An Italian-style villa in California that combines antique pieces with modern comforts
High on a hillside above the Pacific is a mellow sandstone house that is the Californian home of one of the most distinguished architectural and interior designers in the US, John Saladino. With its barrel-tiled roof, beamed wooden ceilings and stone floors, it could be an ancient farmhouse in Tuscany - which was one of the chief reasons that John fell in love with it. His father was Italian and though John was born and brought up in the US, he remains acutely aware of his dual heritage. When I'm in Europe, I miss the States, but when I'm here, I feel European, he explains. This dichotomy permeates the house - classic tradition and superlative Old World antiques are combined with New World comforts and state-of-the-art services.
The house gave John 'an overwhelming sense of déjà vu' when he first saw it. 'The architecture was so like my own, I could have designed it myself,' he says. Particularly similar was the juxtaposition of different architectural scales. It was built in 1929-30 by an American architect, Wallace Frost, but by the time John bought it, it was little more than a romantic ruin, with cracks in the walls big enough to put my arm in'. During the following four years he propped up the collapsing hillside, cleared the 12-acre site of debris, gave the house new drains, new wiring, heating and air conditioning (concealing these skilfully behind cornices and skirting boards), new doors, windows, roof and chimneys, dug out a basement, and planted hundreds of mature trees. Only then could he turn his attention to surface details. Though his overriding aim was to imbue the house with serenity', he is acutely aware of the practicalities that make life easier, and so while he respected the house as an antique and wanted to furnish it appropriately, he used the cream of twenty-first-century technology to make it function efficiently. In doing so, he transformed the property outside as well as in-into the beguilingly timeless and sybaritically comfortable Villa di Lemma. No wonder he loves to retreat here to decompress' between stretches in New York, where he has run his architectural and design business for 40 years, catering for a clientele that reads like International Who's Who.
Before you reach the house, John's predilection for manipulating light and space to dramatic effect makes itself felt. The drive curves up through stately eucalyptus trees underplanted with shade-tolerant flowering shrubs and a stream of ice-blue senecio. As it makes the last turn, it narrows and becomes more densely planted; tall Italian cypresses begin to block the sun and then, suddenly, through statue-topped gate piers is a large, light courtyard. A monumental doorway beckons visitors into a grand loggia and thence to a door so tiny that, says John, 'it would suit the cottage that Snow White found in the forest', as indeed it does the diminutive hallway that it opens into. Stretching out to either side of this is an enfilade that runs on the left, through the dining room to the kitchen and on the right, through the drawing room. At each end of the long vista is a focal point; one is an oversize creamware plate propped up on a kitchen counter, the other a free-standing Byzantine column. Both invite exploration.
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Turning right, towards the column, you find your self in a magnificent drawing room. Its size and splendour could be intimidating but, paradoxically, it is warm and welcoming. By arranging the soft seat ing on a large carpet in front of the fireplace, John has created what he calls the social heart of the room. Two sumptuous sofas of John's own design are separated by an ottoman large enough for four people to sit facing in different directions, so conversation is made easy. The sofas, like the paintwork, are an unobtrusive grey-green inspired by the native agaves outside, allowing interest to focus first on the exquisite objects in the room, and then on John's masterly use of contrasts: of texture, shape, scale and age - silk with rough linen, velvet against stone, circles with obelisks, or the tiny Tiepolo propped against the giant Twombly.
Turning right again at the Byzantine column, at the far end of the drawing room, another tiny door leads to the wing where John and his partner, Betty Barrett, have their bedrooms. John's is dominated by a Napoleonic bed that unashamedly takes centre stage, marooned like an imperial sleigh in the middle of the room so that from it he can survey east, south and west through the windows. Betty's room is more boudoir than bedroom, her bed like an oversize Knole sofa; here she can retreat to read in peace or, like John, step out through french windows to the gardens.
