Amid A Lush Garden, A Refreshed Montecito Home Flourishes

The nearly-two acres of mature, graciously maintained gardens threaded with trails and backdropped by the Pacific were what struck them first. For these homeowners, who’d spent many years in the Midwest and had careers shifting into lower gear, the allure of basing themselves somewhere in the sunny West with easy access to the great outdoors was strong. More specifically: “We wanted a home where nature would be all around us, not someplace where you’d have to drive to nature,” remarks the husband. “And neither of us were keen on moving into a property where we’d have to create a garden from scratch—we didn’t want to wait 40 years for it to fill in,” comments the wife.

To their surprise, once they stepped inside the Montecito estate’s midsize Mediterranean-style home, last renovated in 2014, it was as equally delightful as its surroundings. “The square footage and layout seemed so comfortable for the two of us,” recalls the wife. “It was already beautiful and felt like a great home to age in, too.” With major renovation work deemed unnecessary, the owners were free to concentrate on the details, decoration and creature comforts. Enter designer Debra Lynn Henno, who presided over a soft renovation and full interior and landscape refresh, as well as the later addition of a separate guest home.

The couple’s brief to Henno was to set them up for their new semi-retired chapter comfortably—with the ability to host and entertain family and friends—and to enhance the home’s bones and sight lines. General contractor Ian Cronshaw stepped in to refinish the floors, hone the kitchen’s marble countertops and add built-ins to a home office. For Henno, who worked closely with the wife to determine the overall interior aesthetics, the home’s Mediterranean-inspired architecture and Moroccan undertones were an influential starting point. After her client gravitated toward pieces from Una Malan and Holly Hunt during an L.A. buying trip, the two agreed to embrace a transitional style, looking to custom upholstery and case goods by a European-trained fabricator.

Henno was particularly adamant about not competing with the idyllic views visible from every window framing the estate’s abundant greenery and flowers, the broad branches of its mature oaks and its ocean panoramas out to the Channel Islands. “With such magical gardens surrounding the home, my thought was that using bright colors inside would take away from that,” explains the designer. “When you have softer colors on the interior, the views become the focal point.” Henno zeroed in on a palette of whites and creams accented with corals and blues. In service of the sights, window treatments feature half a dozen types of cream linen, often with a subtle texture to the fabric that’s highlighted when sunlight beams on them from behind. Henno also sourced art from Santa Barbara-based artists Colette Cosentino and Karen Bezuidenhout, as well as Newport Beach-based Deborah Harold, to round out her clients’ personal art collection and offer some additional “views.”

The project’s scope expanded further when the couple realized they wanted more space for guests, including their adult daughters. Daniel Longwill of Two Trees Architects designed a guesthouse that “complements rather than replicates” the main residence, he says, noting: “It beckons curiosity as a destination within the property, but does not demand too much attention.” Cronshaw handled the build while Henno helmed the interiors, and landscape architect Amy Blakemore helped integrate the new structure into a hillside in an organic way, simultaneously giving the entire estate’s landscape design a thorough rejuvenation. “The clients wanted a more Mediterranean-style garden that would still feel very lush, so incorporating olive trees and big beds of lavender set the tone,” says Blakemore, who worked within the garden’s existing framework to revive and refresh plantings across its acreage, as well as redesigned the hardscape and visual experience of the entry. “We brought in splashes of color and incorporated plants that provide fragrance as you pass by—it’s really pretty when everything is blooming,” she says. For the installation and execution, Blakemore worked with landscape designer Rene Santana of Santana Landscape, who has spent nearly a decade maintaining the estate’s extensive gardens.

Much as the couple adore their comfortable and serene interiors, the garden still attracts the most attention, says the husband—especially when their children come to stay. “When they visit, one of the first things we do is walk around those little trails and gather fruit from our fruit trees, and it’s such a wonderful experience,” he says. “Every time we do it, we feel this enormous gratitude.”