Current Issue

Archive

Dining

Events

Best Of

Travels

Videos

At Home

Charitable Events

Exquisite Weddings

• Dining & Nightlife
• Restaurant Reviews
• Foodie Gossip
• Wine Reviews
• Restaurant Guide
• San Diego Restaurant Week
• Best Restaurants

• San Diego Magazine Events
• Party Pix
• Agenda
• Calendar of Events

• Outdoors
• Major Attractions
• San Diego Guide
• Hotel Guide
• Downtown Guide
• Local Communities
• Job Search

• Best of San Diego
• Restaurants
• Doctors
• Schools
• Places to Work
• Lawyers
• FIVE STAR Wealth Managers

• Departments
• Interior Design
• Home Resources

• Charitable Events Calendar
• Charitable San Diego
• Art of Giving

• Destinations
• Travel Guide
• Search San Diego
• Vacation Homes

• Real Estate
• Current Issue

• Subscribe
• Purchase Back Issues
• Purchase Current Issue

San Diego Magazine /  November 2007 /  A New Attitude

A New Attitude

Lynn and John Traylor swap French country for urban chic

BY ROWENA KELLEY | PHOTOGRAPHS BY JIM BRADY

LYNN TRAYLOR has been an elementary schoolteacher for more than 20 years. It’s no surprise that when asked to compile magazine pages showing the home she aspired to have, she made a collage. What was surprising was the photo she placed in the center of the mix. Amid a sea of living rooms, bedroom vignettes, remodeled kitchens and other inspirational projects sat the picture of a room created by interior designer James Patrick Walters—the very designer who’d asked Lynn to research magazines in the first place.

“I didn’t know at the time that the photo I pulled was of one of Jim’s projects,” Lynn says. “What’s even more interesting is that I had never met Jim. I was at the nail salon, and one of the other customers overheard me saying I needed an interior designer. She recommended him, so I gave him a call.”

For Lynn and her husband, John, a retired firefighter, serendipity couldn’t have come at a better time. Having sent the last of four kids off to college, they sold their home bordering the Steele Canyon golf course and had just moved into a downtown unit at Park Loft. Not only were they in a completely different space, but the new empty-nesters had no intention of taking their French country furnishings with them.

“Timing was everything,” John says of the deposit they made just three days after touring Park Loft, which was still under construction. “I hadn’t been taking advantage of the golf course. And even though we had a big beautiful yard, I was happy to get out of doing the yard work. It just felt right.”

Lynn agrees. The couple had been talking about moving downtown for some time. Why not have Petco Park be their backyard? Both are baseball fans. Lynn, as a matter of fact, was a Padrette in the 1970s. As native San Diegans, she and John didn’t want to just witness the revitalization of downtown, they wanted to be part of it.

“When we moved in, the East Village still felt like the end of civilization,” Lynn says. “Only warehouses were here, and Petco Park wasn’t even built yet.” In no time at all, new shops, restaurants and other residences began to take shape, and so did the Traylors’ new digs.

“In a loft space, the goal is to maintain openness while creating distinctions between where one living space ends and another begins,” says Walters, whom the Traylors initially hired for space planning and to help sort through their existing furniture. “As the project evolved, it became clear we’d need to design room divisions throughout to satisfy specific requirements —some public, some private.”

In addition to cleverly planning the spaces within the loft, Walters also helped the Traylors evolve their style from French country to modern classic. He designed custom furniture and selected the artwork.

Today, the home exudes the sophisticated comfort of a suite in a chic boutique hotel. Like a tranquil urban oasis, the loft is warm with rich woods and a soft, textural palette of earth tones. Comfortable seating throughout makes an otherwise industrial space more inviting, while pieces from local and California artists provide interest on every wall.

“I love the entry gallery,” Walters says of the space anchored by a two-sided, custom mahogany built-in that leads to a wall of black-and-white Paris photography by Glenn Cormier. “When you step inside the front door, you get a peek of what lies down the road, and you just want to run ahead to see it all.”

At the far end of the gallery, a two-toned iron screen defines the entry to the loft’s main living spaces. According to Walters, the spaces “support different lifestyle activities. There is a media center, a lounge area, dining area, guest retreat and a home-office niche. All of the spaces are unified by a consistent use of materials.”

WHILE THE BALLPARK seems only an arm’s length from the balcony, the Traylors wanted the inside of their home to be just as captivating, especially since they often entertain at home. Walters met their need with custom furniture from his Home Retreat Collection, including Shangri-La, a five-piece sectional with extra-deep seats; a macassar ebony cabinet to keep media equipment out of sight; and the Shoji coffee table and tiny tea table made of iron with glass tops.

“We love that the sofa is modular, so we can break it apart to accommodate parties,” Lynn says. “We’ve actually had 45 people in here at one time.”

Another modular piece is the Elements dining table, designed by Walters to serve as “something dramatic and sculptural to divide the central living space.” The table, which has since received an excellence award for best furniture design from the American Society of Interior Designers, displays a smart combination of cherry wood, macassar ebony and mahogany with a wenge stain. It can be reconfigured from a table for 14 to a game table for two; it also works as a serving buffet.

On the opposite side of the table is another defined space —best suited for reading a book or catching up with family and friends. Rather than incorporate standard chairs to accommodate one person, Lynn requested seats big enough for two. Walters designed his Urbana chairs to be 36 inches around— room to seat two comfortably. To anchor the lounge area, the designer added a round table of two-toned iron with a glass top, then hung bamboo art by Bill Reichert on a vacant wall. A built-in mahogany cabinet provides storage and separates the space from a cozy guest retreat on the other side.

“I especially like the design of this great room,” John says. “While it has defined spaces for dining, entertaining and chatting, it also has continuity and balance.”

Along the hallway to the master bedroom, San Diego Skyline, a commissioned piece by Steven Blakey, depicts the Coronado Bridge and other landmarks of the Traylors’ new neighborhood. On the opposite wall are other works by Blakey: Graphite City, Rolling Past I and Rolling Past II.

“We waited a long time to find the right art,” Lynn says, especially in the space she loves most: the master bedroom. A tryptich by San Diego artist Josue Castro hangs above the island bed, a custom-designed platform in mahogany with wenge stain and leather-upholstered headboard. “When we looked down the hallway into this room, all we used to see was a dull brown wall. The artwork really completed the room.”

Albeit long, the journey to the right artwork, accessories, color palette and furnishings is one the Traylors wouldn’t change. They ended up with a new look in their new home—and a new lifestyle, too.