This article was originally published on March 31, 2023. It was updated April 5, 2023 and April 14, 2023.
Paige Maurer, CKBD of Traverse City, Mich.-based Paige Lee Interiors navigated a couple of out-of-the-ordinary challenges in this whole-house update. One, with the clients in California, the design process would have to be done long-distance. Two, she was due to deliver a baby close to the scheduled completion date.
Due to Covid restrictions on travel, the clients were unable to make many trips to Michigan during construction. To manage the remote relationship, Maurer arranged lots of Zoom and FaceTime “meetings”, supplementing them with frequent phone calls.
The scope of the project was comprehensive. The design team had been asked to update the entire interior and exterior of the five-bedroom, four-bath 1978 brick ranch-style house, which was set on the shore of West Grand Traverse Bay where it had panoramic views of the water. Creating a large luxury kitchen, adding a bathroom and a mudroom and a designing a dedicated wine room were part of the program.
With the directive to showcase the bay vista, Mauer restricted the kitchen cabinets to the interior walls. A central island, 60-in. wide by 174-in. long, is surfaced in Cambria’s Skaa Brae with the bold veining running the entire length of the unit. To fulfill the owners’ request for a raised bar on the island that could accommodate four people, Mauer designed a custom floating counter of locally-sourced walnut.
Mauer had to prepare not only herself for impending motherhood, but also her business. “Taking really good notes was super important on this job,” said the designer. “Knowing that I would be having a baby near the end of this project – just one month prior to move-in –and that the timing would be unexpected, I made sure everything was documented really well, so that way my assistant could pick up where I left off when the time came.”
—By Leslie Clagett, KBB Managing Editor
