When Nick and Rebecca Gray lived in New York City back in the 2010s, they made a lot of new friends. What surprised them was how many came from the same place Mr. Gray did.
“We met three sets of really good friends who grew up in the Grand Rapids, Michigan, area,” said Mr. Gray, 42, who was raised in nearby Decatur. But as time went on, he continued, “they all started having kids and leaving New York, moving back home and telling us how great it was.”
The couple, who work in financial services, visited often, developing a renewed sense of appreciation for Michigan. In 2019, they bought a small midcentury-modern house in East Grand Rapids as an investment property, planning to rent it out.
When the pandemic struck the following year, the couple’s employers closed their New York offices, and their son’s day-care center shut down. Stuck at home in Harlem, they decided they needed more space. So they returned to Michigan, temporarily staying with Mr. Gray’s family, and moved into their house in East Grand Rapids that June, after their tenants left.
“Long story short, we’re still here,” Mr. Gray said.
The transition wasn’t easy. Although they were used to living in compact Manhattan apartments, they began to feel squeezed in their small house — especially when Ms. Gray became pregnant with their daughter. (Their children are now 5 and 3.) They also thought some features, like the home’s slender spiral staircase, might be dangerous for the children.
Contemplating a renovation and expansion, they got in touch with Kevin and Liz Hoekzema, the founders of KLH, a Kalamazoo-based design-build firm whose projects they had admired. The Hoekzemas came over for a tour.
“It was a true modern home, small and cozy, and really well done,” Mr. Hoekzema said.
But there was no easy way to expand the house without drastically changing its character. “We definitely didn’t want to modify it heavily,” he said.
A better solution, the designers suggested, would be to build a new house from the ground up, so the family could get exactly what they wanted. And it just so happened that they knew of a parcel with a dilapidated house awaiting a tear down less than a mile away, in Grand Rapids.
The Grays bought the property in September 2021 for $375,000 and instructed KLH to proceed, asking the designers for a house with enough bedrooms for the family and occasional guests, as well as spaces for play and housework. They shared photos of modern houses they liked and told the Hoekzemas not to hold back on using color.
“Not an overwhelming amount of color, but fun pops of color,” Ms. Gray, 41, said.
They wanted “a very cheerful house,” she continued, “which is very much needed on those cold and dreary Michigan days.”
The designers returned with plans for a 3,032-square-foot, two-story house with four bedrooms above a finished basement of about 1,500 square feet with a recreation room and two additional bedrooms.
Outside, the house is clad in black engineered-wood siding, which accentuates the angular rooflines. Inside, it’s colorful and bright. The living room has a ceiling lined in oak that soars to a story and a half, with clerestory windows to bring in sunshine. It’s open to a kitchen with a blue-tile backsplash and an island topped by a soapstone counter with brass inlays.
In the mudroom, the designers used charcoal-hued terrazzo tile with large pink marble chunks and cobalt-blue light fixtures from West Elm. In the primary suite, on the ground floor, they designed a bathroom with a patterned encaustic-cement tile floor and a shower lined in brick-like porcelain tile.
“We pulled that terra-cotta, orangy brick hue into different spaces to create a cohesive feeling of warmth,” Ms. Hoekzema said. “It’s also a playful take on the brickwork you see in New York.”
An oak staircase with a handrail painted minty green climbs to the second floor. The designers placed an open play area at the top of the stairs and a bathroom between the children’s bedrooms. At every turn, they added more color and pattern, including peach-colored walls and a ceiling of black-and-orangy-pink floral wallpaper in the daughter’s room.
Construction began in December 2021, and the house was complete in January 2023, at a cost of about $1.6 million. The Grays moved in, listing their midcentury-modern house for sale just as mortgage rates spiked. When it didn’t sell, they decided to take it off the market and continue renting it.
Although they still like the house in East Grand Rapids, they’re happier to have a new house designed just for them. “We’re still pinching ourselves,” Mr. Gray said. “It was a dream come true to build a home.”
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