Name: Brad Trost, Elisabeth Charman & Meade
Location: Portland, Oregon
Size: 1,685 Square Feet
Years lived in: 6
The traditional Portland bungalow is a dark, cozy habitat that many in the area are familiar with. Not the case with this delightful home. It's got all the charming elements required of a bungalow, dark wood molding, nice built-ins, heaps of character... and it happens to have lots of windows to brighten up the mix. A perfect environment for this creative family.
Brad is an Art Director at Wieden + Kennedy and Lis is a Professor in the Graphic Design Program at Portland State University. Together with their three-year-old daughter, Meade, they've created an inspiring place to call home. We stopped by just days after they had their floors restored and everything was looking great. Lis has created several little vignettes throughout the home to display their various collections of Scandinavian ceramics, artwork and vintage ephemera (which, I am assured, little Meade is quite good about keeping her hands off of!). Though there is lots of natural light, they have also added a lot of supplementary lighting with lamps at several levels to make the place look great in the evening. They have a lovely side yard brimming with hydrangeas and young bamboo. There is a shady spot in the back for Meade to play and a private hammock area not far off. They have plans to do some renovations in the near future and I'm sure it will make their home that much more inviting!
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Our style: I suppose it’s a mix of mostly modern furniture with a random assortment of eclectic odds and ends all housed under the roof of a 1914 house.
Inspiration: 1940’s still life photography.
Favorite Element: We bought the house because of its abundance of windows and natural light
Biggest Challenge: Probably only having one bathroom.
What Friends Say: A lot of people seem to like the colors in our living room space (which we can’t really take credit for. It was like that when we moved in)
Biggest Embarrassment: The lock on our bathroom door doesn’t work. We were having a dinner party one evening and ____________
Proudest DIY: We’re hardly DIY people. I can barely hang a towel rack. We did find a vintage Jenny Lind bed at a junk store which we had refurbished. Our Daughter loves it.
Biggest Indulgence: Yet to come. We have some remodeling planned for the future though.
Best advice: Layer your lighting.
Resources: Chelsea Flea Market, NYC / thrift stores / Design Within Reach / CB2 /Crate and Barrell / West Elm / IKEA / Bernadette Breu/ Family portrait by Ashley G and Drew
(Thanks, Brad, Lis & Meade!)
Images: Molly Anderson
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Nomade Express Slee...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Summer Cocktail Staple: Campari & IPA Spritzer
I love the dark wood.
Oh Christ, I haven't gone through the house tour yet- that first image made my brain fizz and my jaw drop. I'm looking forward to it!
Where did the light up squirrel come from?! Want!
Yeap, I want the place lol, no surprise there! Love that squirrel lamp too!
Is this real or some kind of cruel joke???
Exquisite!
Really fantastic job of keeping the house light, even with all the dark wood.
Do you know if there were once partitions/columns with built-in bookshelves dividing the living and dining rooms?
I, too, love the colors, and thought it was great the way the homeowners echoed the red fireplace with other red accents--it keeps the color scheme looking so cohesive.
Squirrel lamp = amazzzing!!!
Very nice use of colors!
Curious, who is that lamp by the sofa made by? Where can I find that online?
Nice Josh Keyes print as well!
I'd kill for that dollhouse.
I love the green in the child's bedroom. What is it?
The squirrel lamp is made by Roost
http://www.velocityartanddesign.com/squirrel-lamp-pr-21402.html
I love it! What an adorable little girl you have :)
Great use of color and I love the original woodwork.
The kitchen, to me, doesn't look like it matches the rest of the house. It would have been nice if it was more cohesive.
I actually really love the kitchen I immediately got such a great feeling from it. I am curious about the counter top material, great color.
I can see walking into this house for the first time and falling in love, its such a real house and all of those windows.
Beautiful.
I love the pendant light in the kitchen and the family portrait. Do you mind sharing the artist??
The living room has a very interesting palette of colors . I love the dark floors and dark furniture , very sleek and serene .
This is a beautiful home, but I wish it all didn't look quite so staged.
Such an interesting home - Quite nice!
I love the white porcelain against the dark cabinetry & table...
