This casual living room of KIllara House by Nathan Gornall Design offers a more relaxed alternative to the formal areas of the home. This open plan room enjoys painstakingly restored details with a blend of contemporary as well as classical inspired furniture and art pieces. A large custom joinery piece in timber and brass houses all the home owners' tech when not in use.

Stacking doors roll entirely away, blending the open floor plan with outdoor living areas // Image : John Granen Photography, Inc.

Mia Baxter

Peter Murdock

emr photography www.emrphotography.com

The Atherton House is a family compound for a professional couple in the tech industry, and their two teenage children. After living in Singapore, then Hong Kong, and building homes there, they looked forward to continuing their search for a new place to start a life and set down roots. The site is located on Atherton Avenue on a flat, 1 acre lot. The neighboring lots are of a similar size, and are filled with mature planting and gardens. The brief on this site was to create a house that would comfortably accommodate the busy lives of each of the family members, as well as provide opportunities for wonder and awe. Views on the site are internal. Our goal was to create an indoor- outdoor home that embraced the benign California climate. The building was conceived as a classic “H” plan with two wings attached by a double height entertaining space. The “H” shape allows for alcoves of the yard to be embraced by the mass of the building, creating different types of exterior space. The two wings of the home provide some sense of enclosure and privacy along the side property lines. The south wing contains three bedroom suites at the second level, as well as laundry. At the first level there is a guest suite facing east, powder room and a Library facing west. The north wing is entirely given over to the Primary suite at the top level, including the main bedroom, dressing and bathroom. The bedroom opens out to a roof terrace to the west, overlooking a pool and courtyard below. At the ground floor, the north wing contains the family room, kitchen and dining room. The family room and dining room each have pocketing sliding glass doors that dissolve the boundary between inside and outside. Connecting the wings is a double high living space meant to be comfortable, delightful and awe-inspiring. A custom fabricated two story circular stair of steel and glass connects the upper level to the main level, and down to the basement “lounge” below. An acrylic and steel bridge begins near one end of the stair landing and flies 40 feet to the children’s bedroom wing. People going about their day moving through the stair and bridge become both observed and observer. The front (EAST) wall is the all important receiving place for guests and family alike. There the interplay between yin and yang, weathering steel and the mature olive tree, empower the entrance. Most other materials are white and pure. The mechanical systems are efficiently combined hydronic heating and cooling, with no forced air required.

Game Room of Newport Home.

This new house is located in a quiet residential neighborhood developed in the 1920’s, that is in transition, with new larger homes replacing the original modest-sized homes. The house is designed to be harmonious with its traditional neighbors, with divided lite windows, and hip roofs. The roofline of the shingled house steps down with the sloping property, keeping the house in scale with the neighborhood. The interior of the great room is oriented around a massive double-sided chimney, and opens to the south to an outdoor stone terrace and garden. Photo by: Nat Rea Photography

Custom 2-tone Black Walnut floating shelves with integrated LED lighting for TV entertainment center with space for ottoman storage

Bertrand Frompeyrine

hot rolled steel at fireplace • cypress Tex-Gap at TV surround • 80" television • reclaimed barn wood beams • Benjamin Moore hc 170 "stonington gray" paint in eggshell at walls • LED lighting along beam • Ergon Wood Talk Series 9 x 36 floor tile • photography by Paul Finkel 2017

Photography: Liz Glasgow