Houzz Tour: A Cedar-clad Coastal Home With a Space-smart Layout
On California’s Sonoma Coast, a designing duo create a stylish getaway in a famed planned community of modernist homes
Suzanne Ennis
30 May 2022
Houzz Editorial Staff. I write about all aspects of home design and remodeling, but I have soft spots for historic homes, California modernism and lakefront cabins.
Houzz Editorial Staff. I write about all aspects of home design and remodeling, but... More
Eight years ago, architect Geoff Campen and architectural designer Diana Ruiz zipped 2½ hours up Highway 1 from their home in San Francisco, on the west coast of America, to The Sea Ranch, a planned community that’s become a favourite destination for design enthusiasts and lovers of the rugged Sonoma County coastline. By the time their one-week holiday was over, they’d begun daydreaming about building a Sea Ranch spot of their own.
That dream is now a reality in the form of a one-bedroom, glass-and-cedar-sided “object” with forest and ocean views, a flexible floor plan, and cool experimental design details befitting two pros who lucked out with the ideal clients: themselves.
That dream is now a reality in the form of a one-bedroom, glass-and-cedar-sided “object” with forest and ocean views, a flexible floor plan, and cool experimental design details befitting two pros who lucked out with the ideal clients: themselves.
House at a Glance
Who lives here? Architect Geoff Campen and his wife, architectural designer Diana Ruiz
Location The Sea Ranch, Sonoma County, California, USA
Size One bedroom, one shower room and two cloakrooms; about 155 sq m
General contractor Empire Contracting
Structural engineer ZFA Structural Engineers
Photos by Mariko Reed
The Sea Ranch development – a paragon of West Coast modernism founded in the 1960s – comprises privately owned homes and plots, an extensive trail system and a handful of recreational facilities along a 10-mile stretch on either side of California’s iconic Highway 1. Geoff and Diana’s home is on the eastern side of the road, where the coastal meadows begin to rise into the wooded hills.
“The house is kind of among the trees, and in the forest a little bit. And the front of the house has the ocean view. So we were pretty lucky to be able to find this site, in that it had a little bit of both,” says Geoff, a partner at San Francisco-based Klopf Architecture, a Best of Houzz-winning firm.
Find an architect near you.
Who lives here? Architect Geoff Campen and his wife, architectural designer Diana Ruiz
Location The Sea Ranch, Sonoma County, California, USA
Size One bedroom, one shower room and two cloakrooms; about 155 sq m
General contractor Empire Contracting
Structural engineer ZFA Structural Engineers
Photos by Mariko Reed
The Sea Ranch development – a paragon of West Coast modernism founded in the 1960s – comprises privately owned homes and plots, an extensive trail system and a handful of recreational facilities along a 10-mile stretch on either side of California’s iconic Highway 1. Geoff and Diana’s home is on the eastern side of the road, where the coastal meadows begin to rise into the wooded hills.
“The house is kind of among the trees, and in the forest a little bit. And the front of the house has the ocean view. So we were pretty lucky to be able to find this site, in that it had a little bit of both,” says Geoff, a partner at San Francisco-based Klopf Architecture, a Best of Houzz-winning firm.
Find an architect near you.
Finding the right site was just the first of several hurdles. All home design plans at The Sea Ranch must go through an extensive review and approval process, put in place to preserve the community’s cohesive architectural aesthetic and environmental ethos.
“The general idea in The Sea Ranch is the houses and buildings share and complement the land. That’s part of why we liked The Sea Ranch,” Geoff says. “Of course, being an architect [and designer], we tried to challenge some of the typical sensibilities a little bit through some of the geometries and shapes.”
For example, the home is low at the front and taller at the back, giving it the appearance of an “object” that sits down and shares the landscape with the trees rising behind it, Geoff says. Technically, the roof is a modified gable, which is common among homes at The Sea Ranch – but “the gable just goes from corner to corner instead of from the middle of the front to the middle of the back,” he says.
The exterior is covered in vertical cedar cladding, a material traditionally used in the neighbourhood. A semitransparent black stain through which some of the natural wood is visible helps the home recede into the trees’ shadows.
