Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, castles reigned in Europe as the dwellings of choice for those of noble birth and affluent means. These fortified stone palaces served first and foremost as defensive fortresses in often-hostile territories until the advent of gunpowder in the late Middle Ages, which summarily eradicated the dual military/residential home model with a bang.
But while traditional castles were still the latest rage in architecture, one distinguishing characteristic made them domesticity bearable despite the draughts, the darkness and the chamber pots. This characteristic was the Great Hall, or Great Room - a large, multipurpose space used for dining and entertaining. The Great Hall was the heart of the castle and enjoyed such features as the largest windows of the fortress, ornate fireplaces, woven tapestries and even scented straw floor treatments. It was such an inviting room that many guests even slept in the hall after a night of not-so-salubrious merrymaking.
As castles fell out of vogue, and the Renaissance shook things up with all its humanism and other wild ideas, the Great Room concept was replaced with a more compartmentalized approach to living. With some notable architectural exceptions, among them the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, rooms took on more specific functions and stayed that way for the next six hundred years or so.
But old is new again as the Great Hall finds itself making a comeback. Perhaps the major trend in architecture and remodeling over the last few years has been the Great Room - the modern melding of the living room, dining room and kitchen into a gloriously open and inviting space not unlike the Great Halls of old.
One local homeowner didn't even know how perfect this style of living could be for her until she was out at the Remodelors™ Council of the Master Builders Association's Remodeled Homes Tour a few years ago. On the tour, she visited one home that had been remodeled by the J.A. Ratto Company to include a fabulous Great Room and instantly fell in love. The tour house mirrored the large windows and cathedral ceilings of her own home, giving her a near-perfect preview of her home's potential if she embarked on such a project. Mere months later, she asked J.A. Ratto Company to turn her mid-80s Bellevue split level into the house of her dreams.
J.A. Ratto Company had their work cut out for them when they entered into the job. In classic 1980s styling, the overall aesthetic smacked of Patrick Nagel-era, jazzercised glamour, with its all white walls, white carpet and white furniture. The kitchen, living room and dining room were separated by walls reaching all the way to the top of steeply pitched cathedral ceilings, creating a vertical tunnel effect that was far from inviting. And the lone wood floors of the house stood battered and scarred in the cramped, walled-off kitchen.
