By Michael McCarthy By Michael McCarthy | September 4, 2023 | Home & Real Estate, Feature,
Designer Nikki Haramoglis creates her family's dream home in East Bay.
The design team from Westward Atelier sourced two handmade plaster cones from renowned U.K. designer Rose Uniacke for the dining room.
THE PROJECT
Nothing says fresh start like a new family home created from the ground up. But headaches can emerge with a newly constructed property, from managing contractors to planning all interior rooms. Nikki Haramoglis, the principal and founder of Westward Atelier (westwardatelier.com) embraced all of the elements in creating a gorgeous new 3,530-square-foot home—with a 900-square-foot guesthouse—on an idyllic, tree-lined street in Danville.
Haramoglis refers to the project as No. 3. “It’s what I like to call my MBA in construction management,” she says, laughing. “I internally managed this project’s contractors, skilled trades and city planning details. I loved every moment.”
“The lot was home to a 1,400-square-foot ranch-style home, which we immediately loved and tried to build upon,” says Haramoglis. “As we developed the plans for our family’s needs, we quickly realized that we would need to start from scratch.”
Designer Nikki Haramoglis incorporated four metal finishes in the kitchen: polished nickel, brass, copper and bronze.
THE FAMILY
High energy defines Haramoglis’ family of five, with a teenage daughter and 8-year-old twins. Teddy, the family fun-loving “double doodle,” also roams the half-acre property and keeps life interesting. “The kids and Teddy love [every inch] of the flat lot where we spend many evenings outside with scooters and bikes in the neighborhood,” says Haramoglis, who is also an East Bay realtor. “We can bike to dinner and school from our location and often do.”
The light-filled living room features French doors and built-in cabinetry with custom brass hardware from Classic Brass.
THE TEAM
“Westward Atelier purposefully aligns our custom residential designs with a property’s geography, respecting the integrity of its surrounding neighborhood and community,” says Haramoglis. “My approach to design offers a West Coast-meets-European aesthetic drawing influence from iconic California style and Europe’s refined details.”
The designer says the foundation of every client relationship is listening “and, hopefully, a lot of laughter along the way. Our core mission is to ensure the process is seamless, collaborative, fun, informative and engaging.”
The entire home boasts gorgeous vignettes that showcase the family’s treasured collections.
THE GOALS & CHALLENGES
Beyond the perfect location, Haramoglis says she wanted to develop an open and bright space yet still intimate enough to create memories. “The best moments in life always happen in the smallest of spaces,” she says. “In the case of this build, we wanted to create spaces for the family to nestle into.”
One overarching challenge: The original home was on septic. “While we managed the design-build and construction, we also managed the septic-abandonment process and worked with the county to bring the sewer line up the street,” says Haramoglis. “The entire process [took] a year, and we carefully scheduled both construction and the sewer development simultaneously—a lot of careful calendaring!”
The new home offers plenty of intimate spaces for the family to gather.
LIVING & DINING ROOMS
The Westward Atelier team incorporated a large custom fireplace as a focal point in the living room. “We used limestone in the surround and a black split-stack chevron pattern with the interior stone,” says Haramoglis. Custom built-ins hold the kids’ art and family treasures discovered during travels; a flat-screen TV hides inside the cabinetry, downplaying its prominence in the room.
Standout pieces in the living room include a custom 10-foot midcentury couch and lounge chairs reupholstered with Crypton (crypton.com) fabrics to ensure durability. “The French doors and built-in cabinetry all feature custom brass hardware from New York-based Classic Brass (classic-brass.com); we love their openness to developing hardware with our differentiated design ideas.”
Haramoglis is particularly proud of how the dining room came together. “Our firm often integrates unique vintage or handmade items into our projects,” she says. “We take pride in collaborating with local vendors, artisans and showrooms to bring unique elements into each room. We sourced two large, handmade plaster cones from renowned U.K. designer Rose Uniacke (roseuniacke.com) for our dining room. These pendants showcase a texture and natural finish that serve as the primary design feature of the space.”
KITCHEN
The home’s culinary and conversational hub boasts four metal finishes—polished nickel, copper, brass and bronze—to create visual interest. “To ensure a cohesive look, we opted for brass as the dominant metal, incorporating smaller accents of complementary metals throughout the space,” says Haramoglis. “The custom hood was finished on-site, resulting in a deep, darkened brass hue that pulls the finishes in the counter stools and surrounding hardware.”
“My approach to design offers a West Coast-meets-European aesthetic drawing influence from iconic California style and Europe’s refined details.”
The room features a Lacanche (frenchranges.com) range, Waterworks (waterworks.com) and Rohl (houseofrohl.com) fixtures, Classic Brass pulls and Calacatta Oro marble.
PRIMARY SUITE
“We desired to bring the outside in and allow indirect soft light to enter this space,” says Haramoglis. “We used soft textures, vintage rugs, sculptural accents and organic materials.” The result feels like a sanctuary of calm, with French doors leading to a 1,200-square-foot limestone patio.
Neutral tones and organic materials set a tranquil mood in the primary suite.
HOW THE HOME IS LIVING
French L’orangerie—a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable Northern European residences from the 17th to the 19th centuries—inspired the design team. “These were [structures] that protected orange and other fruit trees during the winter,” says Haramoglis. “I was very drawn to the simplicity of these structures.”
And now that the home is complete, the designer says, “This one is forever. It’s anchored by close family, friends and neighbors. Community is everything.”
Home Type
Single-family
Location
Danville
Interior Design
Westward Atelier
westwardatelier.com
Fleetwood
Crypton
Fabric, living room
crypton.com
Classic Brass
Hardware, living
room and kitchen
classic-brass.com
Rose Uniacke
Pendants, dining room
roseuniacke.com
Lacanche
Range, kitchen
frenchranges.com
Waterworks
Fixtures, kitchen
waterworks.com
Rohl
Fixtures, kitchen
houseofrohl.com
Photography by: BESS FRIDAY