When De Mattei first bought the property, the house was even smaller — 1,300 square feet, and faced the busy University Avenue. To take full advantage of the corner lot, he lifted up the house, built a new foundation and turned it to face Town Terrace.
From the outside, you appreciate that this little house retains all its charm –including original arched windows at the front. But every inch, inside and out, is maximized. The front garden, designed by Tamura Designs of San Jose, with gravel pathways in a lovely geometric pattern with pea gravel and planting beds makes me want to do the same in my yard. I love the big urn as a centerpiece in the middle with herbs and vegetables growing in the beds –in the front yard no less.
A side yard leading to the sidewalk and busy street was also put to best use with a deck right off the dining room. A
One of the tricks to making a small space seem large, De Mattei said, is to keep spaces open. From the front entryhall, you can look right through the living room, dining and kitchen to see the lovely back courtyard. Wide wooden floors run the length of the house, fooling your eye to think the floorplan goes on and on.
Instead of dividing living spaces with walls, different ceiling treatments do the trick, from a flat 8-foot-ceiling in the living room, to a higher, beamed-ceiling in the dining room.
And you can always count on Sunset to have beautiful decor, from handmade tiles in the kitchen to my favorite thing: the gray trefoil tiles in the masterbath. (Those might be lovely in my pending bath renovation!) Room and Board supplied most of the furnishings, and Anteo Home in Los Gatos brought in the dining room chairs and special pieces.
If you want to see the house for yourself, it’s well worth it. Here’s the skinny:

Friday, Saturday and Sunday
July 23 – August 15, 2010 Time:10:00 am – 5:00 pm Tickets (purchase on-site):$15 adults
$12 seniors 65+ Fridays only
$5 children 12 and under Location:100 Towne Terrace
Los Gatos, California 95032

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Well, Stephanie Peters did when she invited Linda Marx, an independent-minded bargain-hunting maven, to have at it.

“I wanted the challenge to do it as inexpensively as I could,” said Marx, who loves nothing better than finding a cast-off sofa here or discarded end table there. “They’re little orphans. I like giving them a home.”

Peters, a Sunnyvale marketing consultant, wanted a home makeover that “shows my personality,” emphasizes comfort and reflects her penchant for all things Asian.

She lives in an Eichler, the 1950s-era, one-story homes with open floor plans, atriums and courtyards. Mid-century modern furnishings are experiencing a resurgence of popularity these days, but Marx was reluctant to shop in that direction: “I lived through that” era of design, Marx said, “and I didn’t particularly like it then.”

And with popularity often comes a big price tag, and that simply is not Marx’s style. Marx promised she could completely swap the decor of the living, dining and family rooms for a grand total of $4,000, which included everything from furniture delivery to moving lighting fixtures. (That would buy mid-century purists one Eames lounge chair and ottoman, thank you very much.)

The last time the house had a makeover was in the early 1990s, a few years after Peters bought it. As was the style at the time, she decorated with a palette of black, white and chrome, including white marble flooring in the living and dining rooms. But over the years, the space had grown tired and cold. And Peters had little time to pay attention to it. She made brief attempts at repainting the interior, but when her artwork came down, including her collection of Asian masks, she never put it back up. In her entry hall, all she had was a plant.

“All right, enough,” Peters told herself. “I entertain a lot. I’m sick and tired of people coming over and I’m embarrassed.”

She called Marx, who calls her fledgling redecorating business “Shoestring Design.” The women became friends through Marx’s son, who worked with Peters years ago. Peters had been to parties at Marx’s house and while there, couldn’t help but admire her home. She asked for help on hers.

“I said I wanted modern and Asian,” Peters said.

“I wanted the house to feel warm and nice,” Marx said.

“I wanted chrome bar stools,” Peters said.

“I didn’t bother with it,” Marx said.

“Never mind,” Peters conceded. “Do it.”

With that, Peters cleared out the entire living, dining and family rooms of furniture, handed Marx the key to the front door, and took off for three weeks.

“I had never done Asian before,” Marx confessed.

She began her thrift store circuit up and down the Peninsula, stopping in the Salvation Army on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, where she found a dining room table and chairs for $149; to the Consignment Store in Westgate Mall in Saratoga, where she landed a living room sofa, and the Goodwill on Almaden Expressway in San Jose for the Asian bar for $89. She bought a bamboo wall hanging at Cost Plus World Market for $49, Asian coin wall hooks for $3 from Savers in Redwood City for the entryway, a coffee table from Not Too Shabby in San Jose for $49. A large Persian rug ($120) that covers the cold marble floor came from D.G.W. Auctioneers and Appraisers in Sunnyvale.

