The story of this Newhall, California,1940s Tudor goes back a generation. “The home was purchased by our client’s parents years ago when they first moved to California,” designer Carolina Chavez tells us. “She cherished spending her childhood in the home with her siblings as it served as a gathering place for both immediate and extended family. She has since moved back, as she inherited the home after her parents passed away. She plans to continue to honor their legacy and pass it down from generation to generation, preserving their memory as well as all of the special moments shared within.”

The space needed to be updated for modern living, but doing so to a family home takes a delicate approach. “This project truly began as a journey to create an heirloom-quality space where our client and her family could gather to honor existing traditions as well as her parents’ memory,” the designer recalls. “And it was important to her that we incorporate personal touches that captured the essence of her parents, like her mother’s love of flowers.” 

The homeowner is an avid cook, so the kitchen was the place to start. “The goal was to create her dream cook’s kitchen with plenty of counter space, filled with chef-worthy appliances. Improving functionality was also important,” Carolina explains. “To provide enough space and efficiency for the entire family to be able to gather and enjoy taking part in the cooking process.”

Carolina’s business model at CSquared Design + Build is unique, making her the right fit for such an important job. Carolina handles the design and her husband, Cesar, is the contractor and carpenter. “Cesar and I only take on one project at a time in order to fully immerse ourselves in every detail and really cater to our clients,” she explains. “We handle almost all aspects of our projects, from design conception, finishes, fixtures and appliance selection, actual construction.” For this space, Cesar worked hands-on and completed the structural work, framing, installed the windows, drywall, paint, hand built all of the custom cabinetry including the island and range hood, engineered and built the undulating skylights, while Carolina finished up the space with the furniture installation and interior styling.

As a designer, Carolina loves to incorporate elements that she’s never seen before—pushing the envelope between form and function to yield that ‘wow’ factor. For this project it was the hand-painted florals by Carole of The French Brush Studio. “The SubZero panel-ready designer series was absolutely the perfect canvas for the artwork that was to be incorporated,” she recalls. “They provided seamless integration between cabinetry and appliance, which was essential in this particular application in order to blur transitions and give our artist the perfect palette to achieve two fully uniform works of art. The range hood is another favorite. I wanted something that would accent the artwork flanking it, not overpower it. In this case, the cost of an authentic copper hood came back at four times the budget, so we pivoted and Cesar constructed it out of wood instead. We then had Carole (The French Brush Studio) create the aged verdigris patina to add just the right pop of color.”

There are big benefits when it comes to working with a spouse. “I would say that the main benefit would be the constant collaboration,” Carolina reflects. “We are both very similar and after years of working together, we understand the way each other thinks. Working side by side gives us the ability to bounce ideas off one another to really dive into the details of what we are designing and building. Cesar is able to address potential issues from a fabrication standpoint that I may not see and vice versa when it comes to his understanding of aesthetics. That dialogue allows us to really fine tune what we create and prevents the disconnect that sometimes takes place when both builder and designer are not in house.”

The workflow led to a successful finished project. To quote the client, “This is a masterpiece, I am forever thankful, grateful, all of the beautiful words in the dictionary!” Carolina continues: “It truly was such an emotional experience for her to see her family home come full circle. To have its original character restored and pay homage to her parents meant the world to her, now she is excited to build on those memories with her own children and family.”