It could be an Audrey Hepburn film. American girl in the 1950s goes to Paris, where she meets and marries Europe's best-known equestrian. Eighteen years later, they move to Pebble Beach on the California coast and build a small but elegant home in the suburban Paris style they love.
The sequel begins in 2004. The couple's heirs want to honor the French legacy of the home, but they need more space, more efficiency. "The house was built for two people, not for our growing family," says the homeowner.
A friend recommended designer Betty Burgess, whose passion for European classicism deepened during her own sojourn in France. She and architect Richard Barrett would team up to give the Paris-inspired Pebble Beach home a stunning rebirth.
Barrett appreciated the original structure's Gallic inspiration: "Its hip-roofed pavilion with small wings in a basic U shape is standard French." But to accommodate his clients, he took the house down to its frame, expanded the wings and made other changes such as adding antique limestone flooring from an old French château and installing Asselin doors and windows, also from France. To endow the exterior with a more tailored look, he replaced the roof with fine, lighter-colored slate from Salamanca, Spain.
The homeowner, who directed the renovation, welcomed good ideas, even when they entailed last-minute changes. She wanted a modern edge with a distinct ambiance in different parts of the house. As a result, the common rooms at its core present a formal-traditional look, while a more rustic scheme prevails in the family room and kitchen.
The home's master bath offers a real surprise — what Barrett calls "minimalist modern" style — inspired by the Hôtel Le Bristol in Paris. "It's my favorite room," says the owner. "With all that marble and white linen, it's like being in a cloud. The light is so beautiful."
For the overall palette, Burgess chose grey, pairing it with taupe, white and black accents — and even chocolate and a bit of orange for the son's bedroom. "Grey goes with everything," Burgess says, "and it's calm. We wanted the whole house to feel peaceful, to have texture. Grey captures the natural colors of the coast along Pebble Beach. It also showcases the home's remarkable antiques and artwork without competing."
The design reflects the meticulous attention paid to details large and small, from hidden electrical cords to hand-waxed Venetian plaster walls to well-spaced, hand-hewn eighteenth-century ceiling beams. Burgess even measured the creamware and faience purchased for the client to make sure a custom glass-front cabinet could accommodate them. In the kitchen and master bath, Carrara marble walls line up perfectly so that veins continue from slab to slab — a painstaking effort that took two months to install.
"I had no idea what we were getting into," the owner says. "The renovation became a project with essentially no budget, but it had the absolute best outcome — high-quality materials and craftsmanship. Each room is a little jewel."
