Penelope Bianchi

A Look Back! Living The Dream In 1996

November 10, 2018 By // by Penelope Bianchi 10 Comments

Look what I found!

I was on a delightful television program in 1996! It was called “Dream Living”; and it was about people who live in their Dreamhouses.

I had seen our house in Pasadena when I was 13 and was determined to live in it someday. And I DID!!

It is kind of blurry, but it is a delightful story and the hostess Jody Daley, was a delightful hostess!

A few of my friends have seen this scrolling around in hotel rooms. I was thrilled to find it on a thumb drive!

I hope you enjoy it!

It was filmed right before we decided to move to Montecito!”

A Look Back! Living The Dream In 1996Read More

Montecito Foothills Meet French Country Chic! Our clients house in SB Seasons magazine!

September 25, 2018 By // by Penelope Bianchi 2 Comments

Interior Design by Penny Bianchi | photo by Amy Barnard Story by Nancy Ransohoff | Photos by Amy Barnard

A Look Back! Living The Dream In 1996

When attorney David Cohn and his wife, Debby, came to Montecito from Bakersfield, they connected with two key people who helped make their dream home a reality. After buying a remodeled 1960s-’70s ranch-style house, they hired Jon Sorrell of Sorrell Design, who transformed their ordinary ranch into a French country-style stone farmhouse with a historic feel. “Even though it isn’t an old house,” says Interior DesignerPenny Bianchi, “it feels and looks like one.”

Interior Design by Penny Bianchi, photo by Amy Barnard.

Shared Vision

The Cohns had a vision for the interior but needed help in executing it. When they saw online photos of Penny and Adam Bianchi’s Provence-style farmhouse (featured in Santa Barbara Seasons’ Fall 2017 issue), they knew they had found a match. “They said, ‘Your house looks like what we want our house to look like,’” says Penny.

Penny, who has been designing for 49 years, emphasizes the need for creative alignment and a shared vision for each project. “All my work is certainly not the same style, but there’s a general approach. It’s important to be on the same page. I talk with my clients about their lifestyle, what they are interested in and what they like, and I listen,” she says. “In the end, it should not look like a decorator did it.”

Perfectly Imperfect

The Cohn home is infused with a gracious old-world European feel. “There is nothing that looks new,” notes Penny. “Everything has a patina, old finishes that are worn and look like they have been used and loved. I like to see a mixture of things that look like they were collected over the years. European houses are imperfect—they have cracks. I call it ‘perfectly imperfect.’ For some projects, I have gone after limestone counters with a hammer!”

The living room presented one of the biggest challenges of the approximately one-year design project. “It’s a central room with no windows,” says Penny. “It opens onto rooms with windows so it gets light, but color was very important. We used a mix of colors and prints, with some chinoiserie prints, for the upholstered furniture.”

Timeless Trove

Many of the furnishings and accessories were sourced locally. “There is an enormous trove here in Santa Barbara, with all of the old estates,” Penny notes. Wood-plank floors are warmed throughout the house by old area rugs. “New rugs are against my religion!” says Penny. “When they’re made with vegetable dyes they fade beautifully.” She sources most of her rugs from Shaw Zahiri of Summerland Oriental Rugs, who specializes in handmade carpets from around the world. They add to the timeless quality of the house, which is a signature of Penny’s designs. “If it’s a trend I’m allergic to it!”

“It’s a very happy house,” says Penny. “Debby and Dave have grandchildren who visit and it’s a great house for children, with a lot of indoor-outdoor space and lovely gardens.” Outdoor living is enhanced with seating,
walking and dining areas, and graced with a gurgling stone fountain.

Growing up in Pasadena, Penny was drawn to design at an early age. “Other kids would be out on the swings and I was rearranging the furniture,” she says. “My mother gave me Elsie De Wolfe’s book, I read it and said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a job?!’” Penny graduated from the University of Southern California with an English major and later took courses at the New York School of Interior Design. “I’m so lucky that I’ve been able to do what I love doing my whole life,” she says, “It’s a passion.”

“A house should feel personally collected … not decorated. … I’ve been collecting things my whole life because I don’t like anything new. I like everything old, weathered and used.” —Penny Bianchi | Photo by Amy Barnard.

This story was originally published in the fall 2018 issue of Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine.

