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Out of the Woods

A Mount Helix couple looks to nature for design inspiration

BY ROWENA KELLEY

THERE AREN’T MANY HOMEOWNERS who would find joy in the bursting of a hot-water pipe. But for Sharon Smith, it was just the disaster she needed to initiate a remodel more than a decade overdue.

“Every single appliance was barely working or not working at all,” Smith says of the kitchen in the Mount Helix home she shares with husband Steve Bovee, part owner of Reed’s Hobby Shop in La Mesa, and Sly, their cat. “We’ve lived here 12 years, so you could say I had wanted to do the remodel for quite a while.”

An architect for the Navy, Smith wanted to change other parts of the house also. The front door was worn and didn’t make a statement; the living room was dim, with a pink-marble fireplace as its centerpiece; and the rooms didn’t flow easily into one another. One of her biggest frustrations was the most isolated, compartmentalized space in the house: the dining room. The kitchen, she says, was “bachelorish,” with pale yellow tile, an old freestanding refrigerator and a big oak table that was used for nothing more than collecting junk. But the dining room was degrees worse, as it felt “like a dungeon.”

Set 3½ feet below the living room, the sunken dining room was not conducive to everyday living and certainly not ideal for entertaining guests. Yet for 12 years, Smith and Bovee patiently shared it and the other dysfunctional spaces in their home. Until, that is, the pipes burst and interior designer Mary-Clare Brandt, ASID, came to their rescue.

To design a “new” home for the couple, Brandt, principal of MC Brandt Interiors in La Jolla, first looked to the original architecture. “The house is contemporary but with a woodsy feel,” she says. To maintain a balance between style and nature, she applied an understated palette and incorporated solid walnut throughout, as well as granite and quarter-sawn oak. Then, in keeping with the couple’s love for travel, she added a “touch of old Asian” to the design, influenced by an antique wedding basket Smith bought years before when the couple was living in Japan.

Brandt’s first priority was to give Smith a kitchen in which she could cook, entertain and practically live. Not only did pipes get replaced, so did the oak table, the old tiles and dated appliances. Today, a large butcher-block island serves as an expansive prep area, a place for casual dining and a gathering spot for guests.

The countertops were a priority for the homeowners, who didn’t want a shiny surface, so Smith opted for rough river-cut granite. It’s a harmonious complement to the natural, solid quality of quarter-sawn oak used for the kitchen cabinets, a pocket door that hides the microwave, pull out drawers and panels that disguise a stainless-steel refrigerator.

Equally appealing in form and function are two spaces that extend from the kitchen: a butler’s pantry—Brandt’s favorite space in the entire house—and an office niche. “My husband spends a lot of time in there,” Smith says of the office that, while small, is big enough to work in without feeling separated from the kitchen. “It’s great, because now I can make dinner and still be talking with him.”

Rather than design a traditional pathway from the kitchen to the dining room, Brandt installed a butler’s pantry complete with a wine cabinet, mini-refrigerator, copper sink with hot water for tea, plus plenty of shelves and drawers to store barware and serving pieces. Seed glass, with its wave-like pattern, gives walnut cabinets an heirloom feel and complements the polished Uba Tuba granite on the countertops below. “It’s small, intimate and cozy-dark,” she says. “We could’ve used this space to make the kitchen or dining room bigger, but the pantry adds a sense of mystery. And it gives the place an ‘old house’ feel.”

ONE OF THE MORE NOTICEABLE IMPROVEMENTS is the dining room that no longer requires stairs to access. Brandt not only elevated the space but added corner windows to brighten it. Raising the room, a design dilemma from the start, created another problem, as the new ceiling height exposed a steel beam supporting a second-floor balcony. To hide the beam, a custom cabinet was built around it—providing an ideal place to showcase the couple’s travel mementos and Bovee’s model-train collection. (The retired Navy lieutenant commander doesn’t just operate a retail store for train hobbyists, he owns an extensive personal collection of antique and hard-to-find model trains.)

Walnut, one of the primary design elements in the remodel, appears on the new front door, the floors and on the living room’s custom built-ins. Windows with treetop views enhance the easy, natural feel of the room, so Brandt kept furnishings clean and contemporary. A custom Patricia Edwards sectional and red leather chair work well with Japanese antiques, which lend to the rustic feel.

While Smith and Bovee spend most of their time in the kitchen, mornings begin in the adjacent sun-soaked breakfast nook. The space is oriented toward mountain views, so Brandt kept the design minimal, installing a stone fireplace for warmth and aesthetic appeal.

“We use this room every day,” Smith says. “In the winter, we light the fire and it’s even more relaxing.”

Her next goal is to remodel the master bedroom. But that project, like this one, will come in time. After 12 years of com promise, she and Bovee are busy hosting parties and living in a home that feels brand new. Not bad for a project that began with a busted pipe.