Architecture by Dylan Henderson, SALT Architecture; Interior design by Rita Donahoe, Rita Chan Interiors.
Authenticity varies by degree. There’s the period-perfect approach, in which furniture, fabrics and paint color are pegged to a specific time and style. There’s homage, hinting knowingly at a look of the past, but making no commitment to historical accuracy. And then there’s something else altogether, in which honoring the essential identity of a home – beach house, desert adobe, suburban bungalow – is what it’s all about.
When designer Rita Donahoe of Rita Chan Interiors was engaged to aid a Los Angeles-based couple furnish their Santa Ynez getaway – a nondescript, 1970s house transformed into a chic compound by Dylan Henderson of Salt Architecture in Santa Barbara County – she knew immediately that the job required more than some smart shopping. Appreciative of the home’s ranch-like aspect (the previous owners had actually built and restored carriages on the property) and the surrounding acreage (which now includes a vineyard), Donahoe knew she had to tweak the current owners’ taste for the contemporary.
“The home didn’t really feel connected with the land or the Santa Ynez lifestyle,” she notes. Donahoe’s neutral palette is especially effective here, playing as it does with the abundance of natural light pervading the home. Earth tones underscore the fact that the house sits amid five acres in the shadow of the Figueroa Mountains. “We wanted to honor the fact that they had a modern sensibility but push them to something a little more rustic.” Not surprisingly, that did not include hanging a come-and-get-it triangle outside the kitchen.
“We’re not pretending that we’re riding horses and herding sheep,” deadpans Donahoe. “For me, it was all about materials. Leather, reclaimed wood. Paneling, but painted white. And vintage pieces for a rustic charm.”
Sustainability drove Donahoe’s sourcing. “We really tried to make sure we avoided the mass-manufactured, quick-ship scenario. Aside from vintage pieces, almost everything was made-to-order, and most of it was made in Southern California.” Donahoe turned to Nickey Kehoe and Lawson Fenning for key furniture pieces, and Peter Dunham Textiles for upholstery. And she practiced some repurposing on her own, salvaging a workbench from a former shop on the property and using it for a vanity in a guest bathroom. Bringing in a long antique bench to anchor the entryway, and keeping an upright piano the homeowners had thought of jettisoning, all give the home a sense of being well grounded. Teasing out the home’s DNA while deftly avoiding cliché, Donahoe has created sophisticated spaces that express an unmistakable sense of place.
Photography by Gavin Cater.
Architecture by Dylan Henderson/ SALT Architecture.
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