Heavenly Proportions

A Haven of
Heavenly Proportions
BY CHERI RAE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY CIRO COELHO
Styled by Carole Magness
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Only from the heart can you touch the sky. — RUMI
THIS TALL, STATELY ENGLISH ARTS AND CRAFTS-STYLE
FARMHOUSE stands on a formidable hill, high above the city,
with its steeply pitched roof soaring skyward in intriguing
contrast to the nearby neighborhood of low-slung bungalows
settled into the earth.
It’s the first home designed by Wallace Neff, long before he
became the architect to elite Hollywood stars of the day. His
clients of the silver screen included the Marx Brothers, Douglas
Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Paulette
Goddard, and legendary directors King Vidor and Darryl Zanuck.
But his first client was his most important one—his mother.
In 1919, 24-year-old Neff, who studied architecture at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the legendary
Ralph Adams Cram, had not yet earned his architectural license.
But his strong-willed mother wanted her son to become an
architect, and she had the perfect project for him—a summer
home in Santa Barbara.
Neff teamed with local architect William Edwards for this
important commission and drew on his knowledge of European
and Gothic-inspired architecture to create this brilliantly simple
and cozy English farmhouse-style getaway for Nannie Neff, who
was the daughter of Rand-McNally Corporation founder
Andrew McNally.
A 1921 California Southland feature reports, “Throughout
the construction an endeavor was made to reduce the architecture to its simplest form; moldings, cornices and all forms
of ornamentation were omitted, leaving merely an organic
structure where each member has a definite purpose in the
construction.”
Nearly a century after construction, it remains as it was
built—simple, organic, purposeful.
Today, this architectural treasure is in the hands of Carole
and Clif Magness, who live simply in a gentle retreat that
seems to float above it all. Carole notes, “We feel so privileged to be stewards of this home, with its footprint
unchanged, a real rarity in a home of this era.”
This is a house that found them a couple of years ago
when the couple wanted to purchase a getaway from their
home in Portland. They were in the market for a place in
Santa Barbara to “escape the rain and get some sun,” as
Carole puts it. The last thing they expected was to take on a
major design, renovation and landscaping project of an historically significant home.
“We passed right by it,” she admits. “There was so much
outside overgrowth, you really couldn’t see what was there.
But we got a glimpse of the roofline, and we were just kind
of silenced.”
When the couple arranged to see the home the next day,
Left: This beautiful family-style Swedish antique dining table and chairs is from Country House Antiques in Montecito, one of Carole Magness’s
favorite local treasure haunts. Opening: A selection of goat cheeses from C'est Cheese, where Carole says they lunch far too often, complements
gorgeous Seletti glassware, handmade in Italy, from Upstairs at Pierre LaFond.
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Carole recalls, “I was overcome with the feeling that the house
just needed me. It wasn’t in our price range or at all what we
were looking for, but there it was. Maybe it sounds clichéd, and it
certainly made no sense—it’s not a reasonable thing—but as we
walked around, it just sort of sunk in.”
The potential that Carole saw in this historic
house was just too much to resist. She notes,
“My passion really is, as my husband would
say, ‘to find something that is already there,
and just a little sad, and cheer it up.’ It was
almost against our will, but I just felt like I
knew what this house should be.”
Capturing a peaceful moment, "in what I am sure is
the most comfortable living room we will EVER have;
it has usually got family, neighbors, food, friends
and dogs draped all over it! All furnishings are
found and collected by us willy nilly," says Carole.
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The couple set about their task, but soon learned the magnitude of
the project they’d gotten themselves into. They lived uncomfortably
in the house during the renovations, sleeping on an AeroBed, working hard to get the place back in shape. “We realized we bit off more
than we could chew, but we had to finish,” Carole says.
They dealt with outdoor challenges: hauling off three
dumpsters full of overgrown brush, cutting some trees, saving
others, moving stones on the property to build impressive
planting areas and retaining walls near the beautiful brick
terraces. The inside posed more challenges. They refinished
original wood floors, baseboards and the staircase; made
plumbing repairs and brought the old knob-and-tube electrical
system up to code; restored the massive brick fireplace that
dominates the living room and restored the finish of the original
iron hardware that had gone to rust. They even removed
decades worth of wax from the original and unique herringbone-patterned brick floor in the dining room.
They scoured every part of the property for hints of its earlier
grandeur and were rewarded for their efforts. They found the
original window screens in the attic, splintered and full of spiders, but well-worth restoring. Wooden ceiling beams—ruined
when a previous owner had them sandblasted and painted many
shades of brown—were painted white, requiring a dozen coats.
