Houzz Tour: Luxury With a Treehouse Feel
Designer Jason Urrutia was finishing a job in Marin County, Calif., when a realtor told him she had something he’d like in a neighboring city. He was not searching for something fresh however, but he moved along in the spirit of fascination. “The minute I walked in I saw all the possible,” he says. “You knew, immediately, yes.”
The house, designed in 1979 by the late celebrated architect Charles Moore, is located on a piece of land that comes with a lush mix of Northern California’s feature live pine trees and other natural growth. Urrutia bought the house and in collaboration with his girlfriend, designer Martha Carvalho, transformed it into a luxurious house.
Urrutia Design
“The realtor, neighbors and friends that have come through the house have adored the fantastic room with its connections to the decks along with the pool — and also generally the connections between the inside and the outside spaces,” Urrutia says. “There is a link everywhere you look in the house.”
This photograph was shot in the close of the deck that also contains a fire pit along with the outdoor kitchen.
More about walls that open wide
Urrutia Design
“The major thing for me about this house is that there’s a really modest feeling to all of it,” Urrutia says. “This is definitely the type of house that’s comfortable — it is not over the top. You feel as if you might be wrapped or in shoes in it; you can entertain kids or CEOs in it. It caters to a lot of different people.” A lot of people have commented on the treehouse character of the house.
Urrutia Design
Though Urrutia wouldn’t explain himself as fanatical about green building methods, he’d reuse a lot of the original house’s board-and-batten siding as soffit fencing and material to the remodeled structure.
Urrutia Design
Urrutia also reused redwood timber by a former Elks Lodge in a neighboring city for the entry pagoda and front porch.
Urrutia Design
“I attempt to twist things as far as I can,” Urrutia says. Hence, his option to bring depth to ever-popular white cabinetry using black cabinetry as the base of the island. The glass pendants were from Ballard Designs.
Urrutia Design
Originally the far end of this space — now a dining room — was a bedroom. Urrutia knocked out a wall to transform a 14×45′ space into this 14×65′ room.
At right is one of the house’s most well-known inventions: two 22-foot folding doors that open into the pool and outdoor kitchen. “Before, it was decorated with windows, with a door into the deck at each end,” Urrutia says. “I needed to link the inside and the outdoors.”
Urrutia Design
Urrutia oversaw every aspect of the undertaking, from architecture to design to materials. “Every last conclusion, right or wrong, was mine,” he says. The furniture in these photos is not staged; it had been bought for the house, and new owners obtained the majority of it when Urrutia sold the property.
A spacious, rough-hewn dining table ideal for entertaining bands occupies the place that was formerly a bedroom. A mirror further increases the great room’s feeling of expansiveness.
Urrutia Design
Sliding barn doors on one side of the dining room were made onsite of plywood, torn using a circular saw to create the overall look of boards painted black.
Urrutia Design
The end of the great room opposite the dining room is a living room shaped like two overlapping, offset rectangles, and this cozy section of it’s windows facing the rear deck. Formerly, there was a wood-burning fireplace in the adjacent section, which Urrutia substituted with this gas-operated one built from Brazilian slate and old-growth redwood.
The paint over the fireplace is Benjamin Moore Woodcliff Lake (980) and the colour on the window is Benjamin Moore Brandon Beige (977).
Urrutia Design
Another part of the living room comprises more lavish seats and an ottoman that also acts as a coffee table. Divided-light windows maintain an awareness of classic architecture.
“I enjoy things that have manifestation,” Urrutia says. “There are a whole lot of chrome, velvet, lacquered surfaces, a great deal of glazed tiles in the house — there’s a great deal of life in reflection. But too much is somewhat too glamorous.”
Urrutia Design
The living room at one end of the fantastic room is visible in the deck.
Urrutia Design
The outdoor kitchen is designed for cooking and serving alfresco, finish with a different long dining table developed for groups.
Urrutia Design
An area of the deck adjacent to and above the outdoor kitchen includes a fire pit and cushy chairs.
Urrutia Design
The pool is separated by the fire pit and outdoor kitchen by a tree-shaded part of open deck. Each of the outdoor furniture is walnut, from Terra Teak in Mill Valley, with ample customized cushions.
Urrutia Design
“I knew immediately that the master suite needed to be a private wing,” Urrutia says. On the primary floor that also includes the fantastic room, this area — previously occupied by two bedrooms — currently includes the master bedroom, sitting room, bath and closet.
Urrutia Design
French doors lead out to a private master deck. Skylights bathe the room in natural light. At the far end is the cupboard, with windows that face the front of the house.
Urrutia Design
The master bath includes dual sinks and a plunge-worthy bathtub in cool, clean white.
Urrutia Design
The master bedroom, seen from its private deck.
Urrutia Design
Heath Ceramics tiles on the master deck outdoor shower — one of two outdoor showers on the property — match the cedar shingles.
Urrutia Design
Past the French doors is the master suite escape, an outdoor lounge with ample plush chairs and its own fire pit and hot tub (not visible, at left). The wall of green behind were 15-gallon plants that matured to this lushness over the span of the job.
Urrutia Design
A private bath for a few of the main floor’s guest bedrooms includes Heath Ceramics tiles.
Urrutia Design
This is the powder room near the front entrance on the primary floor. Elegant seagrass wallpaper gives it texture.
Urrutia Design
At the top of the staircase between the first and second floors of the main house is a small sitting area supported by an 8×16′ window that opens into the back of the house and the pool.
A tiled accent wall brings depth to the toilet shared by the two bedrooms on the second floor.
Urrutia Design
A glassed-in shower separate from the bathtub keeps the toilet feeling open.
Urrutia Design
An expansive mirror maximizes the sense of space in one of the two bedrooms on the second floor of the main house.
Urrutia Design
Another of the two rooms on top of the house is set up as a sitting room but is also intended for use as a bedroom. “We call this space the convertible,” Urrutia says. The significant window looks down on the stairs.
Urrutia Design
The two windows on the far wall are just above the house’s front entryway.
A set of outside steps, accessed in the front of the house, leads to a completely separate guest apartment with its own private entry. The eaves were notched to accommodate a tree branch.
The guest apartment contains a complete kitchen and a spacious living room.
The flat contains a raised area that can be utilized as an extension of their living room or as an office (it’s its own storage cupboard, center).
Urrutia Design
The guest apartment’s bedroom.
“None of landscaping was there,” Urrutia says. “Only adult trees — everything else was planted. The stone walls weren’t there, the grasses weren’t there; it was planted.” This view is looking up toward the rear of the house and the pool.
More remodeling jobs:
Just a Small Cottage Grows Up
A Design in Harmony with the Land
A Modern Renovation in Seattle
See More Homes