Rustic California Modern Redefined
Architect William Hefner and interior designer Kazuko Hoshino find paradise in Montecito
Written by Cathy Whitlock | Photographs by Richard Powers
It’s often said that doctors make the worst patients, and perhaps the same holds true for architects and designers who become their own clients.
Architect William Hefner and his interior designer wife, Kazuko Hoshino, found this to be the case when they built a second home in Montecito’s Romero Canyon. Nestled on a one-acre lot filled with oak trees, picture-perfect mountain views (that include overgrown vegetation run amok), and roots dating back to the 1930s, the modern L-shaped home took some 10 years of planning, as indecision and house-changing discoveries came into play. “My wife and I are the worst clients, and we’re constantly changing our minds, always prioritizing our client’s work, and as a result, the progress would stop,” reflects Hefner, whose firm Studio William Hefner is based in Los Angeles and Montecito.
Inspired by the work of Arts and Crafts architect Bernard Maybeck and the couple’s favorite haunt, the San Ysidro Ranch, the California native says, “We planned it as a vacation home and really didn’t want it to feel like a grown-up house. We wanted it to be more like the San Ysidro Ranch compound where you sleep in one building and have your breakfast in another.” The couple’s goal was to make the house “simple in its tone,” eschewing the Spanish Colonial look that is so prevalent in Montecito.
Digging for the pool and foundation led to a discovery that changed the entire exterior. The multidisciplined architect notes, “We found a bunch of native stone and instead of hauling it off, we put it on the exterior. I wanted it to have the feel of a hunting lodge not for hunting, and the stone brings a lot of character to the site, which is the most enduring thing about the house. One of the things that is so special is we didn’t want it to feel so brand-spanking new, and the stone made it feel older.”
This resulted in three stone-and-wood buildings connected by breezeways with a stand-alone pool house that does double duty as a guest house. Designed on one level with an open floor plan that welcomes indoor/outdoor living, the house also features a game room to accommodate their 11-year-old son’s interests. “And because there were seven really beautiful 200-year-old oak trees we wanted to keep, it’s kind of like a puzzle where we had to break the house into pieces and sprinkle it in between the trees.”
Working with his wife (who brings a Japanese sensibility to the rustic California-modern interiors), the pair wanted the family retreat “under-finished,” where minimalism is the order of the day. Devoid of clutter, art-filled walls, and coffee-table collections, comfortable midcentury-style furnishings and a soft color palette (neutral shades mixed with blue indigo and sage green make an appearance) make up the decor. “My wife’s family lives in Tokyo, and we go once a year, spending two to three days in traditional Japanese inns. We loved the rustic settings and the combination of indigo blues and natural woods, so we tried to carry some of those colors throughout the house. Being in the business, we notice everything in a room, so we made it deliberately bare and, as a result, more relaxing to us.”
Adding a touch of pedigree, Hoshino scoured the Internet for vintage light fixtures that dot the various rooms of the house. “My wife would scroll through the Internet every night for three years for furnishings,” Hefner notes. “She found great European, Scandinavian, and Italian light fixtures for all the rooms, pieces from the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s, mostly in brass.” A vintage pool table and outdoor furniture along with leather and brass pulls are just a few of the items that, in the architect’s words, “don’t make it feel so 2018.”
Living in Montecito means taking advantage of the sunny, temperate climate and unparalleled landscape. “The house is a nice contrast for us, as we live in the middle of Los Angeles (Hancock Park), and this feels like the country,” Hefner says. “The compound is shaped to maximize the garden, and there are so many places to go and sit outside during different times of the day. You can have breakfast under the trees and enjoy views of the mountains.” They also enhanced the property with four olive trees, a cook’s garden near an orchard of fruit trees, and a path for their son’s go-carts. And in a move that appalled his firm’s landscape designers, the architect kept the original yucca plants. “They didn’t want me to use them as they are freeway plants,” he muses. “They add character and have this sort of Jurassic Park feel to them.” •