With major renovations complete, Carole teamed her discerning
designer’s eye with her sense of sustainability and really got to
work, transforming the old worn house into a home of good
cheer. Bathrooms were freshened with hand-painted tiles and
pretty period chandeliers; a half-wall removed here, a sink
replaced there, an old tub given new fixtures—it all works
together like a charm.
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Opposite: This cozy farmhouse kitchen found
its way back from an unfortunate 1970's
In the kitchen—functional, but stuck in a
'70s time warp—Carole decided to reclaim
the old cabinets instead of throwing them
into the landfill. She had the shelves
strengthened and repainted; with the doors
removed, the overall effect is light, orderly
and appealing. The functional pantry,
designed by Neff, is still intact, but the original door is customized with screening and a
Julia Child inspired pegboard for efficient
storage.
Bedrooms—one even had contact paper
affixed to the coffered ceiling—were simplified
and allowed to simply reveal their functionality
as retreats from the world outside. Without
large closets, she observes, if you live in this
house, “you can’t be an accumulator.”
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Every change is to “honor the
house.” The overall effect of the
massive restoration—right
down to the small details—is a
restful, tasteful place of serenity
and beauty.
Every place the eye rests is calm and meaningful: the tiny celestial mobile that hung
over an infant’s crib years ago; a stack of
books—Prayers for Peace, Baudelaire and
French Cooking in Ten Minutes—topped by a
gleaming singing bowl; a selection of colorful
children’s shoes worn years ago, displayed in
side-by-side acrylic cases.
“It’s the Virgo in me that approaches
something in an unadulterated way. A sense
of calm frees your mind. Everything is possible when you’re not looking at a bunch of
clutter,” says Carole.
The home was featured in the last Pearl
Chase Society Historic Homes Tour. During
the tour, the most repeated comment was
some variation on “I feel like I’m walking in
a cloud.”
Indeed, the place is completely decorated
in white and blue—deceptively simple in its
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remodel. Carole is a trained pastry chef who
loves to create preserves from the lemons and
other bounty she grows.
This page: The upstairs bedrooms have lovely
ocean views, made all the more peaceful by
the home's neutral palate. As Carole says, "It's
very hard to wake up on the wrong side of the
bed into this cheery space."
color scheme with subtle variations in
shades and finish—which reinforces the
ethereal feeling throughout. Since the
two-story home is perched high above
the city, multiple views extend far
beyond the pavement, all the way to the
wide blue Pacific. It’s an otherworldly
quality, the rarified flow from here to
there, like inhabiting an island or, yes,
even a cloud, floating above it all.
In the classic book Wallace Neff:
Architect of California’s Golden Age,
published by Santa Barbara’s own Capra
Press, a couple of photos show the
Magness’s home, one featuring the living
room with a large game table placed in
front of the distinctive fireplace. In those
long-ago days, there was a built-in window seat, which was removed years ago,
where comfortable white couches are now
placed for ease of conversation. Carole
points to the historic image, saying, “This
picture really is worth a thousand words.
It’s from a time when people interacted
with family and friends and played games
together, taking pleasure from each
other’s company. It’s from a time when
C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 6 5
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A Haven of Heavenly Proportions
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 5 3
This Wallace Neff-designed farmhouse glows
from within at night.
PHOTO: CIRO COELHO
everyone wasn’t couch-potatoed out.
That’s what this house is all about, the
pleasure of knowing each other and not
being distracted all the time.”
Although built as a summer getaway
from the hustle-bustle of the big city, with
its breezy Dutch doors, maid’s-quartersturned-guest-room and clean lines, it’s a
home for all seasons. A cool retreat in the
summer, a cozy place to gather in the winter and a place that beckons the visitor to
relax and stay awhile at all times.
And a visible clue alerts the perceptive
passer-by that there’s something really
special about it. In a community where
every other house has a red door—likely
because of the feng-shui connection with
good luck and prosperity—this one is different. The front door is a cool, calm green.
Turns out, a green door is associated with
peace, growth, renewal and harmony.
Carole points to the original handwrought iron ornament affixed to the green
door and notes, “It’s an artistic impression
of an octopus by the sea. And the color, it’s
‘Jolly.’” A monarch butterfly flutters by,
floating on the cool breeze in a place where
peaceful transformation abounds and home
extends all the way to the sky.
Carole Magness is available to “help
people live in beautiful spaces in the way
they like to live.” She can be reached at
www.magnessinteriors.com.