California Farmhouse · Chapter X

Beyond the Walls

The house did not end at its walls. Gardens, old trees, porches, animals, and family life became part of the same composition.

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The California farmhouse was never meant to end at its walls.

I kept the body of the house white and used deep green around the windows and architectural edges. Simple gray shutters gave the windows more presence, while the burgundy front door deliberately interrupted the green-and-white palette and announced the entrance.

An Outdoor Room Among the Trees

My husband and my father built the front and back decks. The larger back deck extended everyday life into the mature trees, becoming less an attachment to the house than another room—one without a conventional ceiling.

Finished living-room corner with broad windows looking into the California garden — Inside and outside were always meant to speak to one another.

A Garden Allowed to Change

I wanted flowers—lots of them. Tulips arrived in pink, coral, yellow, and white. Peonies produced enormous romantic blooms. Zinnias brought saturated summer color and butterflies. The garden was sometimes tidy and sometimes gloriously unruly because a garden is alive; it should not look exactly the same every day.

The dogs, horses, old trees, decks, flowers, and house formed one lived environment. Beauty was not reserved for the formal rooms. It belonged wherever the family gathered and wherever daily life happened.

“A garden is another way a home tells its story—one season at a time.”

I approached the land much as I approached the rooms inside: layering it gradually, planting what I loved, experimenting, and allowing the property to become more personal with every season.