Mind of an Architect
A new book reveals William Hefner’s talent for tailoring homes to fit his clients
A new book reveals WILLIAM HEFNER’s talent for tailoring homes to fit his clients
Architect William Hefner in the Montecito office of Studio William Hefner. He has an enviable roster of pending and completed residential projects throughout California, the U.S., and internationally.
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Portraits by Dewey Nicks
“I just never thought of being anything else,” says William Hefner about his decision to become an architect at the tender age of four. Enraptured by trace-paper sketches created by an architect hired by his parents to enlarge the family home, young Hefner was out the door every morning, watching the renovation’s progress. He even joined the construction workers for lunch.
His attraction to architecture continued unabated through high school and college, and he was inspired by visits to a friend whose parents owned a home in Sea Ranch, a planned community in Sonoma County with distinctive wood-sided homes. It was no coincidence he ended up attending UCLA’s graduate architecture program; its dean at the time was Charles W. Moore, a founding architect of Sea Ranch.
A dramatic home in Los Angeles features pitched rooflines with clerestory windows. The art studio, which is clad in metal, acts as a sculptural feature at the entry.
After graduation, Hefner signed on with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an architectural powerhouse known for its highest-in-the-world skyscraper designs. At 28, Hefner was responsible for planning 50-story buildings.
“I just love houses,” Hefner says. “I just like the whole level of personal interaction and customization.”
“It was really fun,” he says. It was also a lot of work—especially because he had side gigs designing house additions for friends: “At one point, I had two or three people coming to my apartment when I would leave for work; they would work there because I didn’t have an office. I’d get home at night from work and I’d mark up drawings and go to sleep.” Eventually he realized he preferred doing residential work and left Skidmore.
“I just love houses,” Hefner says. “I just like the whole level of personal interaction and the customization. I like trying to figure out the lifestyle, how they live, what their priorities are. And I like the personal challenges of trying to figure it out.”
Some three decades later, Studio William Hefner has more than 40 employees and two locations—in Los Angeles and Montecito—and an enviable roster of pending and completed residential projects throughout California, the United States, and internationally. It’s clear that Hefner has an innate ability to tailor architectural styles to suit his clients’ needs and is equally fluent in classical, modern, and contemporary design.
The architect’s third book (Images Publishing, $75) includes a selection of residential projects spanning the design spectrum from traditional to contemporary.
His third book, Studio William Hefner: California Homes II, featuring a selection of residential projects that span the design spectrum from traditional to contemporary, has just been published. The following three homes are among those showcased in the book.
A Grown-Up House: One of the most dramatic homes in the book was designed for a couple in Los Angeles who were ready to move on from their 1920s Spanish colonial home to a modern open-plan residence with plenty of light and low maintenance. “They said, ‘We’re done with that phase; the kids are gone,’” Hefner remembers. The wife, an artist, needed a studio, which Hefner designed as a metal-sided sculpture attached to the house and surrounded by a Zen garden. Local zoning requirements mandated a pitched roofline, which might have daunted other architects designing in a modern idiom. But according to Hefner, “it created opportunities for clerestory windows” that flood the house with light. At the entryway, an impressive staircase—with glass guardrails anchored by a three-dimensional oak wall with embedded lighting—is a sculpture in itself.
A French Retreat in Montecito: A home Hefner designed for himself in Montecito prompted a couple with a neighboring property to commission a similar design. “They liked the materials,” says Hefner. “We decided to make it a little more traditional than my house and less rustic.” The concept was a compound with an assembly of buildings. A glass breezeway separates the primary bedroom suite from the main house, enabling glimpses of the garden when traversing from the public to the private realm. As a nod to the couple’s home in France, several structures are clad in stone, including a separate painting studio inspired by Cézanne’s atelier in Aix-en-Provence. The landscape was designed around a very old California oak tree that shelters an outdoor dining area.
“I just never thought of being anything else,” Hefner says about his decision to become an architect at the age of four.
A House for Art: An art collector who wanted one of the midcentury Case Study houses in Los Angeles came to Hefner after realizing his art collection would never fit inside a diminutive vintage home. Hefner designed an entirely new residence on a larger scale “as a love letter to Case Study houses.” Situated in the hillside above Beverly Hills, the home’s stunning entry, with its white terrazzo floors and white walls, serves as the perfect art gallery. The main body of the house opens up to the panoramic view, and the minimalist walnut cabinetry and vintage furniture perfectly evoke the Case Study ethos.
A contemporary home in Los Angeles is the perfect container for an extensive art collection. The vintage Italian rosewood table and chairs provide a midcentury modern vibe.
Since the pandemic, Hefner has seen a change in residential commissions. Originally his work in Santa Barbara focused on designing homes for retirees from the East Coast or Midwest who wanted homes for entertaining with space for visiting family. Now he’s designing homes for families.
“It’s been an interesting dynamic,” he says. “They’re full-time residence houses, rather than third or fourth homes.” This trend mirrors the type of homes he’s designed for years in Los Angeles, but because Santa Barbara has less density, Hefner has been able to expand his landscape practice here.
“Landscape is such a big part of what we do,” he notes. “It’s been so amazing to have all this extra land and design some real gardens.”
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In Bloom
At a fundraising event, everything was coming up roses—and hydrangeas, dahlias, and more
At a fundraising event, everything was COMING UP ROSES—and hydrangeas, dahlias, and more
Written by Joan Tapper
Photographs by Sara Prince
With a jaw-dropping abundance of flowers and design imagination, the Rose Story Farm showcase event last November—a fundraiser for Casa del Herrero—was a huge, sold-out success. But it all started out far more modestly, says Danielle Dall’Armi Hahn, who owns the farm with her family. The author of The Color of Roses (Ten Speed Press, $35), Hahn has found myriad ways to promote the beauty and variety of the signature blooms, but this event offered something new.
“The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down.”
“The original idea was to do it for fun for [floral design] clients and provide photography for them. It was just going to be for local florists, but as others heard about it, they wanted to join in. And once we got started, it was too big not to invite the public.” As a longtime admirer of the Casa and its board, she decided to turn the showcase into a benefit. “They are supportive of my business,” she adds. “We have a historic home as well, so I felt it would be a good match.”
The venue would be the 19th-century residence on the Rose Story Farm property. “The house was built in 1890 by a Boston sea captain, and it’s reminiscent of a ship,” Hahn says. “There’s a central staircase, which provides interior light and windows all around. We lived in it for 20 years, and no one has remodeled it.” When her kids left for college, the family moved to a smaller home, but they still return for the holidays. The Victorian architecture provided an apt backdrop for the wide-ranging over-the-top floral installations.
