Central Oregon Homes | Deschutes River Ranch

A Tale of Two Designers

by KATRINA HAYS
photography by TOM OWEN

The house rises from the rock, separate yet part of it: stylish, elegant and simple. It is a building that is absolutely of its surroundings.

Central Oregon Home | Deschutes River Ranch

Jim and Becky Rozewski have been designing homes together—inside and out—for 20 years. Their marriage is a partnership of work, artistry and play, and their home at Deschutes River Ranch is a celebration of this relationship. “I guess you could say this house is a physical love letter to each other,” says Jim.

Jim is the architect; Becky, the interior designer. While it is easy to think that interior design happens after the house is fi nished—a simple if careful placement of furniture, paintings and rugs—the Rozewski team is quick to clarify that they work hand-in-glove.

“Architecture speaks through the interior,” says Becky, “and the interior is held by the architecture.” Jim and Becky have designed a lot of Central Oregon houses, but their 5,000-square-foot home on a lava ridge at Deschutes River Ranch (DRR) is the fi rst one they have built for themselves.

The driveway descends to the home’s unusual curved front door that, while not particularly large, is massive in weight and texture. The dark-brown beams of the roof are the same weight as the door, giving the entry an immediate feeling of solidity and strength.

The texture of the home’s exterior invites touching—what is this stuff? It’s rough, like stucco, but tougher and smoother. The length of walls look and feel organic, rather than rigidly constructed in straight lines.

“This house is made of ICF,” Jim explains. Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) are polystyrene foam forms
into which concrete and rebar are placed. The combination of concrete and foam insulation combines to create structures that have amazing energy effi ciency (R-60, about three times that of standard insulation), strength and durability. The blocks also allow designers to cut shapes into the foam, curve corners easily, or insert objects and windows in unusual locations.

The ICF structure in the Rozewski house is covered with a tangray exterior plaster that was used for both the inner and outer walls, resulting in a home that looks a bit like an adobe structure. “We were thinking Old Texas, actually,” says Jim with a grin.

Intimate Journey

Jim designs in what he calls “a series of intimate spaces.” Their home is a journey. When the heavy wood door closes, you fi nd yourself circling the stairwell, which Jim visually planned as the “well in the center of the yard”—another Texas-style element. You are led to the living room, where Becky’s design takes all the Old Texas hints in Jim’s architecture and manages to say fi rmly, “This is a home of Western comfort combined with casual elegance.”

The living room has low-slung, heavy furniture that Becky designed herself. There is a warm red Tibetan rug on top of the ocher-colored travertine tile fl oor, and a fi replace that adds both visual appeal and physical heat to the room. The effect of the plaster walls and the feel of the interior design make you think that this space would be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It’s inviting.

Jim Rozewski is a man who talks about soul. He talks about passion and love and comfort. When he speaks of design, he talks of “adding soul to a home.”

“He’s a soulful and intuitive man,” says Becky.

New homes typically don’t have a lot of soul because, well, they are too new. There’s no history. A trick that Jim and Becky used to give their new home soul is to bring in materials and objects that not only are old but have a past. The exposed wooden beams in their home are from a log mill in Oregon City that was built 150 years ago.

The wood was recycled from the torn-down building, brushed with wire brushes, stained and used “on the hoof ” —that is, the wood was not cut, shaped or sanded. Look carefully at those big beams, and you can see the old nail marks and scrapes and scars from the wood’s prior life.

“I think it’s happy to have another life,” says Jim, looking up at a beam.

Becky brings soul to their home by fi nding pieces that have had a rich previous life, too. A good example is the Russian, 200 yearold woodworker’s table in the dining room. The textured surface of the battered-yet-beautiful tabletop invites you to run a palm over it and think of the many objects that were created atop its scarred surface.

