Bright and early on Monday morning this week, in a very grand and highly detailed Paul Williams-designed estate out in the wilds of La Cañada Flintridge (there are horses living next door), crews were at work tearing things up and prepping the entire property for a major design overhaul by 16 interior design firms, eight exterior design firms, and an interior design advisor. The house is the non-profit Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts's forty-seventh Pasadena Showcase House of Design fundraiser (the first was held in San Marino in 1965--see past houses here), in which designers make over a classic SoCal house. A post-redesign house and garden tour raises money for music education and arts programs.
Williams designed the 7,205 square foot house in 1927 for a family called the Greens, at a cost of $36,525. The Greens, who may have only used it as a country place, sold in 1930. It changed hands a couple more times before selling in 1949 to a family who owned the house for the next 60 years. The current owner has temporarily relocated while his house does volunteer duty and he'll have first dibs on the furnishings before they're offered for sale to the public.
Pretty much every inch of the estate will be redesigned, including the kitchen, the four bedrooms, the dining room, and the pool and pool house. A stable out back will be turned into a two-bedroom guesthouse, a section of the backyard will become a tea garden, a stream crossing will be built out, a kitchen garden and outdoor kitchen will be added near the guesthouse, and special plantings will attract butterflies near the carriage house.
The Pasadena Showcase House of Design opens on April 17, but we'll check in again post-transformation.
· 2011 Showcase House [Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts]
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