Marx mined Peters’ garage for lost treasures, pulling out her old trunk and a collection of masks. She hung Peters’ prints and some Chinese silk panels she had bought at auction and arranged everything just so. For finishing touches, she displayed martini glasses on the bar and filled a glass vase in the kitchen with fortune cookies.

Then she waited. “I was sweating bullets when she came home,” Marx said.

“I stood in awe in the entryway for 30 seconds,” Peters said. She barely recognized the place. “I walked back in three or four times. There was so much and it had changed so drastically.”

Peters loves her new decor and “everyone who comes to my house is flabbergasted. I’ve had wonderful feedback.”

Now on to the bedrooms! As soon as Peters leaves town, Marx will be ready.

If you like bargains and didn’t see the story Desiree and I wrote about the Asian fretwork chairs we bought for a bargain price at Not Too Shabby, read this:

Smackdown:Lookiloos-style

Here’s the complete slideshow:

When you’re getting your house ready for a home tour, it’s great to have a loyal crew. Into the night, homeowner Anna Pizzo, her designer Kathleen Monarch and stager Margo Leal pulled out their favorite things to create sumptuous tablescapes, indoors and out, to complement Pizzo’s updated storybook Tudor. And a home tour just isn’t complete without floral designer Jose Ibarra coming in with his finishing touches, including a dramatic spray of dogwood in the front window.

 (Don’t you just love it when homeowners make the front window look great from inside and out, instead of just leaving the back of a couch for all eyes to see? A big thank-you from Lookiloos everywhere!) Take a look at the ceiling beams. Those were added as part of an extensive remodel, but they look like they’ve been there forever. “We made the house authentic to the time period and added special architectural details that weren’t there to begin with,” Monarch said. “We plastered, stuccoed, glazed. You name it, we did it.”  Pizzo’s husband, Chris, of C. Pizzo Construction, made the vision a reality.

Pizzo has her own catering company, Zona Rosa, so half the fun was pulling out her extensive collection of china, candlesticks and other tabletop decor to create elaborate tablescapes. The vignette above is part of an “outdoor room” in Pizzo’s backyard under a grand trellis. ”Anna wanted everything to be fresh,” Monarch said. “That was the main thing and it had to feel like you were walking through Provence.” For lookiloos walking through the Willow Glen home tour in early May, they were greeted by the smells of  fresh bread and lavendar and lemons. 

As part of the house remodel, the Pizzos brought in designer Lori Kagan to update the kitchen, using Emperor Light marble for the countertops. (I wish I had succulents like that.) In the adjoining dining room, a closet was turned into a wet bar.

Monarch of Monarch Design and Studio also helped Pizzo with the master bedroom and bath. Some of Pizzo’s favorite things came from the Alameda Flea Market and other “funky vintage shops,” Monarch said.

  Monarch also helped with the interior of the Kouretas home on the tour last year. (see story below.)

How lovely is this? Check out the zebra print on the back of the blue silk. Yummy.

You might also enjoy these stories:

Design Inspiration:Big Remodel Maintains Homey Feel

Jose’s Tabletop Decor Inspired by Chinese Take-out

Here’s the complete slideshow:

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Lately, I’ve become enamored with houses that are unassuming from the front,  but have a major ‘wow’ factor on the inside.

From the front of this white-washed Willow Glen cottage, you might expect a chopped-up floorplan.  The only feature on the facade that gives you a sense of what’s to come is the bright yellow front door. Walk inside and you’re flooded with openness and light. And you can see right through to the charming backyard.

Homeowner Stephanie Angeli, an  ”empty nester” who moved from San Francisco,  first saw the house with her sister. “We did an ‘Oh my God,’ when we went through it,” she said. “Every room was perfect.”

The house had been remodeled by the previous owner who added space and lots of windows on the back of the house, looking out to the courtyard. The sisters got in their car, did a U-turn, she said, and went to the realtor’s office to put down a deposit. The house was featured on the Willow Glen Home Tour earlier this month.

The kitchen is also a gem, with white Carrarra marble counter tops and a sink in the corner looking into the family room.

And the interior decor is lovely, from the the little vignette of green stemware in front of al painting on the kitchen counter, to a nicely-appointed front guest room and office. Carmen Grande of Willow Glen Home & Garden on Lincoln Avenue helped Stephanie with the furnishings and Steve Gilbert added charm to the courtyard.