Montecito Foothills Meet French Country Chic! Our clients house in SB Seasons magazine!Read More

Photos by Mark Lohman from a few years ago! So nice to see before the restoration is complete! Hope!

June 18, 2018 By // by Penelope Bianchi 50 Comments

A few years ago, one of my favorite photographers; Mark Lohman, an excellent and well-known interior and exterior photographer

(whom I have known for many years!) called me about a new magazine!

“French Country”!

Fifi O’Neill, the editor ,has written books, and has two other magazines, “Romantic Prairie Style” and” Romantic Country”

Her books are “Romantic Prarie Style” and “Romantic Prarie Cookbook”

She has been searching for real “country” (not fancy, not formal; but rustic and authentic) French houses in the United States!

My blogger friend Contessa sent her my blog on Renee; and she had Mark come take “scouting shots” of both houses!!

Lucky me! He took some wonderful shots of things that have not been photographed before!

I hope you enjoy them!

Here are some new angles of everyone’s favorite room! Remember, the heat is in the floor out here (and all through the house)

and we live out here all year long! Even in the rain; I don’t have to move the books!

My Corgi-mix rescue “Pete ” likes this ottoman!

By the way, the paintings on the right are of the identical room in our old house in Pasadena!

This ivy on the ceiling is my favorite, the panel was a shade on an Italian verandah we found in Florence; and the Italian stove

is another favorite!

Here are our ducklings getting bigger and enjoying their repaired house!

The main terrace with the previous room behind the umbrella! The deer is wrought iron!

A pretty plaque on the chimney; and an unusual way to hide those ugly metal things at the top of chimneys!

The Spring slipcovers and pillows!

My collection of Quimper salt and peppers on the mantle; and showing how the “convent table” works! The nuns would work

at the table all day; then take their dishes out, have a meal, and return them! Very practical!

The teeny Portugese chair on the table I bought at a museum in Portugal! I found the identical chairs at an antique shop here in Montecito!

My mother’s first Vertes painting! (Once, on a tour, a man insisted to his wife that it was a painting of “Mrs. Bianchi”!

“Can you imagine having a nude portraitof yourself in your living room?”

(It was painted before I was born!)

These lovely chickens were a gift from Oprah when there was a tabloid story quoting Oprah complaining about our chickens!

The card said: “Contrary to tabloid opinion; I absolutely adore your chickens!”

This panel in the kitchen was one of a pair I found for a client who only needed one!

The soup tureen on the bottom shelf has chicks poking through her feathers

The cat jumps on this antique stool to reach her food on the island!

Radisha makes us an “initial painting” for our birthdays! These are Adam’s by his sink.

This is my “pride and joy” Vertes screen which was owned by Gypsy Rose Lee! and my sink on the other side of the bathroom!

More Vertes lithographs mostly from the “Cirque” series!

These bookcases house my millions of decorating books!

The checked ottoman is a pop-up TV!!!

two antique valances and a favorite Vertes silk screen of his dog; an Airdale!

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Photos by Mark Lohman from a few years ago! So nice to see before the restoration is complete! Hope!Read More

Montecito Gardens: Our house featured in Santa Barbara Seasons magazine!!!

January 24, 2018 By // by Penelope Bianchi Leave a Comment

GLORIOUS GARDENS: FRENCH COUNTRY STYLE MEETS CALIFORNIA COOL

When Penny and Adam Bianchi bought a modest slice of undeveloped land off of East Valley Road 20 years ago, they had a golden opportunity to build a custom home in the heart of Montecito. The property sits at the entrance to the pristine 42-acre Ennisbrook Preserve, and Oprah’s vast estate borders the property on two other sides. A single home edges the property in the north. “The terrain and plants reminded me of France,” recalls Penny, “so we went to Provence and took thousands of pictures of roofs and crooked roofs and chimneys and floors and doorknobs.”

The Bianchi’s worked with Grace Design Associates to create their own Shangri-La that sits lightly on the land blends in naturally with the surroundings. Photograph by Amy Barnard.

Once home, they began to build a French country-style home and a guesthouse, surrounded by about 2.5 acres of magical gardens and wildlife habitat. The walls were washed with lime from pigment mined from the ground in Provence—no paint was applied at all. “Lime wash lets the mortar breathe,” explains Penny. “This is how stone and brick houses in Provence are traditionally treated.”

