Eclectic Perfection
A glimpse of the entry foyer is visible from the spacious living room of the Hughes villa, which is packed with art and antiques culled from the owners’ pilgrimages to flea markets and auction houses around the world.
A restored Montecito villa reflects its owners’ worldly taste
Text and Images Excerpted From Montecito Style: Paradise on California's Gold Coast (The Monacelli Press)
Written by Lorie DewHirst Porter with Photographs by Firooz Zahedi
Montecito Style: Paradise on California’s Gold Coast (The Monacelli Press, $60) by Firooz Zahedi and Lorie Dewhirst Porter, available in November at Lost Horizon Bookstore (losthorizonbooks.com).
This sleek modernist—designed by an unknown architect—was surprisingly once a Victorian-style home, completely transformed in the early 1900s after its owners returned from an inspiring European jaunt. The long-ago renovation also featured an elegant garden (likely designed by renowned local landscape architect Lockwood de Forest Jr.) and an outdoor theater replete with a below-ground orchestra pit. By the time its current owners, Tammy and Kim Hughes, acquired it in 2016, the property had been unoccupied for years. “We didn’t quite realize how many potential purchasers were advised not to take it on,” Kim admits. Thankfully, the two recognized the building’s potential. As Tammy says, “It was love at first sight.”
Even so, the restoration process was arduous. “It didn’t seem like that big of a deal,” Tammy acknowledges, “until they started pulling off the roof and pulling the walls apart and lifting up the house to do a new foundation.” The original floor plan was left largely intact but for a kitchen expansion and an added powder room on the main floor. Tammy still marvels at the building’s design—especially the four lightwells that effectively illuminate the lower floors during the day, deeming them “so smart and so thoughtful.” Fortunately, she insisted on retaining and refinishing nearly all the villa’s original doors and windows, a decision that ensured the building’s modernist design retained its authenticity.
As an interior designer and owner of Emerald Eye Designs, Tammy was unfazed at the prospect of furnishing a residence exceeding eleven thousand square feet. Kim was also undeterred by the project’s size, having summered in England as a child at his grandparents’ stately home, Barton Abbey, with his famous uncle, Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels). In fact, the gray antique settle in the kitchen “is very close to what is at Barton,” according to Kim. The kitchen’s centerpiece, a cobalt-blue Aga stove, is set against the brick backside of the dining room fireplace (one of seven in the villa).
“The home’s wonderfully eclectic interiors are the result of the couple’s frequent pilgrimages to flea markets and auction houses of the world.”
The home’s wonderfully eclectic interiors are also the result of the couple’s frequent pilgrimages to flea markets and auction houses of the world. A massive silver, faux-taxidermy rhino head presides over the dining room table, a whimsical trophy offset by a large nude portrait by contemporary artist Lu Cong. In the living room, a large narrative painting from 1915 contrasts with a carved wood saint from the 1800s. An intricate antique mirror tops the minimalist living room fireplace, which is flanked by two salmon-hued velvet couches favored by the family canines.
The entry foyer, displaying furnishings and art from a variety of eras, beckons visitors toward a cozy fireplace at the far end of the space. A large painting of a diaphanous nude acquired from renowned Belgian antique dealer Axel Vervoordt is paired with a 19th-century Italian inlaid wood console. The alabaster light fixture is original to the villa.
In the end, according to Tammy, “there was a lot of serendipity” to the project. “The goal was to honor what was here,” she says. “We don’t live in a minimalist style, but if you strip all of our personal items away, you’ll see the house hasn’t changed.” Bravo!
