Lush And Lavish: Pasadena's Showcase House Goes Big On Florals, Native Plants In Historic Arroyo Seco Mansion

Published May 10, 2024 7:00 AM

A Tudor mansion with classic fountain filled with plants in the foreground.

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Perhaps it's the proximity to the busy 134 Freeway, but this year's Pasadena Showcase of Design is not anxious to showcase urban modernity.

Instead, the designers who descended on this 1902 Tudor Revival for its 2024 fund-raising makeover have largely embraced the natural world. Floral wallpapers and vivid colors abound in their redecorated rooms. Outdoor spaces blossom with new plantings of California natives amid mature coastal live oak trees.

An inverted pot surrounded by poppies is bordered by a ring of gravel. It provides wet and dry places for insects to get a drink in this modified fountain.

"Fall in love with native plants!" That's the advice of the landscape designer whose space on the west side terrace overlooks the Arroyo Seco and the noisy freeway.

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Clearly, Elisa Read Pappaterra has done so herself. She fringed her walkway with natives including poppies, California lilacs (ceanothus) and penstemon.

The owner of Studio Pappaterra also filled the enormous classical fountain with trailing plants while creating a far more bird-and-bee-friendly water feature from a sizable inverted pot. It provides dry perches for insects amid the rivulets of water that run down the side, while a rosette at the top serves as both birdbath and decorative cover for the pot's unattractive base.

A bed covered with a teal bedspread and multi-colored throw pillows. The backboard is a carved wooden door from India. A fiddle leaf fig stands in the corner behind the bed.

Inside the house known as the Potter Daniels Manor, the walnut paneling in the foyer and adjoining library remains serenely unpainted, its rich wood grain emanating a forest vibe. Rooms feature highly-patterned wallpaper (yes, it's back!) with flowers, ferns and fauna.

And while spaces hew to the muted color palette chosen for the project, others burst forth with jewel tones such as CS Domains' aptly-named Romantic Chambers with its emerald bedspread and carved Indian backboard, watched over by a stuffed peacock perched next to a formal bird-head portrait.

A table holds place settings and a bouquet. In the background floral wallpaper, art work and two lamps.

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More avian and floral imagery dominates the two-story carriage house, particularly Samantha Williams' tea room that evokes a Victorian garden. Upstairs, artist Shari Tipich has festooned the entirety of a bedroom's wall space with pastoral equine scenes, while the neighboring spa room opens up its tiny space with a misty landscape mural.

A fossilized wood dining table covered with china and crystal below a chandelier and ceiling fresco.

Nature, though, takes a back seat in the showstopping main dining room from B. David Levine. His sumptuous scheme, with its rich colors, opulent furnishings, ceiling fresco and over-the-top place settings reminiscent of a palace state dinner, is a departure from the more subdued eating spaces of past Showcase editions. The exuberant Levine himself is unlike his fellow participants in appearance. He sports unruly purple-hued hair, full beard and open collar purple shirt revealing layered chokers. The Los Angeles designer clearly likes to play with perception, which is apparent in his choice of a faux Dutch Old Master portrait as his room's featured painting, its image blurred and pixelated.

How to visit

Public tours of the volunteer-run Pasadena Showcase House of Design continue through May 19th to raise money for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and music education. The tours, on-site restaurant and pop-up shops are particularly popular destinations for Mother's Day outings.

The address of the house isn't public, but tickets come with shuttle service. Parking and shuttles run from the Explorer Road Parking Lot accessed via Explorer Road at the intersection of N Windsor Ave and Ventura St in Altadena.