When remodeling a house, architects are tasked with fixing or altering a preceding architect’s layout. For Bill Willers that preceding architect turned out to be himself. In 2002 he completely renovated and added on to a 1966 Sea Ranch–fashion home in Sonoma, California, for a set of clients whose conventional style included granite countertops, distressed stone tile and Crafts–style light fixtures. Nearly a decade later, those clients moved out and the home’s new owners approached Willers to remodel the distance to their requirements.
This time Willers and his clients chose finishes he hopes will last through design tendencies. “This way the insides have longevity and timelessness,” he says. “Light, openness, sense of distance — these things define really good architecture no matter what finishes are. If finishes help that, then it helps the whole thing endure.”
at a Glance
Who resides: A investment banker and a potter
Location: Sonoma, California
Size: Around 3,200 square feet; 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
Before Photo
Marcus & Willers Architects
BEFORE: The home was built in 1966. During that time design company Moore, Lyndon, Turnbull and Whitaker (MLTW) was developing an enclave along the Sonoma coast that would reflect the San Francisco Bay Area’s traditional architecture as well as make a fresh modern language of style.
The company basically used this project as a prototype for other Sea Ranch homes close to the shore. This inland layout, nevertheless, had altered attributes — such as multiple porches — not found close to the foggy, windy sea.
From the late 1960s, the vertical-grain, old-growth redwood exterior was painted gray to cover up the weathered timber, much to the dismay of Willers. “It was sort of the oddest case,” he says. “They had a naturally aged building, and they painted it the color that it essentially was, just they eliminated the personality to the house and ruined the opportunity to refurbish the timber.”
Before Photo
Marcus & Willers Architects
In 2002 Willers essentially had the arrangement taken down to its claws, then altered the space to open up the primary volume of the interior, to bring in more light.
Marcus & Willers Architects
Old-growth, vertical-grain redwood siding was added back in 2002, as was a main bedroom plus two-car garage addition. In 2011 new owners he is in finance; she’s a potter — kept the redwood siding and the layout of the home intact, but reached out to Willers to assist them update the insides and totally redo all the landscaping to make something low maintenance and water sensitive.
Landscaping: Developed by Rozanski Design
Marcus & Willers Architects
AFTER: Inside Willers removed materials that was added in 2002, changed the interior colors and reworked the bathroom to make it more contemporary. Corner windows in the living area replaced sliding glass doors which were original to the home and had made defining the sitting room difficult. By adding corner windows, he didn’t lose the light or views of the mature pine trees. He then added a skylight to bring in the canopy of these oak trees.
Willers also eliminated the ceiling to open the distance to the full spatial elevation and then expose the rafters.
Sofa, chairs, carpet: Room & Board; table: J. Grigg
Marcus & Willers Architects
There are numerous loft-like spaces inside the house the previous homeowners had attached ladders to so that their kids could climb and perform. The current homeowners eliminated the ladders and are looking for art to occupy the spaces.
The fireplace is unique to the home. The two-sided design divides the living and dining rooms. The original redwood box stays, but the terra-cotta tile was replaced. It was bigger, extending up to the ceiling. Willers took the box down around the chimney and had a aluminum surround designed for reflection and color, but also to visually open up the distance.
Marcus & Willers Architects
The current homeowners painted the ceiling and walls Benjamin Moore’s Cloud White. “It is one of those chicks that is like a chameleon,” Willers says. “It changes its colour based on ambient light being given. It is always changing the mood of this room. It is a wonderful white due to that.”
The ceiling is standard 2-by-8 Douglas fir framing, but instead of the typical 16 inches apart, the beams are 8 inches apart. “The shift in that frequency carries it outside the standard guts of a house into a pattern that is more rhythmic and delicate,” Willers says.
The floors are Brazilian cherry, and the trim is American cherry.
Marcus & Willers Architects
With such high ceilings, figuring out a light strategy was tough. Willers needed to bring light to the seating areas without having a lot of lights hanging down. “If you hang on a lot of fixtures, you start to clutter the visual space,” he says. The space gets lots of light throughout the daytime, but at night it becomes dark and cavernous. So he included custom dimmable LED tape cove light to throw a great wash on the ceiling and walls.
He then generated framing boxes for LED can lighting as a form of recessed lighting placed into the exposed rafters.
The table and chairs were made by Amish craftsmen in Indiana and bought at Fenton MacLaren at Berkeley, California.
Light: Room & Board
Marcus & Willers Architects
In the kitchen more contemporary updates incorporate white precast concrete countertops. “You walk around it and you really don’t understand what it is, but it’s a feeling of permanence, a quality that is inherent,” Willers says.
His very first group of clients “had an Arts and Crafts–fashion ceiling fixture hanging from everywhere you see a light box,” Willers says. “This gives you a feeling of difference between the first and second clients. Granite countertops and distressed stone tile were tendencies in the late ’90s, early 2000s, but they are also markers in time of specific design tendencies. They era quickly, since you can pick them out.”
Counters: Sonoma Stone; Shade: Pottery Barn
Marcus & Willers Architects
Marcus & Willers Architects
The main bedroom sits over the garage. A top window frames the pine trees which line the border of the house. French doors open to a balcony which overlooks the front yard.
Mattress: Room & Board; torso: The Zentner Collection; bedding: habit
Marcus & Willers Architects
Willers completely renovated the main bathroom. Blizzard-white Caesarstone countertops with a touch of sparkle set a neutral background that brightens the space without challenging current tendencies.
Marcus & Willers Architects
He shifted the countertops and fittings in the guest bathroom, too, but kept the custom-made American cherry cabinets from his first clients.
Marcus & Willers Architects
Another loft-like space stays above a guest room closet.
Mattress: Fenton MacLaren; lamps, side table: HD Buttercup
Marcus & Willers Architects
Because this guest area faces to the north, it initially received hardly any sun. Clerestory windows pull in sunlight by a hallway skylight.
Bed: Fenton MacLaren; torso: The Zentner Collection
Marcus & Willers Architects
Willers replaced a bench window with French doors, eliminated a wall’s bookshelves and also added a corner window to connect the distance together with the outside.
Chairs: Crate & Barrel; bench: Pottery Barn
Marcus & Willers Architects
The original homeowners had added a huge pool in the 1960s that took up half the garden. Willers’ first group of clients had it is buried by him . So he included one, his customers wanted a lap pool for practice.
Marcus & Willers Architects
Canopy: Steel Geisha Designs; sectional: Wicker Central
Marcus & Willers Architects
Marcus & Willers Architects
Willers designed the landscaping, even while Rozanski Design built the final look.
Chairs: Sonoma Backyard
Marcus & Willers Architects
Corner windows frame the new lush green landscaping.
Chairs: Villa Terrazza
Marcus & Willers Architects
So just how does it feel to remodel the exact same house nearly a decade after? “It is the nature of what we do,” Willers says. “At least we are not utilizing brand-new floor to make another house and a different pool. On one hand you’re remaking something for a customer’s particular set of needs, which is obviously what we do. Occasionally it’s from the ground up on bare soil. A lot of the time we take existing buildings and hang on to redeeming attributes,” he says. “It is difficult to observe an entire house being pulled apart and thrown off, so to speak. In this home’s current version it’ll be around for a little while.”
General contractor: Gracie Construction
Landscaping: Developed by Rozanski Design