A House That Rocks
Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske play at home
Decorative tiles frame the colorful dining room at Casa del Greco, a 1920s Spanish Colonial Revival style home designed by George Washington Smith.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Photographs by Yoshihiro Makino
Imagine owning a 100-year-old house designed by a famous architect. How do you make it your own? Often the best solution is finding an interior designer skilled at combining iconic architecture with a client’s personal taste and lifestyle. Just ask Justine Roddick and Tina Schlieske, who enlisted interior design maven Tamara Kaye-Honey to apply glam-rock magic to an iconic George Washington Smith house—with spectacular results.
Built in 1920, Casa del Greco is the second house Smith designed and built for himself in Montecito, and is a classic example of Spanish Colonial Revival style. Following Smith’s death in 1930, Casa del Greco passed through several owners’ hands before Roddick and Schlieske discovered it in 2004. For at least a decade after moving in, the couple were torn between reverence for Smith’s creation and the desire to feel at home. “We just weren’t really ready to do anything for a long time,” Roddick says.
But like many homeowners who suddenly found themselves in lockdown, the owners found that the pandemic provided the impetus they needed to personalize their environment. They contacted Kaye-Honey, founder of House of Honey, whose work Schlieske had admired online. At their initial meeting, Roddick recalls outlining their needs and describing their aesthetic: “We don’t want to take anything away from what was originally here; we just want to make it feel like our home. Tina’s vibe is very ’60s, and I’m all disco ’70s. What can you do with that?”
Quite a bit, as it turned out. Roddick’s fondness for the swinging ’70s—an era she experienced in her native England—appears in Kaye-Honey’s treatment of the dining room, with its glamorous dark green walls and elegant starburst chandelier suspended over an elliptical dining table surrounded by streamlined vintage metal-and-leather chairs. As Roddick says, “London is still very much part of my DNA.”
Speaking of DNA, Roddick gleaned her business experience early on, working for her parents, who founded The Body Shop, the natural beauty-product company that helped shape ethical consumerism worldwide. Working for The Body Shop brought Roddick to California. She eventually settled in Santa Barbara, creating an international chain of retail shops—Coco de Mer—with her sister, Sam. (They sold the company in 2011.) Currently Roddick is copresident of AHA!, a local nonprofit that helps teenagers, educators, and parents tackle apathy, prevent despair, and interrupt hate-based behavior. She’s also a trustee of The Roddick Foundation, a charity that supports projects involving human rights and social and environmental justice.
The home represents a peaceful coexistence of
Spanish Colonial Revival and urban style.
The Roddick-Schlieske household is a musical one. “Music is at the heart of the family’s passions,” Kaye-Honey says, “and a through line of the design and approach of the home.” It could hardly be otherwise, when you consider that Schlieske is an actual rock star. With her bands, Tina and the B-Sides and the Graceland Exiles, her musical repertoire includes Americana, blues, punk, and her latest passion, jazz. Locally, Schlieske has performed at the Lobero and the Granada Theatres; her annual shows at Cold Springs Tavern on Memorial Day and Labor Day have thrilled audiences for a dozen years. She often performs in her hometown of Minneapolis, where she has a dedicated and passionate following. (Prince, another Minneapolis native, was a fan; Schlieske appeared as an extra in the film Purple Rain.) “I’m so thankful that people still want to hear me sing at this age,” she says. “I’ll go anywhere I get invited to play.”
Kaye-Honey followed her clients’ musical mandate by transforming their formerly staid living room into a serene listening salon. Anchored by an inviting circle of six swoon-worthy tub chairs upholstered in emerald green velvet, the space features Schlieske’s impressive vintage sound equipment displayed on a custom-built shelving system by Jason Koharik. A colorful portrait of Elvis Presley by James Holdsworth presides over the surroundings. But distinctive Smith trademarks remain intact: the original wood-beam ceilings painted by Lutah Maria Riggs, the rough plaster walls, and the magnificent tile-clad circular staircase leading to the second floor. The home represents a peaceful coexistence of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture and sophisticated urban style.
Built in 1920, Casa del Greco is the second home that architect George Washington Smith designed and built for himself in Montecito.
The pièce de résistance—and likely the most beloved room in the house—is a former playroom that Kaye-Honey remade into a bar–performance space with midnight blue walls. “The best thing we did, without question, was the back bar,” says Roddick. “It used to be our kids’ playroom, and when [Mayla and Atticus] moved out, we’re like, Now we want a big kids’ playroom.” The bar itself, with four graceful stools, is indeed a star. The scalloped marble top and sleek brass base were also created by Koharik, as were the dramatic glass pendants illuminating the room. There’s even a performance stage fashioned out of vintage rugs. As Kaye-Honey says, “We playfully pushed the period home to its rock ‘n’ roll limits.”
