After nearly 25 years designing for others, Ricki Stevens turned her attention to a project especially close to her heart: her own 1939 home in Sacramento. As her family stepped into a new chapter, she approached the renovation with care—preserving the home’s architectural charm while carving out open spaces designed for togetherness. Photographer Stephanie Russo captures the story of a house reimagined for the future yet rich with the warmth of family memories.
From Ricki Stevens… We bought our home in 1993 thinking it would be our first home. It is now our forever home. My husband and I have raised our family here, and we knew that if we were going to remodel it, we wanted it to be the last major remodel we took on in our own home. Our family is growing, with our daughters marrying and now having children, so we wanted to create a space that could accommodate everyone.
It started out as a remodel to open our kitchen to the dining room, raise the ceiling in the family room to 8 feet to match the rest of the house, and remove the step going into the family room. We did not want to have different floor elevations between rooms. Once we began the demo, our vision expanded to creating more flow between all the common spaces where we envisioned gathering with our family. Ultimately, we removed all our dividing walls between the dining, kitchen, and family rooms. We raised the ceiling in the family room to 10 feet and added reclaimed beams. We removed our French doors with sidelights and replaced them with three sets of French doors. In the dining space, we had a large exposed structural beam that we decided to cover with a reclaimed beam to tie in the look with the family room. We incorporated many thoughtful layers to preserve the original charm of our home.
We also remodeled our primary bedroom to be a true primary suite. Our home, built in 1939, was originally a three-bedroom, two-bath, and there was not a lot of storage. I had dreamed for years of having a real closet and a bathroom that didn’t have the toilet sitting right inside the door. We combined our room with the adjacent room, creating a very comfortable primary bedroom, a modest walk-in closet, and a bathroom with a proper water closet. We love how it all turned out—warm, spacious, and charming.
To see this all come to life has been a dream come true. We now enjoy the space so much with our growing family. It is not oversized and not crowded—it is just right for us.
– Ricki Stevens
Discover the talent behind the story… Interior Design: Ricki Stevens · Photography: Stephanie Russo · Builder: AZ Custom Construction
