When crafting a custom home, most clients are armed with aspirational images and a few ideas about floorplans and details. However, for a recent new build in Newport Beach completed by Brandon Architects, Morrison Interiors, and Patterson Custom Homes, the clients came to initial meetings with well-thought-out lists. They detailed everything from the need for bathroom medicine cabinets and the dimensions of the artwork they wanted to include in the new house to where to hang wet suits after a day of surfing.
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“They came to us with a multi-page document of what they wanted in their new home,” says architect Chris Brandon of the clients, a couple with three children. “They were very easy-going, but they knew exactly how they wanted to live in this house. It was helpful in terms of the design.” Interior designer Rachel Morrison agrees, noting that “they had tons of goals for this home, right down to how the floorplan would work. They put so many thoughts and goals into this project that we called it ‘House of a Thousand Dreams.’”
This dream home had its origins when the couple admired a friend’s house, done by the same design/build team, and opted to work with the group on a property they acquired at the edge of a canyon in a golf course community. “This was a relatively easy project,” says builder Andrew Patterson, whose firm is based in Newport Beach. “There had been some site work on the lot for a home that was never built, and the construction access was good because it was on a cul-de-sac. A major priority for the house was building with low-maintenance materials, such as stone, plaster and metal, which also made the abode fire-resistant, as it was built next to a canyon.”
Working with the owners, architect Brandon, who is based in Costa Mesa, crafted a two-level, 9,000-square-foot plan that opted out of a front yard, instead angling the main house and a freestanding casita around a front courtyard and leaving the back of the house open to views of the canyon and golf course. Brandon placed the living area, kitchen, bar, dining room and media lounge on the main level, including his and her offices and a home gym. Upstairs, a primary suite takes up one wing, while secondary bedrooms and a children’s lounge occupy the other wing.
The architectural design was inspired by the surrounding homes. “This is an older neighborhood, with most of the houses dating to the 1970s and ‘80s,” Brandon says. “We didn’t want to do anything super modern, so we used a more
transitional approach to the architecture.” The architect melded traditional roof forms with horizontal lines and extended eaves, using pale plaster and limestone cladding for walls and contrasting with the dark hues of the standing-seam metal roof and metal-framed windows.
Except for the upper-level bedrooms, the house presents a blank face to the street, while walls of glass open to the private entry courtyard and rear pool patio. “You can open up the window walls in the casita and the main house and see all the way through to the back,” Brandon points out.
The homeowners opted for new furnishings and accessories for the interiors, bringing only family mementos and colorful contemporary art from their previous residence, notes Morrison, whose mother-in-law founded the Costa Mesa design firm some 20 years ago. “The owners wanted a fun, approachable interior,” says the designer. “They love color and texture, so those were our starting points. The construction palette was pretty neutral, with the limestone carrying into the interior, so we decided to play up the darker contrasts with some of our details.”
Working with a backdrop that included honey-toned European oak flooring and rift-sawn white oak custom cabinetry and millwork, Morrison and her team sought furnishings that matched the owners’ contemporary aesthetics and lifestyle.
For the living room, she suggested a simple sofa and two pairs of armchairs rather than a large sectional. “Sectionals are for family life,” she remarks. “But for entertaining and conversations, people will always gravitate toward chairs.” Eschewing symmetry, Morrison chose a pair of traditional leather armchairs contrasted by another pair bearing mid-century lines and patterned upholstery.
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A long, dark wood table in the dining room can accommodate 10 on the Danish, modern-inspired chairs that bear cushy upholstery and encourage long, lingering meals. Upstairs in the primary bedroom, the space is large enough for two swivel chairs that have canyon views out the window and for a loveseat to have a spot at the end of the bed, which is framed by a headboard wall done in a textured wall covering.
A long, dark wood table in the dining room can accommodate 10 on the Danish, modern-inspired chairs that bear cushy upholstery and encourage long, lingering meals. Upstairs in the primary bedroom, the space is large enough for two swivel chairs that have canyon views out the window and for a loveseat to have a spot at the end of the bed, which is framed by a headboard wall done in a textured wall covering.
Morrison also detailed the home with unique touches, such as the glass and steel light fixture in the entry that illuminates Brandon’s sculptural staircase design. “It took five people to place and hang the light fixture,” laughs Morrison. “We were directing each piece down to the inch.”
In the living room, dramatically dark textured tile surrounds the fireplace—a showstopper builder Patterson says was a challenge to install. “It took us weeks to grout because the tiles were so angular and rigid,” he recalls. In addition to touches of eye-catching tile, the interior designer also brought in richly veined stone slabs to add a touch of nature to the setting, choosing to clad the two-level kitchen island in a quartzite bearing blue, gray and black veining and adding more stone to the back of shelving that flanks the living room fireplace.
Even the home gym has the designer’s touch. “This gym wasn’t just ‘let’s throw some mats on the floor,’” Morrison points out. “We did a felt-paneled ceiling inset with linear lighting with varied lengths and placements.”
Once the house was complete, the furnishings were placed, and the artwork was hung. The home affords the family the spaces they have dreamed about and an indoor-outdoor lifestyle with privacy. Says Patterson, “This house is meant to be a clean design with an art gallery vibe. There’s not a lot of fussy stuff here. It’s all about the house itself.”
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