When landscape architect Travis Gramberg and his wife Aubree bought their 1960 ranch house in Costa Mesa, California, they had a strong vision for making it a home that would encourage indoor-outdoor living. But they knew they had a lot of work ahead of them to achieve that. Travis searched for an architect that would share their vision and be open to a close collaboration. From his first conversation with architect Craig O’Connell, he knew he’d found a like-minded designer who could help bring that vision to life.
O’Connell worked closely with the couple, collaborating on the site planning and exterior architecture, shepherding the down-to-the-studs renovation plans and designing a new primary suite addition. Here’s a look inside the house, where forging strong connections between indoors and out was a priority. We recently wrote about the yard, where the couple, their two young children and their two dogs love to spend as much of their time as possible. Here we’ll take a look inside the house.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
“After” photos by David Duncan Livingston; photo styling by Dorothea Coelho
House at a Glance
Who lives here: Travis and Aubree Gramberg and their two young children and two dogs
Location: Costa Mesa, California
Size: 2,800 square feet (260 square meters); four bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms
Designers: Craig O’Connell Architecture (architecture); Koheid Design (landscape architecture)
The original home was 1,861 square feet with three bedrooms and 1½ bathrooms. It didn’t have a primary bathroom or a bathtub. The house sits on a corner lot, and the project included a down-to-the-studs interior renovation, a primary suite addition and a reworking of the landscape. The priority was to forge stronger indoor-outdoor connections.
Travis was impressed by the collaborative approach of O’Connell, a Northern California architect introduced by their mutual business coach. Travis sensed they had similar architectural philosophies and that they shared a vision for creating synergy between the house and its surroundings. And Craig and Aubree worked well together too, as she had a strong vision for the interiors and selected the finishes.
Before Photo
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Before: “Having a highly open, more modern feeling was important to Travis and Aubree,” O’Connell says. He took the house down to the studs to create a better flow. This meant putting all the rooms on the same level, removing walls and raising some of the ceilings for an airier feel.
In this view of the home’s interior, the front door can be seen on the left. It remained in the same place, though it was replaced by a Dutch door, which was on the couple’s wish list. The living room is in the foreground, with the dining area and kitchen at the back. Because the living room had been converted from an old garage during a previous remodel, it was on a different level than the kitchen-dining area.
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Craig O'Connell Architecture
After: O’Connell used new floor framing to bring the living room up to the same level as the kitchen and dining area. “For Travis and Aubree, a cathedral ceiling in the living room was an important part of creating a more open, modern space,” he says. The ceiling required new support joists and a new beam to strengthen the structure.
The kitchen has a working island and a peninsula with seating. The former creates a nice boundary between the kitchen and dining area, and the latter creates delineation between the kitchen and living room.
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Before Photo
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Before: The kitchen had a lower ceiling than the dining area.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
After: Look to the window wall to understand how this photo compares with the previous one. O’Connell removed the partial walls to completely open up the kitchen, dining room and living room to one another. He brought the kitchen ceiling up to the dining area’s ceiling height for a seamless, fully open feel.
Aubree completed the interior design, and the kitchen is a good example of her refined organic style. For example, the fluting on the island and peninsula bases, as well as the waterfall countertops, elevate the look. “The fluting adds a beautiful texture,” O’Connell says. The island countertop is American Mist granite with a brushed finish. The perimeter countertops are Calacatta Neolith. Neolith is an engineered stone that is Green Guard and Zero Waste certified.
Flush-mount ceiling lights over the island provide a more minimalist, less cluttered look than pendant lights would have. Slab-front cabinetry, a simple plaster vent hood and a gridded tile backsplash lend a modern vibe.
Cabinet paint: Midnight Spruce, Dunn-Edwards
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Koheid Design
In the dining room, the chandelier has a strong presence and creates a cozy feel at the dining table. The abstract botanical painting over the sideboard creates another indoor-outdoor connection. And the furniture’s midcentury flair is true to the soul of the 1960 ranch.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
The laundry room is located behind the fridge wall in the kitchen. It contains additional storage and a utility sink. The backsplash tile adds a lovely natural element, while the cabinet paint provides dark contrast that works well with the dark appliances.
Cabinet paint: Lunar Eclipse, Dunn-Edwards
Craig O'Connell Architecture
In the living room, O’Connell created a focal point with a new gas fireplace flanked by built-ins for storage and display. The built-ins stand up to the scale of the new cathedral ceiling and are versatile — the left side can be set up as a home bar for entertaining. Vertical slats on the lower cabinets play off the fluted details in the kitchen.
New sliding doors open up the room to a reimagined courtyard space in the backyard. All the windows and doors in the house are new.
