It wasn’t an ugly duckling. But the colonial house in Laguna Beach’s Emerald Bay neighborhood didn’t fit in either. Neighboring homes in the tony enclave are slick with glass, posturing toward the bay and prioritizing ocean views. “This home is actually the polar opposite,” says interior designer Melissa Rohani.
Built by a local artist, the house has what Rohani calls “Old World soul,” complete with a clapboard exterior recalling homes on the East Coast. Nearly every room on the first floor opens through French doors onto an inner courtyard with a twisted willow tree at its center—only one room in the house angles toward the water.
Rohani wasn’t looking for a home exactly though. She and Lisa Berman, co-founders of AD PRO Directory design firm, Studio Gutow, were shopping for a gallery space instead when the colonial slipped into the picture. After years collecting furniture, textiles, and glassware, the design duo dreamed of opening a space for their collection. On a whim, Rohani, who already lived in Laguna Beach, cold-called a Spanish casita up the street, which turned out to be the office of a local realtor. He wasn’t selling, but he happened to have a new off-market property Rohani and her husband might consider for themselves.
Ego Stengods Ateljé Vase by Bruno Karlsson
Herman Miller Eames Soft Pad Chair
“It just immediately felt like home,” recalls Rohani. She’d long imagined standing in a kitchen, watching her two young children run through doors into an open yard. The house had all the right parts, but it needed some tweaks.
Schumacher Brimfield Indigo Cushion Cover…