BACKYARD HEAVENLANDSCAPER DREAMS BIG WITHROCK FORMATIONS AND TWOPOOLS IN A TROPICAL SETTING

JULY 2012

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24 COASTAL SAN DIEGO HOMES • JULY 2012 U-T SAN DIEGO

‘GYPSY GIRL’SOPHYCHAFFEESPECIALTOTHE U-T

All it took to bring out theMoroccan flair of a Span-ish-Moorish-style home in

Rancho Santa Fe was about eightmonths of work by skilled crafts-men, custom lighting by an expertthe homeowner called an “Abraca-dabra Man” and tens of thousandsof tiles.Much of that tile came from the

homeowner, who wishes to remainanonymous. Her love of Moroccanstyle prompted her to collect enoughMoroccan tiles, doors, furniture andthe like to fill two storage units.“I have a reputation,” the home-

owner said. “When companies (sell-ing Moroccan goods) move or close,they’ll ask, ‘Do youwant everything?Take it all.’ ”Even with her collection, she con-

siders her team – architect JohnOleinik, builder Paul Davis of DesignConstruction Co. and Jim Gibson ofGibson & Gibson Antique Lighting– to be the real experts and creditsthem with the vision to remodel theapproximately 7,500-square-foothome and guesthouse she shareswith her family.The Moroccan makeover, which

was finished last month, includedtwo bathrooms, the dining room,

TILES AND OTHER FURNISHINGS IMBUE RANCHO SANTA FE HOME WITH MOROCCAN FLAIR

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The Rancho Santa Fe remodel began with a plan to replace the oldFrench doors in the kitchen (top) with 12-foot pocket doors to thebackyard and patio (above). “Everything just snowballed from there,”said the homeowner. PAUL DAVIS PHOTOS

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living room and entry. The kitchen,family room and outdoor courtyardwere redesigned as one open space.

“Their ideas were the scaffoldingthat made it all,” she said. “I maybeadded the jewelry. They dressed it.… They understood I wanted it to bea Moroccan gypsy girl, not a preppy,not a stewardess.”

Oleinik and Davis, meanwhile,called the homeowner the drivingforce of the design. They said sheasked how items from her collectioncould be used.

“We designed the project as wewent along,” Davis said. “It was al-ways a surprise – what was she goingto come up with next?”

The most dramatic changes were inthe new indoor-outdoor great room.The team started by taking out theold French doors to the courtyardand installing two 12-foot lift andslide pocket doors that open to thecourtyard and backyard. (A glassceiling had enclosed the courtyard;the space is now open and features afireplace, fire pit, barbecue and built-in seating area.)

Inside, they opened the area bytaking out the walls that blockedthe kitchen from the breezeway andfamily room. Flooring unifies the in-door and outdoor spaces with a firedceramic tile in an hourglass patternimported from Spain – tile that is car-ried to the rest of the remodel.

“This tile I liked because it was sexy.It looks like a woman’s figure, likeMarilyn Monroe’s,” the homeownersaid.

The area that was the breezewaybetween the kitchen and family roomnow features a zillij wall mosaic setoff by a tiled barrel ceiling and a tile“rug.”

Encinitas ceramic artist LairdPlumleigh crafted the family room’sMoorish fireplace with pierced ce-ramic tile that was left over from thePlaza de Panama fountain he redid inBalboa Park. “To me, it’s like a pieceof history,” the homeowner said.

She wanted that same tile on thebacksplash in the kitchen, which chal-

lenged the team to find the right ma-terial to fill in the latticelike tile andprotect it from the inevitable cook-ing splatters. After a few attempts,they found a material that dries clearwith a slight crackle to it. “It turnedto glass, crystallized glass,” the hom-eowner said. It also has a green tingethat accentuates the green granitecounters.

The teak wood cabinetry in thekitchen and the dining area was in-spired by the homeowner’s diningtable. Indonesian suar wood is usedto top a circular cabinet attached tothe island, as well as for an oblongeat-in kitchen table that juts out from

the island and a circular belly bar inthe family room.

“When I saw (the pieces of suarwood), they were dusty and unfin-ished,” the homeowner said. “Theytold me, ‘When this gets polished, it’sgoing to be like fireworks,’ and theywere right.”

Gibson designed and created thechandelier above the kitchen tableusing the homeowner’s antiqueMoroccan perfume bottles. Knownnationally for replicating antiquefixtures in the White House, Gibsonfashioned other Moroccan fixturesfrom the homeowner’s finds.

The entry and dining area features

Plumleigh’s bright-blue tiles insertedamong the hourglass tiles.

Davis gutted two of the home’s sev-en bathrooms, making them showcas-es for the homeowner’s jewel-tonedMoroccan tiles from her collection.

The homeowner doesn’t know ex-actly how she became enamored ofMoroccan design but thinks it’s thelink to history that compels her col-lecting.

“Anything old with history is muchmore interesting than something new… because it has a story, then you canmake it your story,” she said.

Sophy Chaffee is an Encinitas based writer.

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Jewel-tonedMoroccan tiles from the homeowner’s collection are the centerpiece of the bathroom remodel(left). The zillij wall mosaic, set off by the tiled barrel ceiling, which joins the kitchen and the family room,also came from her collection (right). “I always joke that in a former life I hadMoroccan lover or husband,”the homeowner said. PAUL DAVIS PHOTOS

26 COASTAL SAN DIEGO HOMES • JULY 2012 U-T SAN DIEGO

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