Sonoma Sun FineLife

Architectural elements add character to new hillside home

A textbook case of interior decorating techniques

Bob and Marilyn Smith apparently have a thing for hillsides. They have owned homes in Sausalito and on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais and currently have a house on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill. Two years ago, they began completing their sweep of Bay Area counties by building a country home on the eastern side of the Mayacamas Range, more or less up the hill from Imagery Estate Winery.

Linda Applewhite is a Marin County designer whose mantra is: Never underestimate the potential of rooms with good bones.

It comes as no big surprise that Marilyn Smith ran the Mountain Home Play (the popular series of al fresco musicals at Mt. Tam’s amphitheater) for 27 years. Nor, once one has seen her new home, that for the past 13 years she has led the Art, Architecture and Garden Tour for the Outdoor Art Club in Mill Valley.

Bob Smith is a fan of contemporary architecture, a preference he got to indulge in the Mill Valley residence. But he has more than made his peace with his new digs, which have a distinctly Mediterranean flavor that straddles an aesthetic line between Tuscan and Provencal.

The Smiths were living part-time in Glen Ellen when they found 25 stunning acres high above the valley floor. Their first thought was to remodel – extensively – the existing house. That proved to be a lost cause. Bob describes its style as “tiki hut” and ultimately, the couple decided to raze the place and start from scratch.

Once they were underway, they sought advice from an old friend, Linda Applewhite, a Marin county designer who had previously worked with them on other projects, most recently their inn, the Cottages of Napa, in Yountville.

In addition to an innate aesthetic sense, Applewhite has so many design tricks at her disposal that she has written a new book, “Architectural Interiors: Transforming Your Home with Decorative Structural Elements” (Gibbs, Smith, 2007; $29.95). It is a primer full of practical, affordable ideas for making rooms look bigger, prettier and more interesting.

Her mantra is: Never underestimate the potential of rooms with good bones.

“Don’t start redecorating by picking out a sofa,” she said during a recent tour of the Smiths’ home. “Start by looking at the bones.”

The house in Glen Ellen, which is featured prominently in Applewhite’s book, offers dozens of instances where spaces were infused with character through the use of decorative – rather than structural – architectural elements.

“You can add crown molding yourself – it’s cheap,” said Applewhite. “Decorative is easier to do than structural.”

Working as a team, Applewhite and Marilyn Smith scoured town and country to find the right elements to enhance the 3,200-square-foot home both inside and out. At Ancients in Carmel Valley, they found three stone fountains that now grace the grounds. Pilasters (which are vertical members projecting from a wall, with a base and capital) were unearthed at Chelsea Antiques in Petaluma and other architectural treasures, at Artefact Design & Salvage here in the Sonoma Valley. (“Architectural Interiors” lists five pages of sources, including several for recycled materials.)

For the living room, Marilyn bought 1,300 linear feet of hand-hatched fir that, once sandblasted and stained, were installed as beams. To draw additional attention to the 17-foot ceiling (and to add even more light), clerestory windows were installed high up on one wall. Similar beams were used in the dining room and in a skylit stairwell, to mute its otherwise contemporary appearance.

Sandblasting is one of Applewhite’s favorite techniques. Old bricks imported from England got this treatment before they were installed for radiant-heated flooring in the living room, providing another layer of patina that adds instant character to the space.

Nonbearing columns are another useful tool. In the Smiths’ house, a pair of them were used in lieu of a wall to visually separate the dining room from the kitchen.

“It’s really important to indulge architecture on the inside,” said Applewhite. “These elements add character to tract homes or homes that have been remodeled” to the point of anonymity.

Using arches, nooks, niches, skylights, moldings, newel posts, handrails, over-mantles, texturing and built-in cabinetry with interesting doors can transform an ordinary house into a jaw-dropper. Most of these features are incorporated in the Smiths’ residence, which includes a second floor, where two bedrooms and terraces offer views of olive trees, lavender and other plantings surrounding the structure.

Applewhite, whose projects have been featured in House Beautiful, Travel & Leisure, Sunset Magazine and many other publications, is also a regular on HGTV’s “Sensible Chic” and “Curb Appeal.” Her book, a compendium of practical advice and aesthetic guidance, is also a hardbound illustration of her extraordinarily creative work at the Smiths’ hillside haven in Glen Ellen.