Penelope Bianchi of McCormick Interiors » House Beautiful Sept. Interview – Mediterranean Style Home with a Well-Worn Patina

House Beautiful Sept. Interview – Mediterranean Style Home with a Well-Worn Patina

Apr 17, 2011
23 Comments RSS

Mimi Read: Your house is filled with collections. Are you a Victorian at heart?

Penelope Bianchi: I don’t think of myself that way. I’ve been a decorator for 39 years, and I never believed in any kind of a trend. My husband and I inherited about half of what’s here. A lot of it is from my mother. She collected antiques in the ’50s with basically grocery money. Everyone was getting rid of them and buying Danish modern. The rest of this stuff I found over the years. I have no idea what some of it even is — I just buy things that move me.

What moves you most?

Patina. I even use old fabrics. I’m crazy for antique toile. The one on our bed is an 18th-century toile that shows George Washington and two cheetahs being led to the Temple of Fame. It cost $140 and it’s the best thing I ever found on eBay. A professor friend is horrified that I keep it on my bed. He thinks it should be in a museum.

Tell me the story of the house. It has a picturesque Mediterranean look. The way you’ve arranged furniture seems European. And it’s both formal and rustic at once, isn’t it?

We built it 12 years ago. We had been living in Pasadena, where I grew up, but we were looking for a house in Santa Barbara. My friend, a real estate agent, showed up one day and said, “We’re looking at a vacant lot in Montecito today.” It was two and a half acres of nothing, only a few trees. But she pointed and said, “Over there is a 45-acre nature preserve with a huge grove of eucalyptus trees and millions of monarch butterflies. On the other side is a 45-acre estate.” Then she looked me in the eye and said, “And there are deer in there.”

You’re an animal lover? And she took advantage?

Oh, completely! She’s known me since high school. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. We bought the land and decided to build a rustic Provençal farm — everything about the site felt like Provence to me. Then we went to the real Provence to get inspired.

What did you do there?

I probably took 200 photographs of doorknobs, chimneys, doorways, rooftops, shutters, and slipcovers. In all the small hotels where we stayed, I kept asking about all the incredible walls and learned about lime-washing.

What color are your exterior walls? They’re so faded and romantic.

It’s called pink ocher. It’s a pale pink with a bit of yellow in it. The pigments were mined out of the ground in Roussillon. They have little shops there that sell them by the one-pound bag. I bought all the bags in two shops and had them sent home. We put the pigment in the stucco and lime-washed it.

And inside?

We put a coat of plaster on the walls and left it unprimed and untreated. Then everything got a coat of lime wash mixed with the same natural pigments in various amounts. I contend there’s a difference between artificial and natural pigments. Natural ones are more beautiful.

What’s that vine rambling all over the house and trailing over your loggia?

Virginia creeper. It comes in pots on sticks — I bought 200. If you take the vine off the stick and Scotch-tape it to the wall, it will cover the house eight times faster. People think vines hurt the stucco, but deciduous vines do not. This one is always turning colors, and in winter, it’s just tracery with no leaves. Right now, I’m trying to train it to come inside the house. Did you know that Rose Tarlow has vines growing in her living room? You have to dodge the tendrils. I love that.

Hey, you’ve got interesting chickens! I hate to inform you, but raising fancy chickens is officially a hipster trend. Susan Orlean even wrote about it in The New Yorker.

I guess Martha Stewart started it. Mine are Mille Fleur bantam chickens. They’re just so beautiful, with feathers on their feet! I had them sent to me in a taxi from San Diego.

Your loggia seems like the essence of Santa Barbara living.

That’s where I am 90 percent of the time, on that little sofa reading or at the stone table, where we have breakfast and lunch. If for some reason I can’t be out there, I’m in those red chairs in front of the fireplace. They used to be slipcovered in antique paisley shawls, but the cats shredded them. Now they’re in old French toile. I got a whole bolt of it in an antiques store in France.

What do you love best about your home?

The landscaping. Every single thing we planted to attract wildlife. We have all kinds of animals coming around — raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, rabbits. And boy, do we have birds. When the woman who wrote The Birds of Santa Barbara was here for a nature benefit, she counted 78 species in two hours. I’ve counted 130 species by their sounds. I got this new iPhone app about bird-watching, and an oriole landed on my hat as I was playing its song.

: Pink Bedroom Sitting Area In the bedroom’s sitting area, drawings by Marcel Vertes fill the walls all the way to the ceiling. Caned armchairs from Brenda Antin.

: Sun-Faded Provençal Charm – At interior designer Penelope Bianchi’s Santa Barbara, California, house, Virginia creeper vines surround shutters that were sandblasted and soaked to give them just the right sun-faded Provençal charm.

: Antique Paisley in the Living Room – Four armchairs upholstered in a bold red antique paisley are clustered near the living room fireplace

: Hints of Patina – To add muted patina to a dining area at the end of her 33-foot-long living room, Bianchi slipcovered antique Italian chairs with inside-out Fortuny and paired them with a French convent table. The trumeau mirror reflects its pair, hanging above the fireplace in a sitting area.

