Spanish Colonial in La Cañada Flintridge
Husband-and-wife architects Michael Burch and Diane Wilk have finished work on a 1925 Spanish Colonial house in La Cañada Flintridge, preserving Everett Babcocks original architecture while infusing the property with their own artistry. The result is a beautiful home that feels intimate in scale and skillfully blends the new with the old.
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Husband-and-wife architects Michael Burch and Diane Wilk preserve Everett Babcocks original 1925 architecture while infusing the property with their own artistry. The result blends the new with the old.
The fireplace in the living room is original to the house. The mirror is believed to be from the late 18th century and was purchased from the private collection of a Palm Springs shopkeeper who specialized in Spanish Revival and Spanish Colonial furnishings. Reflected in the mirror is a light fixture original to the house.
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A wider shot of the living room shows not only the original lighting, but also the original timber ceiling once painted, then cleaned up during Burch and Wilks restoration. The couple also removed a tile floor to expose the wood underneath.
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Six-year-old triplets James (foreground), Richard and Katherine join parents Burch and Wilk in the living area off the new kitchen. For more photo galleries of Southern California homes and gardens, bookmark our website and look for new postings throughout the week.
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Deep niches throughout the house, including this one in the living room, are elements of Babcocks original design.
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One of Burchs distinctive additions to the house: elaborate tile work, including this period-correct Tunisian pattern.
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A stairways recessed circular window is original to the house. Burch and Wilk reproduced the glass pattern in other areas of the house.
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More of the new tile adorns what had been a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. Burch and Wilk closed off one of the doors, originally located in the spot between two new pedestal sinks. The tin mirrors are from Mexico. They were bought online for about $150 each and made into medicine cabinets. Burch and Wilk designed the light fixtures, using about $10 worth of parts and about $30 in labor to have each wired. Theyre custom in the sense of how they were put together, Wilk says, but theyre not super expensive.
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New tile work graces a shower.
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The front door, part of Babcocks 1920s design, was refinished. Burch and Wilk had the glass pattern seen here replicated on a door to the kitchen.
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The front doors outward-facing side, as seen from the entry courtyard, is an evocative blue. The fountain is a new addition.
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A colonnade built on a gentle slope helps to form the Spanish Colonials courtyard. The grassy expanse is visible from most parts of the house. Babcock was able to open the house to light and air in a way that would not have been possible in a four-sided house, architectural historian Ann Scheid says.
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Another fountain trickles in front of the dynamic new tiles at the Burch-Wilk house. His work was certainly good enough to be mistaken for a [Wallace] Neff, Burch says of Babcock, a little-known architect who, like many contemporaries of his time, remain in relative obscurity despite crafting some of the most distinctive residences of the era.
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