KLH Custom Homes Thinks Pink—and Pine—for a House in East Grand Rapids

A family of four (and their beloved German Shephard, Hova) loved their neighborhood of East Grand Rapids, Michigan, with its walkable blocks of full-grown trees. And they loved the idea of building a new home of their own. What they didn’t love was the idea of planting a boxy, all-white everything of a house in their new environs. 

Enter KLH Custom Homes, whose creative director and interior designer Liz Hoekzema worked with them to design plans and interiors for a home of bright colors and carefully-selected and -crafted furnishings. “It’s always a challenge creating warmth,” she says. “We intentionally carved out arches, left structural beams bare but for paint, and left some things imperfect, like the painted plank floor upstairs.” The team specified a smooth pine siding, finished in a clear coat, to clad the ceiling of the dining area and kitchen; elsewhere, walls were finished in a crisp white to best show off the family’s art collection.

Apart, that is, from the playroom, where a flock of feathered friends watch over the fun courtesy of a series of Gucci murals. “To play up their dimensions” Hoekzema says, “we created paneled sections out of half-round trim and painted them in the same tone of pink to add visual volume.” What’s not to love?