New Layout and More Light for a Family’s 1940s Ranch House

Photos by Sevak Hakoyan of Hako Photo; styling by Jennifer Maxcy of The Ranch Uncommon

House at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple with two tweens
Location: San Fernando Valley in Southern California
Size: Four bedrooms, 4½ bathrooms
Designer: Shannon Ggem Design

After the homeowners had finished redoing their kitchen, they realized they were too busy to oversee the remodel of the rest of the home and decided to hire Ggem. “These clients are very stylish and stay ahead of the trends,” Ggem says. “They had a lot of nice things already that I wanted to work into the design, to make them feel comfortable and to be as sustainable as possible.” For example, she saw that the round mirror, console table and lamp the homeowners already had in the foyer looked beautiful and she left the vignette in place. She also was able to preserve the existing hardwood flooring.

A staircase in a ranch house is an unusual feature. These stairs lead to a master suite that previous homeowners had added over the garage. But they were an awkward presence in the foyer, so Ggem reconfigured them in a way that created a comfy reading area and a nice view. “This sitting area is right off the kitchen, so it’s a great place for the kids to hang out and read,” she says.

Ggem chose a statement midcentury-modern-inspired chandelier over a foyer table to create a balancing center to the space. The 1940s home fell somewhere between Colonial Revival and midcentury modern, and she nodded to both styles with her decor suggestions. Other lighting includes a skylight, sconces and art lighting. “I used a lot of different ambient light sources,” Ggem says. “Recessed can lights look dated to me so I try to avoid them whenever possible.”

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Bookcases painted in Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy cozy up the sitting area and draw the eye. To make the under-stair area usable for storage or as a fort, Ggem created a secret door within the bookcase.

She commissioned a locally made, custom wrought iron railing. “It’s very simple, but the overmount installation of the spindles makes it special,” she says.

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A major part of the renovation involved replacing and enlarging many of the home’s windows. Here, the one in the foreground stops short of the floor, leaving room for outdoor lounge furniture on the other side of the wall. But in the background of the photo, the windows in the great room extend almost all the way down, creating a strong connection between indoors and out.

“I love to mix vintage and new,” Ggem says. She placed a vintage Dutch cabinet along the hallway leading to the great room, seen in the next photo. The piece plays off the black window trim.

Ggem created the new floor plans and window placements, and she suggested that the ceiling be raised from a drop ceiling to this vault. She then took the plans to an architect to be drawn up according to code. “These large new windows are big holes in the wall,” she says. “The architect helped me figure out how to place them while preserving the structural integrity of the house.” They also figured out how to maximize cross breezes with the louver-like way the windows open. Ggem installed simple black roller shades that disappear into the trim.

She divided the room into two areas: a game and homework table on the right and a TV lounge on the left. “This is the San Fernando Valley and my clients knew how much they would get out of a ceiling fan,” she says. She found a streamlined model and used two strategically placed industrial light fixtures for balance.

The black door to the left of the TV opens to a closet that holds the media equipment.

“My clients already had this sectional sofa,” Ggem says. “It was in great shape, and it fit the space perfectly. I’m not about to have clients buy a new sofa just for the sake of buying a new sofa.” She added pillows in a variety of textures, a wool rug, new tables and a statement woven chair to the space.

Natural fibers and earthy colors create a cohesive look throughout the house and bring in biophilic design. That means creating a design that helps people connect with the outdoors through interior decor and architecture — natural light, outdoor views, natural textures and plants are all part of biophilic design.

The lamp’s star-like motif appears elsewhere in the house. “I think that connecting rooms with colors, textures and other elements is important as a part of designing for wellness,” Ggem says. “It’s jarring when there are all sorts of different styles from room to room.”

Outdoors, Ggem refurbished and reconfigured a rotting deck to be flush with a poolside deck for safety. She extended it to incorporate this lounge area and a dining area. The homeowners already had the modern lounge furniture.

The new decking material is ipe. Ggem notes that while the wood isn’t as sustainable a crop as it was once believed to be, it was the best fire-rated option. It’s also durable and won’t need replacing for a long time.

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The bedroom inspiration began with a channel-tufted upholstered headboard that extends all the way to the ceiling. The irregular pattern is based on a bar code. Ggem used soft colors and natural fibers throughout the room to promote wellness. She had the settee at the foot of the bed custom made and upholstered in cotton velvet. It brings in leafy color and some 1940s-inspired design.