: Antiques and Collection – Display In the center of the living room, a marbleized wood table, ottomans, and Portuguese painted chairs hold collections and books.

: Red Wax-Stamp Collection – A framed collection of 19th-century Grand Tour wax-stamp seals.

: Vintage and Antique Pillows – An antique Chinese silk pillow in Bianchi’s favorite color, shimmering blue-gray-green, against a vintage tiger velvet pillow.

: Dining on the Terrace – Mille Fleur bantam chickens roam about on a pea-gravel terrace, where Bianchi arranged a spot for entertaining.

: Dining in the Loggia – For year-round comfort, the loggia has radiant heating under its Mexican tile pavers. Stone table and benches from Exquisite Surfaces

: Bianchi’s Favorite Fabric – Antique voile curtains define the master bedroom’s sleeping alcove. An 18th-century toile serves as the bedspread.

: Master Bath with Copper Tub – Bianchi loves sitting in neck-high water in her 1860s zinc-lined copper tub. A vintage Chinese birdcage hung from the ceiling adds another element of quirkiness.

: Pink Bedroom Sitting Area – In the bedroom’s sitting area, drawings by Marcel Vertes fill the walls all the way to the ceiling. Caned armchairs from Brenda Antin.

Written by Mimi Read at HouseBeautiful.com

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We now offer our design services online. Please contact us at Penelopebi@me.com for further information.

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Leo Basica

I love love the new site! Congratulations Penny!

Apr 20, 2011 @ 3:56 PM

Lindsey Dal Pozzo

Congrats Penny!

Apr 20, 2011 @ 4:05 PM

Rebecca

YOU HAVE DONE IT AGAIN, IT IS DIVINE.
WITH YOU HAD PICS OF THE VIRGINIA CREEPER
AND OUTSIDE WALLS BY THAT BLOG.

LOVE IT LOVE IT.
CONGRATULATIONS
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Rebecca

Apr 21, 2011 @ 2:30 AM

I meant “wish you”, not with you.

xxxx

Apr 21, 2011 @ 2:32 AM

Abbey Puls

Amazing! I love it! This website and blog were loooong overdue!!!! What a great surprise.
(I especially love the logo!)

Apr 21, 2011 @ 3:09 AM

sue castellanos

fabulous Penny !!!!!! thanks for including me

Apr 21, 2011 @ 5:16 AM

quintessence

What a wonderful interview and lovely peek inside your beautiful home! I’m so glad you decided you start a blog – I’ve always been impressed with your thoughtful comments on others’ blogs I read. I will be back again soon!

Apr 21, 2011 @ 1:17 PM

Curtains in my Tree

Just love your new blog. I was reading at Velvut and Linen and discovered you.

How refreshing after all the shabby chic and rust I look at all the time and love also.

My House needs a face lift and I was reading about the Virginia Creeper wonder if I can get that back here in Missouri and would it grow on a brick house?I would love to have my patio covered from the back of the house(thinking out loud)

Apr 21, 2011 @ 4:33 PM

mimi

I love the interview and would love to see more of your gorgeous home! It is always so interesting to read a designer’s thought process.

Apr 21, 2011 @ 6:23 PM

Sunny and Chuck

Penny, Well done…great website! Makes us want to have you decorate our condo…oh, we forgot, you already decorated our condo.

Love ya, Sunny and Chuck

Apr 21, 2011 @ 6:45 PM

Karen T.

Love your new site! Congrats!

Apr 22, 2011 @ 6:19 AM

Sherl wheeler

Loved
The pictures of your house

Apr 22, 2011 @ 7:00 AM

AnnaPaula

My compliments for your great job and your new blog.
AnnaP

Apr 22, 2011 @ 7:33 AM

audrey friedman

I love, love, love your house. I would love to meet you one day and let you do some work for me. That is if you would be interested. I live in France half the year and Dallas half the year.
Please continue your blog.
Thanks.

Apr 22, 2011 @ 9:51 AM

Susan Mountrey

love your blog- how may we subscribe?

Apr 22, 2011 @ 11:00 AM

Goldie Stetten

Love the post and blog and loved Velvet and Linen’s post about you. I could not find a subscribe bar anywhere?

Apr 22, 2011 @ 11:24 AM

Lynda Pinter

Love the photos, the stories, beautiful website. Thanks for sharing!

Apr 22, 2011 @ 11:58 AM

Debbie

Your website is lovely! I adore the mallards! Congratulations…

Apr 22, 2011 @ 1:01 PM

Franki Parde

I’m already enchanted! It will be lovely including you in my morning visits to “blogland.” “Blogsville” didn’t sound any better…oh, well. Loved your new site! franki

Apr 22, 2011 @ 1:37 PM

Karen

Penny,
I first saw your home on Velvet & Linen and was so taken by it that I commented to a dear friend how beautiful it was and she said, I know Penelope Bianchi! My good friend, Jean McGilvray, knows you. Small world!
I’m so happy you know have a blog where I can be inspired weekly!
Karen