May 15, 2018 By Ingrid Abramovitch Elle Decor
I’ve always been a fan of Wes Anderson. His movie sets are reimagined, hyper-real versions of places that exist in our memory. That’s the kind of setting I was trying to create when my longtime clients purchased an extraordinary 600-acre property in Sonoma Valley, complete with a farm, vineyards, and a natural lake.
I live in San Francisco, where I work with a lot of interesting folks, many from the tech world. Sometimes they are dreamers, and, indeed, there is something Citizen Kane–like about this compound, which incorporates a Japanese teahouse, a hidden pub, a boathouse, and a cabin that used to be a stop on the Pony Express.
But the cornerstone of the whole property is the four-story lake house, which was designed to accommodate the couple, who are tech entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and their three children, along with a revolving cast of visitors and friends. It was inspired by those wonderful Northern California Victorian resorts—places like Indian Springs in Calistoga and White Sulphur Springs in St. Helena, where people used to go to seek refuge or take the waters.
Just getting to this house provides a sense of discovery. You start down a long and winding drive, traverse the rugged terrain, and then descend a hill until the lake and house come into view like a mirage. A door on the side of the house leads into a bright-blue reception room that acts as a lobby. There is a check- in desk with a bell, and behind it, little boxes that hold the keys to each of the nine bedroom suites.
From here, one emerges into a double-height salon with a saloon-like bar and a mezzanine, where you can look down on the action. It has a real Old West quality to it. There is also a disco ball that drops from the ceiling for dance parties, and even a house drink that I created—a mezcalita, which is like a margarita with a big dose of mescal and a mix of salt, sugar, and cayenne on the rim. It tastes a bit like a barbecue-flavored potato chip.
The house took more than three years to build. We teamed with Ken Linsteadt, who is a great architect as well as an artist and a real romantic. He still draws everything by hand. And this house is admittedly a bit of a folly. But it is serious in that it is beautifully constructed and designed to be timeless and enduring.
I do think I might have scared him a little bit when I announced I was planning to install two levels of green floral fabric on the walls of the grand salon. Or when I painted all the millwork in the lobby a Chinese blue, along with the ceiling. Ken’s eyes would get wide with every crazy idea, but then he would just smile and go along. We have worked together before, and there’s a level of trust.
The kitchen was designed to be a Downton Abbey moment. It’s all white, with a swinging door, a huge pantry, and a big, black La Cornue range. It’s very purposefully located at the back of the house. Nowadays, everyone seems to want an open kitchen, but this is a hardworking space, where meals are being prepared for up to 20 people, so it made sense to contain it. You can still pop in and put a finger in the icing, but it is not a place for hanging out.
Upstairs, each of the nine bedrooms is different and furnished with a combination of found and modern pieces. The master bedroom’s walls are hand-painted with gray-trunked, blue-leafed trees by our in-house muralist, Rafael Arana. The views outside the windows have a bucolic, painterly quality, and I was trying to bring that feeling inside. Every bathroom is also unique—some have deep soaking tubs, others have rain showers. And of course, the rooms are stocked with every amenity I could think of, from the right shampoos, soaps, and scents to bathrobes and slippers by the beds.
To me, the secret sauce in fashioning a getaway is to combine elements that evoke warm, fuzzy feelings and memories—whether or not we have actually experienced them before.
This story was originally published in the June 2018 issue of ELLE Decor.