The California Style of Interior Design

Also known as “California Cool” or “California Casual”, the California Style of interior design is a relaxed aesthetic that effortlessly juxtaposes Mediterranean tones and natural materials, resulting in light, airy, welcoming spaces. Let’s take a look at how it developed, what its hallmarks are and how you can bring a little of it into your own home.

Contents

The architectural history of California Style

The common characteristics of California Style

Room by room in a California Style home

The architectural history of California Style

The California Style came to be as the result of two common West Coast styles of architecture.

1. The California Bungalow or American Craftsman style—small-to-medium single-storey houses designed to be open and spacious with living rooms accessed directly from the front door, and with common structural elements such as fireplaces and wooden beams (traditionally redwood).

California Bungalows came into existence largely due to population growth after the Industrial Revolution, which demanded that areas like Los Angeles and Pasadena suburbanised. And the homes that sprang up in such places only increased in number during the baby boom after World War II.

2. The Spanish Colonial Revival style—palatial villas with imposing facades that began to be built in the late 19^th Century, reached their peak of popularity in the 1930s, and remain the hallmarks of high-end neighbourhoods such as Beverly Hills.

Said to evoke the golden era of West Coast chic, homes in the Spanish Colonial Revival style often feature ornate plasterwork, wrought-iron railings and window grills and the traditional, rustic Spanish tiling material, terracotta.

The revival was popularised as a result of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego, which featured a fairground built in the Spanish Colonial style. A destructive 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara then prompted the city to redevelop the city in the style.

Though these two types of homes are incredibly different from a structural perspective, their location within the same climate meant that they shared certain needs and features—airiness, natural light and a sense of connectedness with the outdoors.

As such, you will find that they both tend to feature large windows, glass doors that allow a seamless transition from indoor space to outdoor space, and well-maintained gardens (often featuring cypress trees or palm trees) which, from the windows inside, are viewed as literal framed landscapes.

The common characteristics of California Style

Using the popular Californian styles of architecture as their jump-off point, the interiors of California Style homes reflect the relaxation and pleasure derived from being bathed in natural light. Fixtures, fittings and decorations are chosen to be at their best in daylight while night-lighting imitates the Californian dusk of a burnt orange horizon with warm, low lights. Here are some of the most common features of a California style home:

• Wooden beams

California Bungalow and Spanish Colonial Revival homes, alike, tend to be replete with wood beams across their high ceilings. Even if your home doesn’t have this look, you can replicate it by installing decorative beams. Just be sure to check the structural reliability of your ceilings before installing them.

• Arches, arches and more arches

Whether they’re outdoors, atop the long colonnades of Spanish Colonial Revival pathways or within the openings and doorways of the main buildings, arches are a typical feature of California Style homes. You can either have custom-made doors built to fit an arch or—and this way is more cost effective—you can get your construction team to craft doorways made to fit pre-made arched wooden doors.

• Ornate tiling and terracotta

Flashes of ornate, Spanish-style tiling will give your home a touch of that Mediterranean Revival aesthetic so popular in Californian homes—such as in your luxury bathroom remodel. Meanwhile, consider tiling the rest of your floors in terracotta (or a porcelain imitation) to really emphasise that look. If you live in a colder climate, perhaps just limit it to the kitchen, where it will protect the floor from spillages.

• Wrought iron

Whether it’s on door handles, staircase bannisters or on the ornate grills protecting exterior windows, beautiful, black wrought iron is a typical feature of the California Style, so consider bringing some into your own home. You can also add decorative iron elements such as chandeliers and candelabras to really emphasise the effect.

• Natural stucco walls

It doesn’t matter if you’re doing a single room or the whole home, you can bring some authentic California Style into the space by leaving your bare plaster walls exposed in their natural brilliant white colour. You can sculpt plaster into decorative moulds, smooth it to a flat finish or leave it with a rough hew to give it a rustic feel.

• Carved, polished wood

The arched doors and beams of California Style homes are an aesthetic platform upon which to layer many more wooden elements. The ornateness of the style means you wouldn’t go for bare, rustic-looking wood as much as that which has been carved, oiled and polished. Here, you might choose to incorporate elements of Orientalist furniture in order to give the space that relaxed, well-travelled, boho appearance.

• Blending boho objets d’art and mid-century modern

The California style beautifully blends that seasoned Mediterranean aesthetic with a heavy dose of hipster cool. So you’ll find mid-century modern furniture in teak—as well as retro-futurist elements like space chairs and boho sculptures—nuzzled up perfectly comfortably within more traditional, ornate surroundings.

Room by room in a California Style

A California Style interior will—if done from the bottom up—have a sense of connectedness that runs throughout the whole space. However, if you’re thinking of trialling a little California Cool in a single room, here’s a short guide to what can be done.

In the living room, consider building or replicating the idea of a conversation pit. Essentially a dugout in the front room that encourages floor-seated conversation huddles, the earliest known example of a conversation pit was actually designed in Columbus, Indiana by Eero Saarinen and Alexander Girard. Conversation pits, however, became very popular in chic Californian homes throughout the mid-20^th Century. If you can’t put in a conversation pit, think about replicating one by creating rectangular spaces from low-seat sofas with a low-level coffee table and/or deep pile rugs. Use light and airy colours in the space to emphasise natural light. Decorate with low-lit lamps dotted around to replicate the haze of the sunset—and lots of succulent plants.

In the kitchen-diner, hang long, low-slung ceiling lights above a central island to bring a combination of openness and cosiness to the space. Lay terracotta tiling on the floors with occasional flourishes of ornate tiling amidst it. Replicate the ornate tiling across the backsplash. Consider replacing small windows with much bigger ones to let in the light. Combine wicker aspects, such as container baskets, with mid-century modern and minimalist furniture for that typically Californian mix-and-match effect.

In bedrooms, lay terracotta or hardwood floors and incorporate an ornately-carved four-poster wooden bed with a light, off-white, linen canopy. Choose either polished hardwood or bamboo and rattan wardrobes and chests of drawers, depending on whether you prefer that Hollywood Hills maturity or the breezy freshness of a beachfront home.

In the bathroom, freshness is the ultimate indicator of the California Style. You’ll find lots of natural light entering the space and there’ll certainly be a very open walk-in shower, probably with a shower panel as opposed to a cubicle. More succulents should occupy the space to help connect it with a sense of the outdoors. Also, if you have a bathtub, it should either be a fresh take on a classic white freestanding tub or a modern, sunken tub. Finally, make sure to incorporate an Aztec or Persian rug to bring a little boho splendour to the space.

Looking for something else to read? Check out our feature on Californian design studio, Kalon.

Main image by Anita Yokota.