Turning A California Vacation Home Into A Family Legacy

This is a story about people who loved a home so much, they just couldn’t bring themselves to leave. Originally, the owners of this St. Helena dwelling intended to remodel it to serve as a vacation spot, a place they would spend a few weeks every year. But upon completion, they had such an affinity for the abode that they made it their primary residence. “The setting is what really makes this house,” the wife says. “It could only be here and only be ours.” 

It started five years ago when the couple—then living in Manhattan Beach—asked architect Wayne Leong to renovate their newly acquired wine country property. They had previously owned an abode in the area that they would visit during school breaks, but with their three daughters now grown, they were ready to design a house tailored to this new stage of life. They just didn’t realize how ideal—and idyllic—it would turn out. “This house suits us perfectly,” the wife notes. And, although they had never considered moving north permanently, she adds: “When this home changed, we changed.” 

The dwelling wasn’t always as desirable. When they purchased the vineyard residence, first constructed in 1984, it lacked identity, featuring multiple style influences ranging from farmhouse to Mediterranean. Also missing was a comfortable spot for family and friends to gather. When Leong conceived of a core entertaining area—a central great room containing a kitchen, sitting and dining space under a 16-foot-high ceiling—it was a game changer.

For the interiors, designer Joo Y. Oh was guided by a Korean principle she describes as the “beauty of simplicity.” She calls out the centuries-old quilt hanging in the dining room as the embodiment of the concept. “The traditional Korean aesthetic embraces natural beauty, and most of the older fabrics use vegetable dyes,” she says. “The patchwork is unembellished, muted and toned down—it is not over designed.” Throughout the house, Oh carried out the same calm, neutral color scheme with a straightforward material palette that lives in harmony with nature.

Working with general contractor Warren A. Bowers and team, Oh and Leong made views to the outdoors a priority. In the sunken living room, where the architect vaulted the ceiling and replaced narrow trusses with weightier oak beams, the vistas are accentuated by corner windows with no posts, two of which flank a fireplace that Oh clad in earthy travertine. It’s a striking concept repeated in the primary bedroom, giving the illusion that the residents are sleeping among the vines and that the veins in the stone fireplace surround are a continuation of the landscape. An oversize skylight positioned over the 14-foot quartzite-topped kitchen island emphasizes the indoor-outdoor connection, allowing the region’s abundant sunshine to flood the core of the home.

In the reconfigured guest wing, Oh approached the sleeping quarters with a boutique hotel mindset. “Our clients wanted guests to have different experiences when they come to stay,” she says. In one with a cream-and-camel palette, the headboard wall is covered in a 3D pattern; in another, awash in shades of gray, she chose a handmade open-weave paper. 

Outside, landscape architect I Maria White was tasked with creating a garden from the ground up, literally. “Outside of the grapevines, there was just bare dirt everywhere,” she recalls. For the plantings, the clients “made a request that I had never received before, which was to install mosquito-repellent shrubs, such as mint, sage and geraniums—and it works!” At the entrance to the house, amid blue cobbles, a large millstone fountain is joined by a trio of artichoke agaves representing the couple’s three daughters. “It is like a minimalist painting on the ground,” White says. 

These alfresco features have uses for both now and later. Take the orchard and raised garden beds, which yield produce currently enjoyed at meals. In the future, the wife plans to use them to “teach my grandkids about where food comes from,” she says. With the couple now rooted in place with no plans to leave, it’s forward thinking that has plenty of time to pay off. “This is the home that we will pass on to our children,” she continues, “one that we will never, ever sell.”