“You hear about design houses,” says Hahn, “but that can be an expensive way to do PR. We didn’t want this to cost anybody anything but time.” After her sister, Nina Dall’Armi, and staffer Alex Ivory came up with the idea, they put virtually no restrictions on the designers, who were free to use anything on the property—roses, of course, dahlias, hydrangeas, hellebores, lots of greens, persimmons and lemons, vegetables, and fruit. They could take as many roses as they wanted and use any props they found on the farm. Otto and Sons Nursery and Florabundance also contributed blooms. “No one had to buy anything,” Hahn notes. “They could do as little or as much as they wanted. They just had to come up with a design.”
Eventually 17 teams—from Santa Barbara, Ojai, and Los Angeles—participated, and although some planned to do modest arrangements, “when people saw what the others were doing, they got inspired.”
The Santa Barbara Garden Club and Casa del Herrero both took part, and Rose Story Farm’s designer, Claudio Cervantes, worked on the outdoor table arrangements and the large urns. Inside, at the top of the stairs, was a photo booth where guests could pose among prolific blooms. The visitors were entertained by opera singers Dorothy Gall and Geoff Hahn in the music room. The results tickled the senses with visual beauty, fragrances wafting through the house, and the sounds of music.
Toast Santa Barbara drew on a dream narrative for the fanciful branch-hung bower on a sleeping porch.
The designers installed flowers everywhere, from the entrance into living and dining rooms, into bathrooms and bedrooms, upstairs and down. Two designers shared the kitchen, with Your Creative Light Designs even filling the dishwasher and oven with flowers, as well as setting them on tables, while Pacwest Blooms placed their arrangements in the dining half of the room.
SR Hogue took over the bay window sitting room and created a tea setting there. Teresa Strong installed a tribute to Wendy Foster using dress forms and clothing in the dressing room.
Jenn Sanchez of Jenn Sanchez Designs incorporated rare plantings and red roses in her creation in the library. She says, “Rather than a formal arrangement, I opted for a large central tower to live at the center of the room, experiential in that visitors can walk around and interact with it.”
Kim Curtis of Toast envisioned a boy spending the night at his grandmother’s house and imagined a scenario for one of the bedrooms and an adjoining sleeping porch: “When she tucks him into bed for the night, she places armfuls of roses from her garden on his nightstand and around the room.”
For the master bath, Ashley Morgan of Ojala Floral had a vision. “I was inspired by the painting of what I imagined to be the Italian countryside hanging above the clawfoot tub,” she says. “I selected large and round antique hydrangeas from the garden as the focal flower accented with waist-high, blushy Princess Charlene de Monaco roses from the farm.”
One of the designers summed up her enthusiasm: “We never get to design what we want. We’re always led by clients. I was incredibly thrilled to design with no budget, no design constraints, no color demands.”
Says Hahn, “It was so surprising to see what people could do. People were blown away. You see how creative everyone is.”
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The Villa Among the Vines
La Tarantella adds old-world glamour to the wine country
LA TARANTELLA adds old-world glamour to the wine country
The approach to La Tarantella and a French limestone birdbath that provides just a preview of the treasures that inhabit The Villa.
Written by Anna Ferguson-Sparks
Photographs by Nicole Franzen
Once upon a time, a globe-trotting entertainment attorney fell in love with the Santa Ynez Valley. He and his wife decided to construct a dream home, La Tarantella, in what is now the Happy Canyon AVA of Santa Barbara County.
Grassini Family Vineyards’ Happy Canyon vines hug La Tarantella, which boasts bucolic vistas.
The couple, who had a passion for travel, filled their 6,000-square-foot manse with historic treasures collected on their worldly adventures, including an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château, meticulously reconstructed on-site. The showpiece hearth was followed by a second imported limestone fireplace. To frame the entrance to the living room, the couple added walnut columns from a 19th-century French crypt, complete with their original, intricately carved stone bases. That same room received cedar beams for the ceiling, hand-assembled 21 feet above the ground by a local building crew. Douglas fir and cedar beams also graced the ceiling of the lounge, which is paved with the Mexican Saltillo floor tiles that are underfoot throughout La Tarantella.
The home’s construction was completed and celebrated in the early 1990s, with the help of famous family friends like Frank Ostini of Hitching Post 2, who purportedly rotisseried meats in the kitchen’s cavernous fireplace.
“The Villa blends beautifully with the Family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.”
Over the next two decades, the adjacent property was acquired by the Grassini family, who opened a winery at Grassini Family Vineyards in 2010. The Grassinis befriended their neighbors, whose Mediterranean-style villa sat in the midst of the new vineyards. In time, the owners of La Tarantella and their residence began to show signs of graceful aging. The Grassini family stepped in to preserve the property and carry it forward.
In early 2022 the Grassini family acquired La Tarantella and immediately set to work breathing new life into all the glorious elements that make the property unique. They opted to keep the estate private, renting it only for select events. The deadline for the first of those was already looming when the Grassinis enlisted Santa Barbara–based designer Corinne Mathern, who worked with a variety of local artisans and tradespeople to restore the interior and exterior spaces of the stately residence, which they called The Villa.
The grand entrance to The Villa’s inner Fountain Courtyard.
With only five months until a high-profile wedding took place, the design team rearranged some of the venerable furnishings and introduced several elegant new pieces. The living room’s grand piano, which had a wooden frame that had been gorgeously burnished by decades of sunlight, was joined by a new coffee table, situated in front of the centuries-old fireplace that’s now topped with hand-painted tiles reclaimed from the elder Grassini’s Montecito home. Olive trees, uprooted from other spots on the property, were replanted along the pool lawn.
With the opening of La Tarantella in the fall of 2022, Grassini Family Vineyards, now encompassing 104 acres, was ready to serve as an ornate-yet-blank canvas for private events.
The Villa’s living room, with an early 18th-century limestone fireplace from a French château nestled below hand-assembled cedar trusses above the original Mexican Saltillo-tiled floor.
“The focal point of La Tarantella is the main house, which has stood for over three decades.”
The focal point of La Tarantella is still the main house, which has stood for more than three decades on the property, encircled by Grassini vineyards. With its original mix of Italian, French, and Spanish architectural elements, The Villa blends beautifully with the Grassini family’s own European heritage and love of entertaining.
La Tarantella’s six different outdoor event spaces accommodate as many as 250 guests. The Meadow, centered on a 300-year-old oak tree, sits near the Vineyard Oak Courtyard, a well-manicured grassy area shaded by two ancient oaks. The Poolside Lawn boasts views of Sauvignon Blanc vines, which extend 15 acres into the distance—and, as the name suggests, lead onto a vibrant green lawn and an inviting plunge pool. Another Saltillo-tile-lined patio leads into the house through three sets of French doors.
Olive and cypress trees line the entrance to The Villa, leading to The Piazza, an outer courtyard lush with foliage. Mission wood doors open to an inner Fountain Courtyard, similarly paved with sunset-hued Saltillo tiles, a trickling fountain at its center. The Olive Grove setting is distinguished by its namesake olive trees and dotted with oaks.
