Home tour: a Japandi-inspired renovation amid the sunny landscape of Montecito, California

Working with AB Design Studio, Honey transformed the original three-bedroom layout by opening up interior walls and introducing two dramatic glass cubes, with one in the primary suite and another in the freestanding guest house. These interventions fundamentally altered the home’s relationship with its surroundings while respecting Riggs’s original vision of dissolving architecture into landscape. Despite the California home’s modest size, the kitchen and living areas now feel expansive, anchored as they are by warm wood, stone and sculptural vintage pieces. 

The primary suite exemplifies the Montecito, California project’s emphasis on transparency, with floor-to-ceiling windows that evoke images of floating above the hillside. “We wanted to wake up with the mountains,” Honey said. The guest house maintains a similarly intimate scale and peace, balancing privacy with connection to the larger property.

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While the Montecito home functions as a sophisticated retreat, it also integrates elements for entertaining family and friends. The deck wraps around the home, carving out a new space for gatherings illuminated by a Montecito sunset. Another notable feature of the Montecito home is called ‘the social stair,’ where the home’s existing boulders now set the stage for cocktails and conversations. 

Returning inside, the Japandi aesthetic manifests through what Honey describes as intuitive curation. “I’m in love with the sculptural vintage pieces: the ceramics with uneven edges, the midcentury finds with stories embedded in their scratches, the artwork collected over years of travel and happenstance. There’s a warmth in objects that have lived other lives,” she shared.

With each piece embodying a colourful constellation of memories, each item’s placement in the home takes on a more reflective process. Honey prefers a mix of refined and rustic, as in the juxtaposition of a sleek, Japanese-inspired lamp with a gnarled wooden table. In other places of the home, she balances delicate textiles with vibrant, overscaled art pieces. “The home,” she believes, “tells its story through contrast, creating tension between the quiet and the bold.” 

Altogether, the home anticipates change rather than resisting it. An open layout that maximises airflow and natural light also encourages the homeowners to step outdoors, soaking in the different seasons of life. Sustainability was key to Honey’s approach, particularly as Montecito has warm, arid sunshine contrasted with cloudy, wet winters. Material longevity was a key consideration, both indoors and outdoors. The blackened cedar outside the home will age beautifully as the home settles into the Montecito landscape, while indoor finishes like stone, wood and metal with patinate alongside it.  

This appreciation for time’s effect on a home is deeply rooted in Riggs’s approach, which Honey returns to for inspiration, time and again. “For me, design is about honouring what’s already there: the history, the land and the people bringing it to life,” she said. “We preserved Riggs’s architectural integrity while opening the home to new possibilities. We blended high and low, modern and vintage, the disciplined and the delightfully undone.”

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