This wine country farmhouse blends Cotswolds charm with Sonoma sensibility

Though England’s pastoral countryside and California’s wine region could hardly be further apart, a Los Angeles–based family with British roots set out to unite the two in their Sonoma Valley retreat. Seeking the charm of a Cotswolds farmhouse amid vineyard-dappled hills, they enlisted Aimee Kirby of Ferox Studio and Mariam Mollaghaffar of Mariam Grace Design.

From the outset, the property’s secluded setting—tucked away from the main road and overlooking Sugarloaf Mountain—appealed to the clients, who imagined creating a retreat for their multigenerational family. But the original house, which one of the homeowners calls a “Santa-Fe-meets-log-cabin” structure, fell short of her vision with its orange-hued wood, plaster, and slate floors. “It felt very out-of-context for the area,” Mollaghaffar says.

To address that disconnect, Kirby, whose practice spans landscape design, and Mollaghaffar, a licensed architect with a multidisciplinary studio, drew on their respective backgrounds to transform the outdated interiors into an airy, family-centric home that Kirby says “made more sense and felt of place.”

Above all, the home needed to strike a balance between discrete spaces tailored to the interests and needs of different family members and generous communal areas where they could come together. “A lot of the intention was around how to make the home comfortable for the people in her family,” says Mollaghaffar.

So the designers sought to open up the house and foster more fluid connections between indoors and outdoors, while also infusing the interiors with the warmth and intimacy evocative of the English cottages the clients had experienced in the Cotswolds. Kirby and Mollaghaffar carved out rooms for privacy and quiet, and they created spaces that the client says are “dedicated to the pursuit of creativity and mindfulness,” including a teahouse and an arts and crafts studio for the children.

“It was trendy for a while to have big, open great rooms, but the client very much liked smaller rooms,” says Mollaghaffar. “I think we’ve been able to create rooms that truly have their own identity.”

The upholstered banquette wraps around a custom Petersen Antiques & Design table, while Hans-Agne Jakobsson sconces illuminate custom shelving, painted Portola Paints’ Wellfleet. A chandelier by Jessica Helgerson for Roll & Hill hangs from the ceiling.

Before any of that could happen, Kirby says, they had to contend with the home’s counterintuitive layout and a host of idiosyncrasies, including an inordinate number of doors and undesirably low ceilings. “There was this disjointedness in the way that a user might walk through and experience the space as well as the materiality that preexisted,” she says.

The house’s spatial constraints called for a series of structural interventions. In the kitchen, Mollaghaffar notes they raised the ceiling by roughly a foot and a half and introduced sliding glass doors by Rimadesio to gracefully separate the dining room from the living area and kitchen while preserving uninterrupted sight lines. Once the more complex architectural adjustments were completed, Kirby and Mollaghaffar turned their attention to the details.

“The kitchen was a pretty big structural feat,” says Mollaghaffar, who raised the ceiling 18 inches and clad the existing trusses with wood to create the look of beams. The juxtaposition of the cabinetry in Benjamin Moore’s Cottage Red with the Calacatta Viola marble backsplash and counters achieves what Kirby describes as the overall “modern farmhouse” aesthetic that the clients wanted.

Though each room is designed to feel distinct, warm colors, luxuriant textures, and soft lighting carry throughout the house. In the living area, an oversized green Kevin sofa by Studio Valle de Valle curves around a sculptural coffee table by Brooklyn designer Minjae Kim. Just a few steps away, the kitchen’s design nods to the clients’ British heritage, with cabinets coated in Benjamin Moore’s Cottage Red, paired with Calacatta Viola marble countertops and backsplash, and patinated brass fixtures. Saturated colors and light-hued woods continue from the kitchen into the dining room, where deep blue walls offset vintage Henning Kjærnulf chairs and a wood-and-ceramic pendant by Jessica Helgerson for Roll & Hill.

The primary bath—painted in Portola Paints’ Piano Room with a limewash finish—features The Water Monopoly’s Rockwell bath with feet and a scalloped, flower-woven rattan pendant light from LampsModern.

Integrating the house with its landscape—and framing the views—was a key priority, Kirby says. In the living room, the team built out a picture window. On winter days, the family often cozies up by the fireplace in one of Jake Arnold’s classic curved armchairs. Outside, a new shaded structure—complete with a built-in limestone fireplace and a large vintage farm table—has become a favorite summertime spot for the family to start their days, thanks to the view of Sugarloaf Mountain.

Soft, earthy tones set the mood in the guest bedroom, where custom board-and-batten detailing is painted in Portola Paints’ green-gray Pindari and the walls are finished in Bauwerk Colour’s Seed. An Arhaus Ubud bench upholstered in deep red chenille adds contrast, while a photograph by Jin-Woo Prensena nods to the surrounding Northern California landscape.

Some of the home’s most personal spaces unfold outdoors. The clients can lounge on the Meridiani bed beside the recently reclad pool, read in the shade of the pergola, or sip on Earl Grey in the teahouse—a structure custom-designed for the client’s mother, who loves tea ceremonies and tending to her garden. “[The teahouse] was a surprise, so we did it all in a clandestine way, and then her mom came and they revealed it to her,” recalls Kirby. “It was really exciting to be a part of something that was such a heartfelt project.”

In the primary bath, the lilac marble countertop is from Evolv Stone, the plumbing fixtures are from Watermark’s Blue 37 collection, and the sink is by Kohler. Workstead’s Bole sconces complement the pared-down medicine cabinets, which are from Robern’s Craft Series Collection. The rug is by Beni.

Inside the teahouse—sourced from Big Daddy’s Antiques—a curated mix of vintage furnishings creates an intimate, contemplative retreat. Overhead, Jamie Young Co.’s Lotus Pendant casts a warm glow.

The powder room features a sink composed of Calacatta Viola and Insideast’s unlacquered brass wall-mounted faucet, while the shower is lined with Tilebar ceramic tiles and finished with brass doors fabricated by Fathom + Form.

What was once a tractor shed is now an art studio where family members can engage in creative pursuits. Mariam Grace Design conceived the work table and shelving, which were fabricated by Master Builds Construction. A vintage easel and metal stool, sourced from Chairish, complete the space.