Giannetti Brooke - Patina Farm

Patina Farm

Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti

Photographs by Lisa Romerein except as indicated

Illustrations by Steve Giannetti

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Patina Farm

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2016 Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti

Photographs 2016 Lisa Romerein except as indicated

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-4047-9

Photography by Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti.

For Steve and me, our dream to build Patina Farm started as a few small seeds of change. We had enjoyed living in our lovely home on a small lot in Santa Monica for 10 years. A seed that began as a few vegetables in some planters blossomed into a large kitchen garden where our front lawn had once stood. Another seed grew into a chicken coop large enough for eight hens to roam.

The focus of our free time began to center on nature. I spent more time tending to the garden and the chickens, Steve found calm painting landscapes, and our daughter Leila discovered a love for horses. The happiness and satisfaction of these new experiences furthered our desire to make larger changes to our lifeto think of a life beyond our small suburban lot, a life on a farm.

The design of Patina Farm mixes classical and modern architectural details. In our entry hall, an elegant series of vaults appear as if they were sculpted out of white plaster. Having no baseboard or moldings around the doors or on the ceiling gives the space a more modern aesthetic.

During this same time, opportunities were guiding us towards our new life. A design project in Ojai introduced us to an idyllic country town surrounded by natural beauty, where we discovered a lush five-acre piece of land with plenty of room for gardens, assorted animals and an artists studio. As we started to realize that our seedling ideas were now blossoming into a beautiful dream, we spent all of our free time imagining Patina Farm.

We began the process using the same design philosophy that we described in our first book, Patina Style , finding inspiration in the natural beauty on the property that would eventually surround our new home. The colors in the landscape helped us refine our palette and finish selections. They would include natural materials that would age beautifully over timegalvanized steel, chalky limestone, and pale white oak. Our selections would include antique elements that would bring their own history to Patina Farmgrayed vintage barn beams as well as faded antique wood doors and moss-covered terra-cotta roof tiles from France. These worn elements would be balanced by the modern simplicity of smooth white plaster walls, clean sheets of glass and slender steel doors. Bringing these pieces together would produce an interplay between rustic and refined.

When we first drove up to the property, we fell in love with these two magnificent oak trees. We knew that they would become the centerpiece of the design of our new home. Photography by Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti.

As we continued our search for inspiration, Steve and I also reminisced about our past experiences and family history. During these discussions, it became obvious that the design of Patina Farm would be influenced by Steves classical architectural training as well as his time spent in his familys ornamental plaster studio. The materials, textures and colors of Giannettis Studio provided some of the strongest inspiration for Patina Farm. The chalky palette of vintage plaster and wood carvings combined with scaffolding shelves, galvanized metal and aged concrete, all covered with a fine layer of white dust, created the perfect palette. The casual display of the items stacked on the floor and shelves is reflected in the way we used decorative plaster pieces in our home.