Take a look at the slideshow and tell us what space you like the best.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Depression-Era Charm, with Sparkle

depression era charm-breakfast nook

Tin Ceiling Kitchen in Eclectic Shingle Style House

Tin Ceiling in Kitchen of Eclectic Shingle Style

(keep scrolling for more kitchens..)

Neoclassic bungalow kitchen

Eclectic neoclassic kitchen remodel

Which kitchen do you like best? Anyone dreaming of a kitchen remodel?

When four girlfriends and I escaped our kids for the afternoon, piled into my mini-van, and headed out for the Willow Glen Lifestyles Home Tour, we made a pact that we wouldn’t get green with envy by getting a glimpse into others’ beautiful living spaces. We’d be inspired.

Here’s the complete slideshow:

She was born in 1970 with a name that means “earth” in Czech on a commune in Palo Alto called “The Land.”
Zem Joaquin was a dark-haired pixie with patchwork pants who played with chickens, danced in the central longhouse and sang with Joan Baez in the squatters camp off Page Mill Road.
The darling of the draft resisters back then, she became the subject of their illustrated fairy tale about  “Zem, the little queen” who unites a strife-torn world. Even Baez, who founded the commune and lived there for a time, included “Zem Zem” in her 1975 song, “Children and All That Jazz.”
Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that she was destined to make a name for herself in the environmental movement. Unlike her parents’ generation that reveled in the counterculture fringe, though, she is helping create a modern movement in the mainstream.
And she’s doing so with her own sense of rebellion: She’s making green glamorous.
Founder of Ecofabulous, she created a Web site that gives readers eco-friendly lifestyle options, from modular furniture made from recycled paper to chic throws made of hemp and flax. Going green needs to be less about sacrifice, she realized, and more about motivation. (The site’s motto: “sexy.sustainable.style.”) After all, she muses, “People weren’t too interested when organic cotton looked like oatmeal and felt like a burlap sack.”
Step inside the 1960s-era home in Marin County that she remodeled for her family and you’ll see what she means.
At 39 years old and just 5 feet tall, she opens the front door with bare feet and a big smile. Behind her, vintage black-and-white curtains she found at the Alameda Point Antiques Faire frame a pair of chairs she recovered in remnant lime green silk. Sleek kitchen counters are made from newspaper wood pulp and fly ash. Her vintage Laszlo dining room chairs are refilled with natural rubber.
“Being fabulous is feeling like you’re getting what you really want,” she says. “At the same time, you’re not taking more than you need and you’re giving back.”
So how did this commune kid become such a design diva?
She may have been raised on granola, but she came of age living in London for two-and-a-half years in her early 20s with her godmother – a stylish critic for the Evening Standard who took her to theaters, boutiques and Paris for weekends and “taught me everything I know about design.” Joaquin (then Spire, her maiden name) finished her degree in organizational communications at Pepperdine, where she started a recycling program. And after a stint managing male models in Italy (she followed a boyfriend there), she returned to San Francisco in the late 1990s to help her best friend, Gina Pell, start Pell’s fledgling fashion and beauty Web site, Splendora.
“She was my VP of business development because she’s so good with people. She has a way of developing and nurturing connections,” Pell says. “I always told her that if she was a superhero, that would be her superpower – the ultimate connector.”
It was Pell, though, who connected Zem with her husband, tech entrepreneur James Joaquin.
They met at a cocktail party in 1999 in San Francisco, married and had two children. She was volunteering for homeless causes and political campaigns when her children were diagnosed with severe asthma. The family was living in an old Craftsman in San Francisco at the time, spending many a night in the emergency room when she decided she had to “save my children and create a healthy home.”
The Marin County house, tucked among blackberry bushes and towering trees, became her eco-incubator. Old painted beams were stripped with beeswax, wall-to-wall carpeting was replaced with recycled wine-cork flooring and solar panels were added to the roof.
But finding sustainable products, and stylish ones at that, wasn’t easy. “I realized there was this enormous gap,” she says. “There were no resources for eco-design and people interested in design.”
It was her husband who handed her a copy of “Cradle to Cradle,” the environmental manifesto of architect William McDonough, whom James Joaquin had heard speak at the 2004 TED conference for technology, entertainment and design in Monterey.
“This is what you’ve been talking about,” he said at the time to his wife, “what you’ve been spiraling in towards.”
She was so enthralled by the book, which professes ecologically intelligent design, that she invited McDonough to lunch with “some of my friends that I think can change the world.”
The guest list included her husband’s good friend, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar; Segway inventor Dean Kamen, whom she had met at a dinner party; and inventor, entrepreneur and Disney “imagineer” Danny Hillis.
This time, it was McDonough’s turn to be impressed. He invited her to attend his annual eco-summit in Iceland the following year with some 20 “thought leaders” and activists.
Unlike some in the environmental movement who preach doom and gloom, he says, Joaquin takes a positive approach.
“It’s a big dark world out there, and we need brightness,” he says in a phone interview from Abu Dhabi where he was talking to real estate developers about green design. “Zem is a sparkle.”
And she knows how to throw a party. Over the past several years, she has raised nearly $1 million dollars for Global Green, an L.A.-based nonprofit that activates its Hollywood base to bring attention to green issues, including the sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans and Haiti. At her first party she threw at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco several years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio showed up. Salma Hayek and Orlando Bloom came to the second.
“She actually seduces people into doing the right thing,” Ariana Huffington of the Huffington Post said when she presented Joaquin with Global Green’s Founder’s Award last year. “She always makes people feel that the right thing is the fun thing.”
Plus, she added, “she’s adorable.”
While Joaquin founded Ecofabulous in 2006 to chronicle her environmentally friendly remodeling resources, she has since expanded it to include organic beauty, fashion and lifestyle choices. She consults with such companies as eBay and Safeway and has been a frequent “green” guest on radio and TV shows. She raises chickens in her side yard, grows tomatoes and herbs, and even has her 6-year-old daughter weighing in with her opinion about kids’ green products. And over the past few years, she’s convinced every one of her closest friends to drive a hybrid.
So what’s next?
“I never thought in a million years I would want to have a commune,” she says.
But lately, she’s thinking about it, maybe bringing her closest friends together, living sustainably off the grid. She doesn’t have the details worked out yet, but one thing is certain: Unlike the A-frames and outhouses she grew up with, she says, “this commune would be stylized.”

