Piechota Architecture

On a tree-lined site in Menlo Park, a 1960s ranch house becomes a polished home that embraces the indoor-outdoor possibilities of life in California. On approach, the house is humble, its low-pitch hip roofs extending past the facade walls to create shallow brows that shade the front of the house. As a stone path slips by the protruding garage volume, a modestly scaled entrance emerges. On this side of the house, there are few apertures; entrance into the interiors reveals an L-shaped glazed expanse that connects the living spaces with the verdant landscape in the backyard.

The backyard landscaping is open to both the main living space and the more intimate bedroom, while ceiling-hung curtains stretch across the glass to provide privacy when needed. The home turns inward in the serene, private experience of the owner’s bathroom, where the warmth of the delicately spaced wood shower floor grate and tall closet doors come together with dramatically veined gray marble and subtly speckled cream terrazzo, creating a soothing and tactile experience.