Join us for a premier one-day home tour featuring 13 beautiful homes, thoughtfully designed and surrounded by stunning landscapes in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. The Traverse City Area Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour is Saturday, September 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Below is a sneak peek inside home #8, a modern home on East Grand Traverse Bay.

Proceeds raised during the Traverse City Area Home Tour will benefit Northern Michigan non-profit, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan. Save money by purchasing tickets online at MyNorthTickets.com or by calling 800.836.0717. Online ticket sales end Friday, September 15 at noon. Tickets are also available at the door.

Address: 2225 Eastern Ave, Traverse City

Directions: Beginning in Traverse City at the intersection of S Garfield and E Front Street travel north onto Garfield, continuing onto Peninsula Drive about 0.3 mile. At the traffic light turn right onto Eastern Avenue. Continue one mile until the road ends (continue past the stop sign). The house is tucked away on the left.

Designer: Bay Cabinetry & Design/B.C.D. Interiors, 231.946.6882

Back in 2010, when Dan and Kara Madion purchased this home tucked on the shore of Traverse City’s East Grand Traverse Bay, it was a bit too traditional for their modern sensibilities. Years of add-ons to what began as a cottage in the 1920s had resulted in a rambling unremarkable ranch. Interior elements including the fireplace and dark cherry kitchen cabinets felt heavy and too formal for this family of six. The couple knew, however, that those were drawbacks that could be fixed—and were minor in comparison to the stellar view of the bay out the huge picture window in the great room.

Repainting the exterior a deep bluish gray (the advice of Traverse City architect Suzannah Tobin) enhanced the home’s rustic modern lines. Pops of bright orange, Kara’s favorite color, on the doors and outdoor furnishings, made the house feel young again. Inside, the couple’s goal was to minimize elements that detracted from the view of the bay. To that end, Tobin helped them streamline the entryway to open it to the view, and replace the fireplace façade with sleek Neolith Sintered Stone.

Working with B.C.D. Interiors, the Madions launched a kitchen renovation earlier this year. The designers combined the family’s love of sleek, minimalist design with Kara’s love of cooking (“When we first met she said she basically lives in her kitchen,” the designers recall) to create a space that is both functional and a product of cutting-edge design.

The traditional cabinets were swapped for white slab cabinets with built-in pulls. B.C.D. Interiors designed the back-wall base cabinets to be especially deep—27 inches versus the standard 24 inches—to give Kara more storage and to create extra countertop space for her much-used collection of Fustini’s cooking oils.

Thin (just 3⁄4-inch-thick) countertops fabricated from a quartz product made to look like concrete add to the streamlined look. One large kitchen island—big enough for prep, dining, visiting and homework—now stands where there were two. A new window adds more light, as does state-of- the art LED can lighting. There’s more of course. Functional, stylish details abound in this home and tourgoers will love them—if, that is, they can take their eyes off that view of the bay.

Preview all 13 homes on the Traverse Area Home Tour in the August 2017 issue of Northern Home & Cottage.


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Photo(s) by Bay Cabinetry & Design