The Rambler
Architect Jon Gentry designed The Rambler, a single-storey home shaped by music and local makers, as a deeply personal homecoming for his family.
Set in Indianola, a small beach town tucked near Seattle, The Rambler was a deliberate step away from the city apartments the couple had called home and toward something quieter and more grounded. “My wife grew up here, just a few blocks down from the site,” shares Gentry, co-founder of architecture practice GO’C. “This was Lydia’s grandparents’ property since the early ’80s. She has a lot of memories here.”
The name ‘The Rambler’ is a point of deep connection, nodding to the home’s single-storey typology. Set among a copse of trees and a lush, layered landscape, the home and neighbourhood offered something rare: genuine community and privacy, existing comfortably side by side.
Building one’s own home carries a particular emotional charge, and Gentry arrived at a practical solution to manage it: a formal architect-client dynamic, with himself as designer and Lydia as decision-maker. “I would come up with two or three options and then put it to Lydia to make the final call,” he explains.
Music runs through the heart of the house, much as it does through the couple’s daily life. Lydia plays four or five instruments, and rather than tucking them away in a dedicated studio, the decision was made to let them live in the open, shaping the placement of the hearth, chimney and piano in the process. Arranged on either side of the cavernous fireplace, the instruments turn the living room into a space equally suited to performance and gathering. The fireplace itself is a Rumford-style, site-built piece; tactile and commanding, it holds its own presence in the room. It’s a fitting centrepiece for a home that bears the fingerprints of over 30 local makers from the surrounding community.
The Rambler is elegant in its clarity. An oversized casement window anchors the front facade, visually drawing the landscape inside. From there, the home divides into two distinct halves. “The more active living spaces are to the west, and the more private, quiet spaces are to the east,” Gentry explains. The bedrooms, office and bathrooms claim the eastern edge, where morning light filters in gently. The main living, dining and kitchen areas were designed from the inside out, shaped by the family’s rhythms rather than imposed form.
Outside, the home leans into its natural surroundings. An outdoor shower and a whiskey shed sit tucked in plain sight, screened by thoughtfully placed brickwork. The whiskey shed slides out from beneath the roofline – an intimate retreat that balances utility with personal pleasure.
For the Gentry family, The Rambler is not an architectural exercise; it is, quite simply, home. “There are so many stories in every detail of this house,” says Gentry. The vegetable garden they’d always wanted, the instruments in the living room, and the concrete they poured themselves are all examples of genuine care and authenticity. “Having a young family in a place like this is a really amazing experience,” Gentry reflects. “It’s not a property we would ever have any intentions of selling.”
