This Palo Alto Eichler renovation by Klopf Structure took 5 years and three phases to finish. The purchasers are an government mother, her two younger youngsters and their canine.
Quite than erasing what makes Eichlers distinctive, the redesign celebrates it. A bigger kitchen now opens onto the nice room. New floor-to-ceiling glass connects the dwelling area to the atrium. On the entry, a customized slanted wooden slat pivot gate provides privateness with out blocking the sunshine.
Alongside the best way, Klopf’s new inside design division carried the imaginative and prescient by means of to the furnishings. Highlights vary from customized leather-based counter stools to playful lavatory tile. Proceed under to see the remainder of this fabulous residence tour…
DESIGN DETAILS
ARCHITECT Klopf ArchitectureINTERIOR DESIGN AND FF&E Klopf ArchitectureSTRUCTURAL ENGINEER BASE Design Inc.CONTRACTOR Keycon Inc.
Three Phases, One Household: Inside a Klopf Eichler Rework
When an government mother and her two younger youngsters moved into their Eichler, she made a deliberate alternative. She would renovate the house in a manner that honored the qualities that make Eichlers distinctive, reasonably than erasing them.
That call set the tone for what would change into a five-year, three-phase collaboration with structure and inside design agency Klopf Structure and basic contractor Keycon. The work touched practically each room in the home. Alongside the best way, it turned a client-architect relationship into one thing nearer.
What We Love About This Dwelling
This Palo Alto Eichler renovation superbly updates a midcentury residence whereas honoring its authentic character. We love the shiny inexperienced hexagon tile backsplash within the kitchen. It units a playful tone that carries by means of to the pastel stacked tile within the bogs. Different favorites embrace the nice and cozy wood-paneled bed room, the navy slatted front room wall and the cedar pivot gate. General, the venture group created a cohesive, light-filled residence that feels tailor-made to this household’s on a regular basis life.
Inform Us: What are your general ideas on this renovation venture? Tell us within the Feedback under; we love studying your suggestions!
Word: Remember to try a few our favourite Eichler residence excursions that now we have featured right here on One Kindesign from the portfolio of the architects of this venture, Klopf Structure: An Eichler residence in Palo Alto will get renovated with a wonderful courtyard and Eichler residence renovation celebrates indoor-outdoor dwelling in Palo Alto.
Above: A customized slanted wooden slat pivot gate lets mild filter into the atrium. It additionally blocks sight traces from passersby.
Dwelling Via the Work
Not like many remodels the place purchasers decamp to a rental throughout building, this household stayed put by means of all three phases. So the Klopf group didn’t simply design the house. They watched the household dwell in it, room by room, in actual time.
Part 1 lined the kitchen and dwelling areas. By the point later phases started, the group had already seen how the household used these areas.
That suggestions loop and conversations with the shopper formed the remainder of the venture immediately. She shared her suggestions with the design group alongside the best way. As she put it, “all through the varied phases as they had been accomplished, every day I seen a brand new element.”
As an illustration, she liked the Part 1 kitchen counter tops. So the group used the identical counter tops within the later bogs. She additionally liked the playful kitchen backsplash tile. That sense of sample and play carried into her Part 2 lavatory and a second bathtub in Part 3.
The result’s a house the place every section speaks to those earlier than it. It by no means reads as a collection of disconnected updates.
A Bigger Kitchen With Playful Hexagon Tile
Above: The shopper liked this playful hexagon backsplash tile. The design group carried its sense of sample and play into the later bogs.
Opening Up the Middle of the Home
On the coronary heart of the venture was a reorganization of the house’s most-used areas. Klopf reclaimed a former eating space off the nice room to construct a bigger kitchen. The kitchen now opens immediately onto the dwelling area. That frees up room for the household to collect for studying, video games, meals and TV. It’s the atypical enterprise of each day life with two children and a canine.
New floor-to-ceiling glass panels now join the dwelling area to the house’s atrium. They pull in mild and views from each instructions, doubling down on the Eichler’s signature indoor-outdoor connection.
However extra glass additionally meant much less privateness, significantly on the entry. There, a brand new wall of glass would have opened the courtyard on to the road. Klopf’s answer was a customized slanted wooden slat pivot gate on the entrance of the home. It lets mild filter by means of whereas blocking sight traces from passersby.
It’s a small architectural gesture that solves an actual downside. The gate creates privateness with out sacrificing the light-filled openness on the coronary heart of the redesign.
5 Years and Elevated Capabilities
A venture of this size hardly ever survives with the identical group intact, and this one didn’t. Klopf’s authentic venture chief left the agency partway by means of. John Klopf and Elise Webb, nonetheless, stayed on from begin to end for continuity.
