Tour a Spanish Colonial Redesigned After California Wildfire Damage

Perched on five acres of land in the Santa Monica Mountains, interior designer Tammy Randall Wood’s sprawling Spanish Colonial home has been her family headquarters for a decade. She nearly lost it all in 2018, when the Woolsey Fire devastated Southern California. “The landscape was destroyed; we lost many trees, fencing and irrigation were all destroyed, as well as the pool and all of the pergolas and outdoor areas. The stucco finish was blackened, and some doors burned and buckled, there was extensive smoke damage to the interior, and we had water damage in the kitchen,” she recalls.

Though the house looked “a bit like a blackened marshmallow in a campfire,” it was left standing — and Tammy, Interior Archaeology’s founder and principal designer, chose to approach the damage as an opportunity to make long-overdue improvements. “Because the entire house was under construction and we had moved out, every room could be reviewed in a way that it simply could not have been before.”

In rehabbing her home after the Woolsey Fire, Tammy was finally able to peel back ill-advised modifications flippers had made before she moved in. “We leaned into the most authentic and natural materials we could find as we envisioned its remake and brightened things up, so they feel a bit younger,” she says. “The materials for the most part, though updated, feel more accurate to the direction of the architecture and overall, I think, make the house feel more organic to the setting.” Her reimagined home also features wares she both lives with and offers in her recently launched SHOP by Interior Archaeology, a destination for favorite finds.

Tammy’s sun-dappled breakfast room is a study in subtle contrasts. Strong lines on the ceiling’s exposed beams and the paneled pass-through to the kitchen soften into an arched window and chairs, and a contemporary table stands before a traditionally tiled wall. "I love Zellij tiles from Morocco; they have been making them the same way for thousands of years," she says. “The modern silhouette of the table creates a nice tension with an ancient material like Zellij, and the timelessness of the wicker creates another layer of texture and a natural mood.”

“The shape and location of the kitchen are challenging in that traffic needs to move through to access other spaces,” Tammy says. “The layout that worked best was to create two islands for the best flow. But to be perfectly honest, I have never liked the look of a kitchen with two islands."

Sleight of hand served her well here. “Raising the bar on the second island allowed the kitchen to feel like it had only one island, and at the same time created a subtle barrier between the family room and the kitchen. We entertain quite a bit, and guests love to sit at the bar and talk while we’re cooking and cleaning up — it’s ideal.”

Copious storage is always lovely, of course, but it’s even better when it feels fresh. Tammy customized her upper kitchen cabinets with bifold doors that reveal a gorgeous white oak beadboard and shelves. The rich olive green she used on their exteriors (and on the shorter kitchen island’s legs) is a custom color her team mixed and turned into a sprayable lacquer.

The showstopping ceiling panel in Tammy’s dining room is Indian woodwork that likely dates back to the 1940s. “The pair of modern simple pendants provides a great balance to the intricate carving of the panel, and their linen shades unite nicely with the wood as well as the linen in the drapes,” she explains.

Another masterpiece? Her impeccably balanced window treatments. “The drapery fabric is a Zimmer & Rohde handblocked print on 100 percent linen,” she says. “The pattern is dense, but the palette is limited so the result feels complete but restrained. I love a simple woven wood shade paired with elegantly tailored drapery panels — either solid or in a beautiful print. It’s a combo that’s hard to beat.”

If you favor a diminutive or delicate floor covering, call for backup. “Layering rugs can be an interior design game-changer. It allows you to use vintage pieces that might be smaller than the ideal room-size rug you need. It can also allow you to use thin rugs like kilims in higher-traffic areas where their weight alone might not be enough,” Tammy says.

“Layering these more precious pieces atop sturdy natural woven carpets such as coirs, sisals, jutes and seagrass can be a practical and cost-effective solution to get maximum floor coverage and a designer look to boot.”

Tammy lucked into gorgeous features like the door and transom leading to her sitting room, but their finishes didn’t quite square with her vision for her home, and she undertook them all over again. “The doors are a solid, rustic, knotty alder — beautiful quality but way too busy for the look we wanted. So we faux finished them to read like a medium cerused oak. [Ceruse is a white lead-based pigment that mutes the color of wood and emphasizes its grain.] The floors are fumed white oak, heavily wire-brushed with a dry finish. The walls are Benjamin Moore Winter White.”

