In Carmel Highlands, just across the street from the iconic DL James House, an archetypal American Arts and Crafts style home owned by Brad Pitt, sits a very different kind of California retreat belonging to a brother and sister. Both California transplants from the East Coast, they were looking not so much for a second home as a family base, where everyone could gather and sprawl out under the Big Little Lies skies and breathe in the coastal air. Finally, after a renovation that started with design sketches in 2021, construction in 2022, and the last piece of art hung in 2025, it’s become exactly that.
“The home already had a strong point of view, and we didn’t want to shy away from it,” says Alexis Smith, founder of Studio Shoshin, who was first approached after one of the clients visited their original Bay Area shop. “The house was in fairly good repair, but very dated – particularly the bathrooms and kitchen, and there was not a single inch of drywall. There was wood panelling everywhere!” she laughs. Some of it had to stay. Actually, most of it had to stay. “The real challenge,” Smith elaborates, “was in the delicate balance of integrating more attractive lighting without destroying the existing millwork, and developing new cabinetry and accessories that felt like natural extensions of the home’s original craftsmanship, rather than obvious new additions.”