A restored tapestry of unknown origins befits the scene in one of The Villa’s previous bedroom suites, now used as a VIP wine-tasting area.
An additional rental fee grants use of The Villa’s interior, which features a chef’s exhibition kitchen. Two refurbished bedrooms and bathrooms are also available for bridal preparations, and a third bedroom suite has been transformed into a VIP wine-tasting area with a fully restored wall tapestry that depicts the gracious hospitality at La Tarantella.
Above the lounge, a spiral staircase leads to a custom-fitted library that rewards visitors with 180-degree views of the vineyards and the valley that attracted the home’s original owners.
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The Great Estate
Fashion-industry mogul Jeff Abrams invigorates El Mirador
Fashion-Industry Mogul JEFF ABRAMS Invigorates El Mirador
Written by Lorie Dewhirst Porter
Photographs by Dewey Nicks
Jeff Abrams is a very busy man. In addition to helming his global fashion brand, Rails, with 200 employees and 15 retail stores across the United States and Europe, heʼs a passionate preserver of El Mirador, the historic Montecito estate formerly owned by Chicagoʼs meatpacking Armour family.
“Once the house was revealed to me, I had this emotional, visceral response. It reminded me of being in Europe.”
In the early 20th century, El Mirador was a sprawling 70-acre estate, replete with Italian and Japanese gardens, an outdoor theater, and a private zoo. Over time, as with many grand estates, the land was subdivided and sold to separate owners. In 2018, Abrams fell in love with a 1990s Mediterranean-style mansion built on one of the property’s parcels. Created by local designer Michael DeRose, it was commissioned by legendary art dealer Stephen Hahn, beloved benefactor of the Music Academyʼs Hahn Hall. “Once the house was revealed to me, I had this emotional, visceral reaction to it,” Abrams told one interviewer. “It reminded me of being in Europe.” The property also includes a magnificent old adobe structure flanked by a pool and a tennis court.
With the advice of local interiors doyenne Elizabeth Vallino, Abrams has been gradually furnishing the 12,000-square-foot residence. “I just want it to be a comfortable place to live,” he says. “Even though the spaces are grand, I want them to feel cozy and at home.” Abrams has acquired several adjacent properties that also formed part of the Armour estate, including the original gatehouse, the farmhouse with horse stables, the Japanese garden, and the stone grotto. He now owns 30 acres, nearly half of the original El Mirador estate. “I actually bought a couple of golf carts,” Abrams admits, “because if you’re really spending time walking around here, it could take a fair amount of time.”
“Every time I come here, I feel thankful and want to show respect for the fact that I have access to this.”
In addition to golf carts, Abrams acquired a tractor and other industrial equipment to grapple with maintaining the extensive grounds. Fortunately, the property has its own well to provide water for the extraordinary plantings that continues to thrive under Abrams’ watchful eye, aided by DeRose, who also does landscape design.
Abrams has also grown accustomed to sharing the property with local wildlife. “There are definitely predators and prey,” he says. “Coyotes and foxes and bobcats and bears and mountain lions; and then you have all these animals that are trying to survive. This is a glamorous setting, but you also have to respect that you’re in nature.”
All this may seem grandiose, but Abrams has earned it fair and square, having launched his business in 2008 with a $5,000 investment and no fashion background; today Rails generates more than $750 million in retail sales.
“Iʼm approaching this property with a sense of humbleness,” he says. “Every time I come here, I feel thankful and want to show respect for the fact that I have access to this. That’s also what drives me to maintain it and be a caretaker; I know how long it’s taken to get here, and how much hard work it takes.”
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Lights,Camera ... Home!
Jordana Brewster renovated a 100-year-old house as a weekend getaway for her newly blended family, then realized she never wanted to leave
JORDANA BREWSTER renovated a 100-year-old house as a weekend getaway for her newly blended family, then realized she never wanted to leave
Alberta Ferretti dress, earrings and rings from Roseark. Opie Tete A Tete chaise, vintage Swedish floor lamp. Hair by Clariss Rubenstein at A-Frame Agency. Makeup by Lilly Keys at A-Frame Agency.
Written by Elizabeth Varnell
Photographs by Sami Drasin
Styling by Katie Bofshever
Says Jordana Brewster of her first forays to Montecito, “I started coming here to escape. There was no one around, and I’d read and write, and there was a level of peace. It felt very rooted.” Those initial visits led Brewster and her husband, Mason Morfit, to a century-old Winsor Soule–designed house that they renovated in time to stage their rehearsal dinner underneath the venerable oak tree out front. Now the couple, who recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary, have taken up permanent residency in the labyrinthine space. “We had been here all summer,” says Brewster. “And I thought, ‘Why should we leave?’”
The Yale-educated actress began her career at 15 and made her feature film debut three years later in a Robert Rodriguez sci-fi mystery before being cast in The Fast and the Furious, the street-racing film that begot a lengthy action franchise. Her work brought her to the West Coast, but a feeling of connectedness and contentment remained elusive during the two decades she lived in Los Angeles.
“In a way, moving has allowed me to get far more focused on what I want to do.”
Brewster, who was born in Panama, moved around as a kid, relocating to London and Rio de Janeiro before landing in New York for her formative years. She says she felt at home in all those places, yet Los Angeles always felt transient. “That’s the piece I found in Montecito—that sense of home and groundedness. Nothing really gets me off balance here,” says Brewster, sitting in her sun-filled dining room, where antique-mirrored walls reflect elegant glass doors leading to a back porch. In the yard beyond, Zelda, her Spanish poodle, and Endicott, her Portuguese water dog, are sprawled in the sun.
The house was designed in 1917 by Soule, an East Coast–raised architect who studied at Harvard and MIT. It sits on almost an acre of land planted with the arching oak plus palms and citrus. “We were lucky enough to inherit original drawings,” says architect Marc Appleton, whose firm helped the couple update the property, taking cues from Soule’s initial designs. “What’s unique about this house is that it’s built in more of a French Riviera, Mediterranean style than the typical Spanish Colonial Revival approach,” he adds, noting Soule relocated to Santa Barbara in 1911, making this an early project in his decades-long career. “Jordana and Mason were enamored of and attracted to the history of the old house. We worked to refresh it and bring it up to date but at the same time respect it architecturally.”
“There was a lovely awareness of making smart changes, rather than throwing out the DNA of the house,” agrees Chloe Warner, founder of Oakland-based Redmond Aldrich Design. Although Brewster and Morfit, who is the head of a San Francisco activist investment fund, aimed to preserve the character of the rooms, they relied on a vibrant palette devised with Warner to update the interiors. For example, bold blue Portuguese tiles line the kitchen. “I love the color and how happy it is,” says Brewster, whose mother is from Portugal.
