A 1974-era coastal contemporary home in Stinson Beach held undeniable allure for a couple with three teenage girls looking for a vacation property near their primary San Francisco residence. Among its assets, it offered a prime beachfront location, soaring ceilings in the main living area and plenty of space at close to 3,300 square feet.
The house also had its drawbacks, however. It had been remodeled several times over the years, resulting in haphazard additions — not to mention that the fixtures and finishes had become dated. Looking to transform the property into an entertaining-ready coastal retreat, the family hired a team that included Eichler Davies Architecture, Redmond Aldrich Design, Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture and Mat Pel Builders.
“The house was all chopped up and didn’t have a sense of openness or a good flow,” recalls Eric Davies, principal at San Francisco-based Eichler Davies Architecture. For example, in the primary suite, a sunroom-like sitting area at the front of the bedroom facing the ocean was unbearably hot, rendering the space virtually unusable. The kitchen and dining area were cramped, while the bumped-out entryway was unnecessarily large. In addition, two small guest rooms, an awkwardly sited sitting room, and a large bedroom with an ensuite bathroom could only be accessed by way of a long, dark interior hallway.
To improve the home’s functionality and flow, Davies both added and subtracted square footage from the jumbled layout. “Net was actually a 19-square-foot reduction,” he says.
First, he tackled the hallway, which bordered a large interior courtyard, coming up with an unconventional but game-changing solution inspired by classic 1960s-era motel design. “The idea came pretty quickly,” he says. “We thought, ‘what if we just get rid of the hallway?’” The move enabled the team to enlarge the guest bedrooms and provide each one with an ensuite bathroom. The large bedroom at the end of the hall would become a bunk room for the couple’s teenage daughters. The rooms, now filled with natural light, are accessed via the serene interior courtyard. “It’s still like a house but you really feel like you’re on vacation,” Davies says.
Davies also squared off the boxy exterior walls of the kitchen and entrance to optimize the layout of the great room. As a result, he was able to enlarge and reconfigure the kitchen and dining area, and create a functional drop zone for shoes and coats. Wide, pocketing doors now open from the kitchen to the interior courtyard and glass NanaWall doors in the dining room open to the opposite beachfront side of the home.
In the primary bedroom, Davies removed the heat-inducing skylights and shifted the bedroom into the space formerly occupied by the sitting room to accommodate a generous dressing area and ensuite bathroom at the opposite end. Operable glazed panels in the bathroom reveal ocean views from the bathtub.
When it came time to dig into furniture, finishes and functional design, Chloe Redmond Warner, founder and principal of Berkeley-based Redmond Aldrich Design, imbued each space with a “beachy, Scandinavian, collected feeling.” “We had a wonderful time layering textures and lighter shades to create depth and character without a lot of visual busyness,” she says.
Surrounded by sand dunes with views of the sea, the great room is designed for the family and their guests to gather, socialize and appreciate the scenery. The living room is furnished with plenty of seating: a custom sectional from Cisco Home, a swivel armchair from Lawson-Fenning, ottomans from Nickey Kehoe and several built-in bench seats. “The windows are so gorgeous that we wanted to provide as many opportunities as we could for perching and reading while facing the ocean and dunes,” Warner says.
The kitchen features creamy-white painted cabinetry designed by Andrew Jacobson Design with open upper shelving. “In a weekend house where guests are likely to open cabinets looking for mugs, it’s nice to have things displayed,” Warner says. Additional design details include a raised counter that conceals the worktop from the view of people who are sitting at the island, honed soapstone countertops, a Waterworks tile backsplash and hardware, and a sconce from the Urban Electric Co.
Highlights in the dining room include a folding wood table from Rose Uniacke, oak Guillerme et Chambron dining chairs procured from 1st Dibs, a Soane Britain console, artwork by Rana Begum and a Roman and Williams Guild pendant. Throughout the great room, wood planking imbues the spaces with warmth and character, while the primary suite, located adjacent to this space, complements the aesthetic with muted hues and soft textures.
The guest suites, meanwhile, are simply furnished — per the clients’ request — but each features bespoke accents including a mix of vintage and new light fixtures and luxurious linens. “They’re like a good hotel room, where there’s a bed, desk, chair, armoire and not too much else,” Warner says. “The clients didn’t imagine guests huddling away in their room; the idea is that they’ll spend most of their time in the public spaces of the home.” Beyond the guest suites, the bunk room sleeps 10, outfitted with two custom bunks, a built-in window-seat couch created with two single bed-size cushions, and an ensuite bathroom and dressing area.
Outdoors, San Francisco-based Scott Lewis Landscape Architecture transformed the property’s cement-covered landscaping into a series of integrated terraces with waterwise, pollinator-friendly plantings, while Warner furnished each zone to enhance its appeal. “The outdoor spaces are meant to serve as extensions of the home, with areas for casual gathering, dining, relaxation and play,” explains firm principal Scott Lewis.
Ascending from terrace to terrace progressively reveals dramatic vistas, and each space offers a distinct experience. Only a glimpse of the home is visible from the lower garden near the property’s entrance, where a boules court (a French game similar to bocce) artfully conceals a septic leach field. The views begin to unfold mid-level on the thermally treated ash deck, which features a circular Alaskan yellow cedar hot tub. Finally, an expansive view to the sea is revealed through the house’s windows upon reaching the bluestone-paved upper courtyard, which encompasses a fire pit, kitchen garden and dining area.
Behind the house, the landscaping blends harmoniously with the surrounding dunes, gradually giving way to the beach and ocean waves beyond. Says Lewis, “The waving grasses evoke the beachside dunes; the sandy flooring of the courtyard seating area viscerally ties to the beach; and the subdued color tones of the sand, gravel, wood and stone all blend with the wider landscape.”
Lotus Abrams has covered everything from beauty to business to tech in her editorial career, but it might be writing about her native Bay Area that inspires her most. She lives with her husband and two daughters in the San Francisco Peninsula, where they enjoy spending time outdoors at the area’s many open spaces protected and preserved by her favorite local nonprofit, the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
