Houzz Tour: Collected Comfort in an ’80s California Ranch

Instead of hitting a showroom, interior designer Shannon Ggem loves to search a client’s garage or attic for buried treasure first. By digging through their collections, shopping new and vintage, repurposing the reusable, adding fresh finishes and introducing color, she creates homes that combine comfort and elegance with personal history.

In the case of a couple near Los Angeles, the resulting home has a welcoming feeling that is classic California, with special places to enjoy family time, cooking, collections, puzzles, books and more.

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their dogs, Hermione, Lucy and Snoop
Location: Near Los Angeles
Size: About 4,800 square feet (446 square meters); 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms

Photography by Mike Kelley

The home was custom designed in the 1980s for the client and her husband (now deceased) by noted architect Jaime Gesundheit. While it had great bones, it needed some adjustments to suit the way she and her new husband live, with their large blended family. With a handful of adult children between them, the couple welcomes about 30 family members for large weekend dinners.


Ggem met her client when the woman called to say she needed help finding a sofa ASAP (the homeowner had found Ggem on Houzz). The pair ended up getting this 9- by 9-foot L-shaped sofa from Lee Industries.

The sofa shopping quickly spun off into a whole-house project. Upon learning that her client loved the look of the house in Something’s Gotta Give, Ggem acquired this large striped cotton dhurrie. After the designer’s flooring person gave her sample boards showing the results of an amazing 11-step process, she decided the technique was too much work, but had the sample boards turned into a wonderfully simple coffee table.

Giving the large, rambling ranch a laid-back, 1930s California feel was the goal. “This house is all about family comfort and home,” Ggem says.

Rug: Aspen Carpet Designs; small end table: Anthropologie; cane chairs: hoot n’ anny home


“We pulled almost every color we used through the house out of this wallpaper,” says Ggem of the wall covering in the 1930s Hollywood Regency–inspired powder room. “Taupe, gold, turquoise, aqua, green … it’s one big color explosion.”

The mirror and sconces are traditional and glamorous. The dresser-style vanity adds a little quirkiness, and the Athens gray countertop is a modern touch.

Wallpaper: Thibault; sconces: Currey & Company; mirror: Uttermost; vanity: Cole + Co.; towel bars: Restoration Hardware


“The house had great bones but was ready for some layout adjustment,” Ggem says. The great room has bay windows on either side (the other one can be seen in the first photo). In this bay she brought in an antique game table, as the couple loves doing puzzles and playing games together.

She added lined hemp draperies to tie the bay windows together. The sheer fabric keeps things light.

Chairs: Cost Plus World Market


The old kitchen had gone through a renovation once, but it wasn’t working as well for the large groups congregating there now.


AFTER: The homeowners removed the wall between the old dining room and the kitchen to create an eat-in kitchen. (The wall was right about where those counters on the right side of the photo end). The dining room table was used mostly for puzzles, anyway; now they’re done on the game table in the family room.

Every bit of the 60-inch range with a double oven gets used. “My client is a super cook and regularly makes meals for 30,” Ggem says.

Sink: Shaws Original; Country Kitchen Faucet: Rohl; pendant light: Pottery Barn; range: 60-inch gas, Wolf; stools: Uwharrie Chair Company


The countertops are oiled soapstone.


Ggem made it a priority to help her client display her silver and glass collections in an uncluttered way. Open shelves and glass cabinet doors provide display space for silver collections in the kitchen.

“The muted palette helped us calm down the busy-ness of all the collections and show them off in a beautiful way,” Ggem says. The smoked mirror in some of the cabinets — like the ones shown here — conceals without exactly reflecting what’s across from it. “I think smoked mirror is really coming back,” Ggem says.

Wall paint: Palladian Blue; cabinet paint: Pewter, both by Benjamin Moore


Ggem borrowed a creative idea seen at hoot n’ anny home. She used a large antique mirror frame she bought there exactly as it was used in the shop: to frame some of her client’s favorite heirloom china pieces. Simple templates helped her figure out how to fit them in, as did laying out the plates on the floor to determine the composition.