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Charmaine Warmenhoven was in high school in 1964 when news of the notorious murder of Kitty Genovese on the streets of New York spread across the country, a shocking story because even though many heard her screams, apparently no one did a thing to help.
Charmaine was fascinated, though, less about the bystanders who did nothing and more about the idea of those who “try to do something.”
With a strong foundation as a woman of faith and a psychology degree from Princeton, reaching out to others in need has become a guiding principle of her life as a philanthropist and educator of special needs children.
“It’s part of our value system,” she says. “You are meant to provide service to others. I’ve been doing so ever since I can remember.”
From the graceful Monte Sereno home surrounded by acres of gardens that she shares with her husband, Network Appliance board chairman Dan Warmenhoven, the couple open their doors to fundraisers benefiting causes ranging from cancer research to local arts groups to Catholic charities. In June, she is hosting the Silicon Valley Heart Gala for 250 to raise money for the American Heart Association. With Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz chairing the event, the nonprofit is expecting the guest list to include some of the valley’s tech luminaries. If all goes well, the charity hopes to raise more than half a million dollars (maybe a million, dare they hope) at this single event.
“Dan and I feel we’ve been given a lot, and we need to give and to share,” she says. “It’s more than a habit. It’s a lifestyle.”
And Keri  Janssen, CEO of the Silicon Valley American Heart Association, couldn’t be more grateful.
“They are very down to earth and very dedicated to making a difference in the community,” Janssen says. “Opening your home to an event is totally different than giving money. They are dedicated to the mission and the cause and have been for over 10 years.”
Hosting the fundraiser at a home rather than a hotel is much more intimate, she says. Besides, “who wouldn’t want to see the Warmenhoven home?”
A winding driveway leads you past oak trees and a sunken Japanese tea garden to the grand estate atop a hill. A 17th-century wishing well and a stone gazebo adorn the front garden that overlooks the lights of the valley below.
The back yard, with terraces surrounding a pool and cabana house, will be the setting for the June party. A saxophonist will play during cocktail hour from the balcony, and tables will be set up around the pool. Each guest will be given a candle to light, representing heart disease survivors, and float them in the pool.
“It will be the feel of a romantic, starry night,” Janssen says.
The causes Warmenhoven supports are close to her heart. As a child, her mother was a concert pianist, and she was a dancer. As an adult, she has served on the boards of Ballet San Jose and the Montalvo Arts Center.
With her father in the military, her family moved around a lot, she says, and going to Catholic church on Sundays wherever they happened to live “felt like family and it gave me a sense of stability and belonging.”
After teaching disabled children for a number of years, she went on to work for  the Catholic Diocese in Santa Clara County, helping people with disabilities feel included in church life. Just last year, the Warmenhovens hosted a garden party for the Knights of St. John, an organization ounded to take care of wounded soldiers but that now donates frequently to children’s hospitals.
Charmaine’s father died of cancer when she was 13, and the Warmenhovens have been supporters of the American Cancer Society’s Cattle Barons’ Ball each year.
“I do a variety of different things,” she says, “but they all make sense to me.”
She and her husband met sitting next to each other on a plane on their way back to Princeton from the West Coast when she was a junior and he was a senior.
“He asked me to dinner,” she says, “and we were married two years later.”
After moving around the East Coast with his jobs for IBM and HP and hers in teaching, they arrived in Santa Clara Valley in the early 1980s. In the mid-1990s, Dan Warmenhoven became president and CEO of Network Appliance, employing 45 people at the time. It has since grown to 8,000 employees worldwide.
The Warmenhovens moved from their house in Saratoga, which their son and daughter-in-law now own, to the Monte Sereno estate three years ago. Even though the house is grand, the rooms feel intimate. And she loves the indoor/outdoor flow of the house, which is perfect for entertaining.
She enjoys planning gatherings for her family and close friends, but she leaves the big parties to the pros. She has her list of favorite local party planners, florists and caterers.
“I just sit back and applaud,” she says, “and open the door.”