“We all worked to refresh it and bring it up to date but respect it architecturally”
The dining room is painted in a dusty blue hue, and the game room’s terra-cotta walls complement the family’s Ping-Pong table and a Fast and Furious arcade game in one corner. “What they saw is what we truly believe, that color can be uplifting, calming,” says Warner. By necessity the space is a stomping ground of sorts, where Brewster’s two young boys and Morfit’s four children can gather. “They’re blending their families, starting this new chapter together. They wanted this serene home base for their families to merge,” she adds.
Tucked away from the large common rooms, the upstairs primary bedroom includes a century-old essential: an airy sleeping porch. A double-sided chaise lounge, bathed in sunlight coming through the surrounding windows, is a favorite spot. “They’re readers, and they wanted a place where they could sit together and read,” says Warner.
Lanvin dress, Mach & Mach sandals, Carolina Herrera earrings. Formations’ Market dining table, Nicky Kehoe dining chairs, and a BDDW Captain’s mid credenza.
Brewster also records auditions in a guest room, allowing her to remain in town rather than travel. Cellar Door—a thriller with Brewster, Scott Speedman, and Laurence Fishburne—will be out later this year, and the actress is producing a film this summer. “I’m also working on writing something with my husband,” she says. “In a way, moving has allowed me to get far more focused on what I want to do.”
In all, the house offers a very personal snapshot of the couple. “Jordana brought us a wallpaper she found while shooting in Rome,” says Warner. The Tree of Life design by Arjumand’s World, the creation of Milan-based textile designer Idarica Gazzoni, adorns a lady’s lounge adjoining a powder room. A Harlan Miller painting above one of the house’s cascading staircases came from London, acquired during a Fast production. The work depicts a fictional play with the title Wherever You Are Whatever You’re Doing This One’s For You. “I love the quote there, it makes me think of Paul,” Brewster says, referring to her late Fast co-star Paul Walker. She also has an eye on works by New York painter Karyn Lyons, who portrays the heightened emotions and dreamy haze of adolescence. The canvases remind the actress of her girlhood in Manhattan. “We want things around us that mean something,” she says.
Carolina Herrera dress from Wunderkind Montecito.
Morfit found original Dr. Seuss drawings from books he’s read to his children, and those now line the living room mantel. Above the stairs is a photograph of Joatinga beach in Rio de Janeiro. “I can almost see the place where I lived,” says Brewster. Her Montecito house’s yellow front door is also an homage to Brazil. “That culture of going to the beach after school, you didn’t need the demarcation of being inside or being out in nature—you were constantly out. That’s what we have here.”
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Ranch Hands
Ojai jeweler JES MAHARRY finds inspiration for her ethically made baubles in the flora and fauna of her valley compound
MaHarry gathers with her husband and three children (Koda, Liv, and Zel) for an alfresco meal around handcrafted furniture, made by Henderson and collected from fallen trees at the ranch.
Ojai jeweler JES MAHARRY finds inspiration for her ethically made baubles in the flora and fauna of her valley compound
Written by Elizabeth Varnell | Photographs by Sam Frost
Jewelry designer Jes MaHarry sculpts her handcrafted collections on Sun Horse Ranch, a sprawling Ojai Valley property she initially sought out to house horses and foster dogs. The New York native, whose eponymous line has been worn by the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Lena Dunham, and Hillary Clinton, has lived with her husband, Patrick Henderson, at the foot of the Los Padres mountains for the past two decades. Now donkeys, goats, sheep, rabbits, tortoises, cats, dogs, and the occasional cow—almost all rescues—also make their homes here and have the run of the place. “Our house has been a work in progress,” says MaHarry, whose fine jewelry designs have topped the Sundance Catalog’s jewelry offerings for nearly as long as she’s been at work on the property.
Sun Horse Ranch includes a barn, the family house, and MaHarry’s design studio, where she and her team solder and shape recycled gold and silver and ethically sourced gems and diamonds into meaningful baubles, which are showcased in her downtown Ojai boutique. Doors and windows are almost always open, allowing the animals to roam free throughout.
“We’ve had diamond setters stop working to help with the sheep,” says MaHarry, adding that everyone on the ranch has to be versatile enough to accommodate the four-legged creatures. “I’ve always rescued animals,” she says. “They always seem to find me; I don’t search them out.” Indeed, a pair of rescued feral dogs named Bodhi and Chitta (after the Sanskrit word for awakened minds) led to MaHarry’s and her husband’s acquisition of the Ojai property. After completing her degree at Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio (where she met Henderson) and working a series of odd jobs as she honed her artistic practice, her sister got her a ticket to California and encouraged her to visit Ojai. As the youngest in a family of artists, MaHarry fell in love with the scenic town and ultimately found a rental that would accept her rescue dogs, which sealed the deal. The dogs quickly outgrew the house’s small backyard, however, and she needed more space for the animals to roam.
MaHarry’s friend Jean Marie-Webster of Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center (SPARC), who also cofounded Wild Horses in Need (WIN), discovered the almost 6-acre plot in town; it had been vacant for years and was littered with potholes, weeds, trash, and a shanty with its windows blown out. With a serendipitous bequest from a great-uncle and a loan from a friend who also supported rescues, the couple secured a down payment and set to work “like crazy fanatics,” filling jewelry orders so they could revitalize the grounds and begin building an artist’s compound. “My vision was to have a house to fix up and off to the right a design studio, while to the left there would be a barn,” recalls MaHarry.
In addition to expanding the house to hold their three children, the couple added large decks leading to fire pits to enlarge its footprint. “We live mostly outside,” says MaHarry, noting that the house and studio have deep green exteriors designed to blend with the vegetation around the property, which includes oak, eucalyptus, and pepper trees, and a little orchard of apples for the horses. Purple trim adds a playful bohemian touch to the structures and blends with the brightly colored wildflowers dotting the property each spring. MaHarry credits landscaper Emigdio Villanueva with helping design and cultivate the lush greenery and flora around the house.
The kitchen features an artisan steel wall hanging above the door, a wooden dining table, and steel stools, all crafted by MaHarry and Henderson. The crow print above the shelf is composed by Jennifer. Steel candlesticks and ceramics are made by MaHarry, while the tile backsplash is a family effort. The textile bench is from Sundance Catalog.
“I have to have things that are built really well,” says MaHarry, noting the intense wear and tear caused by the animals. Henderson, who built much of the home’s furniture by hand, planed down reclaimed wood from fencing broken by Jane, the couple’s cow, to make cupboards. “We do everything ourselves, whether it’s plaster or whatever,” she says. A barn for surfboards is the property’s newest addition.