As a substitute of shrinking, the Klopf group really grew when the agency fashioned its new inside design division in 2024. The shopper was enthusiastic about these new capabilities. She welcomed designers Justine Alvarez and Ekaterina Nesterova on board, and the architectural scope grew to become an architecture-plus-interiors effort.
In the long run, Klopf designed all of it: the outside envelope and structure, plus supplies, colours, furnishings, décor and ending touches.
What started as an architectural renovation grew to become one thing extra complete. The group reimagined the house’s interiors in addition to its bones, right down to the containers on the lavatory counter.
A Walnut-Wrapped Laundry Room
Carrying the Imaginative and prescient Via to the Furnishings
Klopf’s inside design division helped flip good structure into a spot a household really lives. The interiors group labored carefully with the shopper on furnishings, materials, lighting and equipment. They sourced items from makers and distributors in each the U.S. and Europe.
The guiding concept was continuity: each piece wanted to really feel prefer it belonged in the home, not added to it.
The customized counter stools are a superb instance. They decide up on the kitchen’s cabinetry supplies. The group selected the leather-based fastidiously, so the seating reads as a part of the identical architectural language. The couch, rug, pillows and different items adopted the identical logic. The group weighed every one’s materials, shade and proportion towards the structure round it.
Even the playful character of the lavatory tile discovered its manner into the furnishings. It exhibits up as enjoyable accents within the textiles and finishes, all whereas staying period-appropriate to the Eichler.
A Second Toilet With Playful Accent Tile
The interiors group additionally benefited from the suggestions loop that formed the structure. When deciding on furnishings, they took cues from earlier materials and design selections. In consequence, the completed residence reads as one steady concept, not a stack of separate selections.
Above: Scattered pastel and mustard accent tiles convey a way of sample and play to this lavatory, echoing the kitchen backsplash.
Navigating Tariffs and Customized Furnishings Lead Occasions
That continuity got here with its personal hardships. Just a few months after furnishings buying started, new tariffs took impact. They affected the general furnishings price range and sophisticated ordering and expediting items.
Growing customized furnishings added one other layer of coordination. Aligning cloth and leather-based samples and wooden finishes with the structure meant shut, ongoing communication with makers. As a result of makers produced some items internationally, the group needed to fastidiously handle lead occasions, transport and customs. In just a few situations, that pushed the timeline out additional nonetheless.
In the long run, the additional time was price it. It allowed the group to get the supplies and particulars proper and preserve the design cohesive.
A Relationship, Not Only a Undertaking
Ask the Klopf group what made this venture distinctive, and the reply isn’t actually about sq. footage or finishes. It’s about time.
Over 5 years, the group acquired to know the household in a manner a shorter venture by no means permits. They watched the youngsters head off to summer season camp and met the foster kittens that handed by means of the home. They even acquired to know the canine walker’s each day routine. It grew to become knowledgeable relationship that was additionally a private one.
Youngsters’ Bedrooms Designed With Their Enter
That closeness prolonged into the design course of itself as soon as the interiors group got here on board. The shopper made a degree of involving her children in conferences about their very own rooms. They acquired to share their imaginative and prescient and hopes for the areas.
Her daughter, specifically, was thrilled to work with an inside designer and assist construct her dream room. It’s a small element, nevertheless it exhibits how totally this venture grew to become a household effort.
Above: The youngsters weighed in on the imaginative and prescient for their very own bedrooms throughout conferences with the inside design group.
A Dwelling Signed by the Folks Who Constructed It
That closeness exhibits up in the home itself. Throughout Part 1, the shopper requested everybody concerned to signal the horse wall within the new kitchen. The Klopf group, the shopper, her children, and the Keycon crew all left their names there. It’s a everlasting report of the individuals who constructed the home collectively.
The shopper mentioned: “I’m full of pleasure and gratitude to have the ability to dwell in such a gorgeous area and to have gotten the prospect to work with such a proficient group. The mark of true artistry is the eye to element that permits one to expertise the design in numerous methods. One is perhaps trying on the identical view, however due to the best way the sunshine strikes, it’s a very completely different perspective.”
A Heat, Wooden-Paneled Bed room
By the point the third section wrapped, a operating joke had unfold on website. No person really needed the venture to finish, and the group half-seriously floated the thought of a “Part 4.”
It’s a becoming be aware for this venture. It was by no means about any single renovation. It was a few household and their architects rising, fairly actually, alongside each other.
A Toilet With Pastel Stacked Tile
Above: The shopper liked the Part 1 kitchen counter tops, so the group used the identical ones within the later bogs.
PHOTOGRAPHER ©2026 Mariko Reed
One Kindesign has obtained this venture from our submissions web page. In case you have a venture you want to submit, please go to our submit your work web page for consideration!
