Her more meets his less

THE extravaganza of color begins at the cobalt-blue front door festooned with abstract tiles and continues into the courtyard that pops with primary hues. Walk inside and the entry is white, white, white: floors, stairs, oversized paintings by the artists in residence. It’s a bit like stepping out of the tropics into the Arctic.

Except it’s a townhouse on a promontory overlooking the Back Bay in Newport Beach. And the home’s split personality is a byproduct of one couple’s studied “he said, she said” visual approach. There’s no need for professional intervention via “Designing for the Sexes,” the popular HGTV show that helps couples resolve their design disagreements each week. By respecting each other’s tastes, embracing a bold use of color and fabric and giving each other design space to call their own, this pair could have starred in the episode called “The Zen Zone.”

They’ve created harmony when in most other houses discord would rule, having redecorated a dozen times in as many years. Myrella Moses likes kapow colors and dramatic design. Eric Mondriaan goes for minimalism and clean lines. The look evolves based on how they feel. It’s an ever-changing exhibit in 2,000 square feet, a fluid style that defies labeling. The embellishing knows no end.

“Myrella really plays with the house. I think of it as her art,” Mondriaan says.

Escaping without leaving is important because they work at home and seldom travel. “We wanted our home to be like an exotic resort, like that place you went to on your honeymoon -- wild, colorful, exotic, relaxing, happy. We want that feeling all the time,” Moses says.

“Luckily, we’re both artists, so we can do the painting, sewing, finishing, building. Everything is done inexpensively,” says Moses, 44. “I love creating new environments, and he likes it too.

“I always think fabric first. I’ve been like that since I was a little kid. I like mixing organic and natural materials with highly refined and polished ones. The juxtaposition of primitive and sophisticated.”

Excuse the matter-of-fact Mondriaan if he is not quite as effusive about the ongoing change. What she thinks up, he often pulls off.

“I come up with the ideas and design and Eric does the technical stuff,” she says, with a hoot of laughter. “And then I clean up afterwards.”

Mondriaan, 39, a self-taught artist, paints photo-realistic oils while Moses takes digital photographs of nature-based abstractions and mounts them flush on balsa wood. Sometimes they collaborate. One such work was in the spring exhibit “Whiteness, a Wayward Construction” at the Laguna Art Museum. (See more samples of their artwork at www.mondriaanmoses.com.)

“I think of their house as a little Shangri-La in terms of the veils and drapes,” says Tyler Stalling, the museum’s chief curator. “It’s a sensual world separate from the outside. The only practical environments are their artists’ studios.”

The townhouse has a view through palm trees and dense vegetation of water and migratory birds out the back, but the front is pure tract-home homogenous to conform to homeowner association codes.

In the courtyard, white canvas fabrics resembling sails waft in the breeze, suspended over the entrance and providing calm cover over an area that’s a kaleidoscopic riot. The canopies also serve a practical purpose: to keep the area cool during summer.

Beneath the sails is a couch (actually two lounge chairs nailed together) with fabric dyed yellow, red and orange and decorated with multicolored pillows made from rolled 6-foot bathroom rugs. Water flows from a small concrete fountain into a basin filled with shiny, blue glass marbles.

Since the whole townhouse is designed to change with Moses’ whims, the former costume designer born and raised in Germany laughs and says there may have been a Bedouin in her background. (She came to California 20 years ago after marrying Olympic champion Edwin Moses. They divorced 13 years ago.)

Only the doors leading to the outside are traditional doors. Fabric marks the inside passageways. She’s rethought the usual front screen door by suspending sheer fuchsia fabric from a bamboo pole and weighting it down. It billows like a dancing veil but still keeps out bugs and birds.

“I’m a real fabric hound, always looking for great colors and textures. If things fade, I just re-dye them in the washing machine,” Moses says. “The suspended fabric here starts a fluid rhythm that goes throughout the whole house. I love its sensuality and the way it moves. Plus with fabric you can transform something quickly, cheaply and beautifully. I don’t like doors. I like the feeling of a tent.”

Closet doors downstairs were replaced with white canvas tossed over bamboo poles rescued from a neighbor’s yard. Valances are tossed over the poles with a chandelier’s crystal teardrops weighing down the hem.

In the entry, Mondriaan used lumber and molding to craft new steps. Then he painted and applied Venetian plaster, or ground-up marble, on the steps and concrete to bring the area together.

“I used this material because I knew I could create the patterns I wanted and I knew it was tough enough that it would hold up,” Mondriaan says.