Surprisingly Correct

Central Oregon Home | Deschutes River Ranch Beyond the stairwell is the living room. A big, circular table sits solidly under an amazing chandelier. Hand-crafted in New York and Siberia, the chandelier is an enormous circle of forged steel that hangs from a heavy fastener in the ceiling. Stitched rawhide covers act as shades for the bulbs. It is massive and graceful and very beautiful. “It’s probably my favorite thing in the house,” Becky says. And once again it is a design element that is surprising and correct in its statement of place and use.

Both Jim and Becky want their home to be of the landscape and timeless in feel.

“We’ve only been here since November, but it feels like we’ve lived here 15 years,” says Becky. “Just about everything is new in here, but I really wanted it to feel like we’ve been here forever.”

The working kitchen is spacious and gorgeous. (“I love to eat and Becky loves to cook,” says Jim.) Becky, who uses texture beautifully all through the house, has a woven theme in the kitchen. The tile backsplash above the six-burner Wolf stove looks like a big woven grass mat. The bar stools under the counter have woven seat covers.

Central Oregon Home | Deschutes River Ranch Elsewhere, Becky is particularly pleased with the light fixtures in the house, such as the pulley lights above the kitchen’s farmhouse sink. “Light fi xtures can typically be a little trite and look all the same. I’m really happy with the fi xtures in our home, because they are unique and interesting,” she says. And that’s just the first floor.

Another Level

Travel down the stairs and discover the media room, which opens on to the patio. It looks out over the Deschutes River below the house, and offers a splendid view of the Cascade Range. The terrace edge blends almost seamlessly into the lava ridge upon (and within) which the house rests. A mama marmot and her seven babies are cheerfully sunning themselves on the rocks, inches from the patio.

The landscaping, done by Naturescapes, integrates beautifully with the architecture. The xeriscape-style landscape emphasizes native plants and all-natural lava stone. Grasses, hardy perennials and trees speak of the High Desert.

Central Oregon Home | Deschutes River Ranch Jim and Becky have brought the landscaping up to the house by bringing rocks literally onto the house. The exterior plaster of the home can go right into the ground without fear of rot, aiding the illusion that the house seems to spring from the earth. The ICF construction allowed Jim to set lava rock into the house to reinforce the earth-house connection he designed.

“We really tried to create a home that looked like it belongs to the landscape,” says Jim. Melrose Construction helped coordinate the whole project.

Back indoors, continue the journey into the master suite. Berber carpet quiets the thumping as puppy Doc Holliday enthusiastically chases his purple ball. The suite seems miles removed from the rest of the house. One set of windows looks out over the river; another set welcomes the morning sun. “We have wonderful light in the morning,” says Jim. “It’s a nice way to face the day.”

The master bath feels luxurious without being ridiculous. Intriguing light fixtures adorn the vanity; beautiful stained-glass work can be seen above the spa tub. Becky’s high-impact, signature style—which has the effect of stopping a person and asking them to really look at something—is visible in a fl oor-to-ceiling mirror, framed and leaning casually against a wall.

“There isn’t a lot of drama back here,” says Jim. “We wanted a wing that felt absolutely private and our own space.”

The guest rooms are cleverly designed. Jim cheerfully acknowledges that the layout is “ripped off from the Fifth Avenue Suites in Portland;” the rooms can either function as a two-room suite or be separated into two rooms by pulling pocket doors closed. These rooms glow in Italian plastered gold and umber.

Central Oregon Home | Deschutes River Ranch The final space in the house is the office for Rozewski & Co., Designers. Walk down the hall, past the laundry room and notice the distinct energy change at the door of the office. Again, the commingling of architecture and interior design are clearly apparent. “It’s a power office,” says Jim. The office space is cool, modern and sleek. Contemporary, with deep colors on the walls, cable lighting and lean prints of Jim’s house designs, it is as different from the rest of the house as apples are from eggs.

The Rozewski home is personal and very inviting. It bears the mark of passion—of two people who feel deeply, both for each other and for their work.

“It’s a romantic effort,” says Jim.