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The Quiet Charms of a Sleepy Napa Valley Idyll

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Set on a sloping site overlooking the fragrant vineyards of the Napa Valley in California is the Whitehall Lane home from Dowling Studios.

The interior has the gentle sleepy quality of a Beatrix Potter illustration.

You can almost smell the sweet country smell of the ripening grapes in the nearby vineyards.

The afternoon sun warms a generous hallway that lays a broad path through the interior.

Each end of the wide hallway opens out to the wooded hillside beyond.

An unusually shaped volume creates a protected enclave behind the house, to bask in the gentle buzzy warmth of Sonoma afternoons.

Shade is very important for the Northern California region’s stupefyingly hot and still summer days.

This space overlooks a pool in a courtyard behind the main house.

Sharing that space, a 1,200 sq ft guest house faces the pool.

This guest house is beyond the main house in the back, creating a protected courtyard space.

The entirely cedar-clad exterior is both contemporary and comforting.

Typical of the design that is both minimal and comfortably civilized, the bedroom has a fire for cold evenings.

It warms stone hearth that extends around under the windows.

The calm, almost bland warmth of the interior is enhanced by the use of a very warm white throughout, offset by a wide plank walnut floor.

Even the very down to earth bathroom is gently bathed in warm sunshine from unusually large, generous windows.

The sense of silence throughout this very charming house is completely beguiling.

Befitting the super wide hallway, the front door is equally generous.

It is a welcoming and even a loving home, a rare architectural feat.