They say you always remember your first. For Anja Michals, this home marked two milestones: her debut out-of-state and her inaugural property steeped in water.

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“The setting immediately intrigued me,” says the Marin County-based Expert. The location on Eastlake in Seattle was undeniably unique, but the 1980s houseboat itself felt stuck in time. “It was very generic with zero character,” explains Anja.

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The brief from the client—a businesswoman who lives alone and regularly welcomes back her college-age kids—was for it to feel more ‘her’. That meant injecting personal touches, dialing up the coziness, and imbuing a sense of fun.

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Positioned right on the water (though not actually floating on it—the house is stable) Anja didn’t have to look far for a color palette. On her first visit, as kayakers and paddleboarders bobbed through the bay, she was struck by the pastel tones reflected in the water and sky. She translated these shades inside via dusky pink kitchen cabinets (in Dead Salmon by Farrow & Ball) and a muted blue bar in the living area. In the laundry room, millwork in a moody chocolate brown offers a rich counterpoint to the airy main living spaces.

The most transformative move came to Anja mid-construction. (Regular video calls and progress photos from the contractors made the 800-odd miles between her and the houseboat feel irrelevant.) Wrapping the living room’s walls and ceilings with slim planks of white oak gave the space the warmth and texture it had been missing. The idea took some convincing—and not just because of the cost. “I had to sell the client on it at first—she worried it might feel too 1970s. But once it was finished, she was like, ‘Wow.’”

The oak paneling nods to the interiors of older houseboats, as do the Knotty Bubbles pendants—complete with marine-grade rope—suspended above the kitchen island. “I had wanted to use them for so long, and this was perfect,” Anja says with a laugh. She also sourced a round mirror that echoes the porthole window in the downstairs powder room, but was careful not to go overboard with the nautical references. “We still wanted it to feel sophisticated and not too kitschy.”

Anja is steadfast in her use of natural materials and only entertains variations of marble in wet areas. She painstakingly sourced Calacatta Monet for the kitchen counters and Calacatta Viola for the primary bathroom from a dealer in Texas. One notable cost-cutter, however, was choosing limewash from Portola Paints in place of plaster walls. Applied along the stairway and across the three bedrooms, it brings depth, movement, and life to the walls.

The stability of the houseboat meant not everything had to be built-in. Buoyed by the client’s trust, Anja dabbled in a little custom furniture design of her own. She conceived a charming freestanding cabinet with bun feet and gemstone-inlaid handles, painted in Farrow & Ball’s lively Whirlybird to complement a newly acquired artwork by Curtis Steiner hung just above it.

Shortly after the client moved in, a neighbor across the water sent her a photo of her newly renovated home glowing at night. Handpicked sconces by Apparatus and Anna Karlin do more than add jewel-like detail—they cast a light as desirable to observe as it is cozy to live in. Anja won’t soon forget the project. “The client gave me the freedom to bring my full creative vision to the table,” she says. “And the result speaks for itself.”