Eva Holbrook and her partner Jamie Williams are creatives through-and-through: she works as the Creative Director at Bella Casa SF, is a dancer (she studied modern contemporary dance), and yoga teacher; he attended the San Francisco Art institute and grew up surfing. Together, they’ve hosted various retreats to promote healing and health, and were looking for to host such events while at the same time serving as their permanent home.

After searching thoroughly around Santa Cruz County, they finally found the perfect home. A 1,650 square-foot cabin and a 1,200 square-foot guest house in the woods on a 16 acre plot of land. “Only 15 minutes down the road, you are at some of the most beautiful clean beaches on the coast,” Eva told us.

Both Jamie and she were on the same page when it came to the design concept they had for their new space. Over the next six months, they renovated the interior and exterior of the home. “We wanted to promote grounding by using as many handmade, reclaimed, sustainable, and found objects/materials as possible,” she explained. “Surrounded by Tan Oak, Redwood, and Douglas Fir – we wanted to bring those earth tones inside for a natural cozy feeling.” The floors, for example, are reclaimed spalted maple made from windfallen trees. The exterior hot tub and sauna are made of cedar, while the large deck is made of Redwood.

Some parts of the home break from the purely natural or reclaimed. In the bathrooms, for example, she selected different shades of zellige tile from Clé and a concrete trough sink from Native Trails. All within a color palette found in nature. Accessories such as the area rugs and poufs from Morocco and Turkey sourced from Etsy or Loom + Kiln offer doses of red, oranges, and tan to the home’s design.

Although Eva appreciates the eclectic globally inspired and earth-sourced design of her new home, she mostly connects with its wabi-sabi factor. “It is a concept that is a fundamental part of my design process and approach to life in general,” she said. “I cherish the wear, cracks, pain and joy that come with time… There is so much beauty within the transience of life, and the natural cycles of creation and destruction. A well designed space, like any other well designed object, must evolve and maintain excellence over many years and not just in the moment it is first constructed.”