Short of bottling Manhattan Beach’s California sunshine and bringing it with her to Minneapolis, Dana Alpeter did the next best thing. She and her husband, Steve, renovated a 1934 home in a gracious Edina neighborhood for an indoor-outdoor lifestyle full of snap, crackle, and color all but foreign to the upper Midwest. “The open, light, bright feel of a California beach house was the one thing we couldn’t leave behind,” Dana declares.

Photography: Susan Gilmore
Produced by Alecia Stevens

Interior Design: Debra Martinson, DM Interiors, 3020 St. Albans Mill Rd., Minnetonka, MN 55305; 952/545-5351
Co-Design: Dana Alpeter, Dana Alpeter Interiors, 4405 Browndale Ave., Edina, MN 55424; 952/928-3749
Architect/Design-Build: Leffert Tigelaar, Choice Wood Co., 3300 Gorham Ave. S., Saint Louis Park, MN 55426; 952/924-0043
Landscape Design: Bob Palmer, Landscape Renovation, 12515 40th St. S., Afton, MN 55001; 651/248-4020

Both Dana and Steve spotted their 1934 house’s potential immediately. First, the property offered opportunity to create amazing outdoor spaces. Spanning three city lots, it lent itself to gorgeous gardens, a pergola, a pool and cabana, a big garage, a stone fireplace, a patio, and even a guesthouse—all crafted, where appropriate, of stone (salvaged from an old church) nearly identical to the original and using masonry techniques undetectable from those employed in the 1930s.

The family room shown here is an addition. Its six sets of French doors create an airy California look, and the coffered ceiling suggests the architectural style of the home’s original construction.

Sources:
Pink chairs (“Scallop’’ #874-30, by Barbara Barry); sofa (“Scallop’’ #874-81, by Barbara Barry, discontinued); coffee table (“Scroll’’ #7850, by Thomas Pheasant); green chair (“Upholstered Tub’’ #422, by Barbara Barry): Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, 800/592-2537, trade only.
“Scallop”-chair fabric (“Mine D’Or’’/Red Hue #9214-371 with trim “Mine D’Or’’/Soft Orange #9214-211, orange colorway discontinued, by Etamine); sofa fabric (“Prion’’/Green Hue #1284-718 with contrasting welt “Mine D’Or/Soft Orange #9214-211, colorway discontinued); drapery (“Poeme’’/Red #9240-324, by Etamine): Zimmer + Rohde, 866/627-6899, trade only.
Green chair fabric (“Simply Suede’’/Pear #50541): F. Schumacher & Co., 800/332-3384, trade only.
Side table (#812): McGuire, 800/662-4847.
Floral art: Art Holdings, 763/567-2200.
Sconces (“Mercury II’’ #9986): Boyd Lighting, 415/778-4300.
Wall and trim paint (“Super White’’): Benjamin Moore & Co., 888/236-6667.
Ceiling paint: custom.
Flooring (limestone): Choice Wood Co., 952/924-0043.

New furnishings are familiar forms that have been cleaned up—simplified and updated. Still curvy and classic, their legacy is a youthful traditional style.

Color runs cheek-by-jowl with indoor-outdoor features in the home’s decorating hierarchy. “The interior needed strong color to stay balanced with the heavy stone exterior. Vibrant color also helps with mood during the long winters here,” notes the recovering Californian. Her bold palette—brilliant fuchsia, gold, citron green, and even orange—was preexisting, just awaiting discovery. “My inspiration was the living room’s original stained-glass windows. They were perfect because the house needed assertive color,” Dana observes. The strong colors are introduced in the window treatments and furniture upholsteries, while backgrounds—ebony-finished wood and white marble floors and stark, white plaster walls—remain neutral but dramatic. “One of the things Debbie and I worked so well together on was flow—using colors with the same intensity in different rooms and grounding them with the ebony floors.”

