“We had the quintessential Portland life,” says Monique Menconi. “A 2,500-square-foot ‘ranchalow’ with a finished basement, chickens, an amazing garden.” But then? “We grew out of it.” It’s not that Monique and her husband, John, craved a McMansion. Rather, they wanted to live more efficiently.
So they downsized, purchasing an 875-square-foot loft in Portland’s Pearl District and hiring interior designers Jessica Helgerson and Mira Eng-Goetz to reconfigure the home.
Today, the loft’s main 15- by 30-foot space is kitchen, home office, dining room, and living room. “The irony is we have more space for the things that really matter,” says Monique. “We could easily have 20 people over and spread out from the kitchen to living room.”