New Ideas from Luxury California Homes

While visiting the San Francisco Bay area last month, I was fortunate to be invited to join a tour of new luxury homes. This offered an exclusive opportunity to see creative offerings from another part of our world. I soaked up the vitality and the newness.

One of the more exciting homes I visited climbed up a big hill and had a massive foundation made of reinforced concrete. Several areas of the home brought the outside in, incorporating some of the same rough concrete into the interior design. This picture shows the concrete used as a bathroom backsplash, providing an interesting juxtaposition to the sleek one-piece sink and countertop.

A second bathroom used penny round tile, commonly installed on bathroom floors, on the walls in a jazzy bathroom. I loved this playful and sophisticated detail, and it will soon appear in a future ZDB home. Texture was a common theme in this home, as you can see in this photo, where both wood and brick flank the opening to the FR sliding glass door. That brick sure is an unusual color, and its vertical stack installation (as opposed to typical brick running bond, in which the joints are staggered) is inspiring!

Trending in several of the other high-end homes was the clever use of mismatched but coordinating tiles in backsplashes and shower walls. Different shapes and colors created a lively, playful and unexpected pattern. What appeared to be random was in fact carefully and artfully planned.

Playful touches appeared in many of the homes. One featured this humorous toilet paper holder…

… and a putting green tucked into a small portion of the yard.

How fortunate that the timing of my visit to the Bay Area allowed me to attend this special innovative luxury home tour. Maybe next year I’ll schedule another trip around this annual event.

New Ideas from Luxury California Homes

Carol Ann Zinn