This Historic Portland Manse Inspired by Nature Is a Maximalist’s Dream

David Foxley
·12 min read

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When LA resident Elizabeth Miller and her husband started looking for a home in Portland, Oregon, to be closer to two of their four adult sons, she envisioned a smaller property with some history and much of its original detailing intact. What she discovered—and ultimately fell in love with—delivered on the second two qualities, if, at nearly 7,000-square-feet, not quite the first. “It had exactly what I was looking for—the woodwork wasn’t painted over, it had a lot of stained glass,” Miller recalls of the 1912 Georgian–Colonial Revival edifice atop a gradual slope at the edge of an urban park. “It was original.”

In the main entry hall, illuminated by Art Nouveau sconces and a Wiener Werkstatte chandelier by Woka, Helgerson designed a lacquered green table to echo the front door. The wallpaper is C.F.A. Voysey’s Passion Flower print.
“This room was about decorating, because we did not want to touch the original woodwork,” JHID lead designer Mira Eng-Goetz says of the parlor, a popular gathering spot for the family before and after dinner. The puzzle painting of the Columbia River by Tyler Hays is a favorite of the client and design team alike. Pinch Goddard armchairs in a Dedar fabric sit before a Bell coffee table by Sebastian Herkner on a Tufenkian Polonaise Cloisonne rug. Helgerson filled the home with nature-minded decorative Easter eggs, such as the custom-painted ceiling by Lonesome Pictopia, a nod to the room’s Madison and Grow Eloise Starry Night wallpaper.

Embarking on what would become a five-year renovation project, Miller knew she wanted to retain and celebrate as much of the five-bedroom house’s genuine spirit as possible. To help her realize that vision, Miller tapped the only interior designer on her list, AD PRO Directory member Jessica Helgerson, whose namesake Portland- and Paris-based firm (JHID) is renowned for bringing a delicate hand to older homes. Even though Helgerson encouraged her client to interview other decorators as well, Miller explains, “When I saw her work, I [thought] that’s just a perfect fit for me.”

Commissioned in the early 20th century by H. Russell Albee, who would go on to be the city’s mayor, the residence was designed by architect A.E. Doyle, regarded for his indelible mark on nearby Reed College. Given the abode’s position on a popular public greenspace, the monumental structure, intended to be enjoyed from all sides, features two distinct façades: one facing the street, the other the park. Before tackling any decorative appointments, the JHID team, headed up by lead designer Mira Eng-Goetz, set to work essentially rebuilding the house from the inside. Significant updates included finishing the basement with a guest suite, laundry zone, and screening room; installing a wellness area in the attic; transforming all of the four-and-a-half baths; reconfiguring the primary suite to include a larger dressing room and private lounge; as well as reinventing the kitchen layout without jeopardizing the adjacent dining room’s original woodwork. Miller, an avid gardener and naturopath, was also keen to add a greenhouse on the grounds, where she now keeps eight active beehives.

Shop out the look of the house here⤵

For the living room, JHID collaborated with Lonesome Pictopia to design and hand-paint a pattern of local flora and fauna, which also surrounds the star-shaped ceiling pendants by Eric Cohler. Vintage wingback chairs, upholstered in velvet, sit on an antique Persian rug in front of a custom coffee table with a Cristallizzato quartzite top. The fireplace surround, also bespoke, features Motawi Tileworks relief tiles.
Miller’s ground-floor office exemplifies the home’s seamless connection to the outdoors. A vintage drafting desk and task chair sit below a Lorford Smoke Bell lantern from McGee & Co. on an antique rug above original stone floors.

The dwelling’s relationship to the park and its native flora and fauna guided much of Helgerson’s brief for the interiors. “She loves nature and was very concerned about the indoors and outdoors connecting at the house,” notes Eng-Goetz of the client, who encouraged the use of botanical motifs and iconography of woodland creatures throughout. They appear in textiles, decorative embellishments by Lonesome Pictopia, and original artwork, including Miller’s favorite, a puzzle painting of the nearby Columbia River by Oregon native Tyler Hays. “You can be in the house and as you start to look through all of the maximalist core, you notice, ‘Oh yeah, I’m surrounded by 50 critters right now,’” adds Eng-Goetz. Supporting this cast of visual Easter eggs is a host of Art Nouveau and Wiener Werkstatte pieces alongside archival patterns by Morris & Co. and C.F.A. Voysey. All together, the spaces—neatly packaged within original architectural details—are suffused in both jewel tones and delicate neutrals, creating a mood of timelessness in spite of an epic renovation.

