Designers to Put a House in Order
Ask a developer of custom homes--sprawling, magnificent custom homes--if she’s worried about selling her latest project, the $3.9-million Tuscan villa in Cowan Heights, and she says “yes!”
But if anyone can sell an 8,300-square-foot mansion in these rocky economic times, it’s probably Susan Gerard of Newport Beach.
Gerard has cut a deal most builder/developers only dream about. Come April 4, after 22 of Orange County’s most talented interior designers have worked their decorative magic on every room in her villa (at no cost to Gerard), hundreds of locals will pour through the house to see the results. Maybe one will be a buyer.
The monthlong tour marks the second annual Philharmonic House of Design project, a benefit staged by the Orange County Philharmonic Society in collaboration with the local chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers that is expected to raise more than $60,000 for the society’s music education programs for youth.
“We have a lot of events that just reach people who want to work on funding our music programs,” says House of Design chairwoman Lyn Sandahl. “But with this project, we reach a much wider segment of the population.”
Here’s the way it works: Representatives of ASID and the Philharmonic choose a house that can become a decorating canvas for some of Orange County’s top designers. (Gerard lucked out; a designer saw her hilltop work-in-progress and fell in love with it.)
Potential designers tour the house and submit their concepts to Lynn Deal, the representative of ASID who is co-chairwoman of the project.
“More than 70 designers did the walk-through,” said Deal, a commercial and residential designer. “Only 22 were selected.”
Next, the designers create a fantasy client. “The kind of family we think would want to reside in a house like this,” Deal said.
The committee came up with the following profile: A good-size family headed by an entrepreneur who is the chief executive officer of his company. The family has more than one home, but this is their main residence. The children are high school or college age. The family is philanthropically oriented, with an interest in music.
“This really gets to be fun for the designers,” Deal said. “They have no actual client so they get to design their own vision. They become their own fantasy clients.”
Gerard admits to indulging her home’s potential buyer with every possible amenity. “It’s the emotional impact of a house that counts,” she said. “I pay careful attention to that.”
For Gerard, the primary emotional consideration is a home’s entry. “It has to be dramatic,” she said. “It creates the feeling of the house--it’s the point where you decide you love a house or hate it.”
Her villa in the Rocking Horse Ridge area of Cowan Heights contains an entry that is a “22-foot circular rotunda,” she said, “with a grand spiral staircase, coffered ceiling and chandelier.”
Is she worried the designers may execute a decorative concept she may not like? “I have the final word on anything that is permanent,” Gerard said. “All of the designers confer with Lynn Deal and she brings it all to me.”
Gerard designed the house with space enough for two homes because families are wanting more and more rooms, she said.
“These days, they want a media room in addition to a family room and a library. And they want a home office for either the husband or the wife. And a morning room and a dining room. And of course, a butler’s pantry. And the master suite--this has to be fabulous and self-contained--after all, it’s where a couple spends half of their life.”
In order to choose a color palette for the six-bedroom project, Deal contacted major fabric manufacturers to find out which hues are hot for ’92. She came up with two favorites: the colors of Spain (a nod to Christopher Columbus) and the colors of Russia (mainly, a rust-toned, Russian red).
“We chose to go with the Spanish hues because of the villa’s architecture. It has a Mediterranean tone,” Deal said. (Watch for the villa to be drenched in ivories and taupes with accents of terra cotta, amethyst and snake-green.)
Sandahl, for one, can’t wait for the Design House to open. “For years I’ve visited the Design House that the Philharmonic does in Pasadena,” she said. “I’ve learned so much--the designers have incredibly original ideas. When we had our first design house in Orange County last year I knew it would be a hit. People here like to keep up with the trends.”
