S E P T E M B E R / O C TO B E R 2 0 1 4 41 The front of the dining room opens to the kitchen, and the kitchen up to the living room area. Filled with eclectic artwork and furnishings, housed by the simple bones of a cottage, the feeling is at once both casual and posh. Often cottage interiors can feel dark, but inside this house it’s light and bright. The new addition (the living room area) has a tall, pitched ceiling with a bank of windows and doors that open onto a walledin patio. To provide natural illumination and privacy from the neighboring house, Dan and Emanuel installed an eight-foot-tall translucent glass wall with bamboo in front. It looks like a chic, pared-down version of a jungle, complete with a sculptural giraffe camouflaged amongst the snakeskin bamboo that towers twenty feet in the air! The most used entrance to the house is the back door. Its opening is draped in outdoor curtains, revealing a mudroom, a practical place to remove muddy garden shoes. The yard, a long strip of grass, looks longer than it actually is. This visual trick is created by the addition of two rows of decomposed granite on either side. A transportable chicken cage moves the chicken headquarters to different parts of the yard, allowing the hens to both eat and fertilize the ground they occupy. I discover that roaming chickens are a natural substitute for a lawn mower! A merging of garden and home continues in the master bedroom. This pared-down room, with its white walls and painted white wood floors, is the perfect canvas for the verdant view. A row of French doors leads off from the bedroom to an outdoor deck and the gardens beyond. The three of us gather in the kitchen. While I sit at the bar asking questions about the house and garden, Emanuel whips together lunch, which includes fresh kale from the vegetable garden, blended into a semi-raw soup made with coconut milk, red quinoa, and almond and sesame meal. “What elements of design have you incorporated into the house?” I ask Dan. He smiles and says, “Well, I like stripes.” Black and white stripes are a theme beginning in the kitchen, with striped dishware and placemats, to the patio painted in black and white stripes, to striped pillows in the living room, followed out into the garden with black and white, striped outdoor curtains (which give the illusion of a veranda, but instead stylishly conceal a fence). “I’m curious—did you both agree on the decisions made in the progress of the house, or did you argue over certain things?” Emanuel answers immediately, “No, we did not argue. We trust each other. That’s his job as an interior designer and that’s my job as a garden landscaper.” In the end, they both did a brilliant job and the house, as a result, feels harmonious indeed. Visit Indra Fortney at Boho Lifestyle 1238 First Street in downtown Napa www.shopboholifesyle.com Living room area Master bedroom with outdoor deck
NVLife_SeptOct_2014
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