Feature

With interior design, there’s a "farm chic" black hole versus a multiverse of design game changers

By K.M. Collins

Courtesy Hank Hill

Rustic reclaimed wood or industrial super modern? French country or boho beach?

With so many out-of-towners descending on Bend, it can be hard to answer the question: Do national home design trends play in the high desert? How long can we tap the farm-chic look before there’s nothing left? With the building and remodeling sector the only industry seeing growth in 2020 in our region (and no end in sight), these are all questions on the minds of designers and developers alike.

Time warp

Kerri Rossi, co-owner of Element Design Collective and principal designer at KMR Design Firm, is seeing a loosening of what was once a logjam in local interior design trends. Where locals used to be roughly four to five years behind some of the most out-front trends, due to the flood of in-migration and the many “Zoom Town” workers, trends are reaching Bend in more like one to two years, Rossi said. With 25 years in the business, she has plenty of experience to back up that assertion.

Jennifer Nelson, of local building staple Nelson Tile and Stone, concurs, saying digital platforms are shrinking timing on trend gaps—not to mention the ever-increasing arrival of city slickers.

“As little as three years ago we’d lament how Bend was years behind in trends. Case in point: hardly anyone wanted a white kitchen or bath four years ago, but once that trend hit finally hit here, designers on a national level were saying it was five years old already. Today that timeline between Bend and larger cities seems to have tightened up. This is due to the higher usage of social media sites like Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram showing off design trends and even some of the home improvement TV shows. This has caused locals to get comfortable with new designs, faster,” Nelson said. “The great amounts of people moving from larger cities has also changed that. We often hear of people wanting to update their homes here with what they had back at their house in L.A. or Seattle.”

Regional flair and mixing looks

The result of outside influence? Rossi said a current client, who recently relocated to Bend after previously residing in row houses in San Francisco, shared an image of three mangoes to guide the color palette of her remodel—a major shift from farm chic, homestead or anything of the like that has long been popular locally. The client chose a bright-orange kitchen range and an ornate blown-glass, burnt orange and amber light fixture for the dining room—both selections undeniably infused with mid-century modern undertones.

Hank Hill, owner/operator and general contractor at Bend Craftsmen Company, sees clients preserving some elements of their ‘80s- and ‘90s-built homes during remodels, while complementing them with new trends. In a recent Sunriver project, much of the original wall and ceiling wood paneling was preserved while a modern media center, reading nook, slatted accent wall and new flooring were installed.

With so much mixing of old and new, showrooms become an essential tool for building and supply retailers. Rossi, with partner Jane Wirth, just opened Element Design Collective, a “design delicatessen” located in southeast Bend. Rossi wants to welcome folks into a warm space where they feel at home and can access and experience samples from the best vendors in flooring, interior doors, trim, lighting, cabinet hardware, appliances, bathroom accessories and windows. Believing many of these elements to be the “jewelry” of one’s home, Rossi provides a showroom selection process inspired by that of picking out precious gems.

Meanwhile, Nelson Tile and Stone is moving and expanding its longtime staple and popular kitchen-and-bath-focused showroom off Division Street in Bend.

Courtesy Kerri Rossi

Courtesy Hank Hill

“I can say we are definitely bringing a better kitchen and bath experience to Central Oregon within this next year,” explains Nelson. “But we haven’t fully revealed that yet. Being able to get everything under one roof and expanding with more thoughtfully curated products is important to us. Bend is off the beaten track, but we try to think outside of our little community. Both [owner and founder] Chris [Nelson] and I were born and raised in Bend, but we are often off to the bigger cities to learn about what we don’t have here in Bend and find ways to bring it back to our beloved town.”

COVID-era upgrades

It’s no secret that the past year, with everyone at home more than usual, has spurred a renewed interest in sprucing up kitchens, bathrooms and other rooms of the home.

“Everybody is remodeling,” notes Nelson. “Top reasons that we often see are homes built in the early to mid 2000s, when travertine and tiled counters were all the rage. Now people want lighter-colored rooms and less grout everywhere. Another trend is for new homes. People want to pull out builder-grade acrylic tubs and showers in favor of custom showers. We also upgrade counters

“As little as three years ago we’d lament how Bend was years behind in trends. Case in point: hardly anyone wanted a white kitchen or bath four years ago, but once that trend hit finally hit here, designers on a national level were saying it was five years old already.”

—Jennifer Nelson

Courtesy Hank Hill

Courtesy Kerri Rossi

Courtesy Hank Hill

Courtesy Kerri Rossi

Clockwise from top left: Co-owners and founders Kerri Rossi and Jane Wirth pick out the latest in design trends from their new Element Design Collective showroom; laying out surface textures in the Elemental Design Collective showroom helps clients visualize their remodels and new builds. Multiple textures like wallpaper, stone tile, wood flooring and custom cabinetry are used by Hank Hill, founder and owner at Bend Craftsmen Company, in remodels and new builds to create compelling and catchy contrast. Subway tile backsplash with a quartz counter is all the rage in kitchens across the high desert and beyond, according to Hill. An ornate orange range inspired by a former San Francisco row house resident is chosen in one of Rossi's projects as the centerpiece to a kitchen diverging from the farm chic look. Preserving a touch of wood paneling from original 1980s and '90s Central Oregon builds (ceiling and media pop-out/gas fireplace surround framing) can blend just the right amount of old and new. Remodel by Bend Craftsmen Company, tile by Nelson Tile and Stone. on homes that are less than two years old in favor of better-performing quartz and granite with more popular patterns in the stone. We often are asked to upgrade second homes in the resort areas that are now becoming permanent residences for our customers.”

