Pepper Hill Farm, School Street, Solvang, California
Designer Hélène Aumont's lovely French Country farmhouse is currently on the market, and it feels like Zillow just gave us a Christmas present.
Named Pepper Hill Farm for the pepper trees, the 1980 farmhouse sits on five acres just outside of Solvang, California.
Although its exterior is white clapboard and there's a horse barn on the property, the inside of the home is pure luxe.
Accordingly, it's been featured in Luxe magazine, Architectural Digest, and Veranda, among other publications. Below is how the living room appeared in House and Garden in 2004:
When the walls were still yellow, the Christmas tree was bedecked with red ribbon:
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I'm betting the tree this year has shades of blues and teals, judging by the house's current color scheme. Here is how the dining room looks today:
The dining room is actually right next to the kitchen. You can get a better sense of its placement next to the counter in the "before" picture below:
Not sure why the beautiful blue chandelier was ever changed. It would still coordinate with the trendy dark blue cabinets in the kitchen and breakfast room:
Here is how the kitchen used to look:
One room that has seen fewer changes over time is the office, pictured below:
It just looks a little more business-like than it used to:
I only have one picture of the study/den, but I'm sure it was always just as pretty as it is now:
The screened veranda hasn't changed much over the years:
It's just had a little furniture re-arranging and the curtains changed to blue from the yellow they used to be:
Here is how the master bedroom appears now...
...and how it appeared in 2004...
as well as the after and before of the master bathroom:
There are three more bedrooms and two bathrooms on the second floor. The house has 3,626 square feet.
There's also what the listing calls a studio/office/pool house, with a kitchenette and bathroom:
It overlooks a beautiful rose garden.
If it were my studio/office/pool house and I wanted to splurge and make it as fabulous as everything else on the property, I'd make it look more like this one:
Of course with a pool house, you need a pool:
and a fancy cabana tent:
There's apparently yet another office down the hill, overlooking the barn:
The barn holds more than just horses (although it does have 4 stalls for them):
This aerial shot shows the paddock and gives us a better sense of the property layout:
Meanwhile, this view shows how to enjoy all the other views:
I found this present from Zillow when I was searching listings in Solvang, California, because Solvang is a bit of a holiday hot-spot.
It's currently Julefest in Solvang, a Danish-themed town in the Santa Ynez Valley, about 40 minutes northeast of Santa Barbara.
While the Santa Ynez Valley reminded some settlers of Denmark, to Hélène Aumont it looked like Corsica.
{Corsica, Santa Ynez, both from Conde Nast}
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