Heavenly yet Homey
It’s the last thing you expect to see in multimillion-dollar digs on exclusive Pelican Hill: a goat grazing in the foyer. Even the wooden one from a Parisian carousel that welcomes guests to the luxurious home of Louis and Mary Kay VanderMolen.
After all, the hilltop estates of the tony Newport Coast development have a reputation for containing serious treasures--rare Turkish rugs, original artworks, museum-quality antiques.
Not to worry. The VanderMolen home has all of the above, and more.
But it was important for the popular members of Orange County’s social set--she’s a generous patron of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, he’s a nationally respected oncologist at Hoag Cancer Center in Newport Beach--to establish at the outset the upbeat mood of their new, 9,500-square-foot, European-style home.
“We appreciate beautiful things, but we’re also very down-to-earth, whimsical,” explained Mary Kay VanderMolen, a who opens her home to charity events such as tonight’s cocktail reception for the Assessment and Treatment Services Center of Newport Beach. “People can’t help but smile when they think of the children who have ridden the goat.”
Interior designer John Benecke of Newport Beach worked with the VanderMolens to create what he calls “a livable, approachable, comfortable--but still elegant--environment.”
“The house functions in a way that can be very social and yet still be very intimate for the family,” Benecke said.
The floor-to-ceiling mirrored formal dining room, with its large circular table, round Turkish rug, antique commodes and hand-painted silk velvet chairs “has the most entertaining feel to it,” he said.
“You can just see them having cocktails with friends in the living room and then entering the dining room.”
Last summer, when the couple moved into the home paved with imported French limestone, VanderMolen said she felt as if she were stepping into a fantasy.
“Trite to say, but it’s like living the dream you’ve always dreamed.”
VanderMolen credits Benecke for creating an environment that is at once playful and sophisticated.
They combed Orange County and Los Angeles stores, and flew to San Francisco in search of unique pieces for the six-bedroom, seven-bath house.
Rare finds: a 16th century Swedish clock (in a corner of the ochre-colored foyer); an 18th century Louis XV French walnut bayou cabinet (in the burnt sienna-toned dining room); an early-18th century northern Italian baroque armoire (the focal point of the second-floor master bedroom suite).
Eye-catchers: a copper candy-making pot from a New Orleans shop used as a sink in the family bath off the farmhouse-style kitchen; brass signs from Harrods of London that say “Confections, Birthday Cakes” in a wood-framed pot rack.
When it was time to pull it all together, Benecke issued a friendly but firm mandate:”Stay away from the house for three days--from 8:30 a.m. Monday to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.”
“If a couple sees furniture arriving at their home piecemeal, they get confused,” he explained. “I once had a client show up in the middle of an installation and throw a fit. When they see it pulled together, they understand.”
In those 72 hours, he and his staff transformed the bare house, placing with care plush carpeting, sumptuous draperies, oil paintings and furniture.
The finishing touches: fresh blooms and flickering tapers on the table, supper in the oven.
“Mary Kay was dumbfounded, in tears,” Benecke said of the evening when the couple finally opened the mahogany and glass double doors to their furnished home.
“The house is really a journey of our lives,” VanderMolen said. “Everyplace I go, I see something that reminds me of a day when Louis and I found this on a European trip or John and I found that.
“In the middle of that first night, I got up and just walked around the house by myself, sat in every chair, took it all in.”
The foyer is the home’s focal point. The carved carousel goat, handmade Swedish clock and old cello case--this situated on a sunny, second-story alcove--reveal the personalities of the people who live there.
“It sets the mood, draws you in,” she said.
Beyond is a formal living room with a pale-green velvet sofa, grand piano, French limestone fireplace and assortment of chairs--from a leather-covered Palermo-style armchair to a Brighton chair upholstered with linen velvet tapestry.
They spend the most time in a glass-paneled family room with a sweeping view of the ocean and a sparkling “infinity” pool.
“If you go to the deep end of the pool and look out, you can’t see any of the other houses around here,” she said. “You just see water on top of water.”