A custom tent with side draperies and scalloped details creates a secluded, breezy patio retreat

Interior designer Deborah Campbell knows how to turn an ordinary patio into a place you’ll want to visit often — and perhaps never leave. Use her design ingredients to create a private respite where you can rejuvenate and collect your thoughts.

The Santa Barbara-based principal of Deborah Campbell Interior Design transformed two private patio spaces into outdoor rooms at Casa Robles, the design showcase that benefits CALM (Child Abuse Listening and Mediation, a Santa Barbara nonprofit organization whose mission is to end child abuse).

On location: Gary Moss, photographer (kneeling), as he perfects his shot in the family room. His assistant Pam is to his left; 805 Living editor Lynne Andujar is at right

As part of the 805 Living Magazine team that created the CALM Showcase program, I wanted to see the finished project in person before the public tours close this coming Sunday, June 28th (see details below). 805 Living is the presenting sponsor of the event, and editor Lynne Andujar asked me to write a feature story about the home and interiors for our November 2009 issue. This morning I drove to Santa Barbara to see and tour the project. Lynne was there with photographer Gary Moss, shooting the interior and exterior spaces for my story. They captured some gorgeous, evocative shots! Can’t wait to see them in print.

I also met several of the designers involved in creating the new house, including Annette Flower (who created the family room off of the kitchen), Gillian Amery of The Kitchen Company, and Deborah Campbell. The other key persons on the creative team include Christy Martin of Studio Encanto, the primary interior designer; Harrison Design Associates, the architecture firm; Lindsay Adams Construction, the contractor; and Katie O’Reilly Rogers, ASLA, landscape architect (who created the patio’s proportions and selected the beautiful Ashlar-laid stone).  

Create an outdoor room with a Sunbrella fabric tent lined with sheer panels and Morrocan print fabric on ceiling

Deborah Campbell’s design for the living room patio is completely enchanting. In studying and photographing it, I realized that her design, which she calls “Soft Summer Breezes,” offers a perfect recipe for decorating any patio.

Of course, it would be tres bien to turn your own patio into an open-air Kasbah with a custom-made canvas tent lined with sheer fabric and Moroccan toile draped across the ceiling.

But if you can’t do that, try creating an overhead fabric ceiling from yardage, sheets or tablecloths that suit your fancy.

Remember when you were a kid and you clipped two sheets to a clothesline and then pulled them out at the bottom to anchor as the “sides” of your makeshift tent? Ingenuity like that is priceless – we all need to remember our childhood shelter-making ideas and re-purpose them as adults.

Here’s a quote from Deborah:

“I am inspired by the Mediterranean architecture and Santa Barbara’s mild, year-round climate. I wanted to create outdoor rooms to capture that casual lifestyle. My personal style is always loose, relaxed, and eclectic. Nothing is perfectly arranged . . . because I wanted to give a sense of our California casualness.”

DECORATE YOUR PATIO

Try these patio design elements to decorate your outdoor room, straight from Deborah’s drafting table:

Rugs:  A vintage Moroccan area rug is layered over a jute outdoor rug. The rug is protected from sunlight and rain. If you don’t have a covered area, look for one of the new, cool weatherproof rugs, such as Pier 1 imports’ selections. The Moroccan rug is from Upstairs at Pierre LaFond, Santa Barbara. Also shown here is the rattan “Poof” floor cushion, from Porch in Carpinteria. It echoes texture from the wicker chairs and invites you to perch, curl up your legs, and rest your drink on the coffee table.

Seating: Deborah selected wicker occasional chairs and piled them high with eclectic textile pillows and basic driftwood-colored linen cushions. The chairs evoke life at the beach, from Porch in Carpinteria.

Textiles: Pillows galore lend one-of-a-kind interest and beautiful textures. They tell a narrative of an owner who has traveled widely and who loves to pair old with new; worn with polished; rustic with refined. Pillows from Upstairs at Pierre LaFond and Rooms & Gardens, both in Santa Barbara.

