In 2019, Seattle-based founder Brian Paquette Interiors and her husband Justin braved a snowstorm to see a recently listed property just six blocks from the townhouse where they lived. This effort turned out to be well worth the snowy hike, as the house eventually became their new home.

“We made the only offer that day because of that snowstorm, and because the city was pretty much closed, and we got it,” Paquette recalls. “I wanted to find something that we could reshape, but we were also [having a wedding] This year. At first, we thought that maybe we should take advantage of our first two years of marriage before embarking on a gigantic project. “

The three-bedroom home, however, was too perfect to be left out thanks to its prime location in Seattle’s booming Central District and open-plan third-floor space, which could serve as a home for the design team of Paquette. Paquette also envisioned being able to fully unite his vast collection of objects and furniture from different places and eras of the house.

“Most of the things in my house, other than a few rooms, are things I already had when we moved into the house,” says Paquette, referring to pieces picked up from Manhattan furniture stores, street markets. Parisian fleas and everywhere in between. “These are all things that I really like without context for the exact space.”

To set the scene, he played with lighting, textures and a desaturated, nature-inspired palette of grays, browns and nuts. He tore up the existing carpet on the two upper levels and replaced it with hardwood similar to the one on the first floor. Each room reveals the designer’s deep love for art: the dining room features an abstract plaster, ink and graphite painting by local artist Lakshmi Muirhead and a photograph by Hiroshi Sugimoto, known for his works. on the theme of the horizon.

“For me, art is not having a wall to fill,” says Paquette, who has studied conceptual art and painting. “I buy it because I have a [eternal] connection with it, as if you apparently can’t live without it. You feel like it’s a phantom limb that you didn’t know you had.

In the living room, a small painting by Anthony Goicolea, a Brooklyn-based Cuban-American painter Paquette interviewed for his college dissertation, can be seen above an antique French mirror. Signs of Francophile trends are also visible elsewhere, such as in the use of a pine side table by Le Corbusier and a wooden coffee table by Charlotte Perriand. Paquette’s collection of rare books, which depict the work of artists, photographers and designers, line the custom built-in shelves in the living room. He regularly references them for his design work.

This constant engagement with art and design at home is what helps Paquette continually evolve her creative voice. “Our house is a bit like a laboratory, like most designer houses are,” he says. “Things are moving all the time. A room comes out and a room comes in, and you just adjust and make changes with the seasons.