In terms of revamping surfaces, Hill, who won a 2021 Best of Houzz award, sees clients asking for subway tiling, oftentimes handmade or set on a vertical edge. He also notes the popularity of the living room media and gas fireplace surround pop-out. Perfect for post-winter recreation lounging and Netflix binging, Hill feels this trend is played out on the national scene, but the functionality of the buildout for the Bend lifestyle is just too practical for it to die, he said.

Rossi, the designer, believes the onset of working and educating from home amid COVID restrictions has only bolstered what was already a lifestyle-driven market in Bend.

“Patrons have been adopting more pets, not going outside as much and generally spending more time at home.” As a result, durability in products is prioritized on par with, or above, aesthetics. Both Rossi and Hill see this in their client’s selections for flooring. Luxury laminate and vinyl are all the rage.

A second trend Rossi shares is some clients working on two homes simultaneously. In this scenario the newcomer builds a forever luxury home while living in an interim, less-desirable home they concurrently remodel—the move often prompted by COVID.

The farm chic that won’t die

Because a love for outdoor sports is often a primary motivation for moving to or living in Bend, it’s hard to imagine farm chic, rustic, reclaimed and homestead-driven looks completely dying out. A local hallmark, like stucco in the Sonora or brownstones in New York, it seems that the downhome-country vibes are foundational in the Bend building brand for the foreseeable future. Colonial Urban Prairie Oregon Trail habits die hard.

Design concepts to help broaden remodeling horizons

Mix textures, patterns and utilize contrast, says Hank Hill of Bend Craftsmen Company. Look for variation when working with stone, wallpaper, tile, wood, paint and flooring.

Courtesy Hank Hill

Work to seamlessly combine

the outside and inside and, when selecting lighting and cabinet hardware, think of it as the jewelry of a space, says Kerri Rossi of Element Design Collective.

Courtesy Kerri Rossi

Gain inspiration from media that delves into trends in build-

ing, says Jennifer Nelson of Nelson Tile and Stone. She recommends the show, “Rock the Block,” on HGTV and Hulu, where top design personalities all get the same house and compete by designing it their own way.

Courtesy Jennifer Nelson

“It’s great to see very different versions of the same house and know that there’s more than one way to do a room and still be on trend,” Nelson advises. “It’s also interesting to see one team do something that they think will catapult them to a win, only to find out three other teams are doing the same thing! That’s when you know you’ve got a current look.”

If You’re New Here: Gardening in the High Desert

For those coming from warmer climates, growing food or flowers can be daunting—but doable

By Nicole Vulcan

If you’re one of the transplants who’ve recently moved here from Seattle or Portland or the Bay Area (as we know a lot of you are), you might fancy yourself a fine gardener, imbued with the natural ability to coax flowers and food from the ground just by tossing out a few seeds or starts. Growing in those lower, wetter, warmer areas is bound to make you feel like an instant expert— until you meet the challenges of the high desert. With a higher, drier and cooler climate than you might be used to, there are plenty of things to learn. For those just getting started, a few resources will expand your knowledge and network. -Oregon State University Extension Service in Deschutes County has a host of resources designed to help people grow and preserve food, including its “Growing Vegetables in Central Oregon” video class, a one-hour tutorial. There’s also a 24-page downloadable PDF by the same name, covering climate and how it relates to gardening, choosing a good site, how to mulch and irrigate and much more. Volunteers from the OSU Master Gardener program are available from 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday and can be reached by calling the Deschutes County Extension Service office at 541-548-6088. People in Crook County can call Crook County Extension Wednesdays from 1-5 pm at 541-447-6228.

English and Spanish versions of Growing Vegetables in Central Oregon are available at: catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu/em9128 -Oregon State University also

offers a number of online courses

centered around permaculture.

According to a definition by the Permaculture Research Institute, “Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.”

OSU’s Permaculture Food Forests 101 course, taught by permaculture expert (and, full disclosure, my friend) Marisha Auerbach, is available as an instructor-led course or as a self-paced course. Take the self-directed portion, and then opt to continue on with the five-week instructor-led portion to design a food forest on your site.

Other courses available at varying times throughout the year include Advanced Permaculture Design for Climate Resilience, which starts May 3, and Permaculture: Rainwater Harvesting Online Course that starts June 3. OSU also offers a 10-week Permaculture Design Certificate online that surveys permaculture design systems. -The Central Oregon Gardeners Facebook group is among the most useful ongoing resources to get advice, support and even goodies that can help one start or maintain a garden. As its About page describes, it’s a “place for Central Oregonians (and other areas now!) to talk and learn about gardening in the high desert—the struggles that can go along with that.”

Have a bug you can’t identify? Want to know why your plant is struggling? Want to swap seeds or plants? Chances are someone in the group, about 6,400 members strong as of this writing, will be there to assist. Find it at facebook. com/groups/feedthesoil. -For those graduating from being a backyard gardener to a farmer or food producer, the High Desert Food and Farm Alliance is the place to find resources specific to this region. Find the organization at hdffa.org. -Also check out this week’s Outside story, “Secret Garden,” which outlines a few hidden treasures in local gardens, and discusses the resources available at The Environmental Center in downtown Bend.

Nicole Vulcan

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