Tables: Weathered and worn, the plank-topped coffee table is large enough to do double-duty as an al fresco dining table. It is by Brick Maker, available at Porch.

The “Scroll” console table is perfect for displaying objects or setting up a picnic buffet on a cool summer evening.

Lantern: Okay, the over-sized lantern is a gorgeous thing to behold. I love, love, love that Deborah went BIG in scale in selecting this element of her design. It is called a “Wine Stave” chandelier, made from old wine barrels. You can kind of see the influence in the wood rings. I wish I could have photographed it while lit, but if you squint, you’ll get the idea. This lamp-chandelier makes the design sing! It’s from Porch.

Objects: Decorative orbs (right) are made from burl root and lend another distressed texture to the space. Spanish hand-blown glass bottles look like beach glass (left). All of these items are from Porch.

Plants: Drama is key. Each plant needs to have presence in the space, almost as sculpture. The mature Agave, potted in a cast concrete urn, is one example. (Above): The cast-concrete bowl, planted with Euphorbia ‘Sticks of Fire’ is another.

MORE DETAILS:

Casa Robles is an exquisite, historic property originally designed by Chester Carjola in 1948. The modest California ranch, situated on a oak-studded hillside with views of the famed Santa Barbara Mission, has been completely transformed and reimagined to capture the essence of a California Spanish Colonial estate. Most of the rooms open onto an interior courtyard, outdoor patios and second floor terraces. Enlarged to 4,500-square-feet, the home is situated on a two-acre garden.

In addition to the generous homeowners, volunteer architects, interior designers, landscape architects, contractors, craftspersons and artists have come together to create, furnish and landscape a beautiful showcase home. It is open to the public through June 28th to benefit CALM. Tickets are $30. Click here for more information.

Deborah Campbell Interior Design: 805-969-9657.

A tapestry of showy succulents, designed by Botanik

Erin (Keosian) Taylor’s  cool plant and design emporium called Botanik was one of my very first garden discoveries when I moved to Southern California in late summer of 2006.

I have Gillian Mathews, another awesome garden retailer who created Ravenna Gardens in Seattle, to thank for the introduction.

In September 2006, Gillian and Theresa Malmanger created and led the “Los Angeles-Santa Barbara Garden Tour” for the Northwest Horticultural Society. So I piggybacked on that trip and joined all my Seattle pals only 3 weeks after I moved here. I was in for a treat!

It turns out that I needed Gillian and Theresa to be my “guides” to begin to understand my new backyard.

It was the best gift they could have shared. The three-day garden extravaganza gave me a front seat tour to some amazing private gardens, public gardens and retail outlets. It fed my spirit and soul as I got to pal around with several very special, dear friends.It made me begin to realize that I was going to be “okay” living here because I started viewing SoCal’s horticultural and garden design world through the eyes of these savvy Seattle folks. That began my long education as to just how cool my new environs are.

One of our stops was the coastal village of Summerland, where Botanik occupies two cute cottages. Created by Erin Taylor, a fresh, young talent who has an amazing eye for design and a solid footing in horticulture, Botanik captured my imagination for gardening with succulents in a whole new way.

Since then, over the past few years, I’ve visited Summerland whenever I could (it’s only a few miles south of Santa Barbara off of Hwy. 101). Erin is inspiring, creative, and refreshingly casual in her design approach. She and staff designer, Molly Hutto create succulent displays like I’ve never before seen. Their creations are oft-copied but never surpassed in composition – with delicious succulent textures, colors, forms and patterns.

Botanik's entry porch converted into a potted plant display

In 2007, Kate Karam and I produced a story about Botanik’s luscious succulent designs for a future Cottage Living story. We had such a great time working with Erin and Molly that day. The designs they came up with were to die for! Sadly, as you all know, Cottage Living ceased publication after the December 2008 issue and we all miss it (we miss garden editor Kate, too!) Who knows where that film will surface or whether it will at all (I’m hoping Sunset picks it up, since it’s a sister magazine).

