Tour The Playful SoCal Home Inspired By Australian Beach Houses

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dining room with custom oak...

Designer Raili Clasen chose an Allied Maker pendant for the dining room of this Corona del Mar home. She arranged BDDW chairs and bench around a custom white oak table. A built-in buffet stained a dark hue offers ample storage. The artwork is from Chroma Gallery.

living area with three allied...

The living area of this Corona del Mar home was dubbed the “happy hour” room by interior designer Raili Clasen. Anchored by a Katy Skelton coffee table and Allied Maker pendants, a spindle-back chair with cushions in a Zak + Fox material and a trio of club chairs by Community Manufacturing covered in a Ralph Lauren linen create an inviting spot to gather. Underfoot is a Rosemary Hallgarten alpaca rug from Thomas Lavin.

living room media area with...

Clasen used Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace throughout the home, including in the living room. She turned to Community Manufacturing for the generous sectional in gray linen and the barrel swivel chair. Blackened brass Allied Maker sconces echo the dark finish on the fireplace and the hue of the Armadillo carpet, while the coffee table from Stahl + Band does the same with the walnut paneling.

breakfast nook with custom white...

For the breakfast nook, the interior designer secured the custom white oak table from Yeehaw Woodworks. The banquette, also custom in white oak, boasts cushions upholstered in Pierre Frey fabric from Kneedler Fauchère. The plank barstools are dyed black ash, from Nickey Kehoe. On the wall is artwork sourced through 1stdibs.

kitchen with large island, steel...

A kitchen light fixture by Roll & Hill suggests a nautical vibe in keeping with the home’s beachy locale. Clasen chose to use Euroline steel windows as the upper cabinet fronts and opted for simple white Caesarstone for the countertops and Clé Tile for the backsplash. The range is Lacanche; the counter stools are from Stahl + Band.

family room with navy windowpane...

In the family room, Clasen designed a custom sofa in Pindler’s Hancock, a modern version of a windowpane check. She added visual interest to the coffee and end tables by painting a colorful “hem” around the perimeter of the legs. Moooi lights from Design Within Reach illuminate the lofty space, and the photography by Jin-Woo Prensena sets a joyous mood.

primary bedroom with ink blot...

Hovia’s Ink Blot Watercolor serves as the primary bedroom’s focal point. A pair of AndLight pendants from A+R shine down on the custom bed, which is dressed with Matteo and Cultiver linens and stands on an Armadillo rug. The artworks above are from Visual Contrast.

powder room with bright blue...

Clasen punctuated a powder room with a vibrant concrete sink by Kast fitted with a Watermark faucet from Ferguson. “This is the community bathroom, and I wanted it to feel almost like you were in a commercial space,” she says.

Interior designer Raili Clasen’s professional motto is “great design—with a wink.” That spirit factors heavily into the new Corona del Mar home she conceived for her Silicon Valley-based clients. “This was always going to be a second home for a family with three active little boys,” she says. “Their home in Northern California is much more, shall we say, ‘serious,’ and I really wanted to push the envelope and give them a place they could come and put their feet up and relax, without for a minute sacrificing the things that would achieve the level of design they wanted.” 

The family hired architect Cynthia Childs to design their new place on a 45-foot lot just a few houses from the ocean. “At the very beginning of the project, they were thinking of a transitional style of architecture,” Childs recalls. “After meeting them and seeing their fun, smart, talented selves, I knew I could be a bit more edgy and creative with the home. We pushed the envelope a bit and each step of the way they were open and considered lots of possibilities.”

To that end, Childs and general contractor Matt McClure crafted a home that marries timeless elements of design, like the painted white brick on the exterior, with contemporary ones, like the steel windows. She meticulously designed the structure to have indentations along the sides, allowing each room to boast windows or glass doors on two walls, rather than one. “I wanted there to be a real sense of natural light in this home, which is why we have an interior courtyard as well. The abundant light lends to the relaxed, indoor-outdoor feel that we were after all along.” As an added bonus, the interior courtyard also allows for more private outdoor living.

Meanwhile, when it came to outfitting the home, Clasen used Australian beach houses as her muse. “The Australians have this great way of delivering coastal vibes, but the architecture and the finishes are still quite modern,” she says. Clasen studied that look and thoughtfully furnished the spaces with finishes and accessories that delivered an effect of similar stylish ease, with a minimalist materials palette of white walls, natural wood and black steel. “I wanted everything to talk to each other in the main spaces,” explains the interior designer. “That’s why I put the same steel windows on the upper cabinets in the kitchen that appear on the exterior of the house. We tried to have design elements that have a ‘friend’ in each space, whether it was a hit of color or a repeat of fabric.”

The wood elements—like the walnut floors, the plank beams in the ceiling and the walnut paneling throughout—warm the crisp white walls and soften the industrial elements. Clasen used color sparingly but made an impression when she did, from the olive green in the sitting room to the shades of blue in the watercolor mural in the primary bedroom. “The family gave me a lot of freedom when it came to some of these ‘aha’ moments in the house,” she says, pointing to the powder room with a print that proclaims, “I like it. What is it?” or the bright blue sink in the downstairs bath. Clasen even worked a surprise “hello” into the front Dutch door—the word is carved into the wood. 

In the same way, light fixtures—like the wide, nautical pendant over the kitchen island, the cascading pendants in the dining room, and the airy lights in the playroom—deliver an element of surprise against the backdrop of right angles and clean lines. Clasen custom-designed nearly every piece of furniture to be refined but never austere, to invite more lounging than looking. “Nothing is off-limits for the boys. There’s meant to be a flow from one room to the next—and from inside to outside. When all the doors are open, the family and their many friends come and go, in and out, and there’s nothing so precious about the spaces that they can’t be used by everyone.”

One of the most cherished spaces is the outdoor living room, a space Childs calls a modern beach home’s version of a gracious Southern front porch. “They are out here all the time, and because there’s plenty of foot traffic on the street, they can people watch, or invite friends up for a drink. It’s quite a fun spot.” 

And when the family wants a more secluded place to congregate—but still wants to enjoy the southern California climate—they gather around the table that anchors the interior courtyard. It was here that Clasen left a not-so-subtle reminder to her clients: a graphic artwork that spells P-L-A-Y. “Every wall, every corner, every piece of art—it was all about who they are as a family and the joy we hoped this house would bring to them,” she says with a smile.