Designer Raili Clasen and her husband had recently become empty nesters when they discovered a four-bedroom home in the hills outside San Diego and started dreaming of the next chapter in their lives. “It’s set on three acres of eucalyptus trees and horse trails, and it’s all flanked by a bocce court,” Raili says.

The classic post-and-beam midcentury had high ceilings and sun-dappled rooms, and it was about an hour’s drive from Raili’s eponymous design firm in Newport Beach. “All it needed was a lot of paint,” she says.

But the loan officers at the bank weren’t wearing the same rose-colored glasses when they got a look at the 2,000-square-foot place, which was first built in 1950. All they saw was, well, a dump—a home well past its prime that hadn’t been touched in ages.

Before: Exterior

After: Exterior

“We could not get a loan, because they couldn’t see how anyone would live here,” Raili says. Sure, the plumbing was a mess and the windows were cracked. The rooms were dirty, and the fixtures were outdated.

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

None of that dissuaded Raili from the potential she saw. “I wanted to lean into the midcentury-modern architecture, but given the neighborhood and the size of the property, I also wanted to add in elements of a ranch house,” she says.

After: Dining Room

Through perseverance, the couple were finally able to secure a loan and purchase the property, and Raili started drawing up a design plan in 2019. Then the city placed new permitting rules on the project that rendered a large renovation impossible—so she pivoted toward using a small budget to fix up the home in its original footprint, and plan B kicked off in 2021.

“We always loved the bones of the house—and as it turns out, we loved not touching it,” she says.

The structure of the home was strong, so the couple focused on repairing the plumbing, replacing the windows, and painting. “The house was covered in wood siding and paneling, and I loved it," she says. "A fresh coat of white brought that personality into play while concealing the wood fragments.”

Before: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

Sage accents provide a foil to all that white while synching with the verdant foliage outside. There’s also plenty of yellow—another tie to the outdoors—and wood elements to provide a neutral base. As for the expressive artwork, that’s just Raili’s calling card.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen

“I lean far into typography, lettering, and fun phrases in all my projects,” she says.

It took about six months to make the home look and feel like new, and the couple has since settled in to make it their own. While there were tough breaks along the way, Raili is glad she kept it together (in more ways than one).

“This project was literally the most creative I’ve ever had to be,” she says. “Without tearing it apart, we made it way better than I ever thought we could.”

More Before & After stories:

The Tide Turns for a “Neglected 1970s Box” in Pebble Beach

This $57K Revamp Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Plants

In the East Bay, a Tumbledown Midcentury Turns Over a New Leaf

Project Details:

Builder: JJ Mullen

Landscape Design: LP Gardenworks

Interior Design: Raili Clasen/ @railiclasen