Santa Ynez

Citizen Artist principals Joshua Rose and Rafael Kalichstein transformed a pristine but underleveraged early-1980s ranch house in Santa Barbara County into a refined sanctuary for a pair of serious art collectors. The project began as a conversation among friends, and quickly evolved into a considered reimagining of the home's architecture and character. The designers made decisive choices about what to honor and what to discard—preserving the living room's sunken conversation pit and soaring ceilings while eliminating carpeted bathrooms, a dated bar, and a series of dark, compartmentalized rooms that failed to engage the property's sweeping views. The redesigned interiors strike an assured balance between midcentury sensibility and elevated contemporary living. The entry hall sets an immediate tone with a custom geometric floor pattern combining antiqued Belgian bluestone, antique Carrara marble, and white oak, while the conversation pit was reimagined with built-in leather seating, a recycled leather floor, and Patagonia stone anchoring the fireplace wall. Throughout the residence, Citizen Artist replaced light-blocking walls with slatted wood room dividers, opened bathrooms to the landscape with generous windows, and introduced a new bar clad in dark-stained oak and woven brass—each intervention calibrated to honor the home's character while delivering the level of finish and intention a discerning client expects. The owners' collection of works by contemporary female artists served as a guiding curatorial force, with pieces by Lorna Simpson, Cindy Sherman, Kiki Smith, Caitlin Keogh, and Faith Wilding placed with deliberate purpose across the residence. In the primary suite, a Keogh painting anchored the entire room's palette, its single pink rose echoed in a custom Kyle Bunting hide rug. The space also showcases a pair of original Hans Wegner Papa Bear chairs with matching serial numbers—a rare find that reflects the same exacting standard of connoisseurship that defines the project at every turn.