More tips for hanging a plate collection


The completed display hangs on the rear wall. The antique crystal chandelier is a beloved possession of the homeowner, who hung it in right about the same spot when this was the dining room. Because Ggem has balanced new and antique items, it fits right in.

The custom island has a hickory butcher block top and its own sink.


The homeowners are passionate about books, so Ggem added 12-foot-long beadboard-backed bookshelves to the living room, which was seldom used before. Now it’s a cozy library. Newly milled crown molding links it to the existing architecture.

The lamps were unearthed in the client’s garage and wound up inspiring the 1930s silver and blue color palette here and in the rest of the house. The homeowner bought the lamps at Steinworld years ago. “Clients’ garages are one of my favorite places to shop,” Ggem says. “She’s a collector, so every two seconds I was digging up another treasure!”

Ggem found the colorful curtains at Ikea and had them lined and pleated to bring color and coziness into the nooks.

“When I asked her what she’d like to display on the prominent spot on the mantel, I was expecting ‘my great-grandmother’s vase,’ but it was the treasured VW bus,” Ggem says. This small move shows her client’s sense of humor, as do her beloved Gumby and Pokey figurines. The owner also loves to show off family art, including pieces by kids, adults and herself.


In the master bedroom, Ggem changed up the layout. She added some bigger windows, so she could move the bed off the window wall and have it face the fireplace while creating a sitting area. The bookshelves were rebuilt with new moldings to make the room feel less disjointed. The idea for the recessed television came from a very popular photo on Houzz.


Ggem created silhouettes from the homeowner’s photos, cutting them out with a jigsaw and covering them with remnants of Brunschwig & Fils toile wallpaper.

As for the furniture, “it turned into a Restoration Hardware festival,” the designer says. She scored the bed, nightstands and lamps there, and recommends shopping Restoration Hardware Baby & Child when you need smaller-scale pieces.

Paint: Penthouse, Benjamin Moore; cameo frames: hoot n’ anny home


Ggem made the most of the home’s wonderful bay windows wherever she could. This one is located in a bedroom that they converted into a home gym.


After the client’s mother had her first date with her future husband, she went home and painted this picture of the two of them and kept it in a scrapbook. The book is very delicate, so it can’t be out with all of the other personal albums in the family room, but Ggem made sure to place it in an easy-to-access spot on the master bedroom bookshelves.


The master bathroom needed a full remodel. The homeowners went from a built-in bath to a sculptural, freestanding one. Shaker-style custom cabinets and traditional millwork mingle with a midcentury modern lily table and a more rustic stool from Uwharrie.

Small details make a difference. “I chose tongue and groove for the chair rail, because it comes out farther from the wall than beadboard would have,” Ggem says. “It feels like better quality and more rooted in history.” Other vintage-y details are the milk glass knobs on the cabinetry and the antique platter hung on the wall.

Roman shade: custom with fabric from Fabricut; Victorian Heated Towel Warmer: Wesaunard; sconce: Rejuvenation; faucets: Georgian, Rohl; wall paint: custom; cabinet paint: Super White, Benjamin Moore; bathtub, Michelangelo, Hydrosystems





One of the quirkiest spots in the house, the poolhouse bathroom has a playful, bohemian California vibe.

The curtain offers a fun, graphic punch, and the turquoise isn’t shy, either. The 12- by 8-inch subway tiles put a playful spin on a classic, while the glass knobs mix in touches of tradition and glamour.

Shower curtain: Anderson Design Group for Deny Design; train rack: Restoration Hardware; cabinet paint: Teal Tone, Benjamin Moore; life preserver: hoot n’ anny home


Ggem transformed a maid’s bedroom into a multipurpose room suitable for group yoga, and a hub/put-away room for dogs Hermione, Lucy and Snoop. The space includes a dog door; drawers for leashes, important vet records and treats; bowls; and dog beds.

This home really shows what kind of great results can happen when a designer and a homeowner find they have great rapport. “This went from searching for one sofa to a whole-house project in one week,” Ggem says.

More: So Your Style Is: Hollywood Regency

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