The kitchen looks familiar - is this the one where the homeowner had multicolored tile & painted certain ones in different colors to get more muted colors?
"I am curious about the counter top material, great color."
Looks like laminate to me - Nothing wrong with that either.
Now THAT's the green to use with dark wood! Really nice - I love how Portland homes always seem to use crazy colors presumably to combat the grey outside.
I want my house to look like this.
Love the house but hate the green color downstairs. However, house is a little "too clean"
Love it! Especially that green with the dark wood--I don't so much love the red paint on the wall (although the red accents are nice), but the green is absolutely and totally perfect. I love that squirrel lamp, too--thanks to kungfucat for the source info. This house has a lot of similarities to mine (a 1911 brick victorian with lots of woodwork, etc., and some dark colors on the walls courtesy of the previous owners), so I found this very inspirational. And that Jenny Lind bed is gorgeous!!! I'm currently looking for a vintage/antique twin bed set with a similar feel for my baby boy on the way, and I can't find anything! It seemed like before I was really looking, our local Craigslist was crawling with great stuff like that--and now, nothing. So I know what a special find that bed is!!
I love the paint color in the (presumably) master bedroom -- does anyone know what that color is? It's perfect...
Never mind! I saw you sourced the portrait artist. I should have known.... I was just on her site last week! Duh.
Those windows, that light! I'm just about drooling :) I love love love how the dark wood is working so beautifully with that green on the walls. In my opinion, dark wood and green together is just about the loveliest combination, but so hard to do right. Congrats on a lovely home!
The wall colors may have come with the house, but the way you added touches of those colors to make that living room stunning is all your doing.
And I'm totally stealing some of your ideas, like the empty frame around one display
I love the furnishings and the house. What kills it for me is all that brown.
Perfect blend of Art Director meets Graphic Designer!
so............. dark..............
I absolutely love the overall feel of this home. Well done.
I'm usually not big on dark houses. Even without much white space, I still am feeling the color schemes going on here. This is dark done well!
Love everything about this. Love the locale, love the colors, love the light, love your daughter's name, love that you can't DIY. Everything.
And your jobs. I covet your jobs. Both of them.
Uh, that should be "Ashley G and Drew".
Yay Lis! Lovely.
Please don't remodel too much.
Finally some dark wood trim. We have it in our house, and it's hard to find good inspiration. Love it!
The trim is lovely, but is it stained or is it painted? Looks awfully opaque and very uniform throughout. Just curious.
I really love this home and so many things in it. What can you tell us about the dining table?
Riding my bike around Portland a lot this summer - So many great curbside design lessons to be had. Wonder what neighborhood this is?
Gorgeous use of color. The proportions are inspiring. Well done.
Damn. I want to roller skate around the house but that would ruin the floors. The dark wood is absolutely enchanting, the colors are wonderful and it's just so homey. Only love.
beautiful. as others have applauded, the mix of light and dark, craftsman era and modern is always difficult to make work, and you've done it exceedingly well. dig the keyes piece.
Yay Portland! I love driving the neighborhood streets of Portland. So many beautiful houses with tons of character. I love the dark wood, though normally I'm not crazy about it, it fits your home well. I especially love your dining area and kitchen. Charming!
While I can appreciate the creativity here and bold colors, I am not a fan of this type of decor. I think the kitchen would be lovely in a different type of home, and the dark and brown everything is just not cozy and depressing. The squirrel lamp is really fun, though as is the child's room!
I really love this house.
I'm currently hoping to rent/rent-to-own/buy a house that's been in my family for 60 years, and it's very similar to this one.
I love the combination of dark woods and bold colors - it's definitely something I think I could do in my own home... wherever that is next. I've always felt most at home in a place with lots of deep dark woodwork.
I think the things I like are the things that were there when these folks arrived. So many people would've mucked with it. Glad they had the sense not to and showed restraint in "decorating".
Looks lovely. Not a fan of the color scheme in the living room but it all pulls together nicely and is consistent.
BEAUTIFUL.
LOVE!LOVE!LOVE! Love how dark the living space is then bam a bright white kitchen. The contrast is amazing. The dark wood...I'm absolutely drooling over! I'm very jealous! ;)