Name: Nick, Stacy, son Mateo and dog Nemo
Location: Hawthorne district — Portland, Oregon
Size: 2,800 square feet
Years lived in: 12 years — owned
The 1943 Italian Villanette-style home owned by industrial designer Nick Thomas and his wife Stacy, a senior project manager with a public involvement firm, reflects both his sharp design-savvy ingenuity and their collective sense of delight as new parents. From the wire butterflies that adorn the ceiling of the dining room to the sleek shrine to ping pong they've built in their basement, the Thomas family has the kind of home that invites family members, friends, and neighbors— many of whom played ping pong in their basement with the house's previous owners as kids— to kick off their shoes and just hang for a while.
When Nick and Stacy Thomas moved into their first home in 1998, Nick knew they had their work cut out for them. The house had been abandoned for 15-20 years and the basement was flooded. Nick had been "stalking" the place for months, after real estate agents kept showing them houses that weren't right for them.
"I wanted an original," he demanded. When a real estate agent finally relented and showed him the house, he knew it was the house for them. "This house was way too intimidating for the average home buyer but I saw the potential."
12 years later, the house stands as a testament to the couple's hard work, Nick's exacting eye for detail, and a deeply shared sense of family history. The table in the dining room was a Danish modern piece refinished by an older family friend who'd had it when he was a young dad himself. The wire butterflies that adorn the ceiling of the dining room that once delighted their 3 1/2 year-old son Mateo when he was an infant now are a point of fascination for Stacy's 1 1/2 year-old nephew (the son of Stacy's brother, Tyson). Mateo sleeps in a cool asymmetrical bed Nick made for him. The cafe curtains in the kitchen were made by Nick's sister Holly out of napkins nabbed from a famous french restaurant to commemorate one of the best meals of their lives. Old photographs of Stacy and Tyson's father, Rollie, taken when he was a young man, were enlarged to adorn the chic basement recreation room where the couple entertain friends and family-- often challenging them to a fierce game of ping pong.
Ingenuity and fun are themes throughout the Thomas household. From converting a mod 60's console into a sink or making doors out of old oil paintings for a floating cabinet that hides ping pong supplies in the basement, or even making lamps out of air filters, Nick's unique vision is felt throughout their family home-- and Stacy, whom Nick describes as an "incredible cook"--truly brings the heart to the space.
Apartment Therapy Survey:
Nick's Style: Minimal and practical. I prefer to enhance what already exists as much as possible.
Inspiration: Found objects.
Favorite Element: The stereo console I built from the house's concrete form boards, found objects and in-house materials.
Biggest Challenge: Decorating.
What Friends Say: They utter my lingo: "It's dialed up!"
Biggest Embarrassment: No embarrassments, just experiments.
Proudest DIY: Installing French doors that lead out to a patio. We value our patio time here in Portland.
Biggest Indulgence: High quality finishes and surfaces.
Best Advice: Follow through on your vision or idea
Dream Sources: An old industrial factory filled with its original equipment.
Resources of Note:
PAINT & COLORS
- • Pratt and Lambert Rialto
• Pratt and Lambert Puff Ball
• One-Shot Metallic Gold Lettering Enamel
ENTRY
- • Railing and Canopy - custom, Nick Thomas Design
• Light fixture - 50s fiberglass butterfly bowl (not pictured)
LIVING ROOM
- • Sofa - vintage, re-finished and re-upholstered
• Stereo console - custom, Nick Thomas Design
• Danish modern chair - inherited
• fireplace - custom, black anodized aluminum panels with orig tile
• curtains - Decor Delux
• Lamps - vintage
DINING ROOM
- • Table - gifted, re-finished
• chairs - vintage
• Art Deco Light - hand painted antique by mom
KITCHEN
- • 4" x 12" tile - Pratt and Larsen "Craftsmen"
• Counters - Ceasarstone Quartz
• Floor - Coved Marmoleum
• Cabinets - custom, historically correct
• Lighting - School House Electric
BATHROOM
- • Counter - black anodized aluminum
• Curtains, bench, shower curtain - Decor Delux
• Tile - original
BASEMENT
- • Floating credenza with 60s art print doors - custom, Nick Thomas Design
• Gobo Light Projector - custom, Nick Thomas Design
• old family photo triptyque - Pushdot Studio
• coffee table - vintage
• fireplace - DIY with American Clay Porcelina "Snow Leopard"
• Wallpaper - Cole & Sons "Malachite" by Piero Fornasetti
• Machine Art Displays - manufactured by Nick Thomas Design
• Vintage credenza and basin - custom, Nick Thomas Design
• Curtains, window treatments, duvet, fabric ceiling shades - Decor Delux
• chrome pendants - vintage
• smoked mirror valence & bar top inlay - Coast Mirror and Glass
Thanks, Nick and Stacy!
Images: Leah Harb
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Comments (38)
The pink and blue bathroom!!! Absolutely love it. The cabinet in the basement is awesome. Lovely home.
love it! i want to come over and play some ping pong.