Penny has worked as an interior designer for nearly 50 years and has filled her home with antiques from all over the world. Much of her collection was inherited from her mother and grandmother, and Penny appears to have inherited her family’s amazing knack for finding one-of-a-kind treasures, as well. “I’ve been collecting things my whole life because I don’t like anything new,” she says. “I like everything old, weathered and used. Even my linens and light fixtures are mostly antiques.”

Generous use of color and texture spotlight Penny Bianchi’s great eye for detail. As an interior designer for nearly 50 years, she uses her own home to showcase her designs. Photograph by Amy Barnard.

High ceilings and plentiful windows fill the home with light throughout the day. The main entrance leads into a spacious hall, which leads to the bedroom (there’s only one) and master bath on one side, and kitchen, office and guest bathrooms on the other. Adam Bianchi works in the office—he sold his family’s poultry business 30 years ago and has run Penny’s business operations ever since. Penny changes the furniture slipcovers several times a year so the mood always reflects the season.

As an interior designer for nearly 50 years, Penny Bianchi uses her own home to showcase her eye for detail to charming effect. Photograph by Amy Barnard.

Treasures that appear at every turn include antique lace lampshades and oriental rugs, screens and other works by French artist Marcel Vertes, shower tiles from 17th-century France and an 1860s bathtub from Paris. The guest powder room features bird murals with bird figurines that hover over the walls. The kitchen has furniture pieces rather than built-in cabinets.

Views of the gardens—designed by Grace Design Associates—are always on display from the Bianchi’s breathtaking country kitchen, photograph by Amy Barnard.

The gardens, designed by Grace Design Associates, are a welcome haven for humans and wildlife alike. The National Wildlife Federation has named the Bianchi property as a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, which means it provides the basics needs for wildlife: food, water, a roof over their heads and a place to raise their young. Carefully selected trees and shrubs nourish and protect ducklings and other creatures, and floating houses anchored in the middle of a pond allow nesting ducks and their offspring to escape from predators. Heirloom chickens roam free during the day and put themselves in the coop in the evening for protection.

Heirloom chickens happily roam free during the day, along with multitudes of other wildlife. The Bianchi property is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Photograph by Amy Barnard.

Views of these glorious gardens (designed by Grace Design Associates) are on gorgeous display from Penny Bianchi’s indoor/outdoor office. Photograph by Amy Barnard.

All in all, the Bianchis have successfully created a haven in which every nook and cranny evokes coziness and a connection with the natural world. In Penny’s words, it’s “a cozy, collected and patina” home where they, their grown children and seven grandchildren thoroughly enjoy daily life in a remarkable Montecito setting.

Montecito Gardens: Our house featured in Santa Barbara Seasons magazine!!!Read More

Radisha

October 9, 2017 By // by Penelope Bianchi 10 Comments

This post was originally written in May of 2011, but it has been revised just for you!

I have often said that my ideas are really unfulfillable without my treasured “team”. One of my favorite team members has and will always be my dear friend and talented artist Radisha. He has been creating sensational works of art for me for over 22 years. I first came across his work in…1989, at, of all things, an “Estate Sale”! I bought several things I thought were old Italian painted furniture; and was going on-and-on about them, until the owner said: “Would you like to meet the artist? I almost fainted! He was at the time a Canadian citizen and was born in Serbia then studied art in Canada.

We have been working together on countless projects ever since. He is skilled in many styles of painting, as you will see in the following pictures. One of my favorite things in his art is his sense of whimsy! Radisha has the ability to carry his artwork beyond the canvas to many different applications. From painted screens to murals, he is able to adapt different styles and techniques to always create a beautiful end result!

…

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Paint magic in a kitchen! A total transformation with paint!

October 2, 2017 By // by Penelope Bianchi 42 Comments

This post was originally written in Nov 2011 but has been updated for you today.

My brother and sister-in-law’s new kitchen!!! Before and after!

Via the internet from California to Connecticut! Utilizing, my favorite tool, our iPhones!!!

My brother and sister in law bought their house 15 years ago and wanted to add on a family room with a garage under it off the kitchen. They did that, and they thought they needed to remodel the kitchen.

Having been paid for so many years for my advice; I just assume everyone wants it! (guess what? not everyone does!) Well, I suggested all they needed to do was to paint the cabinets; the walls and the floor! My sister-in-law didn’t think that would do it; so they did the family room and other things in the house waiting to redo the whole kitchen.

