To find the old Bing Crosby house...

To find the old Bing Crosby house in Toluca Lake, turn off Cahuenga Boulevard and you suddenly find yourself in one of those unexpected little enclaves of elegance in the San Fernando Valley. Surrounded by tract homes and apartment complexes is a group of stylish custom homes on yawning expanses of landscaping, remnants of an earlier era.

Now, the old Crosby property is a remnant reborn. This is the once-grand house, embattled over the years by fire, disregard and earthquake, that charity restored, courtesy of the Assistance League of Southern California’s annual Design House.

Over the last six months, a group of 22 designers and landscape architects has effectively turned the home into an eclectic showplace, open to the public until November. Proceeds go to the assortment of charity causes aided by the Assistance League, founded in 1919.

Chez Crosby was built in 1936 as a 2 1/2-story Georgian Colonial revival house on six acres. It was less a haven for Hollywood social activity than it was a relatively secluded domestic hideaway--Crosby being protective of his family’s privacy. The house was heavily damaged by a fire in 1943, after which the Crosby family moved out.

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The current owners, Shirley and Jerry Van Dyke (of TV’s “Coach”), bought it from previous owner Andy Griffith and weren’t sure what to do with the house. It was already a fixer-upper before the 1994 Northridge earthquake took its toll on the structure.

“People told us we should tear down the house and rebuild,” said Shirley Van Dyke, stopping to talk on the property last week as workers scrambled to get ready for the grand opening. “It was a miracle when we were approached by the Design House. It makes me so happy that it has been restored. I drove by the other night . . . and thought, ‘This is the way it used to be.’ ”

Actually, it’s a smaller house now, having lost a story in the fire, and it’s on a smaller plot of land--two acres instead of the original six. But restoration is in the air in this neck of Toluca Lake.

Design House projects, an increasingly popular fund-raising event, tend to be exercises in diversity, as a variety of interior designers bring a variety of ideas to the table. This project is no exception--the intention here is less a cohesive point of view throughout the house than a sampling of design approaches. At the end of the public showing, the owners are given right of refusal in purchasing the decor of specific rooms.

Some designers have played off the Hollywood celebrity theme. Outside, the pool cabana has been redesigned with a Cape Cod theme in mind, and, more specifically, suited to “make-believe tenants.” Designer Richard Cannon explained that it should be “the kind of place where Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy would come to relax on the weekend.” Pragmatism is not forsaken: “Everything can be washed down with a hose,” Cannon said.

The guest bedroom suite, designed by Sue Potter and Sharon Horowitz, is an ornate space, luxurious to a fault. The suite features silk fabrics, a giant urn behind an oddly shaped bed, calla-lily motifs throughout the bathroom and a Florentine design on the ceiling, which is mirrored in the carpet. Horowitz explained that the design agenda here was to create a “glamorous bedroom for movie-star guests.”

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In the more sedate, traditional living room, the walls and fireplace had been badly damaged by the earthquake. Designer Tania Lowi’s task was to repair the damage and reinvent the look of the room, a process that included bringing in more light--”bringing the outside in”--with the addition of tall windows.

Surfaces were important. The new fireplace features a crackle finish, and Lowi also treated the wood walls with 20 layers of furniture finish, giving it “a subtle, limestone effect.” Generally, she wanted the living room design to be “formal and elegant, but still inviting, not stuffy.”

Meanwhile, over in the dining room, Marieann Green removed a door and brought together different elements to create a warm, dark space with a Mediterranean character. “A departure from the expected was my statement here,” she said.

The most dramatic structural transformation took place in the kitchen. Looking at the kitchen’s “before” identity, Sylvia Parker was disturbed by the complicated series of spaces and cupboards. “I begged and said, ‘Let’s open this up. You can’t keep these nooks and crannies.’ ” A confirmed lover of “remodeling and construction,” Parker proceeded to consolidate the room by tearing down a wall, evening out the floor and centering the new, enlarged space with a huge island in the middle. Pine cabinetry now surrounds the room.

Parker also changed the former maid’s room, adjacent to the kitchen, into a breakfast room. The addition of French doors and windows combines with landscape murals on the walls to “give a garden feeling to the room. I’m a firm believer in bringing the inside and outside together.”

The sum effect of this Design House, like most similar projects, is a blend of renovation and a designer showcase, all for a good cause. In this case, you can add to the mix some voyeurism, along the curiosity-seeking lines of, say, maps to the stars homes. This was, after all, the house that hosted several “White Christmases,” sans snow.

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DETAILS

* WHAT: Design House ‘96, sponsored by the Assistance League of Southern California.

* WHERE: At the former Bing Crosby home in Toluca Lake.

* WHEN: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, through Nov. 3.

* HOW MUCH: Tickets are $17 at the door.

* CALL: For the address or more information, (818) 509-3898 or (213) 993-1098.

* FYI: In addition to the home and garden tour, the assistance league will offer designer workshops Tuesdays through Fridays, 20 charming boutiques, and a restaurant serving lunch, brunch and afternoon tea. There is free parking and shuttle service from the southwest corner of Barham Boulevard and Forest Lawn Drive.