In the 1970s, Donny and Marie Osmond crooned “A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock N’ Roll.” For one California couple remaking a New England shingle-style home in Diablo, the lyrics to the song might go, “she’s a little bit traditional classic; he’s a little bit rustic and modern,” but the sentiment is still the same.
To merge the two design styles, the couple called on designer Catherine Macfee. “The owners are the same but different, in that she is whimsical and casually refined, while he is more modern yet rustic and playful,” she says.
To start, the designer crafted a living room with modified wingbacks in a comfy gray velvet, plus a cool white sofa, which matched the wife’s sophisticated yet approachable style. To complement the husband’s taste, Macfee faced a game room with reclaimed barnwood wall and worked in a pool table, dark brown sofas and chairs scaled with heft in mind.
The spaces in between include a dining room defined by big swaths of printed fabrics, a French farmhouse-inspired kitchen with glazed oak cabinets and handmade tiles, and a family room where a tailored gray sofa and antiqued leather armchairs balance each other.
“The success of the design was expressing bits of each of them in every room,” Macfee says.