When good taste marries no taste

SHERWOOD KIRALY

Patti Jo and I met 20 years ago this month and have beaten the odds

offered at the wedding on how long we’d last (the over-under was six

months). I think it’s because, despite our differences in

personality, we complement each other.

An example: We have contrasting decorating styles which, combined,

make up the interior mosaic of our home. This came to me as I sat

upstairs in my office one night during the recent heat wave.

I am a let-it-be dweller. As a bachelor, when I rented an

unfurnished apartment, I accepted that as a condition. My one

decorating touch was my books, which are always stylish -- you can

stack ‘em, put ‘em in orange crates, lidless boxes, whatever. Always

a treat to the eye.

When we first saw our house in 1996, I thought it was fine. It was

in Laguna, people had lived in it -- how bad could it be? It was

done. All we had to do was move in Patti Jo’s stuff and the books.

Patti Jo, however, saw a different house -- not the one we were

standing in, but the one we’d be standing in after the improvements.

Since then we’ve replaced furniture, doors and windows, installed

bookcases, carpeting and paintings, scraped the cottage-cheese

ceilings, renovated the kitchen, redone one bathroom, put on a new

garage roof and put up a fence in the back yard. I say “we” ... I put

the books in the bookcases. Whereupon, I might add, it all suddenly

worked.

I’d also better add that these changes were not Design Review

Board issues and in no way impeded, detracted from or negatively

altered the view, environment or property value of our fellow

Lagunans.

To continue: They have TV shows now where a professional decorator

kicks the owners out and redoes their home, and when they come back

they have to pretend to like it.

Patti Jo and I are living proof that you don’t need some intruder

to come in to create an interior that shimmers with creative tension.

When you visit, having called first, you’ll find our home

charmingly decorated, cozy yet airy, nicely ventilated everywhere but

in my upstairs office, which is done in my style and provides a

dramatic contrast to the rest of the house, especially in summer.

Here you may sit at sunset, surrounded by stacked books. The

floor-to-ceiling window faces the ocean, so with the blinds up

there’s a toasty greenhouse effect and when they’re down you get a

Cool-Hand-Luke, spend-a-night-in-the-box ambience. Downstairs it’s 78

degrees; up here it’s 140, down from its afternoon peak. This ensures

the occupant the privacy he needs to work uninterrupted, and makes

his visits to the downstairs, or livable area, a welcome change.

Visitors are almost literally knocked out by this room, and Patti

Jo admits she never would have thought to leave it this way. But

that’s our secret: Together we think of everything.