Clean-Lined Interiors Frame Panoramic Views Of The Pacific In SoCal

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bulldog posing outside blue front...

The homeowners’ five-year-old French bulldog, Louie, poses outside their Monarch Bay house’s front doors. “Changing the entryway would have meant rebuilding the entire structure, so we decided to just update it with sandblasted glass,” notes interior designer Andrea Burridge. Striped Kelly Wearstler wallpaper makes a bold statement, while a jute-wrapped mirror from Serena & Lily strikes a nautical note.

outdoor covered deck area with...

Fast-growing cherry laurel hedges provide privacy to the home’s backyard. “It doesn’t feel like a small space, but you’re nestled in there—it’s like a hug” explains landscape architect Kate Guerra-Hershey. The chairs are from RH.

exterior front garden of home...

Landscape architect Kate Guerra-Hershey trimmed this Monarch Bay property’s existing Japanese black pine to create a striking focal point in the front yard. The overall effect, she says, is of a “Santa Barbara-style or informal Mediterranean-inspired garden with an infusion of exotic succulents and flowering perennials.” The house is positioned deep in the lot, she notes, “which gives it a great sense of privacy.”

coastal great room with rattan...

Thanks to an extensive renovation plan, the great room now enjoys Pacific views enhanced by retractable glass doors. “They let in the ocean breeze for a more immersive experience,” says architect Ken Pursley. By the fireplace, interior designer Andrea Burridge complemented Palecek’s rattan and abaca rope Strings Attached lounge chairs with a track arm sofa and reclaimed hardwood coffee table, both from RH.

open kitchen with letter artwork...

Artwork by Kerri Rosenthal articulates the homeowners’ relaxed mantra for their coastal home. The open kitchen’s countertops are Silver Wave marble by Artistic Tile, paired with Ann Sacks’ beige Trattino tile on the backsplash. Circle City Cabinets fabricated the cabinetry, designed by Burridge, with blackened-steel shelving by CR Custom Wrought Iron Design.

narrow scullery kitchen with blue...

In a scullery hidden just behind the primary kitchen, which is open to the great room, is a wall swathed in Lindsay Cowles’ Casablanca Alta wallcovering. Its azure hue echoes cabinetry painted Benjamin Moore’s Blue Note. The wine fridge is Sub-Zero, and Cedar & Moss Scout sconces light the prep area and shelving.

formal dining room with blue...

The central sunken courtyard became a formal dining room level with the rest of the home. Blue grass cloth from Thibaut lines the walls, highlighting a print by artist Laurie Simmons. In the center, a custom dining table is ringed by Palecek’s Santa Barbara armchairs. The chandelier is RH and the Berber-style rug is from Cottage Furnishings.

bedroom with grasscloth chevron print...

The gentle chevron pattern of Phillip Jeffries’ St. Barts Serenity grass-cloth wallcovering infuses the homeowners’ bedroom with a relaxed, beach-chic atmosphere. A brass-and-black sconce by Cedar & Moss brightens the space above a custom bed from RH topped with Serena & Lily linens. The bedside tables are repainted vintage finds.

covered patio off a primary...

Surrounded by bougainvillea, eucalyptus and fruit trees, the covered patio off the primary bedroom is a quiet retreat that looks out into the backyard. Both the wool rug and Georgica lounge chair are by Serena & Lily.

Children invariably prompt life changes—even after they’ve left the nest. For one Midwestern couple, their kids’ relocation to the Golden State led them to investigate West Coast houses themselves. “Our son and daughter live in Southern California, and we just fell in love with the energy there,” the wife shares. When they scooped up a second home in Monarch Bay, its contemporary ranch style exuded a compelling, welcoming warmth. But it was the views of the Pacific that really sealed the deal. From the start, she says, “it made us feel like we were on top of the world.”

In the original layout, though, only a small family room enjoyed the scenery. The main living areas instead revolved around an open-air sunken courtyard walled off from the oceanic panorama—a design decision that puzzled the couple. “We kept thinking, ‘Why would you close up so much of the house from that view?’ ” remembers the wife. But they decided to wait about a year and a half before committing to a renovation. “We didn’t want to make assumptions about how a California home should be lived in based on our experience in Chicago,” she adds.

And time confirmed their instincts. “We would never sit there,” the wife says of the courtyard. “It was hot during the day and, at night, it was just an outdoor area without anything to see.” The courtyard became pivotal to the renovation, for which the couple called in the design team that had transformed their Illinois home: Interior designer Andrea Burridge and architects Ken Pursley and Mark Kline. 

The entire team agreed with the clients’ assessment about their home. “The spaces were chopped up and didn’t take full advantage of the house’s opportunities,” recalls Pursley. To wit, several interior walls came down to create an expansive great room, and the courtyard was glassed in and topped by a skylight-studded roof. “A major decision was to add a back wall of sliding glass so our clients could enjoy indoor-outdoor living, which is one of the best things about California,” notes Burridge. Adds general contractor Michael Palmer, “We did an extensive amount of work, but opening it all up changed everything. It made this project what it is.” 

In contrast to the couple’s more traditional Chicago home, Burridge took a laid-back approach to the interiors, pouring over West Coast design books like Nina Freudenberger’s Surf Shack for inspiration. Throughout, a mostly neutral palette keeps all eyes focused on the water, with a few ocean-inspired exceptions like the deep navy of the kitchen’s freestanding wall or the washed Aegean blue of the dining room’s grass-cloth wallcovering. The beach chic-style bedrooms were inspired by the couple’s many trips to St. Barts. “Design on this island has a beautiful aesthetic to it; these clean-lined interiors feel sophisticated yet casual in a similar way,” notes Burridge, a frequent visitor to the Caribbean getaway herself. 

The great room’s kitchen houses one of the home’s more unusual features. There, a prep area is hidden in plain sight behind freestanding white oak cabinets, which are encased in a beveled wood frame painted marine blue. Skirting the ceiling by a few feet, this line of cabinetry tricks the eye by acting as a divider or “screen” delineating the prep area, explains Pursley. “A lot of our kitchens have a front and a backstage,” he says. “You get an open plan, but you’ve hidden the oven and storage.” The room’s other secret, dreamed up by Burridge, is its breakfast bar: A heavy wood piece cleverly glides out of the island, transforming into a table that can welcome up to 20 guests. 

As for the initially puzzling, closed-off courtyard, it’s now level with the rest of the home. Recast as the formal dining room, it enjoys the same views as the great room through insulated glass which both muffles the clamor of dinner parties and allows for the space to serve as a private office for the husband. “That glass was an afterthought, but it became one of the best decisions we’ve made,” the wife comments. Close to their children and face-to-face with the Pacific, the whole abode fills its owners with the same serene satisfaction.