“The general idea in The Sea Ranch is the houses and buildings share and complement the land. That’s part of why we liked The Sea Ranch,” Geoff says. “Of course, being an architect [and designer], we tried to challenge some of the typical sensibilities a little bit through some of the geometries and shapes.”
For example, the home is low at the front and taller at the back, giving it the appearance of an “object” that sits down and shares the landscape with the trees rising behind it, Geoff says. Technically, the roof is a modified gable, which is common among homes at The Sea Ranch – but “the gable just goes from corner to corner instead of from the middle of the front to the middle of the back,” he says.
The exterior is covered in vertical cedar cladding, a material traditionally used in the neighbourhood. A semitransparent black stain through which some of the natural wood is visible helps the home recede into the trees’ shadows.
Geoff and Diana installed the same black-stained cedar cladding on the ceilings throughout the home. The simple interior palette also includes white oak panelling, white interior walls (Benjamin Moore’s Wedding Veil) and a concrete floor on the lower level with underfloor heating – the well-insulated home’s only heating source.
“It’s temperate inside all the time, but there’s no moving air with [underfloor heating],” Geoff says. The home is also wired for solar, which the couple plan to install when the budget permits.
In the open-plan dining and living space, seen here, large aluminium windows frame the view of the meadow and the Pacific Ocean beyond it. Above the windows and around the home’s entire first floor at that same level is a shelf fitted with linear uplighting and downlighting. Roller blinds that blend with the window frame are mounted below it.
“We thought about doing the whole recessed-[blind] thing, but it’s kind of an expensive detail,” Geoff says, adding, “If there’s a box and it’s recessed, everything gets a bit chunkier and bigger. So I kind of like the casualness of just applying it underneath.”
“It’s temperate inside all the time, but there’s no moving air with [underfloor heating],” Geoff says. The home is also wired for solar, which the couple plan to install when the budget permits.
In the open-plan dining and living space, seen here, large aluminium windows frame the view of the meadow and the Pacific Ocean beyond it. Above the windows and around the home’s entire first floor at that same level is a shelf fitted with linear uplighting and downlighting. Roller blinds that blend with the window frame are mounted below it.
“We thought about doing the whole recessed-[blind] thing, but it’s kind of an expensive detail,” Geoff says, adding, “If there’s a box and it’s recessed, everything gets a bit chunkier and bigger. So I kind of like the casualness of just applying it underneath.”
This view offers a better sense of the home’s innovative floor plan, one example of how Geoff and Diana used the space as a laboratory for their design ideas. (Geoff notes that they perused other projects on Houzz for ideas as well.)
“The basic organisation of the house is all very open,” Geoff says. “The only doors in the house are going into the bathrooms. So this kitchen surrounds the powder room and is open on both sides. It connects the back of the house with the front of the house, and the kitchen kind of becomes an L, but the opposite L of what a kitchen typically is... That opposite L, and how it integrates with the space, was something we definitely wanted to try, and we think it works really well.”
Along the hall on the left of the photo, you can see the “guts” of the kitchen, which disappear behind a curtain when not in use. Its budget-friendly cabinets from Ikea are topped with a laminate worktop. Hiding the utilitarian elements behind a curtain allows the cleaner, more elegant main part of the kitchen to take centre stage.
“The basic organisation of the house is all very open,” Geoff says. “The only doors in the house are going into the bathrooms. So this kitchen surrounds the powder room and is open on both sides. It connects the back of the house with the front of the house, and the kitchen kind of becomes an L, but the opposite L of what a kitchen typically is... That opposite L, and how it integrates with the space, was something we definitely wanted to try, and we think it works really well.”
Along the hall on the left of the photo, you can see the “guts” of the kitchen, which disappear behind a curtain when not in use. Its budget-friendly cabinets from Ikea are topped with a laminate worktop. Hiding the utilitarian elements behind a curtain allows the cleaner, more elegant main part of the kitchen to take centre stage.
The main kitchen has a mix of off-the-shelf cabinets and custom-made white oak shelving. The worktops are another of the designing duo’s experiments. They’re made from raw steel with a black wax finish that offers protection – to a point.
