The cofounder of White Arrow teaches us how to put together an inspired space that balances classic and contemporary.
If you trust your gut and go for pieces that you love, says Keren, things will fall into place. "It’s okay to buy what you love, have fun, and let spaces evolve as you do," she assures us. "If you worry too much about things being ‘timeless,’ they won’t be interesting now." Having a mix of design classics and contemporary designs from a variety of vendors and makers will keep a room from feeling stale. In this space, geometric shapes and sculptural curves create a rich living room. A curvilinear Arc Lounge Chair by Moving Mountains sits next to a custom coffee table topped with Rejuvenation’s Whitney Wide Mouth Vase. The muted rug is from Restoration Hardware, and the Linden Table Lamp in cream linen is from Studio Dunn.
While mixing furniture and decor from different eras is often part of a room’s charm, it’s important to maintain a cohesive look. In this dining nook, Keren pairs matte black and warm, wood tones to create a conversation between vintage and contemporary pieces. The understated pendant by Rich Brilliant Willing presides over a custom table with vintage Borge Mogenson dining chairs; a vintage Gio Ponti mirror picks up the metallic note of Crate & Barrel candlesticks.
A simple, custom-built desk stands in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The bare lamp is in harmony with the raw material palette.
Small storage nooks are built into the walls beside the beds, avoiding the need for bedside tables.
Custom furniture, like this desk in the living area, is designed to be simple enough to be built by the clients, and it complement the raw materials used throughout the home.
love to lauagh, llove silly thinggsg, love for oversize objects, 6-foot old school pencil, cool birdhouose in dining room --- put fake little birds –
Some of this Eichler's original highlights remain, such as the tongue-and-groove redwood ceiling decking and the now re-stained luan wall paneling. In the kitchen, walnut is juxtaposed with crisp white, and the light blue found in the dining area is a unifying accent color.
The home's post-and-beam construction leads the eye straight from the central atrium to the backyard on the opposite side.
“Eichlers aren’t very big—that’s why so much emphasis was on the outside. The house had to look like it extended out.” —Bernard Trainor, landscape designer
The primary bathroom continues the white oak casework from elsewhere in the home, with walls in the same white Dekton material as the kitchen counters. The dual sinks are separated from the wet chamber by a swinging glass door.
The owners also have kept an added element installed by a previous owner: the sliding shoji panels in all the bedroom windows and sliding glass doors, which serve dual purposes for both privacy and sun control. Grooves have been cut into the new tile flooring for the shoji panels to slide in, creating a more integrated look.
Every mahogany wall was replaced with new ones, the contractor "painstakingly going through literally hundreds of panels over several days to find ones that matched," recalls Blaine. Since the quarter inch-round mahogany corners at the outside of the interior walls found in Eichler homes are no longer made, Blaine worked with the contractor to find a supplier of rounds that were then cut down to quarters.
For the new kitchen, which was rotated perpendicularly to improve circulation, interior designer Pamela Lin-Tam opted for "interior finishes that reflect the time period, but don't feel old or outdated," says architect Megan Blaine. Modular cabinets are paired with quartz countertops.
A Good Reed
The most changed area of the home is the small guest room–office, where Neely, who works from home, removed the closet doors and added a grass-cloth wall treatment to distinguish it from the rest of the house’s decor. “Many of the Eichlers originally had grass cloth as a covering on the sliding closet doors,” he says. “The guest room–office is the only other room that can be seen from the public areas across the atrium, and I wanted this wall to add visual interest.”
The couple’s vintage Stadio dining table is by Vico Magistretti for Artemide; the Eames chairs came from an old school in Palm Springs.
"For the interior design, we made the decision to keep the palette light and airy,
In the bedroom , Ball Light pendants by Michael Anastassiades hang above Tulip side tables by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. The linens are by Brooklinen, and the Serif TV is by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Samsung.