Learning the techniques required to create everything she dreams up also fuels MaHarry’s jewelry practice. Everything is made by hand, just as it was from the beginning, when she bought files at garage sales and found metal scraps on roadsides. She still works antique beads and ethically sourced gems into necklaces, carves waxes, and hammers metals daily, remembering the moment that sparked her interest in a jewelry line. “My mom gave me a soldering class to learn how to solder silver. It was as if fireworks went off in my mind. I thought, ‘I can draw into silver, into metal, and make jewelry as a talisman.’ That was very profound,” says MaHarry. Her grandmother’s rose gold jewelry inspired the first ring she sent to Sundance (in a FedEx box hand painted with galloping wild horses), launching her multidecade relationship with the catalog, which focuses on items created by American craftspeople.
MaHarry’s pieces continue to reflect the natural world around her, as well as her life on the ranch. Inspiration comes from travels and “my children and rescue animals that have brought big energy with healing, training, and helping,” she says, adding, “I thrive off of empathy.” Her ranch is filled with family art, handmade furniture, tiles, and ceramics. And the animals are always everywhere. “We’re incredibly selective of what we bring in here; we have to resonate with everything,” says MaHarry. “It’s such a healing property. It’s very free.”
MaHarry and her daughter Zel with their gypsy horse, Zephyr.
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Spirit House
Xorin Balbes embraces the philanthropic legacy of his new home
Built in 1921 and designed by architect Arthur B. Benton, the newly renovated home of Xorin Balbes and Truman Davies was formerly inhabited by Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree.
Xorin Balbes embraces the philanthropic legacy of his new home
Written by L.D. Porter | Photographs by Michael Clifford
Even in the midst of the current real estate frenzy, as properties seemingly change hands daily, certain grand Montecito homes will forever bear the imprint of their former owners. That reality is not lost on Xorin Balbes, whose newly renovated home is the former residence of beloved local philanthropist Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree. In fact, Balbes fondly recalls attending holiday parties where the glamorous nonagenarian—formally dressed, bejeweled, and in high heels—would stand at the home’s entrance for hours, personally greeting each of her guests, chosen from a wide swath of the community. (When asked about her famous soirées, Ridley-Tree says, “One person said to me, you know, it's quite shocking and surprising when I come to your house. I don't know if I'm going to meet the newspaper boy or the Queen.”)
The house itself was built in 1921, and the architect, Arthur B. Benton, was responsible for creating Montecito’s All Saints by the Sea church and also took part in designing the historic Mission Inn in Riverside. The home’s classical Mediterranean lines reflect the era’s enthusiastic adoption of European design details, including the use of arches and symmetry. Ridley-Tree’s husband, Paul, “fell in love with the house” and purchased it in the 1980s. In 2020, after having lived there for 35 years, Ridley-Tree gifted the residence to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, a longtime recipient of her largesse. Balbes, who admired the house for years, happily acquired it from the museum.
Known for renovating and restoring significant properties with his firm, Xorin Homes, Balbes is a seasoned real estate developer and designer. For the past four years, he’s focused his energy and talent on renovating exclusive Montecito properties. Which explains why his modifications to the former Ridley-Tree residence, achieved with his design partner, A.J. Bernard, took a mere 15 months. Balbes calls it his “forever” house, a sign he’s ready to settle down. Another sign is his recent marriage to floral curator Truman Davies, which recently took place in Tulum, Mexico—not to mention the addition of two adorable doodle dogs, Yoshi and Kenzo.
Respecting the original design, Balbes did not alter the footprint of the house and limited major changes to interiors. The dark wood paneling was repainted white throughout, with the exception of the spectacular dining room, whose walls are a rich gray-blue hue. The kitchen was expanded into a sleek minimalist Bulthaup masterpiece. Upstairs, the loggia’s ceiling was raised and vaulted, mirroring the trio of arches on the building’s exterior. The basement was transformed into a spacious yoga studio, with views to the garden.
The glass-enclosed conservatory, with its black and white checkerboard tile floor, has a distinctive circular wood-and-chrome bar with matching leather stools that Balbes discovered in Paris.
Over the years, Balbes has developed his own approach to interior design, which involves layering distinctive objects and furniture from different eras. “I like bringing different things together, but it’s not easy,” he says. “I always thought, what if you walked into a space that’s timeless, where you can’t identify the time period it was done. There’s a comfort to the soul in timelessness.” To achieve that balance, he sourced the majority of the home’s contents, including art, from online auction houses around the world.
The glass-enclosed conservatory with its checkerboard tile floor—one of Balbes’s favorite rooms—has a circular wood-and-chrome bar with matching leather-topped stools he discovered in Paris, a Murano glass chandelier, and a 1960s bronze metal chess set by Pierre Cardin. The expansive living room is anchored by two bateau sofas covered in furry Pierre Frey fabric. Two antique leather and metal Savonarola chairs flank the fireplace, and a midcentury brutalist wall sculpture by Marc Weinstein hovers over the mantlepiece. Two postmodern consoles by Kaizo Oto are topped with Edna Ortof’s bright abstract paintings.
“I like bringing different things together, but it’s not easy,” Balbes says. “There’s a comfort to the soul in timelessness.”
With its walls painted in Farrow & Ball’s striking Inchyra Blue, the dining room is the most dramatic space in the house. A vintage starburst Stilnovo chandelier illuminates the circular table, which is set with a sculpture by Richard Mafong and surrounded by midcentury Milo Baughman chairs upholstered in antique Moroccan rug material. Down the hall, the lounge is papered in a silvery abalone, and a 1952 Seguso glass table (originally commissioned for the Hotel Riviera on Venice’s Lido island) sits below the picture window framing a view of the outdoor fountain.
The main bedroom is the epitome of sumptuousness; a majestic Charles Hollis Jones Lucite four-poster bed faces an expansive fireplace, which is flanked by a midcentury Milo Baughman chaise and Poltrona Frau leather sofa and fronted by a 1960s Philip & Kelvin LaVerne bronze coffee table. A sinuous midcentury chandelier by Oscar Torlasco illuminates the main bathroom, whose floor boasts a herringbone pattern of Ann Sacks marble tiles. The serene Duravit tub contrasts with the eye-popping vaulted shower clad in striated marble slabs.
“Balbes clearly senses the philanthropic heritage his new home represents. “I need to do what I can for the community to continue the legacy of this space.””
Moving outdoors, Balbes reconfigured the garden, taking advantage of the surrounding landscape to construct several outdoor rooms. A new rectangular swimming pool was constructed below the kitchen terrace, and the former pool was converted into a koi pond. A rose garden encircles a gurgling lion’s-head fountain, set not far from a female bronze holding a glass sphere, called The Source. Designed by Frederick Hart, famous for his sculptures at the Washington National Cathedral, it has long been part of the garden. “It is a very special one,” says Ridley-Tree, who left it behind as a gift to Balbes. “It would seem wrong to move her from that house,” she adds.
