The gardens that surround this house exerted an unusually strong influence on the new bedroom suite that architect Mark Smeaton designed for it. Branching off from a conventional 1950s ranch, the bedroom wing sits between existing trees, its abstract form and long, sinuous ridge beam inspired by the koi fish that swim in the ponds outside. “The owners were pretty adamant that they wanted art; they didn’t want something that was just run of the mill,” says Smeaton, who designed the new master bath to serve as a thematic bridge between the earth-bound original house and its water-inspired new wing.
The bath comprises two rooms that flank the bedroom hall. To the south, a sliding resin panel opens a satellite half bath, dubbed “the Loo.” Imbedded with bear grass, the door and a matching wall panel create the impression of marsh grass bending under flowing water. A full-length counter of book-matched walnut furthers the horizontal theme. The main bath, across the hall to the north, emphasizes its 28-foot length with a matching walnut counter, punctuated with two wide, polished steel sinks. A wall-hung floating slab, the counter penetrates the glass wall of the shower, its surface changing from walnut to travertine as it becomes a shelf for shampoo. Dubbed “the Grotto,” the pebble-tiled shower draws the eye with a skylight that sets its back wall aglow. The same pebble surface lines the perimeter of the floor, around a center tiled with travertine.
Builder: Blanco Construction Services, Santa Clarita, Calif.; Architect: Crux Studio, Pasadena, Calif.; Photographer: Claudio Santini.
