When Bruce Gregga heard about a house for sale in the hills of Montecito, California, he was instantly besotted with its address: China Flat Road. “I had never heard of a name so exotic, so mysterious,” says the veteran designer.
After seeing the house, he was equally enchanted with how its Santa Barbara–based architect, Tai Yeh, had given the 1960s villa its Régence overtones, and he liked the expansive views, which reminded him of the South of France. Perfect, he thought, for his eclectic collections of fine furniture and art. He bought the place immediately.
Gregga had already relocated to Southern California to open an antiques and garden shop with longtime partner William Laman after operating his own design firm for nearly 40 years in Chicago. There, he had decorated for local luminaries such as film critic Gene Siskel. As Gregga inched toward semiretirement, he discovered he enjoyed buying and remodeling his own homes.
“I was on site every morning and every afternoon,” he says of the China Flat renovation, his fourth residence with Laman, “supervising the installation of new windows, doors, floors, plaster inside and out. It’s like a brand-new home, actually.”…