Bridge For Design Summer 2014 Bridge For Design Summer 2014 Issue | Page 180

infestation, forcing him to sell. This Victorian farmhouse remained the
only building, along with some barns, until the property was divided
up in the 1980’s.
extravagant parties in her ‘pony house’, and the Selberts.
They bought 350 acres of the original plot and in 1992 decided to

house. They commissioned local architect Andy Neumann to design a
U-shaped structure with a fountain in the middle.
The following owners, however, ‘Americanised’ the place, taking what
charm it had out. But it was always the setting and the landscape that
bewitched the prospective new owners, not the domestic arrangements.
Through a friend, they met and visited Kathryn while she was
working on a major renovation at nearby Ojai: Libby Ranch, designed
though a far more substantial project, and – guess what – hired her to
do just the slip covers and some curtains at their new house. ‘Luckily,’
says Kathryn, ‘I soon realised this meant: let’s bring some walls down.’
Her creative enthusiasm for Hilltop’s potential inspired the owners

TOP LEFT: Beyond a pair of sofas – the nearest one topped with a throw from Joss
Graham – are a Zulu chieftain’s hat and a rare mid-20th-century Nigerian wooden
door, carved by Fakaye Jamid for the Oba of Ife
LEFT: In the master bedroom, the red metal table, by Jacques Adinet, was found
on www.1stdibs.com

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Bridge for Design Summer 2014