Not one to sit around and wait, I was recently fortunate to interest another editor in Botanik. Well, that’s not fair to say because I haven’t met an editor or publication yet NOT isn’t interested in Erin and Botanik!

But, earlier this spring, Erin graciously agreed to let 805 Living create a story around her natural design philosophy for interior and exterior spaces.

My story appears in the April issue of 805 Living, with photographs by Gary Moss. Here it is for you to read and enjoy. And for those of you planning a Garden Pilgrimage to Santa Barbara (Lotusland, Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens, etc.) don’t leave town without stopping in Summerland to visit Botanik.

READ MORE…

My lovely bouquet of California-grown lilacs from Kilcoyne Lilac Farm

A few weeks ago, I interviewed a hot Santa Barbara floral designer for a story that will run in the May issue of 805 Living, our local shelter glossy.

While telling me about the fresh-from-the-garden arrangement he created, the designer mentioned that the lilacs came from a farm in Antelope Valley.

I know of Antelope Valley because it is the famous home of the California Poppy Reserve (which I am kicking myself for NOT getting to see last month when the ubiquitous yellow-orange flowers were in bloom). That flower fact is filed away for future reference . . . but suddenly, the idea of LOCAL lilacs is tickling my fancy in a big way. Some of my best childhood moments were experienced with my face buried in wild, unkempt but intoxicatingly fragrant lilac shrubs: first in the backyard of a Connecticut rental house in the mid-1960s and later in a historic Massachusetts town square where lilacs grew with abandon in the mid-1970s.

In the late 1990s, we planted a Syringa ‘Sensation’ in our Seattle garden. My dear friend and former college roommate (and longtime garden muse) Karen Page selected the plant for us while helping with several landscaping projects. It grew tall and robust and blessed me and my garden alike each June, producing voluptuous trusses of darkest-purple florets edged in pure white. Too beautiful! It now lives in my memories.

So today, while racing through the Thousand Oaks Farmers Market near closing time (to pick up a half-dozen hand-made tamales for dinner), I stopped dead in my tracks at this little scene: a row of white plastic 5-gallon buckets FILLED with pale and deep lavender clusters of lilacs. Two women were working out of the back of a pickup truck, clipping and bundling lilacs: gorgeous, fresh-cut, real lilacs. I overheard one of them telling a customer that she grows the lilacs in Antelope Valley.

The connection was made! I introduced myself to Elizabeth Kilcoyne of Kilcoyne Lilac Farm and her neighbor-assistant Marie. I asked: “Do you sell lilacs to S. R. Hogue in Santa Barbara?” Her face broke into a lovely, warm smile: “Yes.”

I told Elizabeth and Marie about the 805 Living article and they already knew about it – my editor Lynne Andujar and her photographer Gary Moss had shot scenes of Thousand Oaks Farmers Market flower vendors a few weeks ago – for our upcoming flower story.

Without thinking, I switched into Debra-as-Reporter and started quizzing the women about these awesome, California-grown lilacs. Wait!!! I raced to my car and grabbed my little Flip video camera and returned to see whether Elizabeth would let me tape a short interview with her. She agreed and here is the interview:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oOdGqEm-xQ

I came home with a lovely bunch of Elizabeth’s lilacs and have promised myself that come next spring, I will visit her farm and display gardens filled with 150 lilacs. Plus, I need to find an outlet to produce a magazine story about Kilcoyne Lilac Farm.

The varieties seen here are: ‘Charles Jolie’ (or ‘Charles Joly’) and ‘Ludwig Spaeth’ – two dark reddish-purple lilacs (‘Charles’ has a tiny white spot – Elizabeth calls it a ‘B’ – in the center of the floret); and ‘Michael Buchner’, the pale lavender French hybrid. Before I filled a jug with the blooms, I made sure to clip the bottom of each woody stem and then slice the stem in half, with a 1-inch cut. This technique helps the stems drink more water and stay fresh.

My fresh lilacs, home from the market

making a "slice" in the stem base