“Raw steel, you know, it changes. So it looks different now than it did in the pictures,” Geoff says. “Water droplets, anything that’s left on it, does leave a mark.… We were kind of hovering around, trying to protect it as much as possible for a while. And then you get a few rings on there and it doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Raw steel, you know, it changes. So it looks different now than it did in the pictures,” Geoff says. “Water droplets, anything that’s left on it, does leave a mark.… We were kind of hovering around, trying to protect it as much as possible for a while. And then you get a few rings on there and it doesn’t matter anymore.”
The beautiful blue kitchen splashback tiles are from Bay Area-based Heath Ceramics, as are the colourful dishes displayed in the open shelving.
In collaboration with Heath, painter and sculptor Brendan Monroe created the wavy accent tiles that are integrated into the stretcher bond tile pattern.
In collaboration with Heath, painter and sculptor Brendan Monroe created the wavy accent tiles that are integrated into the stretcher bond tile pattern.
The kitchen wraps around to the rear of the house, where there’s shared studio and office space. On the left side of this photo, you can catch a better glimpse of the utilitarian part of the kitchen.
Tall windows in the back of the house frame the forest’s redwoods and fir trees. This area also has a guest bedroom hidden in plain sight.
Ta-da! A Murphy bed pulls down from the custom white oak cabinetry, and linen-blend curtains hung on ceiling tracks enclose the space, both to block light and to offer privacy to guests. It’s a simple but genius space-saving idea.
“Ninety-eight percent of the time, it’s all open, without the Murphy bed,” Geoff says. “We didn’t want to spend a lot of the extra square footage in the house on a separate guest room. Because while we love people to come visit, it doesn’t happen all that often.”
“Ninety-eight percent of the time, it’s all open, without the Murphy bed,” Geoff says. “We didn’t want to spend a lot of the extra square footage in the house on a separate guest room. Because while we love people to come visit, it doesn’t happen all that often.”
Setting aside dedicated studio space in the house was paramount, however. Geoff mostly paints and drafts, whereas Diana makes fibre art, some of the materials for which you can see here.
“[Her artwork is] very contrasting to mine, which is very angular and regimented and hers is very loose and natural,” Geoff says.
“[Her artwork is] very contrasting to mine, which is very angular and regimented and hers is very loose and natural,” Geoff says.
Instead of formal bathrooms, the home has a cloakroom on each floor, plus a shower room across from the cloakroom on the lower level, seen here, that offers enough room to change clothes.
Separating the shower area is another design experiment that Geoff has deemed a success.
Separating the shower area is another design experiment that Geoff has deemed a success.
Covering the stair treads with the same waxed raw steel used on the kitchen worktop has had a more mixed result. The couple really like the look, but admit it’s slippery. “We can be very careful down the stairs, but I probably wouldn’t use that for for a client project,” Geoff says.
The space under the stairs conceals the water heater and boiler, as well as storage space.
The space under the stairs conceals the water heater and boiler, as well as storage space.
In the loft bedroom, the floor is simply painted plywood softened by a felted-wool rug by Peace Industry.
The vintage wall unit was a total score: one of Klopf Architecture’s clients planned to throw it away during the renovation of their Eichler home, but gave it to Geoff when he expressed an interest. He and Diana use it to hold decorative items picked up through travels and made by friends.
The vintage wall unit was a total score: one of Klopf Architecture’s clients planned to throw it away during the renovation of their Eichler home, but gave it to Geoff when he expressed an interest. He and Diana use it to hold decorative items picked up through travels and made by friends.
Opposite the unit, above the bed, you can see pieces created by Diana, including a quilted wallhanging and crocheted helmets sitting on the white oak cabinetry. The built-in unit contains integrated reading lights, and its top lifts to reaveal storage space.
All of the tiling in the house, including on this floor in the upstairs cloakroom, is made from seconds and overstock gathered over several visits to Heath Ceramics’ Sausalito showroom and factory.
“The dual-tone part in the upstairs was an effect that was necessitated by the tile we were able to find,” Geoff says. “That kind of blue tile is a dual glaze, and those don’t come around very often in their overstock or seconds. So we had to do a combination with another tile, but I think, at the end, it worked out great.”