Her clients already owned the distinctive wood nightstands and the beautiful table lamps, and the designer was more than happy to reuse them. She sourced two abstract paintings with midcentury modern style to top things off.

“They also love wall-to-wall carpeting in a bedroom for the hush factor and the softness,” Ggem says. “This is 100% wool, which is natural and which humans have figured out how to keep clean for many years.” A fiddlehead fig brings a bit of nature to the corner and helps with air filtration.

Ggem also reconfigured the fireplace and had it covered in plaster with a hand-troweled striated pattern. “This pattern plays off the limestone we used in the guest bath,” she says.

The placement of the window next to the fireplace was awkward, so she played around with the arrangement of the window treatments to balance it. “This is a designer trick — I used the window treatments to give it a more centered look,” she says. The beautiful light-filtering fabric is from Larsen.

Wall color: Stone Hearth, Benjamin Moore

Being ahead of the trends, the homeowner knew that mauve was making a comeback and requested the color for this accent wall in the guest bedroom. “She was right on — mauve is coming!” Ggem says. The designer found the striped bedspread to coordinate with both the wall color and a vintage rug the homeowners had. She also sourced a seagrass bed with modern lines. “It’s very California but also fits in with the style,” she says.

“This is a charming house and it was important to preserve historic details,” Ggem says. “Many would probably have replaced this bay window with something more modern, but it allowed me to create a special little reading corner here, and it looks so charming from the exterior.” The curved white dresser plays off the bay, and its angled legs add a dash of midcentury modern style.

Before, the brother and sister shared a bathroom, and the layout of the bedrooms and bath was terrible — one kid had to walk through the other’s bedroom to reach the bathroom. A big part of the layout change was to give each bedroom its own en suite bath.

“I always involve kids in the design of their spaces,” Ggem says. “I ask them what they like to do, what kinds of places they like, such as the beach, the woods or the mountains, and I talk to them about colors that they like. When this girl told me she loved the look of a candy store, aqua and this deep purple, I thought, ‘Yeah!’ ” The first thing the designer found was the beautiful wallpaper from Elitis, then a rug that suited it perfectly.

“I keep files of historic homes, and one thing you see a lot, especially in New England Colonials, is that just the millwork and doors are painted in a color,” she says. She used that strategy in both kids’ rooms, as seen here on the aqua doors and trim.

“She’s also obsessed with bulldogs, so we got her this portrait,” Ggem says. This view also provides a glimpse of the girl’s new bathroom. Both of the kids’ new baths are compact, about 5 by 8 feet.

The daughter’s bathroom design started with a timeless and elegant marble floor. “I used a vanity with feet to show off as much of that gorgeous floor tile as possible,” Ggem says. A round brass-framed mirror flanked by dramatic brass sconces makes a statement over the vanity.

The only natural light in the room comes from a small shower window, so Ggem used a fan-shaped white tile on the surround. This adds subtle texture, bounces the light around and keeps things bright. “And keeping it white with white grout kept it from competing with that beautiful floor,” she says. She added the bench to make shaving easier.

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In the son’s room, the wall shelf on the left is shaped like a mountain and the print is a vintage-looking surfing poster. “When I talked with their son, I found out that he liked surfing and snowboarding, and a shade of green we started calling ‘rugby green,’ ” Ggem says. The wallcovering behind the headboard looks like abstract mountain ranges or waves. (It’s peel-and-stick.) The designer also gave him a cozy wool rug and a comfy chaise for reading and hanging out. The lamp on the nightstand nods to midcentury modern design.

Wallpaper: Mitchell Black

“I discovered that he loved history and I really wanted to work with that,” Ggem says. History inspired a unique covering for the walls in his bathroom: an image of the Berlin wall the designer found on Etsy. The seller blew up the image into a custom mural for the space. “It’s part of the wall that had a John Lennon quote on it,” Ggem says. The mural gave them the look of graffiti without having to fill the room with VOCs from spray paint.

Because the classic black-and-white marble floor was a splurge, Ggem balanced the budget with a textured gray wall tile she found on clearance that fits in with the industrial vibe of the room. She used it as wainscoting and continued it on the shower surround. The metal glass shower enclosure is another industrial touch.

Before: The problematic areas in the original layout can be seen along the left side of this floor plan, where the flow between the bedrooms, bathrooms and hallway was awkward.