Then the children grew up and flew the coop and they decided to sell the house!

The kitchen looked tired; had a yucky tile floor; and kind of insipid pinkish color stained wood cabinets. It did not “show” well!

I suggested again that “Paint magic” was all it needed! The cabinets looked “stuck on” the yellow walls, and weren’t tall enough to reach the ceiling, but they had attractive lines and the plan was practical!

Borrowing from my friend Brooke Giannetti’s weekend house makeover; on her blog “Velvet and Linen”; (the most dramatic I have ever seen!) I suggested the color “Hardwick White” from Farrow and Ball for the walls and the cabinets. Then, the cabinets would not look “stuck on” and the color (which is not white); looks really good with Stainless Steel appliances!

“Oh too dark! Cried, my poor sister-in-law”. Relentlessly, I nagged and needled; and explained and nagged some more and sent more pictures of Brooke’s kitchen,; and she reluctantly went ahead!!

She was scared to death! (This poor woman; in her last house she took our daughter’s water-skiing and when they came back; I had rehung every painting and picture in their house!) You either want or don’t want, a decorator in the family! I think they liked them there! (Or every time I visited they moved them back!)

Here we go!!! “Paint Magic”! My sister in law did all the labor, and we used our iPhones to send pictures back and forth!!!

I suggested that the black microwave and the black ovens needed to go. She ( “she” henceforth is my darling sister in law)! found some reasonable stainless steel replacements that fit!

A refrigerator that fit in a “Sub-Zero” space, and an oven with a broiler that fit where the ugly black thing resided! And a stainless microwave!!! (I must give her all the credit for accomplishing this feat!)

She did all the painting work herself; I think my brother supervised! He may have been sitting in a chair at the time! ( I cannot be a witness……I am all the way out here in California!!!)

See the icky ceramic tile floor? Is” insipid” the right word for the color of the cabinets? YUCK.

I suggested the baskets to mask the fact the cabinets did not go to the ceiling; nor have any finish molding! Rectangular baskets in different natural colors……filled in the space! She found them! I emailed pictures to her! She found them within an hour!

The finished kitchen with the icky tile painted (they make paint that works on tile!!!!) and the walls and cabinets “Hardwick White” (and don’t believe the paint store when they tell you they can match Farrow and Ball paint with American paint. Not true. There are way more pigments; and the difference is vast!)

Most of the cost of painting is in the labor; so it is a fallacy that this paint is outrageously expensive. It isn’t! Worth every penny! (Says Penny!) In this case, my sister in law…….and I hope my brother, was the labor! So the paint cost more, but look!!!)

Waiting for the microwave…and a close-up of a basket!

This is the original ceramic tile floor! This would be expensive and difficult to remove and replace. So we painted it! (My sister in law did) It needed a bit of sanding, a primer and then painted with an alkyd paint.

Pretty darn great, if you ask me!

We found very reasonable seagrass rugs (they are all over the internet; the most reasonable were at Overstock.com) Less than half the price of many others!

Another view of the “After, showing the refrigerator!

Here is the view of the” before” of the sink and window area

And, TAH DAH!!! Here is the same view “after”!

Another before closer up!

And the “after”!!

The only downside of this story is now she doesn’t want to move!!! She loves her kitchen!!!

Never underestimate the power of paint!!!

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My definition of “luxury”!

September 25, 2017 By // by Penelope Bianchi 15 Comments

luxury

My friend who writes the blog “Splenderosa” asked us to

write about our “definition of luxury”!

Here is mine!!!

noun (pl) -ries

indulgence in and enjoyment of rich, comfortable, and sumptuous living

(sometimes pl) something that is considered an indulgence rather than a necessity

something pleasant and satisfying: the luxury of independence

This definition works for me!

Now; I will tell you what this means to me! And I suspect it will be quite different from others!

But maybe not!

I will start here! My picnic table my friend found in the nearby “collective antique store” for my 18 chairs I found in Paris

at the flea market 30 years ago! And my beloved bantam “mille fleurs Belgian chickens”! Every morning I let them out of their

coop! The joy of seeing them…indescribable!!!..the roosters, the chicks…and they change every day!

Not to mention their delicious eggs!

LUXURY! Not to most; but to me!!!

