The Grand Tour

This Midcentury Oakland Home Is Inspired by Hollywood Regency and Travel Memories

It’s a one-way ticket to the world
The design of the home has a big emphasis on highlighting collected treasures.
The design of the home has a big emphasis on highlighting collected treasures.

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When they’re not busy traveling to faraway locales, Shasta and Jen Scobie can almost always be found at the nearest (or furthest) thrift store, foraging for discarded studio pottery and other curious novelties. “I didn’t start traveling until my late 20s, but once I did, I made it a priority and collected many treasures over the years,” says Shasta, a strategic program manager for a tech company. And yet, the couple’s collection had little room to shine. “We had just three pieces of furniture: a bed, a couch, and a table. Everything else was relegated to the sidelines and the house was more or less empty,” adds Jen, an engineering manager for a tech company. That is until the pandemic, when months of being indoors exposed the home’s shortcomings—and left them longing for a redesign. Luckily, they knew just the person for the job: dear friend and interior designer Nick Spain of multidisciplinary design studio, Arthur’s. 

The couple—who share two cats and a dog—didn’t really have a brief. What they did have were complaints (about the house, not each other): The home lacked feeling, the furniture was mismatched, and the surfaces were too few to give their beloved travel souvenirs pride of place. “We imagined the home to be like a well-designed hotel lobby with lots of little spaces for lounging,” shares Shasta. “But other than that, we didn’t have many expectations.” For Nick, objects from the couple’s voyages served as the point of departure. “There are ways you can travel without going anywhere at all, or at least that was the hypothesis we had for the design,” he reveals. 

The space nods to places around the world by way of a sky blue Anfibio sofa by Alessandro Becchi, Rrres rugs hand-crafted in Oaxaca, a Noguchi floor lamp, and Chandigarh chairs by Pierre Jeanneret. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows offer unhindered vistas of the rolling fields. The 20-foot-high ceiling wears original wood paneling. The custom console is by Casey Lurie Studio, while the rug to the side is by Nordic Knots.

The entrance is a clean and minimalist counterpoint to the home’s midcentury facade. Nick swapped out the original tiles for classic Saltillo ones, and softened the shell with a simple woven overhead fixture and a walnut bench. 

The floor-to-ceiling fireplace in the living room was given a dramatic makeover with dark tile evocative of lava rock.

Jen was particularly keen on incorporating touches of Hollywood Regency throughout the space. “She loves over-the-top flourishes, which is how we landed on gold fixtures and some of the bold patterns,” says Shasta, who herself favored more sentimentality related to travel. The double brief was no big deal for the designer, who was excited to figure out a way to marry Hollywood Regency romanticism with a minimal, modernist vibe that would sync with the home’s midcentury architecture. 

“In the office, we skewed modernist, opting for a custom desk in walnut after our original one was canceled thanks to COVID,” says Nick.

An artwork titled Like A Fruit out of Season (2018) by Xochi Solis enlivens the wall of the office.

“We used the existing collection of objects and the memory of specific locales and travels to inform the project and its materials,” Nick explains. What he also did was ask (and answer) fantastically philosophical questions: How do the shapes of Meso-American pottery echo the modernist sculptures of a Barbara Hepworth–feeling vase? In what ways are works in the Hollywood Regency style evocative of Moroccan brass detailing? What vernacular cues does this very Joseph Eichler–seeming home share with the work of Barragán? 

The philosophy lesson was worth it. Nick was able to create a cohesive aesthetic that drew from various corners of the world. In the living room, he clad the floor-to-ceiling fireplace in a dark tile evocative of lava rock, and then filled the space with a selection of classic items: a sky blue Anfibio sofa, Rrres rugs hand-crafted in Oaxaca, a Noguchi floor lamp, and Chandigarh chairs by Pierre Jeanneret. 

In the dining room, Nick created a big L-shaped banquette equally suited for intimate meals and boisterous gatherings. “It’s our favorite,” says Shasta. “It can seat about 14 people, which is delightful because I love to host.” The cushioned backrest wears a checked Schumacher fabric, while the bench features an old-world, tropical floral print by the same brand. The Filigrana pendants doff their hat to Venice’s famous Murano factories. The chairs are by Sun at Six.

Likewise, in the dining room, the designer created a gargantuan banquette with cushions upholstered in two Schumacher fabrics: a checked, modernist print that would have been right at home in an original Eichler, and another old-world, tropical design à la an early-20th-century Billy Haines project (because time travel is travel too). He then crowned the setting with Venetian glass pendants—a hat-tip to Venice’s famous Murano factories. 

The kitchen stars a graphic cork floor and olive cabinetry. Atomic pulls in unlacquered brass lend a subtle sheen. Nick kept the original pendant lights as a reminder of what came before. The emerald-toned quartzite could have tumbled out of the jungles of South America—but didn’t. 

The bedroom is a gateway to even more locales: Eny Lee Parker’s Domino rug recalls old Italian men playing dominoes on foldout tables on the streets of Naples, and terra-cotta tones nod to Mexico inside the bathroom next door. 

“I would say that the process, especially for me, was incredibly collaborative,” says Shasta. “Nick is a genius and presented concepts and layouts that we never would have dreamt up.” For Jen, who was born in Australia and didn’t expect to put down roots in California, the home is equally significant. “I had saved for many years and didn’t know where I was going to settle down. This home is a labor of love many years in the making,” she signs off with a smile.

For the bedroom, Nick kept the original bed frame but made it more special by adding custom palm lights to the nightstands. Eny Lee Parker’s Domino rug underfoot recalls old Italian men playing dominoes on foldout tables on the streets of Naples.

The bathroom design was kept clean, simple, and true to the home’s original intent. Nick used terrazzo tiles for the floor, and a nude, glossy brick in a stacked pattern for the walls. He swapped out the vanity handles with ones from Ferm Living and painted the existing vanity a shade of not-quite terra-cotta. “It feels better, and made us long for Mexico,” he muses. The custom drain cover is by Jordan McDonald Studio. The tiles are by Concrete Collaborative.