Press

Veranda’s First Ever Outdoor Living Award For The Montecito Garden Restoration Project

March 30, 2020 By // by Penelope Bianchi 2 Comments

Exciting news! The new issue of Veranda March-April has the 2020 Outdoor Living awards. The first time ever! And our garden was selected to be one of the eight awardees!!! The talented garden designer who originally designed our landscape came back after it was almost totally destroyed and restored it. I haven’t posted a blog in a long time; and I am going to post one showing the before and after with some description of the experience. I know I showed things on Instagram, but want to describe the experience of a disaster and its aftermath and rebuilding.

Calling it A Wildly Beautiful Revival, the venerable magazine lauded the garden’s wildlife-friendly, naturalistic design.”I always look for a strong design plan, and each of the winning gardens had beautiful architecture to it,” says interior designer Bunny Williams, who, together with Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA) president Peter Lyden, judged the entries.

Lyden agrees, adding that for him, the projects that embraced and built on the natural characteristics of their environments rose to the top. “I really admire the way these gardens and outdoor living spaces did just that,” he says.

This Montecito Garden’s Wildly Beautiful Spirit Is Awakened After Enduring Destructive Mudflows

Less than a year after disaster struck, a mudflow-ravaged garden reemerges as the thriving wildlife habitat it once was, using the very material that decimated it.

BY ELLEN MCGAULEY

PHOTO CREDIT: HOLLY LEPERE

FEB 20, 2020

Before the catastrophic Montecito mudflows of 2018, everything that grew on this two-acre property in Southern California was “magic,” says landscape designer Margie Grace. Roses would bloom in the shade; hydrangeas relished the blazing sun. A grassy, serene pond drew ducks and quail and owls, all against an extraordinary backdrop of towering palms and live oaks belonging to a neighboring estate, like a regal army watching over it.

Once cloaked in mud, the Boston ivy on the main house and guesthouse (inset) was cleaned up, and “the roots just started sprouting again,” says landscape designer Margie Grace.

Then came the mud. “Everything was wiped out…plants, fences, animals. It was biblical,” recalls Grace. “We learned the absolute power of nature.” In the eight months that followed, another lesson emerged for Grace and the homeowner, designer Penelope Bianchi of McCormick Interiors: The magic hadn’t been swept away with the sludge. If anything, it had strengthened tenfold.

montecito-dining-terrace-outdoor-awards-veranda

Behind the main house, a Coast live oak shades a rustic dining terrace.

As they washed two feet of mud from the guesthouse and garage and cleaned up whatever they could salvage, they faced mountains of leftover sediment. “We had to do something with it, and I thought, There’s no reason the land has to be dead flat,” says Grace. So she began working it into the restoration plan.

At the south side of the house, she repurposed a portion of the muddy sediment into a 28-foot hill planted with sycamores and poppies and another into soil for a 12-foot redbud knoll. Along the property line, a four-foot berm became an organic solution for a washed-away privacy fence.

grace montecito pond outdoor seating ideas

“Everything I put in the ground grew lightning fast,” recalls Grace, who trained in biology and geology. “I thought the new soil would be full of toxins, but the levels didn’t even register. What was left behind was amazing dirt.”

The restored pond borders a 45-acre nature preserve and was critical to the return of wildlife like mallards.

And the wildlife returned in multiples. “In California, we have trees like sycamores and redwoods that grow in the stream beds. Winter will come and water will whoosh down, and the trees may get buried with three feet of dirt and still live. They grow character instead of giving up. This garden has always had good vibes, and that’s part of it. But you just get out of the way and let nature fix it. Nature doesn’t give up.”

Veranda’s First Ever Outdoor Living Award For The Montecito Garden Restoration ProjectRead More

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!

SaveSave

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 2 Comments

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

Tara Dillard – Beautiful Easy Landscapes

September 16, 2017 By // by Penelope Bianchi 1 Comment

Tara Dillard – Beautiful Easy LandscapesRead More

Question: “Do you follow trends in decorating?”

February 10, 2015 By // by Penelope Bianchi 18 Comments

(Don’t forget to click on the title!! To see the whole post!)

