What’s a Houseboat Doing in the Hills of Portland?

Most people consider themselves fortunate to find true love once, but for Jessica Comfort and Jevon LaBar it struck twice. “It’s a classic, modern love story,” jokes Jessica, referring to a dating app that connected the pair more than six years ago. While househunting one Sunday afternoon, they scrolled to an unusual house in Southwest Portland, a belt that had been off their radar. The open house—the listing for which teased that it was architect-owned and came with a good story—was already under way. So, they sped across town.  “We walked up the stairs and saw that view and the great room, it was like falling in love,” says Jessica. The details that pulled them in—built-in bookcases tucked under expansive windows, handmade teak kitchen cabinets, a dining-room sideboard and even the custom towel bars in the bathroom—were the work of midcentury architect and craftsman Henry Bergman. For Jessica and Jevon, unearthing the unusual house was the score of a lifetime. It also became the idyllic backdrop for mixing Jessica's penchant for cozy textures and neutral tones with Jevon's affection for hard edges, clean lines, and saturated colors.

The built-in shelves that flank the fireplace and a second shelf that runs the length of the windows are original. “We got lucky to buy from fellow bookworms,” says Jessica. The living room, deliberately adorned with neutral and texture-heavy accessories, was one of the first rooms to come together, starting with a midcentury Dux sofa that had been reupholstered by its previous owner. “The rug is so vibrant with pattern and color, and the great room itself has a lot of art on the walls—I didn’t want items on the shelves to compete with any of that. Keeping the palette quiet allows forms and textures of those objects to take center stage.”

But it wasn’t just shelving that won them over. The backstory, it turns out, was that the first 400 square feet of the house got their start in 1950 as a houseboat. Henry and his wife, Dorothy, lived in the tiny floating home on the Willamette River for about two years until they started a family. That’s when they pivoted, purchasing land in Portland and towing the house about five miles to shore. Henry designed and built a foundation and bottom floor, and the rectangular boat was hoisted atop. Over the years, as the family grew, Henry added on. And by the time he sold the house in 2016, shortly before he passed away, it was 2,300 square feet. “He built this all himself,” says Jessica. “We feel as though we’re living inside his life's work.”

“We basically made all our design decisions around maintaining the original cabinet work,” says Jessica, starting with Jevon sanding and refinishing all of the teak-veneer drawer and cabinet fronts. To make the woodwork pop, they painted the brick floor white and chose white subway tile for the walls. “I think the slanted ceilings and the cutout in the middle give this room a very boatlike feeling,” says Jessica. “Like you could open a little hatch above you and climb out onto a bobbing deck."

“The art on this wall is mostly from Jevon’s collection, with the exception of the largest piece, the Rufino Tamayo,” says Jessica. “It was one of the first pieces we bought together at an auction, and it remains one of my favorites in the house.” The couple purchased the midcentury dining table at an estate sale with every intention of selling it. But once Jevon refinished it, they just couldn’t part ways. The oversized yet minimal graphic pendant provides the perfect balance to the gallery wall, as do the chairs that Jessica reupholstered in bold Pendleton fabric.

To both play off the dark and moody cedar-paneled wall and add a hint of contrast, the couple arranged a mix of vintage landscapes, seascapes, florals, abstracts, and portraits over their bed. “I wanted the bed to feel like a cloud,” says Jessica, so she layered a casual mix of solid neutrals and quiet patterns in an array of supple textures.

“Whenever we fall in love with something that’s a little more bold in color, we try to find a home for it in Jevon’s office,” says Jessica. “It’s nice to have that space as our designated color riot.” While his collections of old felted Pendleton blankets and ’70s op art were made decades apart, the couple paired them for their shared geometry and high-contrast colorways.