2021 RDAA | Architectural Interiors | Urban Bower | Colleen Healey Architecture

Colleen Healey, AIA, describes the new bedroom suite in this house as a “contemplative urban cabin.” And, indeed, it feels that way, thanks to the reconfigured room wrapped in white oak slats and warm wool textiles. The existing space consisted of a rarely used sitting room, an en-suite bath, and a narrow bedroom that had once been a sleeping porch. Expanding the bedroom into the sitting area made room for a wall of closets and a storage bench with big, deep drawers. Colleen also borrowed the sitting room’s closet space to create a walk-in closet accessed from the new bath. “The one in the bath is nice for storing intimates and other things, while suits and gowns can be kept in the bedroom closet,” Colleen says. “It helps to break down the bigger closets.”

In addition to storage, another goal was to visually connect the room to the outdoors. A new skylight floods the bath with light. Wood-slatted walls and a flax-and-wool headboard wall and bench cushion lend an organic feel in the sleeping area, while strategically placed mirrors in the bedroom and bath pull in light and leafy views, “elongating the shallow space along the main axial relationships.”

“It was such a small space, I wanted to give them something that felt special,” Colleen says. Refined, calm, and organic, Urban Bower brings the outside and inside into harmonious balance.

Architectural interiors

Citation

Colleen Healey Architecture
Urban Bower
Washington

Project Credits

Architect/Interior Designer: Colleen Healey, AIA, Colleen Healey Architecture, Washington

Builder: Jimmy Loveless, JWL Woodworking, Ijamsville, Maryland

Structural Engineer: Norton Consulting Engineers, Bethesda, Maryland

Project size: 450 square feet

Site size: 0.125 acre

Construction Cost: Withheld

Photography: Jennifer Hughes Photography

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