was built for a growing family with a young, classic sense of style. With 5,000 square feet, four bedrooms, four-and-a-half baths and even an upstairs loft, there’s plenty of room for active children and hosting friends and family.

Style This modern Cape Cod style home is a transitional classic that merges elements of contemporary and modern design, with a coastal twist.

by the SeaBRIGHT, AIRY AND FULL OF LIFE, this seaside home in Newport Beach, California,

BY R E B E K A H WA H L B E R G

P H OTO G R A P H Y A N D ST Y L I N G BY B R O O K E K E E N E Y

Designer Wendy Blackband was inspired by the tie-dye pillow in the living room, a vintage from Morocco. It became a cornerstone of Wendy’s design ideas for the Newport home.

A fan shaped like a shell gives a nod to the home’s location on the coast of California without getting kitschy. “We wanted a young, hip feeling

merging with traditional elements.”

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Monochrome Magic“We wanted a young, hip feeling merging with traditional

elements,” interior designer Wendy Blackband says. So while the home is anchored by comfortable contemporary couches and high-back chairs, captivating patterns and bright, modern accents keep the design feeling fresh.

Throughout the home, warm wood floors offset the cooler gray and blue color palette, along with rich caramel accent-ing, such as the four-poster master bed and the living room sideboards. While the rooms mainly stick to this neutral, tonal design, bright pops of teal, green and even purple liven up each room and break up the monochromatic palette.

The neutral tones of the house also freed up Wendy to get

The geometric chairs by Palecek are a visual departure from the otherwise straight lines of the family room, creating dimension and added interest.

A massive sectional and utilitarian coffee table are the anchors of the family room: family-friendly, sturdy and comfortable, they make a great space both for entertaining guests and quiet evenings at home.

Fabrics with complex patterns and textures add depth and interest to the home’s living room, where the family often entertains guests.

FABRIC PLAY Designer Wendy Blackband gets inspiration from a fundamental but often overlooked design element: fabric.

Blackband Design’s showroom in Costa Mesa, California, is a carefully cultivated menagerie of color, patterns and textures, with one common thread: stunning fabrics.

“I’m a fabric junkie,” principle designer Wendy Blackband says. “I love feeling and using fabrics and playing with textures.”

It’s a constant source of inspiration, like with the Newport Heights home she designed. The client was looking for a complex, tonal pal-ette with a monochromatic color scheme. Rather than let the neutral palette make the home’s design dull and flat, Wendy was inspired to use fabrics with interesting patterns and textures to tell a story.

And it’s all thanks to the indigo pillow that became Wendy’s source of inspiration for the home. Comfortably slouched on a couch in the living room, the pillow, a vintage imported from Morocco, is an anchoring spot of rich color that balances the room’s soft grays and creams.

“It really pulls everything together,” Wendy says.

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creative with patterns and textures. From rugs to pillows to wall treatments, intricate patterns and tactile textures bring depth and complexity to the design, while the limited colors serve as an anchor to keep the spaces from feeling busy.

With the beach just a few minutes away, it’s impossible not to tap into such a wellspring of design inspiration. Nautical shiplap, seeded glass lamps and coral prints give subtle nods to the home’s coastal location without going overboard.

Family-FriendlyThe family loves to entertain, and the home’s open

floor plan is perfect for them: the bright, crisp kitchen is the center of the action and is open to the family room, where friends and family naturally gather at the room’s huge sectional.

In the dining room, an indigo rug serves as a much-needed foundation to the room’s otherwise light colors, while patterned host and hostess chairs and textured wallpaper add interest.

At the center of the home’s open-floor design lies the kitchen, warm, bright and always ready for hungry homebodies.

The home’s transitional style marries classic features like shiplap walls and marble countertops to modern accents.

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Sprigs of bright lavender add a pop of color to the master bedroom’s neutral, monochromatic palette of blues and grays.See Sources, page 128.

“The family needed a home that was both beautiful and practical,” Wendy says. Care was taken to ensure that the home would be a safe, comfortable, fun space for the growing family, without sacrificing the beauty of the design.

So the fabrics used on couches, chairs and rugs are sturdy and forgiving, designed to hold up to the wear and tear of a busy lifestyle, and much of the furniture has carefully rounded edges, such as the solid wood-en coffee table in the family room and the breakfast nook’s circular table—perfect for pulling up a high chair for a quick bite with the whole family.

Ample living space and clean, timeless design come together in this coastal residence to create a welcom-ing, comfortable home.

In the master bedroom, reflective silver vinyl wallpaper and a chrome lamp bring a modern twist and a little shine to the room’s other-wise natural textures.

See Sources, page 128

“The family needed a home that was both

beautiful and practical.”

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