With our Book Club series, we hand over the proverbial mic to our Experts—letting them share their work, thought process, and best tips, all in their own words. The following is an excerpt from Chloe Redmond Warner’s new book, This Must Be the Place, published this month with Abrams.

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My sweetie-pie intellectual musician client remarried and, with his new wife, purchased a gorgeous George Washington Smith house in Montecito.

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Between them, there are six children and two dogs who now share the same space, and they described the way they wanted to live here as “calmly and joyfully.” I don’t remember ever wanting to work on a project so badly—such a perfect quest, the most beautiful bones of any house we’ve worked on, plus work trips to Santa Barbara. A dream!

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The architecture is gorgeous, classical, and the idea was for Appleton & Associates to restore it, while making it feel crisp and a tiny bit new. Air conditioning was added, a small servant’s kitchen was demolished in favor of a generous family kitchen, and we added a brand-new-but-looks-original orangery-style dining room. But the flower-cutting room was there when we started and remains just as it was, original wallpaper and all. It set the tone for all the brave color choices the family made along the way and pulled the thread of traditional, WASP-y formal into the playful, confident present.

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Nothing brings emotion like color, and the trick here was to incorporate a lot of glamour and cheer while still allowing the atmosphere to feel calm. Our solution was to let the architecture carry the load of calm; an organized floor plan, rooms for every activity, generous proportions, and abundant storage are all spectacular ways to create a tidy and safe feeling. And the floor plan allowed us to create rooms that enfilade into each other, which is an architecture term that means you can see a view of one or two distinct rooms from any room where you are—they frame each other. It gives a feeling of expansiveness and freedom.

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When my husband and I were dating—at that early “do you have any siblings” phase—I remember asking him what his favorite color was, and he told me he didn’t have a favorite color, only favorite color combinations. My mind was blown, and he was right—every color has potential, and its beauty can be amplified and given depth by other colors. Here, having so many colors layered allowed us to have the best of all worlds, a serene foundation overlaid with assertive, energizing hues, each of which can be found in that sweet flower room wallpaper that came with the house.

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Readers who are interested in expressing charm and self-assuredness might consider the power of committing to colors beyond the fear-based decorating solutions like “a pop of color” or “an accent wall.” Nothing brings emotion like color. Allow yourself to be inspired by a pattern in a textile or a piece of art, then take those colors and let them become a room or two or three, or four or five! Here we have a true bag of Skittles—classy Skittles—and the effect is palpably joyful.

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Order Chloe Redmond Warner’s new book for more inspiration, or book a consultation with Chloe to get personalized advice for your space.

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