This isn't the only Hill House out there," says architect Robin Donaldson. He's right: Historic homes with that title dot the map from Scotland to Arizona; novelist Shirley Jackson famously borrowed the name for her 1959 Gothic classic, The Haunting of Hill House. Like its spooky fictional counterpart, the 10,720-square-foot concrete structure that Southern California-based Donaldson + Partners created for art collectors Bruce Heavin and Lynda Weinman in Montecito, California, is big, a little odd, and full of curious secrets that slowly reveal themselves over time.
Fortunately, this Hill House is a lot cheerier than Jackson's.
"People are always surprised by how comfortable it is," Weinman says. After selling their online education business eight years ago, the couple decided it was time for a major lifestyle upgrade. Donaldson, a close friend and collaborator who had designed the couple's former office, was the natural choice and spent two years working up a scheme only for his clients to change course: Ditching the initial site, they acquired another closer to the sea, straddling a slender ridge. There, Heavin says he wanted to build a house that would "explore the emotional and the irrational." With that as a mandate, Donaldson and his collaborators went all in on a design that pushes toward the sublime with structural invention and a deft feel for the landscape.
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Denne historien er fra March 2024-utgaven av Elle Decor US.
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MORE, PLEASE
Eric Hughes joins forces with Standard Architecture to transform two neighboring homes into a sprawling family compound.
SIZED TO FIT
Designer Nannette Brown reimagines a new-build apartment with unexpected depth, character, and texture.
Play It Cool
In balmy Texas, Ashe Leandro brings urbane style and a chill vibe to a home in a historic district.
Mic Drop
For former talk radio star Tom Joyner, Studio Roda creates an oceanfront pleasure pad with out-of-sight views and disco-era glamour.
EYE IN THE SKY
How do you cozy up a Manhattan high-rise? Call designers Hendricks Churchill.
THE JOY OF KØKKEN
In Brooklyn, a writer transforms her kitchen into a space of warmth and connection, blending personal memories with Scandinavian design.
CURTAIN RAISER
ELLE DECOR partners with designers Christine and John Gachot to refresh an iconic lounge at a New York institution, the Metropolitan Opera House.
The Empire Strikes Back - A 19th-century gem in Cambridge, Massachusetts, gets a tour-de-force restoration thanks to Frances Merrill of Reath Design.
Is it possible to simultaneously go back in time and leap forward? This was the challenge a couple set for themselves upon purchasing a salmon-pink 1869 house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from Longfellow House, the National Historic Site that served as George Washington's headquarters during the revolution. We loved all the beautiful old details of this house, the homeowner says.
Just Like That, But Cheaper. -One writer tried to replicate a classic ELLE DECOR interior in his apartment. Could he do it for $500?
It was all about the green curtains. In 2008, to my great surprise, I was offered a ninemonth fellowship based in New York City. I had lived there twice before, both times unsuccessfully, meaning I had failed to create any kind of significant social life, and so this was a chance not only to do research for my new novel, but also an opportunity to get things right. I swore I wouldn't let the city break me a third time.
And How! - Decorator Nick Olsen transforms a Sag Harbor home into a Hamptons retreat with an irreverent humor.
If you must go to the Hamptons, however-because it is devilishly good fun, after all-you may notice an apparently modest, low-slung cottage on Sag Harbor's Main Street and think, with a comfortable sort of feeling, Now that is how a house should look. Nestled amid the Botox bars, helipads, and club-staurants, it could almost set the sordid world aright both a rebuke and a solution to the chaos that surrounds it. A real home.
