A change is as good as a rest, or so the saying goes. Such was the case when former Angeleno, interior designer Corinne Mathern, relocated to Santa Barbara, California, with her family in 2014. Swapping a midcentury tree house in Los Feliz for a Pueblo Revival, adobe-style villa—not to mention the city for a canyon—helped unleash in her residential work an earthy, spare, and richly minimal manner: something that has quickly become her trademark. “It’s been so inspiring,” she says. “Moving here has certainly had a hand in developing my aesthetic.”
This is especially pronounced in her home, a 3,300 square-foot, three-bedroom house in Mission Canyon, 15 minutes drive away from downtown Santa Barbara. It is an open, airy villa underpinned by deep earth tones—copper, terra-cotta, and tobacco—and rich materials such as brass, jute, clay, and rosewood. Despite only moving in just over four years ago, everything is coated in a comfortable patina. How is the house representative of her style? “There’s a calmness and tranquility to the space. Everything has a handmade texture to it. Nothing feels produced,” she says. “This is what I love to do with other people’s spaces.”
The façade of the adobe house was originally green and pink, Santa Fe style, but was given a refreshing whitewash as part of the major renovations by the interior designer.
Moving here was actually accidental. Happily ensconced in east Los Angeles, it was during a trip to Santa Barbara for her sister’s wedding that Mathern and her husband popped by an open house on whim. Although the house was “not perfect”, the attraction was immediate. “It got us right away,” she says. “It was such an exciting week when we put in that offer.”
The unbroken boundaries between the inside and outside were what appealed most, and Mathern set about exploiting these during the subsequent four months of renovations. The pink and green crumbling exterior was cleaned up and the whitewashed interior was jolted alive with colors inspired by the landscape around the house (which is surrounded by 5 acres of olive trees, ten-feet-wide agaves, cacti, and ivy). “I wanted to bring these exterior colors into the interior,” she says.
When it came to furnishing the property, a tailor-made approach was taken. Mathern began her creative career designing furniture, and that is apparent here in the abundance of custom pieces dotted around the house. Key artworks were also specially commissioned, including pieces by Alma Allen and Stan Bitters.
Bringing elements of the outside world into the home’s interior was integral to Mathern’s design vision. She does this in the hallway by casting the floor in red earth–colored Saltillo tiles.
Despite the home being a showcase of Mathern’s studio, which she established in 2014, she is not precious about it. This is an easy, comfortable home that is designed to take the knocks and bruises of family life. This, according to Mathern, only adds to the ‘handmade’ nature of the residence. “Everything I design lends itself to a patina, so I appreciate little hand marks on the brass coffee table,” she says. “I’ve learnt that from working with clients. We all want beautiful spaces, but we also have to live our lives in them.”
On that note, how did she find the process of designing her own dream house compared to designing a client’s? She says there are pros and cons. “The fun part about it is that its completely creative and I can do anything that I want,” she says. “The hard part about it is that I can do anything that I want and I have no one to give me parameters!”
Swapping city life for canyon living has proved to be a hugely influential step for Mathern , her family, and her studio too. The slow life has benefitted her approach to interiors, which is defined by a sense of calmness and breezy minimalism. “I’ve been able to slow down and take in the life here,” she reflects. “And I’ve been able to create much more interesting projects as a result.”