The wine storage, ping pong shrine, and grey bathroom are awesome. What a fun and beautiful space!
love EVERYTHING about the basement.
but goodness, each bathroom i saw looked like a COMPLETELY different style than the home. it was like they plucked a bathroom from an unrenovated victorian, a brand new ultra modern home and then i think there was a credenza with a sink on it?
my recommendation is to get to the bathrooms sometime and make them cohesive with the style of the home.
I love that flooring in the ping pong room! Did you refinish the original concrete?
Who cares if each bathroom looks different? Some people don't want everything in their homes to look the same. Beautiful house!
Beautiful job! I am in love with your basement. Can I have it?
portland Oregon rocks!
This place is gorgeous and I thought the style was quite cohesive. It's eclectic but it still manages to be clean and restful. I think they'd be insane to alter that original tile in the pink bathroom. I will steal some of these ideas.
Love your home. Love that you live in one of the best places in PDX (my hood too). Love your resourcefulness, ingenuity and your aesthetic. Great job!
LOVE!!!!!
i think its great but I think AT should start taking a picture of the exterior of each house for a tour. I think I'm missing out on the context of a tour without knowing the style of the house in general.
Fabulous mix of colour and furnishings. Fabulous.
great space! love the vintage touches + furniture throughout, the sexy bathroom, + paint colors. very cool.
that sink is amazing.
Great kitchen and living room, very serene.
I like all of the bathrooms, even if they don't "match."
Lovely home. Very well designed and have the right things at the right place which gives your home totally different feel.
Wow, congratulations on such a lovely home. Your home is one of the most inspirational I've seen in a long long time. There are so many ideas here that I just can't help myself but steal some! Loving your scandanavian sideboard upcycle to vanity; and that side board with those fabulous prints. Need I say more. Again, congratulations and best of all with your new family. Teal xo
Hear! Hear! for the call to always include and exterior picture. (and a floor plan)
Wonderful home. I was amazed at the condition of the vintage bathroom considering that the house had been abandoned. I'm curious as to whether it needed work?
That pink-tiled bathroom is to die for, and my husband would kill for that basement. The kitchen was beautiful too, but looks like it belongs in a different house. Well done, overall.
Love this home! Beautifully done, nothing over-the-top and looks like a family actually lives here. I would love to have a basement with as much functionality/room to entertain. (Loved seeing Settlers of Catan set up for a game on the round coffee table!)
Are only positive comments allowed here?
The napkins were "nabbed" from a restaurant? Do you mean you stole them?
I can't get over the basement cabinets. SO AMAZING!
Two things:
1. I WANT that pink bathroom!!!!!!!!!
2. That ping pong basement! I love EVERYTHING: the colors, the floor, the furniture, the art, the bar! I could go on, and on, and on......
P.S. Yes, someone, please post a pic of the exterior!
I too would like to know what "Italian Villanette" looks like from the outside. I don't mind the different bathroom styles--it looks like the pink one is original and the one in the basement is brand-new, which makes sense if the basement wasn't finished before. And is the console sink just in an open area?
I love a lot here but especially the oil paintings used as doors on the credenza in the ping-pong room.
yes, people....i think we should assume that "nabbed" means they stole the napkins. GASP.
love the basement and the tiled bathroom.
What a dialed in pad!, everything is detailed and well considered. The polished concrete floors in the basement are wonderful, the Italian Credenza with the country sink rocks. The tone of palest of blues for the kitchen cabinetry...it goes on.... the interest lies in the mix and usage, not of one thing in itself.
Nick...nice work bro.
oddly, the disparate bathrooms work because they're both so clean and spare
i'd throw something modern in the old one, and something vintage in the new one just for fun
Fun home. I loved seeing Settlers of Catan set up in the basement lounge on that great round game/coffee table. We refer to it as Evil Game amongst our group of friends, because of the crazy competitive behavior that has erupted in the heat of play. But we love to hate it! I highly recommend it for its addictive quality.
I like this house and I like how they found ways to hide the clutter. I am not a fan of the recreational area, but it seems like they get a lot of use out of it, which is great you should always design a room like that to be used as well as admired. I love, love, the pink bathroom, it was simple, clean and inviting.
I am so jealous of your rec room and ping pong table!
Great house! I love both bathrooms, and wouldn't change a thing except switching their locations. Really love the tile in the basement bath, and the gray color in the rec room. The sofa in the living room, and oil painting cabinet doors are stunning. Love it!
I may copy some ideas from your kitchen and baths. Thanks.
What a fun house! I really like that you kept some of the old (pink bathroom) when you brought in the new (gray sleek one).
Absolutely inspiring. The tortoise always wins and by taking your time with the refurnish/rehab all the thoughtful touches you established are high quality and unique to your family .
Congratulations on one of (if not the) best house tour on AT.
I'm positively DYING over the floor lamp in the living room. I have tried every creatively descriptive set of terms to search for anything similar and have found a couple of "similar" options, but they lack the right oomph. Owners, any additional info you might have on that lamp would be awesome!
Love your home, especially the basement. Can you tell if those are the orginal concrete floors? If not, what was the process for the polished concrete? And...those basement paint colors! Can you share?
Thank you