The property has front-row views of Catalina Island, Dana Point headlands and the vast blue ocean and sky. For the team behind a new spec home, the balancing act was maintaining the vistas while providing all the comforts a luxe home should have.
Architect Ryan McDaniel, interior designer Summer Jensen and Ladera Ranch-based builder Genova Construction pulled it off, creating an 8,200-square-foot abode in Dana Point that has it all, including a sense of floating above the watery panorama.
“Genova Construction selected the site because it was a new development for custom homes along the coastline with beach access, which is a rarity here,” says McDaniel, a partner and director of design at Costa Mesa-based Brandon Architects. “The trick was getting all the visual sightlines to the ocean at all times into the house while maintaining privacy with the neighbors.”
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McDaniel developed a three-level floor plan for the site, which slopes down to the street below, allowing a walk-out at a lower level. With living spaces and a pool deck on the main level, the third story includes the primary suite and a balcony, while the first story contains a lounge that opens onto a patio. To solve the challenge of housing four cars on a relatively narrow lot, McDaniel designed what appears to be a two-car garage, but it sits atop a lift system, allowing for a total of four cars to be stored.
McDaniel says the design’s influence was a modernized classic California beach cottage. “It’s a transitional style, with traditional elements like the roofline and shiplap siding,” he explains. However, the black standing-seam roof and steel-framed window walls with thin mullions add contrast and an edgier look. “We deliberately avoided bulky mullions for the glass, which gives the home a jewel-box look,” McDaniel notes. “From the inside, the views are less obstructed.”
Jensen was involved from the planning stages, setting the tone for the interiors that reflected the architecture and appealed to a potential buyer. “With this kind of project, I try to create an idea, a profile of the buyers,” says Jensen, founder of Hawk & Co. in Laguna Beach. “I thought of empty nesters here, who like to entertain and are well traveled. And rather than designing spaces for a lot of TVs, we created areas for large artworks.”
“The floor pattern leads the eye toward the ocean views" - Summer Jensen
The interior designer extended the crisp-white shiplap walls inside, warming things up with pale wood flooring set in a chevron pattern. “The floor pattern leads the eye toward the ocean views,” Jensen points out. “We selected a chevron design as a contrast to the straight lines on the walls.”
Jensen chose the overall color scheme based on the coloration of the views. “We offset the blue hues of the ocean and sky with warmer interior tones, and we used black for contrast,” she says.
The designer used glossy black for accent panels in the kitchen and delineated the cabinetry with slim black lines. The entry hall’s custom light fixture is a series of slender black metal tubes, reiterating the black-line theme.
Other interior details abound, such as the smoked-glass mirror panels cladding the doorways to the back kitchen and reflecting the ocean views and the textured gray brick walls that create a pattern in the lower level along the staircase. In the primary bathroom, floating vanities below mirrored walls create infinite views and reflect the sapphire waters and sky.
“We also tiered the primary bathroom,” Jensen adds. “The book-matched marble shower has a sunken tub at the top level, so you still have a view through the windows at the other end of the space. We didn’t place the tub by the windows because it wouldn’t have been private.”
The interior was staged for marketing purposes by Pacific Staging with contemporary furnishings and modern art by Crime By Design. The look is calm, clean, light-filled and airy. The house was a success and was sold quickly by Arlen Raubach.
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