“Do you follow trends in decorating”?

That is the topic on “By invitation only” on the blog: splenderosa.com.

Everyone is different; but this

is something I decided many years ago (43) to be exact!

I do not follow trends for my own decorating; and being a professional decorator; I avoid it in my work

for others when I can. Since I try to give my clients a house that represents their tastes, family and likes; sometimes

they are dying for something “trendy”. Usually I try to dissuade them if I feel it will

be a dated mistake shortly; and really if it is very expensive. I avoid trends like the plague!

“Santa Fe” decorating belongs in “Santa Fe”; my goal is timeless decorating.

I find it a disturbing trend that many people when they move start all over with their

furniture, rugs and even art!

This is a picture of our “big hall” from outside. Nothing trendy!

This our main room in Pasadena which I decorated in 1985.

I still absolutely love it!!

This is the master bedroom the same year. Same thing!

Our terrace in Montecito designed in 1997 with furniture from our loggia in Pasadena

Circa 1985.

It has been “pinned” 50,000 times on just one website! (my landscape designer’s)

In my view, furniture, rugs, art and should be personal and mean something to the homeowner.

Family heirlooms I work into houses all the time! They are a priority!

And classics stay classics! They don’t go out of style; they weren’t “trendy”!!

I feel my house is a scrapbook of my life!

Permanent things like tile, flooring,appliances and plumbing fixtures should NEVER follow

trends. I encourage classic white tile, (or at least white background) white plumbing fixtures,

and classic appliances.

(ever seen a bathroom all done in black plumbing fixtures? I have!!! TWO, 10 years apart in different cities!)

Lord have mercy!

Trompe l’oeil window with trompe l’oeil curtains in a Reginald Johnson Italian Villa in Pasadena done in

1988. Fortuny on the sofa, family heirloom antiques , and original 1919 sconces with paintings framing them.

Absolutely the same today. And I wouldn’t change one thing!

My goal for myself and my clients is “Timeless decorating”. I doubt anyone could date anything

I have done! And I keep things young, and fun, and full of meaning!

One of my idols is Mario Buatta who just published a book of 50 years of his work.

I wouldn’t change so much as a lampshade! Now, that is “timeless decorating”!!!

Question: “Do you follow trends in decorating?”Read More

Patina!

September 2, 2013 By // by Penelope Bianchi 61 Comments

First of all, I have to say how completely thrilled I am to be participating for the first time in Splenderosa’s BY INVITATION ONLY!

AND

Also incredibly lucky to have been able to pick the topic!!!

As some of you may know, I was published in House Beautiful (one of my very favorite magazines!) in September, 2011!

It was about our house! (Which we built from a vacant lot ten years before the photographs).

The photographs were taken a couple of years earlier; and the shoot was presided over by the

darling and wonderful Newell Turner!

I had not seen any of the photographs, and I was interviewed over the phone by one of my favorite writers, Mimi Read

of New Orleans (the Queen City of “Patina”).

I had no clue what the article would say! (nor the title)

“Patina”

I was thrilled with all of it!

Because of that article; I became close friends with Brooke of “Velvet and Linen”,

(author with her darling husband of the book “Patina Style”); started a blog, and have made wonderful friends in blogdom!

Marsha of the divine “Splenderosa” is one of them!

The picture above is an excellent example of what “Patina” is to me; and why I love it!

The dictionary defines it as:

a : a usually green film formed naturally on copper and bronze by long exposure or artificially (as by acids) and often valued aesthetically for its color.

b : a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use

I like copper and bronze with patina; but it is the second definition that is what I mean when I talk of “patina”!

The above chairs were my mother’s purchased in Italy 70 years ago.

Their fruitwood frames are faded and nicely worn. The “Fortuny” fabric is inside-out, and the table

is over 300 years old. It was in a French convent. The nuns would work at it all day (probably weaving and

writing. They would then take their dishes out of the space under, have their meal, and return their

plates after the meal. You can see that it sways a bit in the middle; and the top is anything but perfect.

The boxes are antiques; one of them is covered with an ancient French fabric.

