Project Scope: Exterior and interior remodel of an existing 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom single story ranch style home with master bedroom suite addition.

The La Canada Residence project goal was to take a single story 2,700 square foot 1980’s ranch home and provide a modern contemporary look and feel in addition to adding a private master bedroom suite.

The approach was to open up as much of the existing house as possible both internally to adjacent rooms as well as to the exterior. The house sits on a beautiful 15,000 square foot pine tree covered lot, which filters the late afternoon sun light into an array of speckled shadows. The rear yard is fairly open with an existing built-in pool to the far rear surrounded by a thick wall of cypress trees, which provide a beautiful green privacy screen to the east. The existing house was defined by a high pitched middle roof structure, complete with cottage style ornamentation.

The design approach from the exterior was to focus on this existing middle pitched roof architectural gesture, working within budget restraints to give it a new more contemporary notion of invitation. To achieve this, a new courtyard arrival space was created at the front of the home through the introduction of smooth plaster privacy walls to match the new plaster finish of the house. Finally, the high roof pitch was left in place and the entire front wall of the house was removed and replaced with full height glazing and a tall wooden entry doorway. 

 In the interior, the dining room and entry way foyer were raised to follow the pitched roof lines.  Next, the wall that separated the dining room from the living room space was partially removed to create a visual link all the way from the front entry court, through the house and into the rear yard.

The kitchen area was completely opened up to the living room by reorienting it, raising the ceiling to match the sloped roof above, adding a large central skylight and introducing a small breakfast nook at the southeastern corner of the house. The kitchen was opened up to the rear garden through a stainless steel counter top that extends through the wall to an outside dining counter with a bifold window. The living room directly adjacent to the kitchen now has a full height bi-fold door rear wall, that opens to a new rear patio space, complete with a fire pit and wooden bench seating. This new configuration doubles the size of the living room as it pours into the outside semi sunken patio.

Two of the three existing bedrooms were left basically in tact minus new finishes and skylights.   The third bedroom space, the existing master, was reconceived into a large laundry room and hallway closet.  A new master bedroom suite was added to the rear of the home and designed around a new exterior courtyard area that connects to the larger living room patio.