Words by Loureen Murphy
When a Los Altos Hills couple dreamed of a perfect hideaway, they envisioned views blurring the lines between indoors and out. Creature comforts inviting long reads and delicious sips. Artwork stimulating imagination and conversation. They found the ideal spot right in their own backyard—for a detached ADU, designed by Roselle Curwen of Roselle Design.
As third-time clients, the homeowners trusted Roselle’s solid architectural background in planning the 800-square-foot accessory unit from the ground-up. With their college-age kids coming and going, the couple wanted the cottage to multitask as a guest house, hangout, home office and retreat as needed.
The designer started by slightly rotating the proposed footprint to capture the glorious hilltop view. Roselle then drew up plans for a main room/lounge, incorporating a built-in desk and storage cabinet to provide a tidy home office. Sharing space with the open kitchen, the main room is bookended by the primary bedroom and the bunk room, each with its own bath. The layout allows quiet and privacy for sleepers, two of the key emotional effects Roselle focused on in her design.
Intentional in every aspect, Roselle designed a sloped roof to accommodate solar panels and also evoke airiness in all the rooms, raising the eyes to the windows, while visually expanding the space. White oak millwork throughout the unit, in cabinets, nightstands, frames and flooring, further enhances the link to the native oaks outside, while creating cohesion within. Natural gray vibranium quartzite kitchen counters, with their flowing, swirling patterns, contrast with the room’s clean lines.
Roselle spent whole days in showrooms with her art-loving clients, hunting for fixtures, materials and finishes. “Seeing what they’re drawn to helped tremendously with this project,” she says. For example, in the main room, winglike sconces by Christopher Boots with backlit crystal edges flank a whimsical piece depicting flamingos flying from an ice cube tray. At Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, they selected everything from the primary bedroom’s pastel sculptural Hunt Rettig piece to the commissioned work by Lela Shields hanging above the desk. The homeowners also invested hours in slab shopping for the kitchen and baths. The super-involved clients say they love all the little details highlighting the unit, like the Rocky Mountain Hardware fixtures that will patinate over time and the pyrite flecks in travertine stonework that sparkle like gold in the sunlight.
Though the clients gave Roselle complete creative freedom to curate everything inside, right down to the stemware, settling on all the project’s elements required plenty of back-and-forth. “They are very open to feedback as well as to me,” she says. “I balance items that might be very detailed or ornate with a simple, more raw form. You need a variation of materials to add depth and character to a space.“ To ensure everything progressed as they intended, Roselle did frequent walk-throughs with the homeowners.
Even so, the pathway to satisfaction held some obstacles. Achieving 99 percent blackout over the bedroom windows required a high level of collaboration among designer, clients, contractor and the shade company Desmond Johnson.
After Desmond Johnson sketched the initial concept, “we all collaborated with the contractor on how to make the face frame magnetic and functional while hiding the motorized roller shade when open,” Roselle explains. The wait and extra work proved worthwhile. Overnight guests can rest in a blanket of calming darkness.
Roselle says the homeowners relish the treehouse-like sense of seclusion their new hilltop nest offers and use it more than anticipated, even when their children are away. Calling her experience on this ADU “transformative,” she found satisfaction in entwining her design expertise with her clients’ tastes to create a unique personal space for them. The most fulfilling thing for her? “The way the vision comes to life.”