The brief
Every Blue Sky Studio project begins with listening.
“We want to honor what this house already is — we just need it to work for the way we live now.”
About the project
A 1919 Craftsman rescued, restored, and quietly grown — a careful journey of addition and subtraction that returned the house to itself.
Michigan Heights began with an old California Craftsman that had been reasonably well loved, and imperfectly modernized, for a century. The owners wanted nothing more — and nothing less — than to give it a second, better life.
The project is best understood as a single long sentence of subtraction and addition. Awkward previous alterations came away. Original windows, beams, and trim were conserved or replicated. A new rear addition re-balanced the plan around a bright breakfast nook, a proper family room, and a kitchen organized for real life.
Outside, the front elevation was quietly returned to something close to its 1919 self, while the dusk-lit exterior now reads as a confident Pasadena Craftsman — which, of course, is exactly what it always was.
Project features
- Full exterior restoration to 1919 character
- Rear addition with family room and breakfast nook
- Conserved and replicated period detailing
- Completely re-drawn kitchen and supporting rooms
Gallery
Inside the Michigan Heights residence.