Balbes reconfigured the garden, taking advantage of the landscape to construct several outdoor rooms, and a rectangular swimming pool was constructed below the kitchen terrace.
It seems everything has come full circle. Shortly after the renovation was complete, Balbes and Davies hosted the Red Feather Ball in their garden to support the United Way, a nonprofit that honored Ridley-Tree with its outstanding philanthropy award years earlier. Balbes clearly senses the philanthropic heritage his new home represents. “I need to do what I can for the community to continue the legacy of this space,” he says. As Ridley-Tree—who deserves the last word—proclaims, “I’m very fond of Xorin because I think he’s a special spirit and very talented. And I hope that he has a long, happy life there.”
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Creature Comforts
Jeffrey Alan Marks adds a California vibe to an English cottage
Jeffrey Alan Marks at home, with grounds by Montecito Landscape. The designer selected lighting from his personal collections (for Palecek and Progress Lighting), along with Palecek's Dockside chairs, William Laman hurricane candles, a Santa Barbara Designs umbrella, and a Vincent Van Duysen Franks table from Sutherland Furniture.
Jeffrey Alan Marks adds a California vibe to an English cottage
Written by Cathy Whitlock | Photographs by Sam Frost
There is no better way to observe a designer’s aesthetic than with a peek into their own interiors, since these invariably showcase their talents and offer insights into their personal style. While William Shakespeare famously said, “The eyes are the window to your soul,” a home’s décor runs a close second.
Interior designer Jeffrey Alan Marks’s latest home represents his California lifestyle with husband, Greg, 2-year-old daughter James, and a lab named Coalie. Leaving his cliffside Santa Monica residence of 15 years, Marks was drawn to Montecito for its proximity to the Santa Barbara airport, the inimitable Southern California sunlight, and the combination of an English cottage with a mountain view.
The La Jolla native had one primary goal in mind for the home, which was originally built as a summer cottage in 1928: making it a “modern house for today’s living.” That began by taking the structure practically down to the studs and adding extra square footage to accommodate the view of majestic pines while keeping the house’s integrity with its windows and shutters. Marks’s roots and life journeys set the style for the three-bedroom cottage and guest house. “I lived in La Jolla and on the East Coast, and my training was in London, where I went to school. I wanted an English cottage with a modern twist,” he says. “I knew exactly what I wanted and did a lot of shopping for the house in England.”
“I really built the house for our daughter, James—where it’s colorful and family oriented.”
The result is pure Marks—tailored yet informal, sophisticated yet cozy with natural materials, contrasting woods, harmonious colors, and a laidback vibe. Often known for his breezy beach-color palettes, Marks added forest green as an accent to the kitchen he designed with the British firm Plain English. A painting of the Provincetown pier that Greg—an art director, producer, and graphic designer formerly with Saks Fifth Avenue—gave him as a wedding gift suggested the colors in the living room. “I tried to get away from a lot of blue as I didn’t want it to feel like a beach house even though we are close by,” the designer says. Red is used as a “punctuation point,” he explains. “Something I have never dealt with were punches of red, which you see in the chandelier and painting.”
Marks sourced items for the house’s furnishings from his own collections, noting, “I used a lot of my own Waterside and Oceanview collections from Kravet, as well as some of my old faves from Palecek and A. Rudin.” Blue plays a predominant role in the master bedroom and an adjacent nook that’s a favorite reading spot for father-daughter time. The blue-and-white toile in the daughter’s playroom is a nostalgic nod to Marks’s days as a college intern at the venerable London firm of Colefax and Fowler. He hoped “to bring a little bit of that era into my design and really built the house for her, where it’s colorful and family oriented with little pops of color. I am lucky that I got a baby I could decorate for!”
The sectional from Howe London (covered with Rose Tarlow fabric) and a unique grouping of art are just a few of the distinctive features in this relaxed family room. Marks mixed in fabrics from his own collection at Kravet.
No cottage would be complete without a proper English garden. While the designer worked with Montecito Landscape, he put his personal stamp on the design. “I wanted it to feel like a house in East Hampton”—where the couple also resides part-time—“with the expanse of a lawn, a fire pit and room to run, and a garden that was not too fussy and English.” The space also provides a place for James to display her talents as a budding gardener. “She likes to garden with me,” he says, “and it’s nice to teach her all about vegetables, planting trees and bulbs, and that has made her a little more grounded.”
Introduced to national audiences as one of the stars on Bravo’s highly addictive Million Dollar Decorators, today Marks is one of nation’s most influential designers with projects that range from London and Nantucket to Los Angeles and Newport Beach. The work has landed him on Elle Decor’s A-List and the pages of The Hollywood Reporter and Architectural Digest, to name a few. He continues to make his mark with lines from The Shade Store and a Point Dume collection with Progress Lighting, and in 2013 the multifaceted designer also added author to his resume with the publication of The Meaning of Home (Rizzoli New York).
The new residence is one of his proudest achievements. “For me it was all about the mix and making it eclectic.” which he accomplished, for example, by pairing a woven rope table with a room of antiques. “During the first seven years with a child, you want to hunker down for a while,” he says. “I wanted the house to feel grounded and substantial—like we have been here for a long time.”
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Perfect Vision
A blissed-out young family finds domestic nirvana in the form of a reimagined 1950s ranch house infused with SOULFUL style
Portrait by Sam Frost
A blissed-out young family finds domestic nirvana in the form of a reimagined 1950s ranch house infused with SOULFUL style
Written by Christine Lennon | Photography by Mellon Studio
The sound of Jessie De Lowe’s voice comes through the speaker of your phone as soothing as an ocean breeze.
In an installment of Manifestation Monday, which she records for her many Instagram followers, she looks directly into the camera, wearing a pale green dress with her long blonde hair in braids, and shares her wisdom. Jessie, who is a “manifestation advisor” with a background in art therapy, talks about reframing and redirecting your attitude to make room for a more abundant life. She calls it “creative destruction,” and to illustrate her point, she describes the four-bedroom Montecito ranch house—with ocean and canyon views—that she and her husband, Proper Hotel and The Kor Group Co-Founder Brian De Lowe, recently renovated along with Tamara Kaye-Honey of House of Honey interiors.
Brian stands behind the marble-top bar while Jessie sits on a Saffron + Poe braided stool. A Hudson Valley Lighting pendant hangs above.
“It can be messy. It can feel worse in the beginning,” Jessie says. “In breaking down the walls and opening up the ceiling, you’re taking a leap of faith that you’ll make the space to create your vision. You don’t know what you’ll find there. It can be chaotic. But you have to trust that what you’re building is better than what you’re leaving behind.” Sometimes you’ve got to take a risk, she adds, and take life down to the studs in order to make your dreams come true. And you should expect some chaos before peace arrives.
