Houzz Tour: Southern Charm in the California Wine Country


Houzz at a Glance

Location: Northern California wine country

Architect: Nick Noyes

Size: 4,500 square feet (418 square meters)


“Houses are like people. Inherent in any structure, there are limits, constrictions and challenges. It is the house holder’s job to create magic out of the flaw — to transcend the problem and make something beautiful out of it,” says the owner, who professes a weakness for difficult-to-renovate properties. “Our family loved the house before the remodel, but it was funky. It hadn’t been touched since it was built — except for some bad touches that happened in the 1970s.”


Noyes had a problem-solving plan, the essence of which was simple: Grow the basement and the attic levels and reconfigure the middle floor for better flow and better access to the deep raised porch that hugged the building.


“There was a low-ceilinged basement that was hard to stand up in, and the attic was simply storage space,” he says. “We raised the house to make the lowest level usable. It now holds an entry, utilities area and a guest room. The remodeled attic has a taller roofline and six dormers that give it more headroom and make it livable.”



These are big changes that have made a big impact, but that doesn’t mean the old house is gone. Code restrictions said that the porch railing had to be higher and tighter, but the design is a version of what was there. The brackets on top of the columns were simply removed from the old house and reinstalled on the colonnade. What’s new in the design is a little Big Easy flavor.


“My husband and I grew up in New Orleans,” says the owner. “We were inspired by the raised cottages we remembered from childhood.”


The inspiration from that life experience mixed with the simple lines of the old farmhouse to create something unique. “The new house is like a memory of what was there — and of classic Southern architecture and country homes,” Noyes says.


If you say “classic Southern architecture,” many people picture Tara from Gone With the Wind, but that’s not what the owners wanted. Their desire was for a more humble country house, and that’s what led Noyes to select elements like a prerusted corrugated roof. “It gives the house the informality the owners wanted,” he says.



But it’s not just the aesthetic of the former house that was preserved; many of the building materials were reused in the new design — including beadboard panels, which were reinstalled in a dramatic way.


“When we bought the house, the rooms were painted these crazy colors, but we never repainted them,” says the owner. “During the remodel, because we were installing new wiring and plumbing, the contractors had to remove all the boards. They were stacked in the yard, and I was very inspired by them and the mixing of the colors. The idea was that they would be reinstalled and repainted, but when I saw the boards go up at random, I thought, ‘Oh, my God! I love these!’ I decided I wasn’t going to do it.” She let the contractors continue to install them in the totally random pattern that’s on display today (seen here in the media room).


It’s a decision the architect took in stride. “My client has excellent taste,” Noyes says. “She brings interesting ideas to the table — and she has a way of putting things together that shouldn’t work but do.”


Some of those ideas are expressed in her furniture and accessory choices. The donkey is from a classic outdoor Nativity set and was discovered at an antiques store. (“I am the consummate flea market shopper,” says the owner.) The custom sofa is covered in a more exotic equine print (zebra stripes). A low wooden chair is just one of many scattered throughout the house. “I have a chair issue,” the owner allows. “I love chairs with personality.”


See more of this Southern Charm in the California Wine Country


 



Houzz Tour: Southern Charm in the California Wine Country

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