Mountaintop Make-Over
It can be the stuff of either nightmares or dreams. You move out of your house for several months as 42 hotsy-totsy designers--all, of course, with their own ideas--make the place over.
When you return, voila. . .
That was the plan for Frank and Alisa Barbarino of Westlake Village, and at this point, it looks like more dream than nightmare.
To begin with, their 10,000-square-foot mountaintop home was no fixer-upper. Even before this giant make-over, the Mediterranean-style mansion, called Villa Montagna, was the backdrop for the television series “High Tide,” as well as for commercials, rap music videos and a Priscilla Presley infomercial.
Now that the transformation is complete, people can tour the refurbished home through Oct. 12 and ogle everything from the powder room’s elegant glass washstand to the cabana’s chubby tan-suede easy chair with its special compartments for cigars.
The Westlake Village-based Wellness Community is showcasing the home to raise money for its programs to assist people with cancer. The organization covers a broad area from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Barbara, and money raised by the house tours is earmarked for a new satellite facility planned for the western part of the Valley.
This is the third annual home make-over the charity has sponsored, and it’s the most extensive so far. The house is open Wednesdays through Sundays. Buses shuttle visitors from Kanan and Lindero Canyon roads in Westlake Village up to the Barbarino home, on three acres in Upper North Ranch. (Tickets are $18.)
There’s more to see than the house. The garage has been transformed into a cafe where visitors can sip cappuccino or wine and fill up on pasta salad, sandwiches, croissants and eclairs.
The long driveway, lined with palm trees, is set up like a marketplace where vendors in tents sell household accessories, jewelry, clothing, and even those CDs with soothing music. The entertainment lineup includes pianists, fashion shows, artist appearances, gardening and decorating programs.
Nearly a year in the making from the initial planning stage, the home’s overhaul took monumental coordination that could have blown apart during the recent UPS strike when deliveries for the designers were delayed.
“Everyone was in pure panic,” said Lois Curran-Klein, chairwoman of the event. But things have fallen into place. “It was all a team effort.” More than 400 people worked on the project--50 on the master bedroom alone.
Why this particular house? The Barbarinos were already contributors to the charity, and their home had been used previously for a fund-raiser. They were willing to shoulder some of the cost, as well as pack up and move out.
“We try to find someone willing to give up the home for five or six months for the charity to come in and take over,” Curran-Klein said.
So in June, the couple stored most of their belongings and squeezed into a 900-square foot condo with their two cats and dog. They can’t move back until Nov. 1.
“The whole house is completely different,” said Alisa Barbarino, 32, who grew up in Thousand Oaks. “Not one thing is the same.”
The designers, who donated their time on the project, each took responsibility for a certain area of the house. They worked with a lead interior designer, James Blakeley III of Santa Barbara. They didn’t move walls, but they gutted rooms, redesigned the home’s many fireplaces, changed furniture and added murals.
“We were involved in the whole process,” Barbarino said. “We had approval on everything that was a permanent change.” If the labor and much of the materials hadn’t been donated, the retail value of the job would be about $500,000.
The Barbarinos had just finished decorating and landscaping the house, with its 360-degree views and 112 windows, after moving in four years ago. They bought the place, their first home together, for $1.55 million after spotting it during a casual house-hunting drive.
“The pillars, the Mediterranean look--it struck me,” said Frank Barbarino, 39, who said it reminded him of his native Sicily. He and his family lived in a tiny ocean-side village until he was 12 when they moved to the Monterey area. About 10 years ago, he moved to Los Angeles and started his own printing company, F.B. Productions in Chatsworth, handling packaging for the cosmetic, electronic and entertainment industries.
The Barbarinos are avid travelers and wanted their make-over house to look like some of the places they had visited; the end result is that it does have a resort feel. “We wanted to make our own little getaway here,” he said.
After they first moved in, the Barbarinos had 160 palm trees trucked in. They added two waterfalls, bringing the total to four. He started collecting bronze animal statues by Westlake Village’s David Spellerberg, which dot the property--dolphins, a lion, cheetah, panther, parrots. A life-size tiger majestically graces a waterfall along the driveway.
Inside and outside the house, columns are everywhere. The front entryway opens into a foyer with a 20-foot ceiling. From the dining room table, you can gaze out the window and watch water tumble over a stone waterfall.
One of Frank Barbarino’s favorite haunts is a multimedia room, made over with a movie screen and high-tech sound equipment. Lined with columns, the room now has plush seating for 12 viewers. But his real passion isn’t movies.
“I’m a music fanatic,” he said, especially when it comes to jazz.
A favorite retreat of his wife’s is the huge master bedroom suite with his-and-her bathrooms, a combined decorating effort by Los Angeles designers Lil Chain and Suzanne Furst. Both have been active in public service projects; Chain recently worked on the restoration of the Getty House, the official residence of Los Angeles’ mayor.
Alisa Barbarino’s bathroom now has an elegant Roman feel to it. The round tub is backed by a mural depicting columns entwined with vines. The floral-painted sink is set off with faucet handles created from cut crystal to look like huge diamonds.
The house has other elegant added touches, such as in the kitchen’s eating nook, where the flower design on the glass table was custom-done to match the upholstery on the chairs.
Alisa Barbarino likes the work the designers have done. “They had the best ideas,” she said. “Everything looks phenomenal.”
BE THERE
Home Show--The Wellness Community-Valley/Ventura is displaying its 1997 Design Showcase House in Westlake Village through Oct. 12. Hours are Wednesday, Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Access to the house is available by shuttle only from the Pavilions and Ralph’s Shopping Centers, Kanan and Lindero Canyon roads in Westlake Village. (805) 777-1016.
