With their kids grown, the parents wanted spaces to suit their new routines.

The cottonwoods called to her. Growing up in Orinda, California, “it was just native grasses and a cottonwood tree that we played in,” Lauren Nelson’s client recalls. “There was a dirt path that cut through the valley—it’s how I walked to school.” Quiet and slow, this was the life the woman wanted for her daughters. So she and her husband snapped up the last lot in Orinda and built a house, where they raised their girls for 25 years. Once the kids went off to college, however, it felt a little too quiet.

Spanning 4,000 square feet, the shingle-style house was originally built by local architect Douglas A. McQuillan, in a style that emulated Robert A.M. Stern’s East Coast compounds. “The changes the client wanted to make felt really purposeful, because after living there for two decades, there was such a clear connection to the house and her routines,” says Nelson, a Bay Area designer who was hired to update the kitchen and primary bedroom and quickly found herself making cosmetic upgrades to the entire house.

The client’s close relationship to the land drove every decision. She dries herbs from her garden on the windowsill and loves to watch the quails come down the hill from her desk. For a better vantage point, Nelson knocked down some walls, creating an improved flow between the kitchen, pantry, and living room. The husband’s cocktail bar was relocated to make room for a nook where the wife can read through her collection of cookbooks, and bigger windows allow sunlight to penetrate every corner. Nelson traded carpet for marble and limestone in the primary bedroom, and a drop-in Jacuzzi for a roomy tub, sauna, and dressing area.

“Whatever we brought inside felt like it needed to be organic or of the earth,” Nelson says. Enter plaster walls and tumbled limestone floors, unlacquered brass and white oak cabinetry and ceiling planks. “The goal was to bring a continuity to the house that felt fitting for the homeowners’ current interests,” says Nelson. At this point in their lives, with their girls living close by, the owners are home “pretty much all day every day,” the wife says. “I’m in and out of the kitchen, bringing in fruit, making jam, drying herbs, etc. We love those chairs in the kitchen, with all the windows wide open, looking out to the backyard.”

A Tudor-style arch has what designer Lauren Nelson calls a “graceful, old-world feel.” Paint: Dove Tale, Farrow & Ball. Chandelier: vintage Rupert Nikoll, 1stDibs. Armchair: vintage Jindrich Halabala. Table: Noir. Table lamp: Anyon Atelier. Swivel chair: Lawson-Fenning, in Pierre Frey fabric. Rug: Floordesign.

The husband uses the living room as his work-from-home office, so multiple seating areas give the space greater functionality. Coffee table: Yucca. Armchairs: vintage Jindrich Halabala, in a Rogers & Goffigon bouclé. Desk: Noir. Swivel chairs: Lawson-Fenning, in Pierre Frey fabric. Rug: Floordesign. Shades: custom, Villa Nova. Floor lamp: vintage, 1stDibs.

Handmade tile, marble countertops, and cabinetry in Benjamin Moore Caldwell Green subtly reference the outdoors. Pendants: Xavier Mañosa. Backsplash: Tiles of Ezra. Hood: Roman Clay, Portola Paints & Glazes.

Nelson and her team painstakingly color-matched all of the wood used for the cabinetry and flooring to maintain a consistent palette and grain throughout. Specific cabinets were designed for jars and tinctures. Countertops: Calacatta Borghini marble. Range: Lacanche. Hardware: Frank Allart. Sconces: Hector Finch. Faucet: Waterworks. Counter stools: Sun at Six. Table: antique, 1stDibs. Dining chairs: Gio Ponti for Cassina, Design Within Reach.

Nelson chose the plum Holland & Sherry fabric on the chairs and incorporated pops of purple elsewhere because the homeowner loves figs. Walls: Roman Clay, Portola Paints & Glazes. Trim: Cumulus Cloud, Benjamin Moore. Pendant: Florian Schulz. Chairs: Clad Home. Table: Noir. Rug: Afshar, Tony Kitz Gallery.

Built-in dressers flanking the fireplace keep the family’s scrapbooks and photo albums at hand. Right sofa: Brian Paquette for Lawson-Fenning in Zak+Fox fabric. Chairs: Nickey Kehoe in Zak + Fox fabric. Sidetables: Garde (black) and Blend Interiors (wire base). Lamps: Danny Kaplan Studio. Art: Petros Koublis. Rug: Armadillo. Shades: custom, in Rose Tarlow fabric.

CHEATER'S PLASTER How to achieve perfect textured walls: Thanks to a variety of old-world finishes, “the house feels like bucolic country meets elegant Mediterranean,” Nelson says. One big-impact, low-lift choice was to cover the walls in Roman Clay by Portola Paints & Glazes, which is applied using a putty knife. “It’s our go-to product for textured walls,” says Nelson. “It has a beautiful silky smooth hand, as opposed to a grainier lime wash or plaster, and gives walls the most beautiful movement and warmth.”

Nelson channeled Axel Vervoordt’s pared-down minimalism, as well as the husband’s rural Virginia upbringing, in the comfortable furnishings. Bed: custom, Jacob May Design. Bedding: Rough Linen. Pendants: Atelier Vime. Shades: custom, in Hartmann & Forbes tulle. Rug: The Gardener’s House. Nightstand: Faithful Roots. Art: Jin-Woo Prensena.

A freestanding tub, sauna, and shower room connect. Pendant: The Future Perfect. Shades: custom, in Hartmann & Forbes tulle. Tile and fixtures: Waterworks.Tub: Keller Supply. Bench: Skagerak.

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