“That is a hard one,” Miller says when asked if she has a favorite spot in the home. “It always changes, but I think the sunroom off the bedroom, because it feels like you’re in a treehouse.” There, a Nickey Kehoe ottoman, antique secretary, and a velvet-covered armchair mingle with the client’s pre-existing plush sofa. After dark, the room glows with light from a Beauvamp pendant and Swizzle sconces with custom shades from the Urban Electric Co.

Reflecting on the project and what made it a success, the design team emphasizes how encouraging and invested Miller was once the work got underway. “Maybe she didn’t even know at the start how much she was going to love the process and how much she was going to love the house,” notes Helgerson. “She fell more in love with it and became more trusting of us and of her own vision.”

The homeowner, meanwhile, is keen to credit Helgerson and her team for dedicating so much time and energy to understanding their client in lieu of clinging to a trademark style. “She has such a big heart and wants the home to feel like a reflection of the person,” Miller says of the designer. “Whatever that person wants for the house, she just intuitively can make that happen.”

Jessica Helgerson Interior Design (JHID) was the sole architecture and design firm that Elizabeth Miller, the owner of this 1912 Georgian–Colonial Revival edifice, interviewed to oversee its five-year renovation and restoration. “I found that she was really the only one I wanted to have work on the house,” the client says. Sited atop a slope overlooking a popular park in Portland, Oregon, the home, originally designed by architect A.E. Doyle, features two distinct façades, which are landmarked. Inside, JHID oversaw a total overhaul that retained most of the remaining original details and layout while yielding a multitude of modern amenities—plus added living and storage space. Landscape architect Sam H. Williamson & Associates was hired to oversee the property’s varied, lush greenspaces.
In the new greenhouse, which JHID designed alongside landscape architect Sam H. Williamson & Associates, vintage ceramic laundry basins, rescued from the home’s original basement, set the mood. Miller spends many hours in the space, whose glass roof is by Global Solarium, not having to worry about soiling the teak table and rattan chairs by Sika or concrete counters by Cement Elegance. “The greenhouse is fun because it’s right off the kitchen and we put in a seating area,” says Miller, “and I go back and forth all the time.”
“This was a focal point of the remodel—all different things in different places,” says Helgerson of the new kitchen, which required great imagination to maximize usable space without affecting original details in neighboring rooms. (It was also the first time a client asked Helgerson to install partial-fronted drawers, which are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Old White, allowing one to see everything stored within.) A Lacanche range stands opposite a Fern table with travertine top by Egg Collective; the custom concrete sink by Cement Elegance, meanwhile, features a Waterworks Henry faucet. Lined with Subway Ceramics wall tiles, the space is illuminated by Schoolhouse Electric ceiling lights and Fritz Fryer sconces.
Another view of the kitchen reveals how a vestibule was taken over to house the extra-large mirrored refrigerator, painted in Farrow & Ball’s India Yellow. The arched doorway echoes the windows lining the home’s façade. “She’s a super-loving mama and loves to cook,” Helgerson says of Miller. “She’s always making amazing food and having big dinners where everything’s from scratch.”
“This looks out onto the backyard, which then leads out to the park,” explains Eng-Goetz of the dining room, which retains its original mahogany paneling and beams. “When the park has live music and the windows are open, you can hear it playing, which is really lovely.” There, Crescent dining chairs by Ookkuu surround a Nested NY table on a Tufenkian Donegal rug. The custom buffet with gilding designed by JHID complements the antique Art Nouveau chandelier and serpentine China cabinet. The Urban Electric Co.’s Belle Meade sconces with custom shades in a Liberty London silk add to the room’s after-sunset magic.
In the jewel-box breakfast room—featuring a Twirl dining table by Skylar Morgan surrounded by antique Gustavian chairs—John Derian’s Le Paravent Chinoise wallpaper and Farrow & Ball’s Calke Green bring the garden inside. The antique counterweight pendant light is by Austrian architect Adolf Loos.
The reconfigured primary suite comprises a bedroom, bathroom, dressing room, and lounge. In the bedroom, pictured here, Morris & Co. Melsetter wallpaper, custom side tables designed by Eng-Goetz with hand-painting by Lonesome Pictopia, a Hatfield bed from Sawkille, and Belle Meade sconces from the Urban Electric Co. combine to form a transportive hideaway.
The primary bath showcases ceramic-tile flooring in a mosaic pattern designed for the space by Helgerson and inspired by lace embroidery. Arched mirrors and an arched shower door are another nod to the house’s exterior windows. Additional appointments include an Empire tub from Waterworks, a Lowther vanity basin suite from Drummonds, and Hereford wall sconces by Fritz Fryer.
Miller’s visible-storage mandate continues in the primary dressing room, where she likes to hang items from wall-mounted hooks. The custom island and other surfaces are painted in Farrow & Ball’s Old White and India Yellow (note the decorative bird in flight below a O’lampia Bell sconce to the left of the window) while an antique Edwardian pendant hangs overhead.
An expansive “laundry zone” was one of several additions to the residence’s newly finished basement level. The area includes a Kohler double sink basin, custom Chelsea Textiles café curtains, Apothecary’s Garden wallpaper by C.F.A. Voysey, and ceramic ceiling lights by Schoolhouse Electric. Farrow & Ball’s Cooking Apple Green on the walls complements the floors, which are painted in the company’s warm Picture Gallery Red—a popular hue for subterranean floors of the home’s era. “I mean, it was scary to go down there,” Miller shares of redoing the former basement. “That was a big one.”
The powder room was largely designed around the antique marble sink basin, notes Eng-Goetz of the space, which features a mirror designed by JHID. A Waterworks wall-mounted faucet and Briar Rose wallpaper by C.F.A. Voysey amplify the half-bath’s potting-shed vibe.
In a son’s bedroom, a Hearst bed by Amber Interiors upholstered in velvet stands against walls painted in Farrow & Ball’s Light Blue; an Arlo sconce by Katy Skelton illuminates the antique side table below.
In a shared upstairs bathroom, Subway Ceramics wall tiles make a statement against Farrow & Ball’s India Yellow; so, too, do the Fritz Fryer sconces, Locky vanity basin from Drummonds, and tiled mosaic floor.
Each of the sons’ rooms had its own special perk, notes Helgerson, but perhaps none better than the one with an adjoining private rooftop patio. Overlooking the park, it features Hex tiles by Original Style, a ceramic side table by BZippy, and recliners by Golden Teak.
In another son’s bedroom, framed artworks collected by Miller hang on walls painted in Farrow & Ball’s Calke Green over a Walker bed by Amber Interiors upholstered in a Zak+Fox fabric. The custom curtains are cut from a Morris & Co. fabric. “They each had their own personalities and I think the rooms suited the kids,” Helgerson says of designing rooms for Miller’s sons.
Another upstairs bath also features Subway Ceramics wall tiles, this time in an emerald green, against walls painted in Farrow & Ball’s Old White. Fritz Fryer sconces, a Locky vanity basin from Drummonds, and tiled mosaic floor were selected again to provide a sense of continuity.