Meeting my friend Brooke for the first time! She and her husband Steve are two of my

most treasured luxuries! who could have known how close and

beloved we could become! When she called me her “mentor” and said that

our house had inspired “Patina Farm” (I get goosebumps typing this!!)

was one of the great “luxuries” of my entire life!!!

Honestly.

My family! Here is my darling husband and two grandchildren at

“Grandparents day” a few years ago!

Tremendous “luxury”!!!

5 out of our 7 grandchildren live within a mile of us! Lordy! LUXURY!!!

My Balinese chicken coop; designed and built by my beloved talented Radisha!

Every single day I see it; I think of him….and what a luxury! (as you can see the chickens love it too!!)

One of my greatest luxuries EVER were my parents! My Daddie died when I was 4;

and my Mommie when I was 33; but I had the luxury of the most loving

and supportive parents…in every way! And then I discovered this

amazing video a few years ago! (my cousin’s contractor discovered)!

the BIGGEST LUXURY OF THE LAST DECADE!

(see my blog about it if you are curious!)

An enormous luxury is our amazing house and garden we created

out of a “vacant lot”20 years ago! With more birds and creatures

than you can imagine! The quail running to their roosts; and their sounds

in the morning fill my heart with joy….and are a luxury far beyond!!!

My mother’s pink azalea in a pot…I’ve been dragging that thing around for

60 years…..(honestly, I have proof!) and every year when it blooms;

It is as though she is saying hello!

Our pond! (It was a luxury before when we dug it and it filled with water)

But then; with the drought…..it went away! (see previous blogs for story. SOB!!!!)

My husband Adam spent a fortune to line it. The minute it was lined and the water

trucked in; we set the duck houses in position; the

mother duck for the last 7 years showed up and claimed our pond and her house!

Hatched 7 ducklings the earliest ever in 17 years! March 6th!

My idea of Luxury!

More pictures of things I consider luxuries! Friends, places I have stayed,

things I love. Those are true luxuries to me!

My friend Renees house!

My friend James visit and his partner’s photo of us with dogs!

My husband and my visit to the Columbe d’Or 30 years ago or something!

My deer I bought from Nathan Turner when he was moving his shop! Above my living room window!

part of our garden!

My office!

my path to the pond!

My collection I discovered of china collected over 65 years!

My ducklings every single year! (this was last year….they narrowly escaped by walking a mile to my neighbor’s pond!!!

My collection of the artist Marcel Vertes started by my mother in 1961;

and greatly aided by eBay!!!

and I haven’t even started on my great luxury of true and talented friends.

I am a very rich woman; indeed!

So to wrap it up:

luxury

indulgence in and enjoyment of rich, comfortable, and sumptuous living

(sometimes pl) something that is considered an indulgence ratherthan a necessity

something pleasant and satisfying: the luxury of independence

All those things apply to what I consider “luxury”!!

Thank you Splenderosa for affording us the terrific opportunity to express our

different viewpoints on so many subjects!

BRAVA!!!!!

You are another of my Great Luxuries!!!!

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The magical things that can be created with paint effects!

September 18, 2017 By // by Penelope Bianchi 18 Comments

Sometimes people ask me about “faux” wall finishes.

The walls in our house are not “faux” anything! They are lime washed.

Lime (which is mined out of the ground); is mixed with natural pigments also mined out of the ground in Roussillon, France

in a way it has been done all over Europe for hundreds of years!

The lime is a natural insect repellent; and this kind of “paint” lets the mortar in old stone and brick houses “breathe”.

(A friend who has an historic plantation near New Orleans had some serious damage done to her

outbuildings by a movie studio painting with modern paints!)

I absolutely love murals; and am so lucky to have this one in our powder room. The animals all around our property

are represented; it makes me happy every time I peek in there! We always leave the light on, as there is no window!

(Done by Zoe Designs from Massachusetts; Brooke and Lena)

http://www.zoe-design.com/?section=home

There is our rooster!

Often, ceilings are ignored and neglected. I love pale blue ceilings , and use them in much of my work!

It reminds me of the sky! This is pale blue lime wash in the powder room!

This delightful deer I haven’t seen; but she may be out there!

We had peacocks for a while! They “ran away from home”!

This is in our master bathroom; over a bathtub. From the tub; I can see the sky and the pale blue ceiling!