Lauren Geremia Finds Her Groove with a Rock-Star Design Team and Hands-On Clients
Building a home from the ground up is always a collaborative effort, but when you add design-oriented homeowners with strong opinions into the mix, it can throw a wrench in the process. That was decidedly not the case in this Calistoga home by architect Luke Wade, designer Lauren Geremia, and landscape architect Bernard Trainor. “There were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but it was a good thing,” says the San Francisco–based Geremia, who was brought on to give the four-building compound a clean yet soulful aesthetic. “The homeowners understood the nuances involved, and were really interested in creating the infrastructure that supported the things they love to do.” AD PRO sat down with Geremia to get the story behind the design.
You had some pretty particular clients on this project.
They’re an incredibly chic couple. They had lived all over the country, and knew what they liked. This wasn’t their first ground-up new build, and their experience and efficiency was refreshing. We designed everything around their rituals and lifestyle. In the master bath, we did this large custom glass panel above the vanity, and some time into the process, [the wife] said, “No, this is how I use my bathroom; this is how I like to blow-dry my hair.” She had such confidence in her way of doing things. So we cut two panels into the frame on either side to allow the mirror to tilt forward so she could see the back of her head. Everything in the house required that kind of open-ended discussion. There was a lot of napkin sketching.
Does that make your job easier or harder?
I guess it’s easier, because you have some parameters. You’re not guessing or projecting who this person is. When someone can communicate their preferences so clearly, that's always a good thing.
What were some other conversation starters in the house?
The exterior of the house was a huge conversation. We knew that the exterior was going to become silver and gray in the sun, so we had to leave samples out there to see how each one faded. There was a lot of hand-mixing, and five or six of us would be out there talking about the samples and how they referred to the choices made throughout the rest of the house. A lot of those discussions came out of the client’s appetite for that kind of show-and-tell.
That must have been really time-consuming.
It was, but the fact that the homeowner enjoyed the process and wanted to be part of the conversations was great. We all got very involved and educational about it. In that kind of situation, everyone shares responsibility for the design decisions made. It was fun to get a client’s perspective and really helpful. And it was nice to design in such a harmonious way.
What were some of the other lessons you learned?
The layout was open-air, with an emphasis on an indoor-outdoor lifestyle, and the palette was very neutral so you could really take advantage of all of those breathtaking views. In the beginning, I wanted to fill the house with more furniture and art. I had been doing an incredible amount of work in tech startups and hospitality. I had to practice a lot of restraint, which I realized in hindsight.
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