Windows: ; doors: ; Fiber art: AMA Fiber Art
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Koheid Design
Here’s a look back through those doors from the reimagined porch. Travis added the buffet, a ready-made piece he sells that has stainless steel sealed storage inside. This protects media equipment, yard toys and even food from the elements. “It also means no spiders get inside,” Travis says. “This is a true buffet that we use all the time — for cookouts, opening up a bunch of pizzas or setting up birthday cake.”
Before Photo
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Before: The backyard was dominated by this very long covered patio. O’Connell and Travis agreed to try to work with it for the sake of efficiency, creativity and sustainability. They wound up cutting about 15 feet off the porch roof toward the back of this photo to make room for the new primary suite addition.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
After: The exterior of the home is Hardie siding, painted in Dunn-Edwards’ Black Pool. “Aubree found this color and it changes with the light throughout the day. Sometimes it’s green, sometimes it’s gray,” O’Connell says.
Alterations to the existing porch roof included covering it in plywood with battans covering the seams, which was O’Connell’s idea. Travis came up with the idea to cover the posts in Texas limestone to match other features in the landscape. And he wanted to use Italian limestone pavers as the project’s big splurge. “I always tell my clients to invest in the spaces that they’ll use the most, which is what I did here,” Travis says. Aubree pitched in with the furniture layout. The covered patio transformation is a great example of the collaborative design process.
Beyond the porch is the new primary suite, connected by a glass breezeway. With the new addition’s design, O’Connell gave the home an L-shape, which gives the backyard a courtyard feel. The addition runs along the other street-facing side of the corner lot, so its placement also provides privacy from the street.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Here’s the view down the new glass breezeway toward the new primary bedroom. Aubree flanked the outside of the breezeway with a pair of Jonathan Adler Dora Maar planters. They add an eclectic touch, while MacDougall’s century plants (Furcraea macdougalii, zones 9 to 11), native to Mexico, provide dramatic verticality.
Koheid Design
Here’s the view through the breezeway, from the backyard to the side yard, which contains a fire pit, dining area and Travis’ vegetable garden. Large sliding glass doors open to both sides. The portion over the doors conceals ductwork for heating and cooling.
“The glass hallway was Craig’s idea,” Travis says. “It came from me wanting easy access to my vegetable from the house. He was always willing to see where the project took us, coming up with ideas and providing his expertise. It was the best kind of collaboration.”
Craig O'Connell Architecture
The original house didn’t have a bathroom connected to the primary bedroom. Nor did it have a bathtub, something the young, growing family would need. The new primary suite addition contains a bedroom, a bathroom with a tub, a walk-in closet and Aubree’s office. It added 931 square feet of living space to the home.
The addition provides strong connections to the outdoors via the glass breezeway and the bedroom’s double French doors that open to the courtyard deck. The cathedral ceiling also contributes to the room’s light and airy feel. Aubree chose a sculptural bed with a scale that matches the soaring height of the room.
While O’Connell originally designed a large sliding door to separate the bedroom from the bathroom, the couple wound up leaving it open, in a boutique hotel kind of way. There is a separate toilet room within the bathroom that does indeed have a door.
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Koheid Design
This cedar hot tub from Snorkel Hot Tubs is located just off the bedroom’s French doors. This photo also shows how the raised deck’s steps can serve as extra seating when the Grambergs entertain a large group.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Here’s a peek inside Aubree’s new office, which gets lots of natural light. Travis has an office located in the detached garage. A fun note: Travis’s mom hung all the wallpaper in the house. “She’s a real Jack-of-all-trades and an artist,” he says.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
The primary bathroom has a cathedral ceiling with a skylight. The refined organic look continues in here, with an elegant graphic floor tile, bubble chandelier and aged brass fixtures. “The floor tile Aubree found is beautiful. It has X-shaped brass inlay in it,” O’Connell says.
The shower tile’s deep green color and the wood vanities feel connected to nature. The architect advised taking the shower niche wall-to-wall, for clean lines and a minimalist look in the shower.
Craig O'Connell Architecture
Aubree came up with the idea for the neon sign in the powder room. “It’s sort of an inside joke — often when a client calls to figure out what’s wrong with a plant, I’ll jokingly ask, ‘Well, have you been talking to it?’ before I get to more specific questions,” Travis says. “It became the overarching theme of this house.” Neon MFG made the sign.
“Travis is so talented and creative, and this was probably the best collaborative experience I’ve ever had,” O’Connell says. “It was such a great melding of the site planning, the architecture and the landscape architecture — it came together with such a beautiful indoor-outdoor flow.” In the time since the initial planning began, Travis and Aubree’s family has grown by two — Aubree was expecting their first child early in the design process, and since moving in, they’ve welcomed their second child.
In case you missed it, catch the story about the landscape and exterior architecture.
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