Molly and Jung Kim weren’t looking to radically alter their circa-1890 farmhouse in Portland’s Hawthorne District. A modest charmer situated on a leafy residential street about three miles southeast of downtown, the house fit in perfectly amidst a succession of Craftsman bungalows with covered front porches.

Coming from New York City, where they had met, married, and lived in a succession of cramped Manhattan apartments, the couple found that the little house suited their needs for several years. “Even before we did the renovation,” Jung says, “I was just like, ‘This is the nicest place I’ve ever lived in.’”

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

The farmhouse, a few decades older than its neighbors, had already been altered several times by previous owners, so it lacked many historic interior details. “It had a real sort of funky-schoolhouse kind of vibe,” says Portland architect Michael Howells. Yet it wasn’t quite functioning right for the family.

Molly and Jung, both trained chefs, needed a better-functioning kitchen to cook in. Though they loved the home’s original oak floors, they craved a touch of interior color. Asking their son, Winston, and daughter, Pascale, to share a bedroom was no longer sustainable. And though the house had a nice covered porch, its front door opened directly into the living/dining area, without a space for greeting guests.

Before: Living/Dining

After: Living/Dining

“We lived here happily for a long time. It’s a good house,” says Molly. “But we always knew there were things we wanted to do eventually. It was about making it work for our family and fitting our tastes and our needs.”

Molly and Jung reached reached out to Howells Architecture, and over the course of ten months their home underwent “a whole-house transformation,” as Howells describes it. “The footprint didn’t change, but there isn’t any aspect on that building that isn’t new.”

Though its scale remained true to the original, today the house looks different upon approach. Not only did the renovation team swap the white-painted wood facade for new dark-bronze Hardie Panel lap siding, but they converted the covered front porch into an interior foyer, with additional storage, seating, and space to greet guests before they step into the rest of the house.

They removed and re-sanded the home’s original oak floors so that they could be paired with new oak flooring where needed, such as in the new foyer; there is no discernible difference between old wood and new.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

Beyond the foyer, the living and dining room are in their original spots to the left and right, but the spaces are now brightened by larger windows. To the south, on the dining room side, the property is bordered by a massive hedge that’s nearly as tall as the house itself, making the window resemble a framed geometric-abstraction artwork.

Howells first proposed an open plan that would have connected the kitchen at the back of the first floor with the public spaces in front. But Jung and Molly decided to keep them separated by a wall.

Before: Primary Bedroom

After: Primary Bedroom

“For me, working in the kitchen, I was just like, ‘I don’t want to see everybody and be that exposed,’” Jung explains. “I’m going to be over there cooking away, and all those smells and are going to be wafting this way.” He and Molly liked the idea of having different rooms for different purposes.

Doing so also allowed for a wall of built-in dining room bookshelves with space to display books by Molly’s favorite authors, from Haruki Murakami and W.G. Sebald to Zadie Smith. These bookshelves, a matching storage wall at the foyer, and some of the kitchen cabinets are painted blue in one of many colorful new touches throughout the home.

Before: Upstairs Bath

After: Upstairs Bath

“From the time I started in independent practice, it has seemed like a missed opportunity not to engage spaces with color,” Howells says. “For a protracted period, residential interiors have had this kind of washed-out style, drained of color—it’s all about neutralism. But we all grew up in a world where you would walk into a bathroom in a 1940s house and it was pink or turquoise—or a 1970s house was painted green inside.”

The dining room also feels colorful thanks to a custom rug that Howells designed in collaboration with Portland’s Christiane Millinger Handmade Rugs, as part of a larger collection called (appropriately) Millinger + Howells. “It’s actually based on a photograph of a detail in an antique rug, where we zoomed in tightly to create its own pattern,” the architect says.

Before: Stairway

After: Stairway

The couple, both restaurant veterans, were particular about their needs in the kitchen. Here, they paired a yellow-hued oven and peach and blue cabinetry with open shelving and black tile backsplashes. They also asked for a professional-grade range hood, to allow Jung to deep fry at will without the aroma hanging around the next day.

The kitchen island is ideally situated so Molly and Jung can turn away from the stove and grab what they need, without taking an extra step. It’s long enough to provide seating at the far end, and a handy, metal-lined drawer is discretely tucked beneath its counter for compost. Just across from the island is a small former bedroom that’s been turned into a multipurpose space with a desk and loveseat.

After: Ground Floor Bath

“It’s just a place where you can eat and hang out, because we are in the kitchen a lot,” Molly says. “So like after school, the kids can spend time here with us as we’re cooking dinner. You’re still in the same space together.” All throughout the home—and especially on the lower level—you’ll find prints, photographs, and illustrations by artists including Monika Merva, David Fullarton, and Evan Barbour.

It’s the second floor that perhaps changed the most. “In the before photos, you see there’s a dormer on both sides and a gable-end bedroom at each end,” Howells explains. “Those dormers are gone, and we have shed dormers that pop up and run the full length of on both sides. The level went from being a kind of attic story to a fully legitimate second floor.”

Howells wanted to preserve the home’s original silhouette, so the shed dormers are set away from the front and back rooflines. Even with the added upstairs space, the house appears modestly scaled like its historic neighbors.

On this level, Howells added a bedroom, a laundry space, and what he calls a “family bathroom” that can be used by multiple people at once. The central double-vanity has pocket doors on either side—one leads to a small toilet room, and the other to a shower room. Winston and Pascale’s bedrooms are just across the hall, and the primary bedroom is just steps away, which gives the family a balance of privacy and togetherness.

Molly and Jung’s first discussions with Howells came toward the end of the pandemic. “When he came over to meet us, we all had facemasks on,” Molly says. By the end of the 10-month construction period, in 2023, she says “We were sharing croissants together. We’re super happy with how thoughtful Michael was, and how the house turned out.”

More Before & After stories:

14 “Before & After” Renovations in Portland That’ll Make You Do a Double Take

A Serene Renovation Saves a Midcentury From Shag Carpet and Pink Linoleum

A Radiant Renovation Opens a Portland Midcentury to Its Forested Lot

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Howells Architecture / @howellsarc

Builder: JDL Development, Inc.

Structural Engineer: Nedwicke Engineering & Design

Cabinetry Design/Installation: Oak Grove Custom Cabinets

Appears In

Before & After: Their 1890 Farmhouse Hides a World of Color Behind Its Gray Facade