“The dual-tone part in the upstairs was an effect that was necessitated by the tile we were able to find,” Geoff says. “That kind of blue tile is a dual glaze, and those don’t come around very often in their overstock or seconds. So we had to do a combination with another tile, but I think, at the end, it worked out great.”
You can see another Peace Industry rug in this bird’s-eye view of the home’s lower level. The Barcelona chair is one of a set given to Geoff by a former boss, and the chandelier is from Avenue Lighting’s Fairfax collection.
Just outside the living room and entrance is a deck made from unstained, sealed redwood. Set amid the trees, the home has protection from the area’s steady coastal winds, making this an inviting space for ocean gazing.
To fully take advantage of the home’s setting, Geoff and Diana created view corridors from the back of the house through to the front, which you can see in this image looking west from the rear of the house.
“No matter where you are in the house, you always have some semblance of the view that goes out towards the ocean and some semblance of the view that is back in the trees,” Geoff says.
“No matter where you are in the house, you always have some semblance of the view that goes out towards the ocean and some semblance of the view that is back in the trees,” Geoff says.
The couple still keep a small rented home in San Francisco, and they appreciate the urban energy and culture even more in contrast with the Sonoma Coast’s serenity and natural beauty, Geoff says. But at the end of the day, it’s hard to beat a home of one’s own at The Sea Ranch.
Tell us…
What do you love about this inspiring home? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Tell us…
What do you love about this inspiring home? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Related Stories
House Tours
Houzz Tour: A Midcentury Home With a Strong Indoor-outdoor Link
By Becky Harris
A nature-inspired renovation has given this ranch house a relaxed mood and a connection to the outdoors from most rooms
Full Story
House Tours
Houzz Tour: Warm Tones and Luxurious Surfaces in a City Townhouse
An earthy colour palette, hidden storage and well-placed texture add character and practicality to this London home
Full Story
Room Tours
Kitchen Tour: A Gorgeous Extension With a Leafy Glasshouse Feel
By Kate Burt
When the owners of this terraced house extended, they were keen to retain its period feel and highlight the garden
Full Story
Gardens
Garden Tour: A Bare Roof Terrace Becomes a Pretty, Sociable Space
By Kate Burt
A retired couple got help transforming their large rooftop into a gorgeous, welcoming, multi-functional retreat
Full Story
House Tours
Houzz Tour: A Smart Layout and Genius Storage in a Victorian Home
Flipping the standard layout and carving out excellent storage have turned this tired house into a brilliant family home
Full Story
House Tours
Houzz Tour: A Victorian House Brought Impressively Up to Date
By Jo Simmons
A cohesive layout and warm colours combined with energy-efficiency measures thoroughly modernise this terraced home
Full Story
Kitchen Tours
Kitchen Tour: An Open, Airy Space Made for Entertaining
Combining two separate rooms has improved flow and created a sociable open-plan kitchen, dining and seating space
Full Story
House Tours
Houzz Tour: A Family Home Inspired by its Seaside Location
Coastal colours and practical design combine to create a house that will adapt as the family grows
Full Story
Kitchens
5 Inspiring Before and After Kitchen Transformations
Whether you want to boost storage, incorporate original features or maximise your space, take ideas from these designs
Full Story
House Tours
Houzz Tour: An Airy, Scandi Finish for a Tall Victorian House
By Kate Burt
From a tricky inherited bath to a sticky-out staircase, on-site problem-solving led to a seamless update for an old home
Full Story
This is beautiful! The paired back palette and volume are so peaceful. I have a very specific question about blinds. The roller blinds look great around the big rectangular picture windows, but is there a blind on the trapezoid windows? If so, how does that work??
Astonishing, beautiful, glorious, wonderful. This is the best house I have ever seen on Houzz. Utterly stunning and with only one bedroom it looks so large and spacious. Truly clever. I could live there for ever.
Another WOW ! Another Winner ! Lots of intriguing, but not wacky, ideas, and some very clever solutions. I should feel permanently on holiday here. We, too, have a 'guest bedroom' which is little used as such, and which hubby tends to use as his 'dressing room' and guitar practice room. Even so, the bed is a bit of an issue, so we're thinking of a fold-away, murphy-style one. This has spurred me on !