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things to relate," said Ostendorf. While the house opens generously to the park in front, its heart is the interior courtyard, a modest, inward-looking space shaped by the lot's geometry — into which the large, airy kitchen flows. "The kitchen is where the client's professional and personal interests lie — she's a cook with a capital C," Ostendorf says. "She hosts dinner parties and cooks for the family, so the kitchen is dead center in the plan." The couple also had a strong sense of aesthetics from the outset. "They were drawn to white stucco, clean lines, something that would serve as a backdrop for really interesting decorative choices." The wife, a fashionable and sophisticated woman who travels extensively, gravitates toward a more contemporary aesthetic. She shared a collection of European- inspired images from Pinterest — everything from furnishings to white- stucco villas — which the architects used as a springboard for the design, inside and out. As always, Curtis & Windham approached the project with an emphasis on context. "River Oaks was laid out in the late 1920s," Curtis says. "So, when we're designing a new house here, we try to make it feel like it could have always been part of the neighborhood. It is part of our DNA to do something appropriate." For architectural inspiration, they looked to early-20th-century a r c h i t e c t G e o r g e Wa s h i n g t o n S m i t h , whose romantic Spanish Colonial Revival houses — characterized by w h i t e w a s h e d s t u c c o walls and red-tile roofs — helped define the architectural identity of Santa Barbara and other parts of California. Like Smith, Curtis & Windham omitted traditional crown moldings and base trim. I n s t e a d , u n a d o r n e d plaster creates a sculptural effect, particularly in the curved staircase and the custom fireplace in the family room. Even with its restrained detailing, the house feels like it could have been built a century earlier. "The River Oaks house is not old," Curtis says, "but it has an old soul." Clockwise from top: In the living room, custom Sam Stewart coffee table. Italian 1941 Osvaldo Borsani armoire and 1950s side table. Max Simon mobile, Karen Hampton wall tapestry, from Kouri + Corrao Gallery. Elettra armchairs by Arflex. In the rear courtyard, Italian sconce from Obsolete, L.A. Planters from Authentic Provence, Palm Beach. Custom-painted copper awning. In the entry, an Italian chest from Gallery ARE, L.A. Mirror attributed to Osvaldo Borsani. 91