Reconfigured rooms, updated trims, a new color, manual railings and more help to bring an architecturally confused house to the Mediterranean harmony.
In the late nineties and early oysters, a wave of the imagination of the old world swept through the wine country.
It was a kind of architectural cosplay with people who wanted houses and wineries who tried to imitate the French Château, Italian villas, Spanish Haciendas and Moroccan Moorish retreats.
Dario Sattui built an Italian castle in Calistoga, while an evocation of the old Persian capital of Persepolis in the Dariosh winery rise along the Silverado Trail. The weakly Mediterranean look even appeared in more modest tracta houses.
Everything was funny and romantic.
It seemed that the region with its mountain views and valleys from vineyards, olive trees and lavender could be disguised in order to be the dream destination of their choice.
Some of it was made well. Others, not so much that leads to architectural confusion. And now, after so many years, some homeowners are looking for an aesthetic reset.
That was the challenge that the husband and wife design team from Efraim and Jessica Wichmann and the architect Kayla Pastor, their co-principal of the Sonoma Architecture + interior design time, had taken on a reorganization in Haldsburg when they were commissioned.
The homeowners wanted the look refreshing-one facelift from outside and a more modern update.
The exterior seemed “tired and outdated”, as the designers put it. Jessica said that at some point a vague “Spanish, Tuscan, European” look was layered on the appearance, but the merger lacked cohesion. And the interior did not match the outside area or serves the lifestyle of the current owners. But the location was nice and plays in gentle hills of vineyards and arms.
“The customer said he really loved the home and his location, but there were a few things that didn't work for them,” said Efraim. “And one of them was that the house was not aligned to the east or where the best prospects were. It was also overcrowded inside with rooms that blocked the beautiful view to the east.
“It seemed as if a Spanish/Italian sense had been added to an ordinary home,” he added. “Some of the existing accents were curved windows, heavy rafters tails (the eaves under the roof over the roof), a tile roof and a curved input.”
Together, the Wichmanns have been offering a holistic approach to home design in Sonoma County for 25 years. It can often be asked to treat what you describe as a “personality disorder” in houses with too many dissonant design details.
When it comes to conversion, you want to bring a home with more order and cohesion to the overall design.
In this case, the house, said Jessica, “Disneyesque”, was more of the idea of a Spanish or Italian house, but there is a lack of authenticity to either look.
They decided to redesign based on the modern Mediterranean design.
They gave the outer train by re -turning it from a darker terracotta into a creamy white. They converted an upper deck with the heavier rays, which can be found more often in the Mediterranean design. They also added external wall lights, black windows for an appearance of depth and a white limestone cladding on the front and back in order to give their more Mediterranean feeling.
“We really look at the exterior and the interior together and we can navigate it from the start,” said Jessica. “They wanted to merge this modern home in the interior, but to merge with these traditional elements. The way we did was to keep the interior palette calm and simple and neutral – a trademark of us. “
You have done this with wide planks, European white oak soils. No trim or housing were used on the windows.
Instead, they added simple wooden thresholds to the windows. The cupboards in the kitchen were updated with clean door fronts and drawers in the plate panel. Interior doors were individual slices. They avoided the inappropriate flourishes that can come out as free of charge and architecturally out of place and time.
“We see our role as an intermediary between what the house wants to be – what the bones of the house offer – and what the customer should be the house, their aesthetics,” said Jessica.
Inside, the original house with the customer's wish for a modern style with openness and view. It seemed to be overcrowded, said Efraim with some really big rooms and some really small rooms and passages that interrupted the light between the rooms.
The house had two large, oversized guest rooms on the upper floor.
The designers decided to reduce them and to free them between them for an open learning area and a gallery in order to show art what is important for homeowners.