This is a personal taste, I am sure everyone understands! This coverlet is all hand sewn copperplate toile

from 1782 England. My friend Eric Haskell (head of the Humanities Dept. of Scripps College has authenticated it). It is faded and worn in places,

(I think the man I bought it from thought I was crazy to buy it for $140.00) Eric has a fit that I use it; he says it belongs in a museum!

It represents the American Revolution! And it is the original from 1785.

It is in “Winterthur”.

(I just found it by “google images” ! It is in many museums!)

Lordy! This sold at auction for $3,500.00!!!

The pillowcases are old French embroidered in a way that cannot be duplicated today.

This gate was made by my pond man; I showed him a picture; and he made it! It is mesquite with leather holding it to the wall.

I said, “How on earth did you know how to make that? ” He said, “we vacation in third-world countries. They use what they have!”

(the mail truck hit one of them once; the man with the clipboard came to make a report; he was just scratching his head …I went out

and explained to him it wouldn’t be expensive to replace. I think he is still trying to figure out why

anyone would want a gate like that!!)

Sharon Santoni showed some lovely French shutters in her blog My French Country Home (below)

I looked everywhere for old shutters like she showed.

Our carpenter made some and they look close!

The patina on this old panelling is very difficult to reproduce. If it isn’t done really, really well; it doesn’t work at all!

(also from Sharon’s blog)

I try to promote the grown of this kind of stuff on our walls……no “power washing “

I actually cried when the floor people took this off our front steps! (it’s back!)

The real thing in France

(I know what a bad picture it is….)

My painter did a great job!

I did find an old gate from France. My husband said, “Do I dare ask? Do we paint it????”

“EEEEK!!!!! NO!!!!!!!! That’s Patina!!!”

The lime wash on the walls of the loggia

My mother’s old “lacca provera” chest from Venice. Old oil paintings, antique Chinese export

porcelain (the color worn off the top handle)

The imperfections in the antique mantle are so appealing to me. And that it is hand-carved. Where has it been???

None of our walls are painted. Lime mixed with natural mined pigments we brought from France.

It is a natural insect deterrent, and leaves a lovely, uneven chalky surface that you see in Europe.

Our loggia again. Can you see the vine growing over hand painted fabric panel?

Now! A different sort of “patina”!!

“Wendy’s chair”!!!

That is Wendy on her chair! Quite proud of what she has wrought!

“Isn’t this how you make chenille??

I took these pictures in to Cowtan and Tout and said, “this fabric just isn’t holding up very well!”

They all laughed their heads off!

Really the best way to learn about Patina is to read Brooke and Steve Giannetti’s book: “Patina Style”!

When Brooke and I first met, I said, “I think we knew each other in another life!” She

said, “Just one?”

THAT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST COMPLIMENTS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!

If you find this interesting; please read this book!! It is my favorite!!!

Patina!Read More

Our Home Featured in French Country Style !

April 25, 2013 By // by Penelope Bianchi 36 Comments

Yikes! What an exciting week!

Fifi O’Neill , the founder and editor in chief of this magazine/book,(and many others! “google” her!)

saw our house and my friend Renee’s house on my blog; ( she expressed interest in both of them)!

and Mark Lohman (a wonderful photographer, and an old friend)

photographed them both for this issue! It just came out; but it will be on the newsstands until July 29th!

I absolutely love the job they did with the wonderful photographs;

(and the writing I think quite captured my philosophy !! And also Renee’s spirit and creativity )!

Fifi is quite the genius! She is unbelievable!!

We couldn’t make the printing bigger; so run out and buy this! The whole issue is just exceptional!! You will want to

add it to your library !

It is in markets (my friend from the “Henhouse”, Elizabeth found two in the Safeway! Cathy my friend in Pasadena found it at “Target!!) and

on newsstands kind of everywhere!

I must say, every article is definitely very educational! I am so proud to be

included in this group of very talented people!!

I actually read the analysis of things that I do! And I learned a lot! Much of my work is instinctive!

It is fun for me to see how it is analyzed!

The cover photograph is of Fifi’s cottage in Florida, where she lives!

Here is the informative, educational, and delightful article on our house!!

Our Home Featured in French Country Style !Read More