Sources:
White sofa (“Camelback’’ by Thomas Pheasant); green side chair (“Tufted-Back’’ #6371, by Thomas Pheasant); botanical prints (“Tulip’’ watercolors B, C and D, #1289); coffee table (#3554, by Barbara Barry): Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, 800/592-2537, trade only.
Sofa fabric (discontinued); green side-chair fabric (“Cardinal’’/Avocado Green #WALO0707, by Lorca): Osborne & Little, 212/751-3333, trade only.
Drapery and yellow throw pillows (“Gainsborough Velvet’’/Yellow #42829): Schumacher, 800/332-3384, trade only.
Drapery and fuchsia throw pillows (“Venetian Pink’’ #063751): Beacon Hill, 800/333-3777, trade only.
Drapery trim (#31228-9384): Houlès USA, 310/652-6171, trade only. 
Settee: Victory, 612/926-8200.
Settee fabric (“Georgica’’ #4470, by Manuel Canovas, discontinued): Cowtan & Tout, 212/647-6900, trade only.
Bolster fabric (“Allegra’’ #ML553/01, by Lorca): Osborne & Little, 212/333-3777, trade only.
Tub chairs (“Salon’’ #6498, by Barbara Barry); gold slipper chairs (#442, by Barbara Barry); coffee table (#3554, by Barbara Barry); end table (#3557, by Barbara Barry); mirror over fireplace (“Star’’ #3412, by Barbara Barry); chandelier (“Couronne’’ #JG302G, by Jacques Garcia); urns (“Pedestal’’ #PH038, by Thomas Pheasant): Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, 800/592-2537, trade only.
Tub-chair fabric (“Sari’’/Fucshia): Raoul Textiles, 805/965-1694, trade only.
Rug: Weskuske, 612/339-6030.
Mantel: original to house.
Wall and ceiling paint (“Super White’’): Benjamin Moore & Co., 888/236-6667.

The living room’s Louis XVI settee acquires a bold new look covered in fuchsia-and-gold horizontal stripes.

Sources:
Settee: Victory, 612/926-8200.
Settee fabric (“Georgica’’ #4470, by Manuel Canovas, discontinued): Cowtan & Tout, 212/647-6900, trade only.

Framed by an archway to the living room, the sexy lipstick hue of the dining-room chairs is an amplification of the fuchsia accents in the living room. With every public room opening through archways onto the next, sustaining the color flow was a matter of crescendo and diminuendo, technique being everything. Fuchsia and gold dominate in the living room, supplanted by citron green and orange in the kitchen and yellow/green in the family room. Upstairs offers a respite, melting into creamy neutrals.

Sources:
Table (“Continental,’’ by Barbara Barry); dining chair (#3494, by Barbara Barry); chandelier (“Metal Corset’’): Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, 800/592-2537, trade only.
Dining chairs: vintage.
Dining-chair fabric and drapery trim (“Venetian Pink’’ #063751): Robert Allen, 800/333-3777, trade only.
Dining-chair back fabric (“Makasar’’ #F970-03, by Designers Guild, discontinued); drapery (“Allegra’’/Lily Print #ML553/01, by Lorca): Osborne & Little, 212/751-3333, trade only.
Paint (“Super White’’): Benjamin Moore & Co., 888/236-6667.
Rug: Weskuske, 612/339-6030.

An old iron table in the music room plays the palette’s opening theme of black and white.

Sources:
Chair (“Chinoiserie Chair,’’ by Ralph Lauren, discontinued): Henredon, 800/444-3682, henredon.com.
Chair fabric (“Paladru’’ #F1089/18, by Designers Guild); drapery (“Tejeda,’’ by Designers Guild); pillows on chair (#F1174/09, by Designers Guild): Osborne & Little, 212/751-3333, trade only.
Wrought-iron table: owner’s collection.
Bowl (by Barbara Barry): Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, 800/592-2537, trade only.
Flooring (limestone): Choice Wood Co., 952/924-0043.
Paint (“Super White’’ #02): Benjamin Moore & Co., 888/236-6667.

“The kitchen is the most important room to me,” confides Dana. “I wanted it to have the openness of an English conservatory but with a Lacanche range [imported from France] and a kitchen sink where I could stand and be a part of family and guests and still see the arbor outside.” Six pairs of French doors and a breakfast bay provided the transparency Dana desired.

Sources:
Cabinetry (designed by Leffert Tigelaar): Choice Wood Co., 952/924-0043.
Countertop: Carrara marble.
Faucets (by Michael S Smith): Kallista, 888/452-5547.
Backsplash (“Water Glass’’/Gimlet): Waterworks, 800/899-6757.
Stools (#0-362, by Barbara Barry): McGuire, 800/662-4847.
Bar-stool fabric (“Nuage’’/Orange #9244-235, by Etamine): Zimmer + Rohde, 866/627-6899, trade only.
Lights over island (“Soleil Petite Pendant’’ #K-0053, by Jiun Ho): Kentfield Collection, Boyd Lighting, 415/778-4300.
Range: Lacanche, 800/570-2433.

Looking out at the pool and the nearby guesthouse, the family room-kitchen addition and its accompanying new upstairs master suite embrace the outdoors with multiple French doors and small-paned windows.

The Alpeter family—Catherine, Steve, Courtney, and Dana.