Inside an Updated 1950s California Home That Brims With Japanese-Inspired Design
When Aiko Morton and Momoko “Momo” Morton Wong ended up growing up in Colorado, each number of months their mom would travel them from Pueblo—the tiny city they known as home—to Denver. They’d make a day of it (go searching and have lunch somewhere enjoyment), but the most memorable moments for the two of them not often had nearly anything to do with great foods or new outfits. “She’d consider us to these really nice spots of Denver and travel so sluggish, and we’d stare at all the homes,” Aiko remembers. “We’d be like, ‘I like that just one, simply because of this I don’t like that 1, mainly because of that,’ and people today would be honking guiding us.”
This house adoration continued into adulthood for the two sisters. In the early 2000s, they’d each moved to Japan and spent numerous hrs walking through neighborhoods to seem at properties and perusing design and style retailers with each other. “We lived in style and design merchants around the weekend,” Aiko claims. Later, when Aiko moved to Singapore, she kept the loved ones custom alive there way too. Momoko, on the other hand, labored at several interior design and style firms in advance of opening her very own, Naka Interiors, in the very same town that birthed their collective appreciate of the craft. So when Aiko moved back again to the United States following 20 many years overseas, it was only all-natural that she would have her sister design and style her desire house.
“There was no concern that we’d do this together,” Momoko says of the rework that the 1950s-period California property Aiko acquired in 2017 essential. However the footprint of the house was there, most of it experienced to be reimagined. The property is largely divided into two sides, but considering the fact that it was created in the middle of the previous century, the structure didn’t come to feel appropriate for a modern day lifestyle. Before, the residence had a tiny kitchen and eating place on just one side—which Aiko did not like (she’s a self-proclaimed foodie). Bedrooms and workplaces took up a great deal of the much larger side of the residence.
The sisters commenced addressing these problems at a 10,000-foot level. They designed bubble diagrams to outline a new circulation and format of the household, which the architect and contractor rapidly place into plan when introduced on board. The final result was, in essence, a flip-flopped version of how the undertaking experienced begun out. Now, the shared spaces—like the relatives area, dining home, and kitchen—take up the larger aspect of the property, and the non-public locations are on the more compact finish. “But it saved a good deal of schematic style time to already have that figured out,” Momoko says.
For the interiors, Momoko wanted to convey in Asian influences to honor Aiko’s many years dwelling in Japan and Singapore. “We were being also born and elevated in Colorado, so I preferred to combine some of those elements—like wonderful stones, woods, and metals—into the project much too.” Of training course, the home’s outstanding mountain views have been taken into consideration as nicely. “Aiko enjoys organic mild, so we needed to seize the sights in a way the whole relatives could enjoy.”
Over-all, cleanse lines and a neutral color palette channel the relaxed and harmonious aesthetic of Japanese style though complementing the surroundings just over and above. But that is not to say there are not times of shock sprinkled through the home. “If you go into Aiko’s pantry, you locate a really enjoyable wallpaper,” Momoko suggests. “I like to set joyful factors in utility parts given that they’re usually just for working.” Now, just about every time Aiko techniques foot in this part of her home, she gets not only a minute of joy, but also a sweet reminder of her sister via her signature transfer.
While doing the job on the dwelling was “four a long time of enjoyable,” the venture was always a lot more than just one thing to do alongside one another. After Aiko and her husband expended yrs residing and operating as “expatriate nomads,” Momoko desired to give her sister a position to plant roots, one that is also conveniently significantly nearer to her too. “This is her retreat,” she claims.