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Historic California Farmhouse Remodeled for Modern Living
Designers update an 1897 Petaluma family home while maintaining its charm
Back when the Sonoma County town of Petaluma was known as the “egg basket of the world,” this house was the base of a chicken farming operation. Located on a hill overlooking the town’s main street, the house now belongs to a blended family of five and was recently fully modernized, overseen by the team at MAD Architecture. Despite all the amenities, such as an integrated sound system and full-house water filtration, it stays true to its Victorian farmhouse charm. “We made it into something really cool and convenient: tech meets homesteading,” architect Mary Dooley says.
Before: Here’s what the home looked like during the renovation. When it was the farmhouse for a chicken farming operation, the property had coops, livestock and a pasture surrounded by oak trees. The palm tree in front is original. The home had a root cellar, which the construction team dug into to create an additional 1,000 square feet of space for a laundry room, media room, billiard room, bathroom and large storage area. Located just outside the historic district, the home is still considered historically significant.
The construction crew removed a wall between the living room and dining room to open things up, revealing newfound charm with windows of different sizes and dimensions. Like most Victorians, the home had a compartmentalized layout of small rooms, along with windows of varying dimensions. “One of the challenges was, it being of historic significance, we couldn’t move or change the windows or sizes, which adds a little charm to the place, so you’ll see different-sized windows,” Dooley says. If the home had been built today, the windows would have been consistent in size, she says.
Wall paint: Decorator’s White, Benjamin Moore
Wall paint: Decorator’s White, Benjamin Moore
The kitchen evolved as a group effort between the architects and homeowners. “It was really designed together, a real partnership,” Dooley says. Two of the must-have elements for the couple were the Lacanche range and the soft blue Heath tiles for the wall. “It’s a gorgeous French gas range and we painstakingly eliminated different colors,” Dooley says. They ended up with a sky blue called Armor to complement the tile.
The third must-have in the kitchen for the husband was lower wood cabinets with a high-gloss lacquer finish and micro-radius edges. Rather than continuing the glossy white cabinetry, the refrigerator is seamlessly hidden in tall Douglas fir cabinets, which continue over the quartz counters, “to keep it from looking too much like a laboratory,” Dooley says.
Open cabinets and shelving for dishes and spices break up the blue tiles above the stark white lower cabinets. Rolled cabinet pulls and gray quartz counters punctuate the palette.
Dooley calls the kitchen island “a real workhorse.” A waterfall quartz counter wraps down the back end. One side has “pullout everything,” she says: trash, compost, recyclables. There’s open cabinet storage on the other side, along with popup outlets for electronics.
The custom Douglas fir cabinets extend from the kitchen into the living room, delineating the spaces while keeping them connected. “My role, besides the details, was to tie the living room into the kitchen with the vertical-grain fir, wrapping it from the entry to the kitchen,” Dooley says.
The custom Douglas fir cabinets extend from the kitchen into the living room, delineating the spaces while keeping them connected. “My role, besides the details, was to tie the living room into the kitchen with the vertical-grain fir, wrapping it from the entry to the kitchen,” Dooley says.
Here’s a look at the new floor plan. The lower level originally sloped down from the front to the back of the property. Digging it out created a full-height, livable space. The main-level diagram shows how removing a wall between the living and dining rooms created openness. “There was a need to have a family hub, which an old Victorian doesn’t have, so it’s why we had to open things up,” Dooley says. “There was a need to give the kids as much autonomy as possible.”
This is the parlor, adjacent to the master bedroom and used mostly by the parents as a card and game room. The design team kept the tin ceiling to honor the home’s Victorian roots and freshened it up by scraping and buffing it. They used classic muted tones from Benjamin Moore for the room’s paint. The built-in library cabinet is a velvety gray-blue called Night Train; the walls are painted Smoky Green and the wainscoting is Mount Saint Anne.
The master bathroom is pure 21st century, with a floating vanity, freestanding tub and a wall with elongated hexagonal Italian porcelain tile in matte white. The 12-by-24-inch floor tiles are brushed-concrete-look porcelain from Daltile. The team built the tall cabinet to match the wall-mounted vanity.
Floor tile: RevoTile in Power Grey, Daltile; wall paint: Hazy Skies, Benjamin Moore
Floor tile: RevoTile in Power Grey, Daltile; wall paint: Hazy Skies, Benjamin Moore
Perhaps the home’s most striking new feature is the custom steel-and-walnut staircase that links the three levels, seen here on the main level with a peek into the powder room. Designed by architect Chris Lynch, it was the project’s “big architectural move,” Dooley says. “It’s a piece of art designed by Chris and fabricated by a really good metal fabricator in town” — Spaulding Metals in Petaluma.
The floating stairway was constructed of vertical steel rails, an angular walnut handrail and airy walnut tread open risers.
Here’s a view from the upper level looking down the dramatic staircase. A skylight spills light down through it.
Light floods the top of the staircase, accentuated by a modern pendant light from Danish lighting manufacturer Louis Poulsen. Along with the flow of materials throughout the house, Dooley considered the use of lighting. “We had fun with the lighting and thought of it as jewelry,” she says. A peek inside one of the bedrooms reveals more fun lighting and existing wooden collar ties that connect visually to the walnut staircase rail.
The daughter’s bedroom features original collar ties on the ceiling, which were revealed when the ceiling was opened during the renovation. “Once opened up, we didn’t want a flat ceiling. We wanted as much height as possible,” Dooley says. “We did this in all the kids’ bedrooms.”
Wall paint (in all bedrooms): Titanium, Benjamin Moore
Wall paint (in all bedrooms): Titanium, Benjamin Moore
Watery blue hexagonal floor tiles enliven this wet-room-style bathroom used by the daughter. Light from a new skylight pours onto the slipper tub. The space also includes a shower and prefab vanity.
This is another of the children’s rooms, brightened by another skylight added by the architects and accented with one of the original collar ties.
Another of the kids’ rooms features the original collar ties, in keeping with the home’s simple vintage character.
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House at a Glance
Who lives here: A blended family of two parents and three children (a daughter and two sons)
Location: Petaluma, California
Size: 3,500 square feet (325 square meters); five bedrooms, 4½ bathrooms
Designers: Chris Lynch (lead architect) and Mary Dooley (interior architect) of MAD Architecture; Sandra Reed of ZAC Landscape Architects (landscape architect)
Contractor: Jacobs Classic Construction
The home, built in 1897, was in poor condition when the couple bought it, so the crew at Jacobs Classic Construction made repairs and spiffed up the exterior while respecting its vintage character. In that vein of melding old with new, they restored and painted the original door a bold chartreuse from Benjamin Moore. And when the team redid the roof, it used asphalt shingles, like the original, but in modern-day diamond shapes.
The construction crew and architects at MAD Architecture also gave the interior a big makeover. “The plan was to open it all up as much as possible in the living spaces, maintaining a little Victorian charm in the entry and the parlor, and make the rest of the house completely modern,” Dooley says. “It uses contemporary language throughout. It’s warm California modern — friendly, not stark.”
Exterior paint (all by Benjamin Moore): siding, Winter White; window sashes, Hale Navy; porch ceiling, White Satin; front door, Olive Tree