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Hay Palissade Cone Table

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Petite Viennese Josef Hoffmann Jugendstil Chandelier

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Circle Floor Lamp by Sander Bottinga

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Vintage French Art Deco Pendant Chandelier

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ClassiCon Bell Coffee Table

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Vintage Upholstered Italian Armchairs by Paolo Buffa

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The Chelsea Sofa by Maiden Home

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Rejuvenation Italian Velvet Pillow Cover

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Antique Brass Footed Planter Bowl

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West Elm Scooped Ash Wood Leather Dining Armchair

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Simplex Kensington No 1 Copper Traditional Tea Kettle

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Bordallo Pinheiro Handmade Cabbage Salad Bowl

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GreenRow Open Weave Caddy

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Adolf Loos Silk and Brass Pulley-Chandelier

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Article Kurasi Round Dining Table

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Birch Lane Matanna Solid Wood Windsor Back Chair (Set of 2)

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H&M Cotton Seat Cushions (Set of 2)

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West Elm Amelia Woven Table Lamp

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ERug Bazaar Modern Moroccan Hand-Knotted Wool Area Rug

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Steele Canvas Basket

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Sawkille Hatfield Bed

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Parachute Linen Box Quilt

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Serena & Lily Wicker Dog Bed

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Pooky Gramma Wall Fixture

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Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

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