A Japanese-Inspired House Gets a New Lease on Life
Outside the windows of this 1962 Japanese-inspired house in Orinda, California, is a landscape so curated it could almost be a botanical garden. Mature trees, spectacular flowers, and a koi pond complete with an overwater footbridge make up the lush setting designed by the original owners in collaboration with Jon Larson and Carolyn Van Lang of Oakland-based Jarvis Architects. This fantasia is also what sold current homeowners Maya and Konstantin on moving from New York City to the three-building compound in a Bay Area suburb with their family and golden retriever in 2021.
They could see themselves building a life that encouraged spontaneous visits from family and friends and dinner parties, in the house’s large yard, around the pool, and across the open-plan layout. (There was also plenty of room for them to run their individual businesses from home.) The house’s sleekly renovated interior, which skewed quite dark despite its large windows and ample white paint, was more challenging to envision. To match the captivating feel of the surrounding greenery it required a professional’s eye.
“We needed to warm the place up,” says San Francisco designer Lauren Geremia of the AD100 firm Geremia Design, whom Maya convinced during a site tour to tackle the task with help from local contractor Kevin Reimer and landscape designer Studio Mala. Though the garden was certainly special, “I also noticed when I was visiting that they had a really exciting art collection,” Geremia says. Working with art consultant Dan Oglander, Maya and Geremia added works by Claire Tabouret and Nathan Thelen, Jesse Mockrin, and Issy Wood. Using the collection as the “seeds of our inspiration,” and looking to the landscape for the color palette, Geremia transformed the house into an inviting, family-oriented abode for indoor-outdoor living.
Maya and Konstantin approach collecting as patrons, conducting extensive research into an artist’s oeuvre and acquiring all the topical books possible along the way. Geremia’s design is guided by opportunities to feature these beloved works in a residential setting both cozy and kid-friendly. “Maya and I grew up in houses that had a lot of art, and we want our kids to grow up in a similar environment,” explains Konstantin, a tech CEO. To Geremia, a 2022 Danielle Mckinney painting of a woman in a yellow garment from their collection was particularly striking—it became the framework for the buttery primary bedroom, where it now hangs on the curtained wall behind the custom bed and headboard crafted by Andrew Woodside Carter and upholstered in a Dedar floral jacquard. In the light-filled dining room, works by Tala Madani, Wood, Dana Powell, and others gather around the St Vincents table with chairs by Fern and bouclé-upholstered stools by Atelier de Troupe.
Though the couple could agree on art, they had differing opinions on design: Konstantin has a more bohemian aesthetic while Maya likes spaces that feel clean-lined, he reveals. In the home’s communal spaces, Geremia found a compromise in soft color, bold shapes, floral motifs, and lots of natural wood. “She took us a little out of our comfort zone,” says Maya. “I’m so happy we didn’t play it safe.”
Layering textures, materials, and hues creates a “sensual, cinematic” feeling across the rooms, explains the designer, who made some interior architecture changes (an added wall here, a dropped ceiling there) to achieve a more human scale in sweeping spaces like the primary bedroom. She also artfully ended sight lines using furnishings as focal points, like the wall mounted Gio Ponti bookcase in the family room, which shares its space with a blocky Arflex sectional, once white, now a durable floral. Maya and Konstantin had previously consulted with designer Jake Arnold via The Expert on acquiring some indoor and outdoor furniture pieces, a few of which—including the sofa by Studio Giancarlo Valle that centers the living room and its forest-like view, and the aforementioned Arflex piece—Geremia gave new life to with fresh upholstery.
Though the homeowners agree that the interior “exceeds both our design aesthetics,” they each have rooms that feel personal. For Konstantin, Geremia transformed a former barn into an office, where bold green and purple fabrics, dark wood furniture, and artworks by Colleen Herman, Catherine Wagner, and Jonathan Wateridge commune. The light-and-bright primary bathroom with its tiled soaking tub, de Gournay botanical gilded paper screen, and statement pendant from Galerie Meubles et Lumières is Maya’s “sanctuary,” she says, as is her blue limewashed office. (There is also an on-site studio where Maya and her mother collaborate on their shared flower dye and textile business, Hellenius Botanicals.)
Designing a home flexible enough where these regular activities with extended family are possible was an unspoken aim, says Geremia. The couple loves to entertain, and pool parties are frequent, but it’s the unplanned stopovers that excite them. Because the house is located a bit off the beaten path, the designer explains, “they wanted to create community around their home and to make it a destination.”
This Japanese-inspired house appears in AD’s July/August 2024 issue. To see the Californian pad in print, subscribe to AD.
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