By Lawrence Kreisman

When John Stevens and Tim Williams decided to buy a house on Clyde Hill in 2001, they accepted some of its incongruities. In 1949 it started life as a modest, one-story rambler with a Roman brick facade. Over time and under new owners, it acquired additions, including an entire second floor in the 1980s. By the time this couple bought the house, it was tough to see the original design. But it was obvious that there had been a different main entrance and that the garage had been turned into a bedroom.

Tuscan touches such as peach-toned paint and Mediterranean-tile street numbers on the facade didn't disguise the home's roots or its exploded second floor.

The previous owners started to make some well-chosen improvements, especially with the kitchen and a bathroom. And Williams says they tried to maintain some continuity with those changes while choosing to create a more traditional look by adding wainscoting and coved molding. But it fell to Stevens, a tried and true traditionalist, to take it to the next level.

Stevens had a graduate degree in decorative arts and had worked in the European furniture and decorative arts department at Sotheby's auction house. Hired in 1997 to do marketing at the traditional-oriented Masins Fine Furnishings, Stevens started bringing antiques and artwork into the Seattle store in 2000. In 2007, he and Williams, who works in residential real estate, established Regents House, Ltd. as a free-standing boutique within the downtown store.

Coincidentally, during 2001-02, when the two were moving into the house, Stevens was traveling to England and buying at auction. The timing couldn't have been better. Their new house became a place to explore everything from color to furnishings and display. It shows that artwork and decorative period pieces from England and France can fit nicely into a traditional and a modern home. While the couple has some antique furniture, the majority is new.

Their rooms demonstrate the power that color can play in setting off art. Stevens says, "I'm a big advocate of dark-colored walls, especially with antiques and traditional furniture. They make old paintings, mirrors, candlesticks and furnishings 'pop' much more than neutral or light-colored walls." Most of their paint colors were from the Ralph Lauren Collection sold through Rodda.

Stevens, who started buying pieces he loved a few years out of college and had kept many in storage, says he just told himself, "One day I'll find a place for them." And now, he has.

Lawrence Kreisman is program director of Historic Seattle and author of "The Arts and Crafts movement in the Pacific Northwest." Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.

Northwest Living

An antique buyer finally has a home worthy of his own collections

A professional antique buyer and designer transforms a midcentury rambler in Clyde Hill to make a good home for a lifetime of collected treasures — antiques and decorative objects from France and England. Along the way, he's demonstrated how antiques can fit into a traditional home with modern sensibilities.

Finding a Modern Fit for Antiques 

In a period when home magazines and advertising are focusing on midcentury modern, retro and contemporary modern to fill new condos and loft spaces, is there a market for antiques and traditional furnishings? As with anything, it's an education process.

According to John Stevens, one of the keys is in showing people how to live with such things. "They are not used to seeing antique-inspired interiors on a regular basis. Mixing antiques and non-antique accessories in a livable room setting makes a potential customer feel more comfortable with it.

When antiques are displayed in glass cases, people see them as beautiful but expensive, fragile, and not likely to fit their lifestyle, he says. But "when you mix antiques with more familiar furniture, they really do understand it, love the look and want it. It sparks their interest."