Dance, Painting and Family Living in Seattle
Couples that are creative take up space. They go around, have a lot of supplies and generally need private regions to feel inspired and work on projects. That’s why celebrity Cyrus Khambatta and painter Denise Johnson set out to include more room to their 1934 Seattle house, in the kind of a multiuse dancing and painting studio in their own garden.
at a Glance
Who lives here: Cyrus Khambatta, Denise Johnson and their daughter
Location: Seattle
Size: 1,500 square feet plus a 780-square-foot detached studio; 3 bedrooms, two bathrooms
That’s intriguing: The house previously sat on a flat lot with one lone apple tree. The homeowners completed their landscaping in part through Plant Amnesty’s Adopt-A-Plant and Green-Share applications.
Year constructed: 1934
Kimberley Bryan
Their new studio is based on the mother’s of Khambatta farm in Pennsylvania. Khambatta worked to build an carport structure. He later added a fourth wall with sliding doors.
Great care was taken to make sure that the studio was appropriate for dancers, together with layout pointers from friend Paul Thorpe. Crucial into the studio’s layout are its high ceilings without interior support columns. A basket stack of 1- by 3-inch planks beneath the bamboo was used to make a flooring with just enough give and spring.
Kimberley Bryan
Between Johnson’s painting and Khambatta’s dance, the multiuse studio is a busy location. To achieve it, everyone follows this rock path around the face of the main home.
Red paint: Leaf Rust, Rodda
Kimberley Bryan
Khambatta designed and installed these square windows to let in more natural lighting. The couple uses easily movable and removable things such as screens to give privacy or change the feel of this space.
Kimberley Bryan
The set made adjustments to their primary home, too. From the living room, they substituted wood paneling with drywall. They retained the ceiling paneling but whitewashed the timber to highlight its grain.
The floors throughout the primary level are original fir. It took two weeks to strip the aged, yellow end. Rather than restaining the floors, they refinished them with a high-gloss finish.
Wall paint: Midnight Navy, Benjamin Moore; coffee table: David Smith (now closed); couches: Ikea
Kimberley Bryan
The couple added a thick timber plank mantel to their river-rock wood-burning fireplace. The corner mirror is a household hand-me-down, and covering the little window is a folded curtain panel dangling over a rod.
Kimberley Bryan
The main bedroom ocean-inspired wall color acts as a fitting background for a gallery of Johnson’s colorful and graphic original artwork.
Kimberley Bryan
The couple’s kid’s spacious bedroom is an ode to all things colorful and comfy. Khambatta left the Morroccan-inspired canopy bed by turning a table upside down and attaching it to a plywood frame. The cabinets underneath are repurposed kitchen cabinets. Damask drapes slide to offer her privacy.
Kimberley Bryan
Original French doors separate the dining area from the living area.
Side table: Cost Plus World Market
Kimberley Bryan
They opened up what was once a galley kitchen allowing an open flow from dining area to kitchen into backyard.
Kimberley Bryan
Cyrus Khambatta and Denise Johnson relax in front of one of her paintings.
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