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A 1920’s European-Style Home Becomes a Modern Villa

Ohashi Design Studio, located in Emeryville, California, took what was a 1920’s European-style home and transformed it into a modern villa for living and working. The North Berkeley house has a series steps and concrete retaining planters that guide visitors to the second level where you find the entryway. The three-story home also received a new wraparound veranda and trellis helping to modernize the exterior.

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The middle floor, where you enter, is where the homeowners live. Upstairs is reserved for working and the garage basement is used for storage, archives, and a ceramics studio.

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Walls were removed and new windows added to create a more open floor plan. The new design made way for the clients’ mid-century modern furnishings collection.

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To keep costs down, they kept the new windows in the same relative locations as the old ones. Instead of moving or building new walls, they chose to remove them to change the interior.

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Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.