Go Slow to Go Fast

“Working with the Henrybuilt design team was a highlight of the rebuild, resulting in a kitchen that integrates seamlessly with the home and amplifies its openness and creative energy. It has become a favorite gathering place for guests.”

After losing her home in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, Lisa Nugent entered the rebuild feeling uncertain—it was the first time she had taken on such a project. However, with a natural eye for design and a meticulous approach to planning, she moved forward with confidence, enlisting Henrybuilt and architect Ryan Levis as partners in the process. She viewed rebuilding as an opportunity to apply everything she had learned from living in the original house, designing forward with the new one to create something she loved even more. It was an exercise in “going slow to go fast,” considering every detail before executing. As the White Rabbit observes in Alice in Wonderland, “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get”—a fate that was avoided here through a measured, thoughtful approach that guided the project toward a lasting result.

Nugent was intent on preserving the original ranch style of the house, including in the kitchen, and she was drawn to Henrybuilt for its ability to integrate seamlessly within that aesthetic, as well as its warmth relative to other systems. To streamline the permitting process, Nugent followed the “like-for-like” rule, ensuring the new house was no more than 10% larger than the original blueprint. She dedicated the entire 10% of additional space to the kitchen, which would become a heart of socialization and activity. Levis was an invaluable collaborator, designing and building to tight specifications while helping Nugent achieve an outcome that was deeply important to her: a home interconnected with its landscape. Together, they asked, “What is it like to experience the landscape from the house, and the house from the landscape?”

The kitchen design was pivotal in ensuring continuity between the interiors and the landscape, as well as among the three primary communal living areas: the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Henrybuilt’s design team focused on establishing connection throughout the redesign, taking a bird’s-eye view of the overall experience of living in the home. Nugent was the prevailing wind—providing vision and context—while Henrybuilt contributed the technical expertise to execute it. Every corner of the kitchen is deliberately considered, from functional elements like the horizontal Bar Block, which provides accessible storage and screens cooking activity, to the placement of the sink, as to keep dirty dishes away from the center of the island. The result of the project, refined patiently over time, is a home both deeply livable and attuned to its site and history—anchored by a singular, enduring gift: the power to foster connection in all its forms.