The great room leads to the bar, where Portola Paint’s Costes—a muted terra-cotta color—sets the tone for a vintage love seat.
Listening to Jessie and Brian, who are devoted young parents of two girls under 5, share the details of their seamless move from Santa Monica to Montecito is enough to make manifestation naysayers think twice. They believe that they willed their house—which Kaye-Honey describes as “Mallorca meets Montecito, charming, chic, welcoming, and open-minded”—into existence.
In the primary bedroom, a playful mix of muted hues and rich textures takes form in an Anthropologie bed frame, Lulu and Georgia swivel chairs, Armadillo’s Malawi rug, a vintage mirror from the Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas, linen sheets by Cultiver, and One Wednesday Shop throw.
“We were pregnant with our second daughter in early 2020, and we knew we didn’t want to raise our family in Los Angeles,” says Jessie. “We were looking for an easier pace of life, a more community-driven place. Honestly, we were open to anywhere in the world.”
While they were pondering these big life decisions, the world around them ground to a halt. The De Lowes were making regular escapes to Montecito for day trips, beach walks, and picnics to manage the anxiety of living in pandemic lockdown, absorbing as much nature as possible before their return home. “At the end of every day, we never wanted to leave,” says Brian. “It was clear that our dream was closer to home than we thought.”
A fixture by Hudson Valley Lighting is mounted above a custom Kokora Home oval walnut dining nook table, a Brothers of Industry bench, and Rejuvenation chairs.
As it happened, they began their house hunt in a rare stagnant market. “We’d drive up and reach out to brokers about some houses listed online,” says Brian. “It was very clear that we were the only people looking for a house at the time. It was our dream place, the most perfect spot to raise our family, and it didn’t seem like we had any competition.”
“They believe that they willed their house—which Kaye-Honey describes as ‘Mallorca meets Montecito, charming, chic, welcoming, and open-minded’—into existence.”
They moved into a rental, had a baby, settled in, and then the real estate market heated up. The De Lowes, first-time home buyers, knew they should make a move. After touring every house in the community within their budget, one property, a typical 1950s ranch, kept calling them back. And while the house itself was imperfect, the land was “magical, with a huge avocado tree that just keeps on giving,” says Jessie. “It’s kind of wild, very tropical and filled with mature fruit trees. There were chickens roaming around. It was exactly our vibe.”
Concrete Nation’s Valencia free-standing tub and Arc basins—all in the color nude—set the tone in the primary bathroom. Hardware is by Kohler, tiling is by Concrete Collaborative, and mirrors are by Rejuvenation
“The house did not blow us away,” Brian adds. “But we thought, ‘If we did this, and this, and this, and this, and this, it could be our dream house.’”
The De Lowes had a vision they knew they could bring to life, but they needed guidance. They’d long been admirers of Tamara Kaye-Honey’s work and approached the Pasadena- and Montecito-based designer. “We met Tamara for an Aperol spritz at the Miramar Club,” Brian says. “She has such an amazing vision, but she understood that we had ideas and she didn’t steer us away.”
Surrounded by Brothers of Industry cabinets, Riad Zellige tiles, Sun Valley Bronze and Emtek hardware, the Ilve Majestic II range and hood are the focal point of the kitchen, where Jessie is whipping something up in her Our Place Always pan.
Kaye-Honey describes the De Lowes as trusting and an “amazing, positive force.” Brian and Jessie were “open to collaborating and game to be pushed outside of their comfort zone. As a firm, we work holistically to create soulful spaces layered with color, pattern, and texture in ways that feel fresh and unexpected, all while remaining invitingly livable and timeless,” she adds. “We take it seriously—but always with a wink and a smile.” The De Lowes were ideal clients for the HOH aesthetic, which is sophisticated but playful, chic but still comfortable.
The family relaxes on the deck's Neighbor patio furniture, beneath a Santa Barbara Designs umbrella.
Brian acted as the project’s general contractor with a local builder, drawing on his experience developing properties for The Kor Group, building Proper Hotels, and working closely with uber designer Kelly Wearstler on those. “[With Kelly,] we really want [the hotels] to feel residential and comfortable, and then to have these special wow moments,” Brian says. “Jessie and I approached this home in the same way. This is a family home first and foremost, and it feels really comfortable, definitely not too modern or fancy.”
A Jenni Kayne dining table and chairs are complemented by a Z2 Blond Paper Cover pendant from Global Lighting and the Colina credenza by Kelly Wearstler.
A few important focal pieces deliver the “wows” Brian mentions: the blue-gray Ilve stove in the kitchen, custom-designed Architectural Iron Works doors that create a flow between the main living room and the outdoor lounging and entertaining spaces, a Concrete Nation tub in the spa-like primary bathroom, and unique marble slabs. New pieces, like the Jenni Kayne dining table and a custom dresser in the primary bedroom, are balanced by one-of-a-kind antiques and rugs that the couple picked up at the Round Top Antiques Fair in Texas.
“They wanted a home that had rustic sophistication and communal vibes that wasn’t overly designed and loud,” says Kaye-Honey.
And while the De Lowes admit that taking on a full-scale renovation project with tiny children at home and two busy careers isn’t exactly a cinch, knowing that they were fulfilling their dreams helped. “It can be stressful,” says Jessie during her Instagram installment, “but what calms you down and translates anxiety to excitement is visualizing what the dream will feel like and look like. Mentally rehearsing walking through the house helped me get clear about the decisions we were making. Staying in your comfort zone, although it might feel good in the moment, keeps you stuck.”
And now that the vision is a reality, they don’t take their fortune for granted. “Every day, at least once a day, Brian and I say how grateful we are to live here,” she says.
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A Monument to Madame
In LOTUSLAND Ganna Walska created a world-renowned horticultural treasure
In LOTUSLAND Ganna Walska created a world-renowned horticultural treasure
Text and images excerpted from Lotusland: Eccentric Garden Paradise (Rizzoli New York) | Photography by Lisa Romerein
How do you describe Lotusland? Exquisite garden, conservation center, the botanical expression of an exuberant and idiosyncratic personality…it is all that and more. For almost thirty years visitors have had the privilege of exploring this natural sanctuary, wandering the paths that showcase the incredible variety of the collection, from the majestic palms and ancient dragon trees to the prickly array of cacti and the shadowy elegance of the Japanese Garden. Lotusland changes with the seasons and has evolved gradually with the decades, but the allure of this incredible estate never lessens. It remains a tribute to the extraordinary woman who brought the place to life. Joan Tapper
Ganna Walska Lotusland, a thirty-seven-acre oasis located in Montecito, California, is considered to be among the most significant botanic gardens in the world. Home to more than 3,400 types of plants, including at least 35,000 specimens, it is recognized not just for the breadth and diversity of its collections, but for the extraordinary design sensibility informing the many one-of-a-kind individual gardens that comprise its cohesive, harmonious, magical whole.
