the most complete: a freestanding tub by the window, an oak double vanity, a walk-in shower with two rain heads, a hand shower and a bench, and clear glass from floor to ceiling that keeps the room open end to end.