Why should dining rooms have all the fun? The magnificent globe Tammy installed here is the ideal exclamation point for her sitting room. “I love drama, but moreover, I value serenity. This means I’m always looking for ways to create a design impact,” she says. “The overscaled pendant accomplishes this nicely.” The space’s moody backdrop is another low-key flourish. “The color on the walls is one of my favorite blacks, Blacktop by Benjamin Moore.”

The old-world mystique of Tammy’s home begins underfoot. “Saltillo tiles from Mexico run throughout the house and terraces; here they’re run in a herringbone pattern,” she explains. Well-traveled treasures add even more history to the hall. “The bench is early nineteenth-century Scandinavian. The pool lies just opposite those French doors and the bench houses pool towels,” she adds. “The pendant is vintage Italian.”

Tammy created this work-from-home space for her husband, David, with versatility in mind. “The first thing I do when setting up an office is ask myself where it would feel best to sit in the room,” she explains. “Ideally, you want to have a view of the outdoors as well as easily have eyes on who might be entering.”

She satisfied those specs with two work surfaces. “A credenza or desk against a wall and a floating table or second desk to spin back and forth are a hard setup to beat,” Tammy says. She personalized the room with bespoke lighting: “The pendant in the ceiling was custom-made for us by Gallery L7, an amazing boutique lighting maker that we love in Los Angeles. It’s unexpected and feels old and new at the same time."

Utilitarian spaces don’t have to feel pedestrian. Exhibit A: Tammy’s luxe laundry room boasts finishes and materials she used throughout her home. “I used the same tile on the breakfast room wall, the kitchen range wall, as well as in the laundry room,” she says. “The disparity from one tile to the next creates a warm and subtle natural texture that feels barely there. It does an important job in this open floor plan, where all spaces influence one another.”

The spectacular sideboard Tammy chose for this second-floor space is an instant style moment. “I love the texture and personality of the credenza,” she says. “It’s modern and organic at the same time, so it unites many styles and has a lot of character. Its massive scale also anchors the volume of the space. The abstract giclée print on canvas is a perfect foil above it and the scales work well together.”

Just as PJs, slippers and robes can switch up weekend lounging routines, versatile lighting can make personal spaces feel even cozier. Both a linen-shaded earthenware table lamp and a wall-mounted reading light illuminate the nightstand in this serene guest bedroom.

“There are no hard and fast rules for bed linens, but in general, I like to keep [them] simple,” Tammy says. “Gradations of neutrals for sheets and coverlets are my go-to. I’ll often use shams of some sort sitting in front of the sleeping pillows — either Euro 26” x 26”, as seen here, or king-size to run from one side of the bed to the other.”

Add two to four decorative pillows in front of those simple shams “and here you can break out and pull in pattern and texture.” Finish with a footer: “Often, I will put a throw across the bottom of the bed for another layer of warmth at night and to protect the coverlet from wear.”

The terra-cotta tile laid in a picket design on the bathroom floor is a Walker Zanger custom design. “Here we wanted the shower to blend into the architecture and let the floor take center stage, so we used this large-scale limestone which works very well with the busier, smaller-scale terra cotta,” Tammy explains.

“I think every room can credit one element as its jumping-off place,” Tammy says. “There’s no hard or fast rule for what that will be. In the case of my bedroom, I had the idea that I wanted a dark vibrant-green linen velvet custom bed.”

She counterbalanced that luxurious piece with a more rustic floor covering. “I loved the idea of leaning into a more casual vibe after such a statement with the bed, and so we brought in a Turkish handwoven linen and jute rug in unexpected striations of gray and green for balance.”

The floating vanity area in Tammy’s primary bath demonstrates how beautifully organically finished wood partners with marble. “The wood brings the formality of the marble down, and the marble elevates the wood for a great juxtaposition,” she explains. “To make this pairing work, we chose Calacatta Macchia Vecchia, which has beautiful mocha-toned figuring that unites with the tones in the oak cabinetry. Cabinetry hardware by Waterworks and plumbing fixtures by Perrin & Rowe work like beautiful jewelry. For drama, we took advantage of the eleven-foot ceilings and ran the mirrors up as high as possible, then hung pendants that would reflect in them for punctuation.”

Graphic tile on the patio and hearth paired with an intricate grate above the fireplace lend Tammy’s outdoor dining space a Mediterranean air that dovetails beautifully with her home’s Spanish Colonial character. She styles her terrazzo-topped trestle table simply, with container plants and clippings, a low, wide water hyacinth basket for serveware and a rustic charcuterie board. A striped runner laid perpendicular to the table is the perfect fuss-free centerpiece.