Madame Walska’s maximalist ethos is part of what makes Lotusland so unique.
As delightfully pleasing as its aesthetic and sensory qualities are, Lotusland is also an important center for plant research and conservation.
Lotusland opened its gates to the public in 1993, nine years after the death of the estate’s owner Ganna Walska, referred to by all as “Madame.” She was an adventurous, inquisitive, and charismatic spiritual seeker who lived a life of legend. Born Hanna Puacz in Brest-Litvosk, Poland, in 1887, she eloped with a Russian baron in 1907 at age twenty. After changing her name in 1914, Madame Walska, as she was now known, moved to New York and in the ensuing years shuttled between New York and Paris, performing as an opera singer and marrying five more times after the baron’s death.
Already a student of yoga, astrology, meditation, telepathy, numerology, Christian Science, and Rosicrucianism, around 1933 Madame Walska embarked on her search for the “great purpose” of her life, studying hypnotism and Indian philosophies. Her studies led her to meet Theos Bernard, a similarly charismatic individual and yogi who was one of the earliest, and most famous, proponents of Hatha yoga in the West.
Unlike a traditional museum, Lotusland’s living collections are ever changing and ever evolving.
Bernard became Walska’s final husband in 1942. The previous year, Walska purchased the property then known as Cuesta Linda, which they intended to serve as a retreat for Tibetan lamas: together, they renamed it Tibetland. Alas, World War II scuttled their plans to bring the lamas to America, and in 1946 Walska and Bernard divorced. Madame promptly renamed the estate Lotusland after the sacred aquatic plant that flourished there.
Immediately after acquiring the land in 1941, Madame Walska hired the renowned landscape architect Lockwood de Forest, Jr. to renovate the orchards and create a number of individual garden spaces on the property. Following de Forest’s deployment to World War II in 1943, Ralph Stevens, son of the property’s garden original owners and then the Santa Barbara Parks Superintendent came on board, and over the next decade he, alongside Madame Walska, developed many of Lotusland’s iconic landscape features.
Over the course of forty-plus years, the once-native land that had been home to a commercial nursery for its initial use was transformed into a garden paradise full of staggering natural wonders. Madame Walska led by instinct and with a passion for the best (and most!) collectable plants on the planet. She sought out, consulted, and engaged the best experts in their fields to help shape and realize her vision for Lotusland, but it was always her distinctive vision. Her maximalist ethos, typified by signature gestures such as the profuse grouping of single specimens, the assemblage of massive varieties of plant families, and the deployment of extravagant, dramatic gestures, is part of what makes Lotusland so unique among botanic gardens throughout the world. Eye-catching and unorthodox garden adornments, such as large chunks of colored glass, gems and minerals, and giant clam shells, appear in the landscape and contribute to the estate’s visual excitement.
And yet, unlike a traditional museum with static installations, Lotusland’s living collections are ever changing and ever evolving. Plants mature, plants die. Room has to be made for exciting and scientifically more important new additions. Since the late 1990s, the garden’s living collections have grown significantly, and several gardens have been restored and reimagined to support their function in this now public garden. Today, the goal of its stewards is to preserve and enhance the historic estate and gardens of Madame Ganna Walska, and to develop conservation and sustainable horticulture programs that educate and inspire, while advancing global understanding and appreciation of plants and environmental responsibility.
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Escape Artists
Interior designer John De Bastiani refreshes a Montecito residence for a creative couple’s weekend retreat
Given that the previous homeowner was a professional landscaper, beautiful garden spaces abound, including this peaceful fountain out front, where vintage iron benches beckon one to rest.
Interior designer John De Bastiani refreshes a Montecito residence for a creative couple’s weekend retreat
Written by Jennifer Blaise Kramer | Photographs by Joe Schmelzer
When an L.A. couple—one of them an artist—looked for a weekend respite, they found it in a single-level 1957 ranch home in Sycamore Canyon. It had been previously owned by a noted landscape designer who curated the grounds into a classic Santa Barbara oasis. In an effort to spruce up the interiors, the new owners enlisted designer John De Bastiani (who had helped the empty nesters with their primary residence), kicking things off with the one thing a painter wants most—color.
“We wanted that modern farmhouse feel without the cliché.”
“They love rich colors,” says De Bastiani of the owners. He focused on combinations of blues, greens, and clays, explaining, “We wanted to warm up the house for a cozy, wonderful retreat.” Jewel tones of green and blue were woven throughout, bringing in earthy shades from the garden but in more saturated hues. Out front he painted the shutters and trim an olive green to contrast with the white board-and-batten siding. Inside, the primary bedroom is decorated in watery blue, and the designer added strapping on the walls and closet doors to lend texture against the existing ceilings. Using the same shade on all surfaces created a cocoonlike coziness, heightened by homeowners’ choice of replicating their main home’s familiar four-poster bed and pairing it with a fluffy Moroccan rug.
A leafy green color now graces the kitchen, where De Bastiani built a secondary wall of cabinetry, complete with brass library lighting. “We wanted that modern farmhouse feel without the cliché. Here the green pivots and elevates,” he says, adding, “we wanted that pop and must have tried 20 different shades—this was a little bright but not too faddy. It’s classic.”
The green also nods to the lush gardens visible from the kitchen’s convenient serving window, which makes passing cocktails from inside a breeze. Friends can grab a drink and wander over to the firepit or outdoor lounge, which is furnished with low-slung wooden sofas from The Well. Pebble gravel underfoot is accented by low-water plants and tall oak trees, from which De Bastiani hung vintage metal lanterns to create a nighttime glow.
“It was all very romantic already but a little overgrown,” he says. “The owners wanted cleaner lines, so we simplified in a wonderful Montecito way.”
“The house had beautiful bones in place, so it was a delicate balance to add contemporary things.”
In streamlining the layout inside and out, the designer arranged special places to entertain. For parties, the couple either hosts intimate dinners in the garden’s new greenhouse room—also furnished from The Well and wired with vintage globe pendants—or holds them in the dining room, where a custom table is positioned close to bifold doors, “which are always open so you feel like you’re in the backyard.”
Natural light spills in from outside through the original front door, adding to the California ranch-style character. “The house had beautiful bones in place, from the floors to the steel casement windows throughout, which people request today, so it was a delicate balance to add contemporary things,” De Bastiani says. In the living room, for example, he chose muted tones from the same palette of greens, blues, and rusts to create an elegant backdrop for the antique pieces that mingle with contemporary furnishings and art—mostly the homeowner’s, of course.
“It’s an artist’s cottage,” De Bastiani says. “And we made it into a jewel box.”
A greenhouse wired with vintage sconces makes for stunning dinners outside.