Here’s the complete slideshow:

Desk in Breakfast nook

Meg Picanco has quite a home decor pedigree. For years, she and her  late mother, Nancy Biagini, owned and ran the highly-regarded Casa Casa store on San Jose’s Lincoln Avenue. And until last fall, she was a  partner in Willow Glen Home and Garden just down the street.

The top of a bookcase serves as a spot for special things

Like many families in these tough economic times, the growing Picanco family has downsized to half the space they were used to. And leave it to 41-year-old Picanco to do it with style.

Her journey to the rental house has taken a circuitous path. Picanco, her husband, Mario, and their two young children, Gabrielle and Giancarlo, were living in a 2,800 square-foot home in Boise, Idaho — “in search of a calmer life where we could live on one income.” But less than a year into their lives there, she was confronted at the same time with two frightening realities: her mother was diagnosed with colon cancer and her 19-month-old son was confirmed deaf.

After a stint in one Willow Glen rental distinguished by a pink tile kitchen with a butterfly motif, she found the house her family now calls home, a place she hopes to stay in for at least the next several years.

clock collection

Perhaps the most surprising personal touch is her decision to invest in shutters for the dining room and bathroom. “I knew when we rented it , we would be here for at least several years, so why not make it our own home?” she said, “and I couldn’t live with metal mini blinds.”

The Picanco family has lived in this house for just a year and in that time, their daughter has adjusted beautifully to her new school and their son has excelled at his. With cochlear implants, he can carry on conversations. “Every five minutes is a miracle,” Picanco said.
Their neighbors have become some of their best friends.
“I can’t deny I wouldn’t love to own my own house,” she said, “but we’re so happy here.”

Here’s the complete slideshow:

 When my contractor invited me to an open house to view his latest
project–a renovation and addition to a 1927 Spanish Colonial home in Palm
Haven –I jumped at the chance to legitimately snoop around one of the most
historic, eclectic neighborhoods in San Jose.

A neglected two-bedroom one bath in disrepair when acquired by John
Ammirato of Ammirato Construction is now a four bedroom, two and half bath
dream home. While it has all the modern creature comforts, including an impressive
master suite, renewable resource cabinets, solar panels, and data networking
throughout, painful efforts were made to preserve the home’s original
architecture.
Like re-roofing the composite roof with reclaimed vintage clay tiles.
And keeping many of the home’s original features: the living room sconces,
fireplace mantel, arched doorways, built-in hutch, and coved ceilings.

“The living room hasn’t changed,” said Rita Strena, whose family owned
the home for more than 60 years before selling it to Ammirato. “But John
improved it. It has a new life now.”

Ammirato worked extensively with Stonelite Tile–which has been in
business in San Jose since the 1920s–to design the detailed tile work
throughout the house. Some of it was hand pressed and painted using
original plates and molds from the early 1900s.
Ammirato, who has built several Spanish-style homes in Palm Haven, made
design decisions along with his wife, Linda, referencing books like Red Tile
Style, California Romantica, Casa California, and George Washington Smith:
An Architect’s Scrap Book.
The result is modern, stylish living while honoring the home¹s historic
past down to the gutters and porch brackets.

By Kim Kooyers,  a freelance writer and blogs at gratitude365 and SpiroChicks.

Here’s the complete slideshow: