When Bob Boyce and Victor Ren first saw their home in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, “it was not the kind of house we were looking for,” said Mr. Boyce, 48.

“Our aesthetic is pretty modern and clean,” he said, while the French Norman-style house with a turret, built in 1927, was more like “ye olde countryside manor.”

So when they bought it in 2014 for $2.4 million, they knew they would put their own stamp on it.

At the time, they were living in Shanghai and planning a move to the United States. Mr. Boyce, who grew up in Montana, had moved to China in 1994 and founded Blue Horizon Hospitality Group, which owns Western-style restaurants there (he sold the business in 2017). That’s where he met Mr. Ren, who was born in Mongolia and worked in supply-chain logistics management before opening his own restaurant and bar.

Image Bob Boyce, left, and Victor Ren renovated their 1927 house to reflect what Mr. Boyce called their “pretty modern and clean” aesthetic. Credit... Kevin Scott

For many years, the couple spent summers at a vacation house in Montana, overlooking Flathead Lake. “At the time, it was the perfect antidote to a giant metropolis,” Mr. Boyce said. “Montana is the polar opposite of Shanghai.”