favorite Godfrey Hirst wool carpet in the den. Newly painted cabinets and stainless-steel, restaurant-grade shelves provide storage in the kitchen. A durable granite slab that stretches from kitchen cabinets to the dining room creates a workspace for easy telecommuting when Hullinger and Jones want to stay a day or two longer. Hullinger wanted to create a durable yet luxurious feel in line with his theory about second homes: One should choose higher-quality materials and furnishings for weekend homes so as not to deal with maintenance issues while on vacation. âYou want to step it up sometimes if you donât want to deal with problems,â he says. âI thought, whatâs it going to feel like in the summer if Iâm barefoot? Whatâs it going to feel like in winter?â Even the plants are low-maintenance; the terrarium only needs a few ice cubes every now and then. Part of creating that luxe feeling was Hullinger the interior designer getting to be Hullinger the client. He relished the chance to use the high-quality materials that he often recommends to his clients. The master bathroom, for example, is tiled in 12-inch-by-12-inch basalt tile and installed with a high-grade thermostatic shower that allows for a high water temperature. In the ceiling, Hullinger installed a solar tube to flood the shower with natural light, one of his âfavorite tricksâ for his clientsâ homes.
Hullinger balanced the high-end with the nature-inspired, rustic touch. In the guest bedroom, he left a wooden wall intact as a nod to driftwood one might find on the 22 miles of Long Beach. He discovered the wall when stripping the house of chipboard, and thinks that it was made of parts of an old barn or garage. He filled it with a soy treatment, buffed it with a cream, and sealed it. The first wood wall inspired Hullinger to do another like it in the den. At the end of the project, he took all of the wood that was either torn out during renovation or leftover from rebuilding and created a vertical stacked wall, âthe way a construction site would have driftwood ⌠all washed up,â he says. His carpenter toe-nailed it 14 feet up to the sleeping loft. In addition to the seafoam green and shades of driftwood in the house, Hullinger added a cranberry accent in the guest bedroom. The tart red is found on the nightstands, shams, and plant pots. This color was also inspired by the local surroundings, as cranberries have been farmed in bogs in southwest Washington for more than 100 years. And as a final accent on this pairâs quiet getaway, spots of metallic silverâfrom the stainless-steel banding on the fireplace to the George Kovacks lamps in the guest bedroomâ are like soda cans rubbed shiny from the pounding surf in the distance of this serene getaway.
In his second home in Seaview, Washington, Hullinger chose a palette inspired by the splashy colors of the natural surroundings, from the browns of the beach driftwood to the seafoam green of a local road sign. As an added benefit, the painted green walls of the kitchen and dining room make the neutral furnishings pop.
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