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Turning left out of the hallway, you step down into the dining room, from where a jib door in the panelling on the far wall leads to the kitchen. Intimate and cosseting, the dining room comes into its own after dark when innumerable candles are reflected in mirror glass, silver, white porcelain and gleaming fabrics. Believing firmly that 'guests should feel as though they could linger at the table for hours', John designed armchairs of the softest grey leather to ensure that they indeed do.
John and Betty love entertaining, which is why John designed the house and gardens to be perfect for parties, whether simple suppers for four in front of the kitchen fireplace, formal dinners for 12 in the dining room, or lunches for 50 on the lawn terrace. The 'atrium', or inner courtyard, embraced on three sides by the house and on the fourth by a wall of tumbling plants, protects scented plants as well as diners on a windy day, or dancers in the evening. The agave garden, named for a giant 80-year-old Agave americana and filled with grey-leafed plants, has uninterrupted views of the Pacific, so is ideal for cocktails at sunset. The pool terrace offers cool, dappled shade for lunch in a delicate, reed-roofed cabana. Most memorable of all is the dining area overlooking the pool and shaded by a mighty olive tree; from here, the view of the Pacific has been made spell binding by the presence of a Roman column; it is hard to imagine a more evocative conjunction of ancient classicism and New World comfort.
John Saladino: saladinostyle.com
Simon Upton1/26The exposed stone walls and wooden beams set off the furniture and textiles. In the drawing room John Saladino has placed the seating, which includes two sofas he designed, in a sociable arrangement in front of the fireplace.
Simon Upton2/26The juxtaposition of different architectural scales is one of John's trademark techniques, here, on a table in the drawing room, a small drawing by Giovanni Battista Tiepola is propped against a large painting by Cy Twombly
Simon Upton3/26Two wooden, neoclassical urns stand on plinths beside the drawing-room fireplace.
Simon Upton4/26A delicate wooden chandelier adds drama to the dining room.
Simon Upton5/26From the dining room there is a view across the hall to the drawing room.
Simon Upton6/26Looking back the other way through the enfilade, an oversize creamware plate is just visible on the kitchen counter.
Simon Upton7/26The kitchen, which John designed, is sleek and modern with marble worktops.
Simon Upton8/26A table in front of the fireplace at one end of the kitchen is a cosy spot for informal suppers.
Simon Upton9/26
Simon Upton10/26From the breakfast room, a door set into a wide glazed arch leads out to the courtyard.
Simon Upton11/26A glass cabinet in the corner of the room displays shells.
Simon Upton12/26A table and chairs are arranged on a sunny terrace in the atrium.
Simon Upton13/26The seating area overlooking the pool has dramatic views of the Pacific.
Simon Upton14/26A gravelled dining area is shaded by huge olive trees.
Simon Upton15/26A Roman column stands on the pool-terrace lawn, towards the edge of the cliff.
Simon Upton16/26Potted plants line one side of the atrium, with other plants growing on narrow terraces above (below).
Simon Upton17/26Steps lead up from the pool terrace to the agave garden.
Simon Upton18/26John Saladino and Betty Barrett stand in the agave garden.
Simon Upton19/26The monumental main entrance opens into a small entrance space.
Simon Upton20/26The entrance leads to the steps up to the loggia.
Simon Upton21/26A balcony overlooks John's study; the lamp on the table is one of his earliest designs, created in 1970 and still in production.
Simon Upton22/26In the media room, a stack of Chinese lacquer trunks sits between a pair of seventeenth-century Italian bookcases.
Simon Upton23/26An ornate Sleigh bed dominates John's bedroom; John designed the bedside table.
Simon Upton24/26John's bathroom is comfortable and luxurious, with an open fire, leather-clad drawers and a mirror with an antique ecclesiastical frame
Simon Upton25/26French windows open from one of the upper floor spare rooms on to a balcony overlooking the lawn terrace. The glass tripod table in Betty's bedroom is another of John's designs; the curtain over the french window also conceals a flat-screen television
Simon Upton26/26The glass tripod table in Betty's bedroom is another of John's designs; the curtain over the french window also conceals a flat-screen television.
