NEAR SEATTLE, AN ISLAND GARDEN

AN IDYLLIC L ANDSCAPE SURROUNDS THE BAINBRIDGE BUNGALOW.

best views of the bay. Exposed rafter tails were rotten, the roofing was shot, and systems required updating.

Jill and Dean bought the house but lived here for a year before beginning renovations. That helped them set their priorities. They noted how the light changed during the day, and they researched the Arts & Crafts movement, acquiring a sizeable library of books. Then they began to buy antiques.

Jill Sterrett, an urban planner, engaged her architect friends to help. The plan was to do a modest remodeling, staying in scale with the original house and the period’s architecture. They chose as their contractor a design/build firm led by architect Tom Spivey. Knoband-tube wiring was replaced, as was cast-iron plumbing.

Cased openings were added between the kitchen and adjoining rooms, and new woodwork matched to the original fir trim. An expanded pass-through between dining room and kitchen was added over the built-in buffet, using salvaged stained-glass panels. A master bath was installed upstairs, with an antique washstand converted to a vanity.

Dean, the family cook, wanted a state-of-the-art kitchen. Sensitively designed, it includes a six-burner Garland stove and Marmoleum flooring. Custom Arts & Crafts-compatible cabinets were modeled after a vintage cabinet that sits in the breakfast room.

Having restored their 1915 bungalow on Bainbridge Island, the Sterretts turned to the gardens. They asked Shayne Chandler of Plant LLC (plant-llc.com) to design and install landscaping that would tie the house into its setting—complementing the period bungalow without obscuring water views. Challenges were many: dry, sandy soil; steep slopes; overgrown blackberry thickets.

Chandler began at the back, at the driveway approach. A “first impression” garden, it features Rhododendron ‘Loderi Venus’, Daphne bholua ( Japanese paper plant), and Iris confusa, all of these to provide year-round interest.

The front porch and entry are on the opposite side, facing the water. To pull attention toward the house, Chandler designed perennial borders along a walkway with metal edging. Vibrant plants include cheerful orange and red Crocosmia ‘Emily McKenzie’ and orangey-pink Cana ‘Intrigue’. Textural foliage provides bold accents: tall Eucomis pole evansii (pineapple lily), tussocks of South African Rhodocoma capensis, and low-branching succulent Aloe striatula. Multiple paths intersect around the house. Plants with strong root structures were chosen to help hold the steep bank in place.

Antique Gustav Stickley dining chairs and a vintage oak table are backed by the built-in buffet in the dining room. The stained-glass pass-through above it was added by the couple during renovation.

The kitchen is centered on an old science-lab table used as an island for food prep and breakfast. Pottery on display here includes Bauer, Homer Laughlin, Fiesta, and Hall.

ABOVE Jill’s father’s 1940s Kodak Duraflex II camera (furthest right) is among Kodak ephemera on display. • The downstairs bath features stainedglass panels that were part of the early 20th-century, five-piece doorway surround that also yielded panels for the pass-through in the dining room. Walls are painted in dusky Province Blue (Benjamin Moore); the clawfoot tub is vintage.

Shayne Chandler of Plant, LLC, designed and installed landscaping to tie the house into its setting, adding hundreds of native and exotic plants.

BELOW Fine-textured grasses surround an Arts & Crafts entry marker the homeowner designed using salvaged newel posts.