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With help from Steve Gilbert of Willow Glen Home and Garden, the homeowners, Virginia and Brett Nicoletti, have created the kind of rooms you want to live in. They graciously opened their home to the 2011 Willow Glen Lifestyles home tour.

The front bedroom with the orange palette was one of my favorites. Don’t you just love the bedding?

And the youngest daughter also has a haven all in pink. I also love the vintage-style bedspread in this room.

The 1992 home began an update when the Nicolettis bought it in 2000. They extended hardwoods throughout the house and antiqued the kitchen cabinets.   The result is an elegant space, upstairs and down.

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From the moment you approach, you know this house is special. You can tell it’s a place to celebrate art.

The owners of the Willow Glen home, Mike and Laurie Warner, are lovers of art, opera, jazz, traveling and entertaining. All are in abundance in the home they remodeled three years ago and featured on the 2011 Willow Glen Lifestyles home tour.

As the couple likes to say, “we turned the remodel into a giant art project.”

Working with San Francisco architects James Stavoy and D.J. Pak, they created a show-stopping entry with a bright red metal window grid. Greeting you at the open front door is a lion statue, set off by leather-fringed rugs on the floor and hanging on the wall behind it. 

The couple are clearly lovers of modern, with an Asian twist. A central atrium with a water feature and bamboo can be see from floor-to-ceiling windows on four sides of the home.

She’s an artist. He’s a retired engineer. And together they have amassed an impressive collection, on display at every turn.

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Don’t you just want to get into this charming English tudor? You can just imagine it’s as lovely on the inside. But hey, why imagine? It is one of five houses, plus a garden, that is being featured in the 2011 Willow Glen Home Tour. And Lookiloos has a pair of tickets — worth $60! — to give away.

Here’s a little advance info about the other homes and garden you will see:

* A remodeled ranch with a wall of windows in the family room leading to a gorgeous pool and yard;

* A southwestern-style bachelor pad with a new kitchen;

* A recently renovated contemporary home filled with a collection of local artwork — and another window wall overlooking a koi pond

* A lovely garden, tended by the homeowner who is a master gardener, features drought resistant plants.  This will also be the setting for a boutique featuring local artist and plants for sale, as well as box lunches.

If you’d like to win a pair of tickets , leave comment below otherwise, please go to sjdn.org to buy tickets that benefit the San Jose Day Nursery.  Tickets are $30 each and box lunches are $13.  Tickets may also be purchased on Lincoln Ave. at Willow Glen Home and Garden, Domus or Grace on the Ave. Tickets are also being sold at Able Printing on Meridian at Hamilton Ave.

This condo is adorable. Built in the ’80′s, this complex has wonderful mature trees and great green open spaces. A lot of the newer condo complex have so much concrete and feel so cold. Anyway, on to the condo—This cute place has over 1,000 square feet and a balcony surrounded by the earlier mentioned trees.

The living and dining room are open to each other and the kitchen has a large window open to the dining. There is also a lot of closet space—which I always can appreciate since, I personally need more! Here are the details.

Bedrooms: 2

Baths: 2

Asking: $440,000

I love that the kitchen is open to the large family room—perfect for keeping an eye on little ones when cooking dinner and a way to be in the center of the action with the teenagers.

I know staging doesn’t come with the home—but the stagers did a great job. The colors were fresh and fun! I’m betting this home won’t be on the market long. You can find the whole virtual tour here.

Bedrooms: 4

Baths: 4

Asking: $1,099,999

Will this be the year my so-called master bath gets a makeover? My husband took a sledgehammer to our shower seven years ago when the pan leaked into the laundry room below. Silly me, I thought we were going to re-tile!

A tour through Willow Glen homes earlier this spring certainly gave me some inspiration. Desiree took some nice photos to study…  I love the simplicity of this one above. with the grey marble and black detail.

I love Asian, with this big soaking tub. But I can tell you right now, it would never fit in my tiny bathroom!

Another simple marble slab top. Lovely. And those orchids are gorgeous.

I like the idea of going with a neutral palette and adding a splash of color with great accessories.

Adding color in the border is fun. I also like artwork on bathroom walls to add personality.

Which do you like best?

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

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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.

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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: