STRUCTURES : Showplace Offers Top Example of California-Style Residence : Coherent efforts of decorators does justice to the one-story home, situated on a bucolic 21 acres in Ojai. And it benefits a good cause.

For the past 13 years, the Design House has been a grand regional tradition, a decorators’ showcase for music’s sake. As the main fund-raising endeavor of the Ventura County Symphony League, the Design House is a winning concept on more than one front.

Visitors are allowed access to private homes in various corners of Ventura County, indulging their voyeuristic impulses while getting a broadened view of the county. Designers are able to show their wares and engage in collaborative efforts rare in their line of work. Monies are funneled into helping ensure the survival of symphonic music in the area--necessary because of the threat of diminished support for the arts from on high.

But the Design House is also a perennial event with a questionable future. With the combination of the Ventura County Symphony and the Conejo Symphony into the New West Symphony, the fate of fund-raising and other operations remains to be seen.

The tradition, hopefully, will continue, in part because it enhances appreciation of the place where we live. Take, for instance, this year’s model, the path to which is lined with citrus. The long, slender one-story house, situated on a tree-filled 21-acre property, is owned by artist Jane McKinney, who bought the property from the Barnard family in the late ‘60s and raised her family there.

Designed by architect Stewart Chase, the house itself is a subtle, modest variation of the post-Cliff May, ranch-house style. If the structure is less architecturally significant an edifice than in years past--such as last year’s woodsy home owned by the late Santa Paula architect Roy Wilson Sr.--it is also a better example of an indigenous Californian house.

It could also be said that the individual efforts of this year’s designers connect in a more coherent way than the hodgepodge of differing design motifs of previous years. Catherine Smith, part of the team of 15 designers and eight landscape artists, felt that “from a flow standpoint, there is much more continuity this year.”

Smith was in charge of the exterior color scheme this year, and adopted a French Country theme. Considering the home’s existing elements of black metal scrollwork, concrete block walls and a dramatic rusticated chimney (the centerpiece of the exterior, really), Smith came up with a putty hue for the exterior and a blue-green trim designed to capitalize on the shifting degrees of sunlight.

Designer Bobbi Dufau’s living-room design addresses the French connection with a light palette and a refined mix of fabrics, surfaces and furniture. On the other hand, off to the far end of the house, the “Gentleman’s Retreat” has a more British feel. Designed by Raymond Kieft, it’s done in a dark, men’s club-like Tudor decor.

Laura Crary’s study, similarly, is full of vernacular touches and an air of antique chic. Wainscoting from the original room remains, enhanced by marbleized walls and oak crown molding. A table holds a telescope facing one of the numerous picture windows in this house with a view.

Next to the study is the master bathroom and bath, designed by Paul Morse, Judy Ellis and Kenmere Davidson. Reportedly, the original bathroom was gutted, tiled and essentially reinvented--the most radical make-over story of this year’s Design House--to create a spacious, clean space. While the bedroom was still a work-in-progress on media day, Davidson explained that the scheme was to make of it “a soft, quiet retreat,” maximizing the dazzling views of orchards and roses.

The family room, looking out to the swimming pool in the back and the Topatopa Mountains beyond, has been redone by designer Elizabeth Alexander. “I’m from Great Britain, so I like things old,” she said with a grin.

But she also likes things functional. So, while an ambience of elegance comes through the roughly textured wall treatment complemented by crinkly green drapes, the couch is covered in washable denim slipcovers. She said, “Things have to be user-friendly or it doesn’t work for me.”

Outside, the grounds are adorned with Lori Ann David’s topiary and Holly and Doug Stone’s rose garden. Walking around the perimeter of the house tells its own story, one that underscores the decor specifics of the interior. Views of the lushly foliated valley, with no apparent signs of commercial or urban life, elicit visions of agrarian splendor that Southern California once knew in abundance.

Here, in this idyllic pocket of Ventura County, there is a sense of something precious and endangered. And now, courtesy of the Design House team, it’s all dressed up, ready for an onlookers’ parade--for a worthy cause.

Details

* WHAT: Design House ’95.

* WHEN: Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 5:30-8 p.m., Sunday from noon-4 p.m. (through May 28).

* WHERE: 455 Fairview Road, Ojai.

* HOW MUCH: $12 in advance, $15 at the door.

* CALL: 642-2945.