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When Next Wave designer Noz Nozawa had the opportunity to infuse her client’s developer-built house with much-needed personality, she couldn’t resist. Completed in 2019 near downtown Menlo Park in California, the modern home takes architectural cues from classic California ranch houses. “The house was already lovely and very new, but it was so bare and used fixtures that are very common in high-end real estate developments in the Bay Area,” Nozawa says.
The designer embarked on a mainly cosmetic update across the 5,800-square-foot home. Configured into a U-shape that surrounds a backyard, the one-story structure includes seven bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms. Throughout the common spaces, Nozawa focused on arranging a few large furniture pieces so that “the common spaces feel full and complete, but there’s still a lot of open floor space for active kids to live on.”
Integrating art was top of mind along with thoughtfully rearranging the client’s own collection. Nozawa wotked with decorative artist Caroline Lizarraga to transform special bedrooms with hand-painted murals. Since the primary suite is serene yet moody and accented with stone (like alabaster sconces and marble mosaic floors), it called for a 360-degree mural that mimics Nero Marquina marble and acts as the perfect backdrop for the couple’s wedding poster. In one guest room, featuring the client’s favorite existing furniture, the walls by Lizarraga resemble white silk that’s been dipped into a periwinkle dye and threaded with gold. Another fun addition is painted art that gives the illusion of a rug underneath the dining table on the patio.
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Now, the sophisticated-yet-lively home is ready for years of memory-making. Says the designer: “The designs in each room are meant to be very personal and bring to life the homeowners’ vision of their dream forever family home, which I love!”
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Q & A
House Beautiful: Did you encounter any memorable hiccups, challenges, or surprises during the project? How did you pivot?
Noz Nozawa: Well, besides installing much of the project in the early months of the pandemic (and our client is an ER doctor!), there were only two major hiccups:
- The chairs for the breakfast nook arrived at two slightly different heights (weirdly), and the ones that arrived too tall did not fit under the table. We went through three different sets of chairs before they arrived right.
- U.S. Customs detained a parcel that our custom living room rug was in for almost six months. Just before that parcel was due to be destroyed (Customs policy), our rug vendor sent the parcel all the way back to Nepal, inspected and re-packed it, and then sent it back to the U.S. So that rug, instead of taking six months to arrive, took about 15!
HB: Where did the majority of the budget go?
NN: The largest parts of our budget went to light fixtures throughout the house, custom decorative art by Caroline Lizarraga, and the seating, rugs, and tables in the shared common spaces. We splurged on statement Christopher Boots light fixtures, which we weren’t expecting our clients to fall in love with. But they did go into the common spaces, which is where we knew we’d spend most of our budget. We stayed more budget-conscious in the bedrooms.
HB: How did you save money/DIY/get crafty?
NN: We were able to use all our clients’ existing three bedrooms worth of furniture in the guest bedrooms. Two of the bedrooms were more flexible in terms of style. However, we really wanted to design a best guest room. So we used the clients’ favorite pieces—a whitewash Balinese headboard and dresser—there. Ultimately, for a house with seven bedrooms, we only had to buy one new bed frame for the primary bedroom and one kid bed. We kept the crib and one bedroom became a home office.
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