Moses’ bedroom upstairs continues the tent theme with fabrics over the bed, colorful saris as closet doors and multicolored rugs piled on the floor.

“Since we each have our own bedroom with frequent visits encouraged, I go crazy with color in mine,” she says. Candles are suspended from the four-poster bed, and the ceiling and walls replicate a cloud-filled sky. Tall chests from IKEA are painted bright red.

“I like modular pieces because they are like empty canvases. I can paint them, move them around and reconfigure them,” she says. “I painted the walls sky blue to calm down all the other colors.”

In contrast, Mondriaan’s bedroom is almost monochromatic with straw-colored walls, little art, a low bed, books and workout equipment.

“I don’t like visual stimulation in my bedroom,” he says. A veranda off their bedrooms is totally white, acting as a meditation area and a place to watch birds or the moon.

The downstairs living room is like an art gallery with a white, marbleized fireplace full of sand, candles and seashells instead of wood. Moses’ photographs are on one wall, and a large wooden armoire from India holds their television.

In keeping with the indoor-outdoor theme of the house, Mondriaan created the kitchen floor by covering the linoleum with ordinary joint compound or drywall mud from Home Depot and then adding five colors of paint and six coats of varnish.

“There’s so much you can do with the mud,” he says. “It gives a great texture for floors, walls, cabinets, even the refrigerator. We call this our cave kitchen, since the colors are reminiscent of Sedona, Ariz.” They took an ordinary unfinished oak dining room table, beat it up, shellacked it and stained it to create a primitive-looking place to eat.

Some inspiration comes from the late designer Tony Duquette, who made the high- and low-brow work as one. “Most of the changes we’ve done ourselves because we like to,” she says. “We live frugally, but with no set budget. Sometimes we splurge if the object is perfect, like our Indian armoire.”

The back patio may be the most dramatic area of all.

“Everything here, and in the whole house, is about catching light,” says Moses. “The look changes depending on the time of the day or year.”

There are the brightly colored lounges big enough for two, hanging candles, glass prisms and a suspended East Indian canopy. The outdoor dining table holds bowls full of sand, candles and blue glass nuggets. Cobalt-blue bottles are upended into palm trees and a chandelier glistens with glass baubles.

Even with a lot going on, the feeling is not claustrophobic.

“The idea is that when you have so many different colors and textures you must make them recede and blend together. That makes it balanced so your eye keeps moving and doesn’t stop anywhere or be jarred. We’ve tried to do that here because we think that makes for a good, livable design that we can both enjoy,” says Moses.

And, in the process, prove that opposite design styles can live in harmony.

Kathy Bryant is a Huntington Beach freelance writer. She can be reached at home@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Imagination is the mother of innovation

Using ordinary material in extraordinary ways. That’s how Myrella Moses and Eric Mondriaan pull off unusual effects at their Newport Beach townhouse.

“We know the look we’re going for,” Moses says, “and then we keep trying till we get it.”

Here are some tips from the artists:

Fabric finds: Choose unexpected fabric -- canvas, painter drop cloths or muslin -- for furniture covers, closet doors and drapery. Fabric can be dyed in the washing machine to get the required color.

Go primitive: Bamboo poles held up by unusual hardware, like drapery tiebacks installed upside down, make attractive drapery rods. The material can be flipped over the rod and secured at the hem with decorative baubles or crystal teardrops.

Screening room: Replace screen doors with sheer fabric weighted down with lead on a strip, which can be found in sewing stores.

Sari state: Modern saris bought in Artesia’s Little India or vintage pieces from Sherwood Furniture in Costa Mesa can replace doors or be suspended from the ceiling for a shimmering, tent-like effect.

Mud bath: Use drywall mud to give a rough texture to walls and cabinets. The couple employed the technique to simulate a cave in their kitchen. Venetian plaster also can be used on walls and floors for a smoother, marble look. Available at Home Depot, the plaster is harder to apply than the mud.

Pile it on: Immediately change a room’s look with colorful cotton rugs from inexpensive stores like Ikea or Target. Tired of seeing them on the floor? Wash, then reuse to cover furniture or tables.

Let it shine: Cut silver reflective adhesive tape from art supply stores into little rectangles and stick to bathroom tiles for a shimmering look. “That immediately jazzes up boring white tiles,” Moses says.

Wrap it up: Hide unsightly electric cords by wrapping them with fabric, ribbon or even beads. Make sure the wrapping doesn’t get near the outlet or bulb.

-- Kathy Bryant