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[music playing]

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RAILI CLASEN: I have
a family of surfers,

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so we needed to create a
space that encompasses that.

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The Pacific Ocean
is cold most times

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of the year and this
needed to be the sanctuary

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where they came home.

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This space had to work
with sand, saltwater,

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doors open, sunshine, all that.

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I took everything I
could and I poured

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my heart and soul into it.

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So this little enclave on
this side of Costa Mesa

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was built in about the '50s.

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Where we are in
Costa Mesa is such

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an awesome spot because we can
get down to the beach very,

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very quickly.

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And at the end, there's the
infamous wedge where the waves

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get 20, 25 feet and
everybody goes down

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there when the waves go off.

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[music playing]

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I've owned our cottage for
probably over 20 years.

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It was the first
house we bought,

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and it was just a very amazing
cottage that had a lot of soul.

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I remember way way way
back when, you know,

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we were pretty close
out of college,

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didn't have a ton to spend.

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But when I walked
in here, I mean,

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we made an offer
within 30 seconds.

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Just walking in and that
feeling, it was there.

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This house is very
different from what it was.

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It was a kid family house.

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We crammed a lot of people
and dogs and us into it.

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We have a family of five
plus two dogs lived here.

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It was 1,100 square foot house.

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Then I became in
the design world,

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so we started flipping
houses, and we'd move

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in, fix them up, and move out.

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So this is the one house I
have not sold over these years.

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I very, very much
loved this house.

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There's a great soul here.

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I can't even
describe what it is.

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But it just feels so good.

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So the reason we're back here
is because we are empty nesters.

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We just sent our last little
6 foot 5 baby to college

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and it was time to circle back.

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Now that the kids were
gone, we could kind of

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fit back in the small house
and remodel it out a little bit

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of square footage.

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This was the very first
home that we bought,

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and when we came back to remodel
it, we completely gutted it.

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We now have kind of
rethought how we live,

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and I just love the idea
of coming to a place

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where there's things to do--

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sit around a fire, play some
games in the front yard,

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the smaller house works great.

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Again, going back to the
whole coastal tie-in,

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we created a pier-like or
like kind of the boardwalk you

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see on some beach communities.

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We want it to feel like
that's what we were

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walking on up to the house.

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[music playing]

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And once you open the
door to this house,

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it's so small that
you automatically

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see the living room, the
dining room, the kitchen,

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and out to the back.

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It's that small.

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The entryway is the house.

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So right away you get this
feeling that it's casual,

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it's lived in, it's got
some really cool little fun

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design moments.

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You get the sense of people that
love the ocean and love to surf

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and live here.

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And so when we walk in I
got these two vintage lights

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to give you a
sense of a hallway,

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even though there's
not a hallway.

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And at this point,
you are either

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going to the kitchen, down
the halls to the rooms,

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or you have a living room.

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So even though you see
all the different areas,

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this is kind of like
our virtual hallway.

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And then here is the first
thing I bought for the house.

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I didn't know where
I was going to go.

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I thought it was super
random, but I just--

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I loved it.

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It reminded me of being in like
the movies a long time ago,

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and that was your exit sign.

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And it's just a little playful.

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I did not go out searching
for a vintage light.

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It came upon me when I saw it.

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I like it and I don't
know why I like it.

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And I just get it and
find a place for it later.

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[music playing]

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So the way that we use the space
now that we're empty nesters

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is we entertain a ton.

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We constantly have
people over, which

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is why we turned
one of the bedrooms

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into a full-service bar.

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Once I got everything
installed in here,

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I wanted this part of the
bar with all the glassware

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to come alive.

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So this was a totally natural
place for me to put that

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like shocking pink in there.

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This becomes a place
for people to come,

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meet here, and go surfing.

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It's just been a great
social spot for us

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in this part of our lives.

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When you have a family
of surfers like I do,

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nothing can be too precious.

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I don't want floors
with no imperfections.

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I don't want furniture
without imperfections.

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If a surfboard makes
a dent in the floors,

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it's not going to be a big deal.

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Outdoor showers, we have a cedar
hot tub for post-surf sessions.

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So the outdoor space has really
had to be a welcoming station

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for coming out of the water.

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[non-english speech]

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Thank you.

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The California surf culture
has this moment of weathering.

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And I think that as
a designer you've

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got to be careful that it
doesn't look like somebody

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abandoned the house
50, 60 years ago

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and didn't pay attention
to upgrading it or bringing

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it to the next level.

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So I think natural
woods are a huge part

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of that California lifestyle.

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And then pairing that with
clean paint-grade cabinets

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and fresh white paint all pulls
that whole aesthetic together.

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So here's the
infamous teen room.

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Well, this is now a guestroom
because he was away at college.

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I love using plywood.

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Plywood is the ultimate
coastal cottage wood.

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There it has a little
bit of a scandal vibe

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too, so I wanted to bring in the
plywood and a built-in cabinet

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as well as do a feature
wall that the bed goes on.

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Since this is a true
surfer kids room,

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someone that loves the water,
someone that's very casual.

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It's young.

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[music playing]

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And now the primary
bedroom and bathroom.

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So the house originally
ended right here.

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So this was just one very, very,
very small bedroom, and then

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that was the end of the house.

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So we sort of tore
this apart and added

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on the rest of
the square footage

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we pushed it into the backyard.

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And then this is
the primary bath,

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and here we have the
infamous mustard bathtub.

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I always feel like everything
in a room needs a friend.

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So if you're going to do
some crazy bright color,

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you better have it somewhere
else also in the room.

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Just maybe in a
pillow, maybe it's

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in a little tiny stripe detail.

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The wallpaper and the tub
and the rug and the bedding,

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they're all happily married.

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So the color palette
for this house,

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I did not want to use the
same color throughout,

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but what I do love is picking
a color and doing tones.

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So for instance, greens, a
great one, blues, a great one.

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Starting with a navy,
and then it has a sister,

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maybe it's a stack of lighter
blue plates in the same tone.

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I just love how the
same color works

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together in different tones.

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It's my description
of colorful, even

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though there's only one color.

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Yep.

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That looks good.

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Oh, great.

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Are you kidding me?

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That moment where you
realize the soul of it.

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I know that sounds so
strange, but I get it.

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Like when I'm walking up to a
beach cottage I just know it,

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I feel it's like this
is old, it has stories.

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I look at the space and I
imagine it with people in it

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instead of just how
it's going to look.

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But you get the sense
that this is like we're

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going to have some fun here.

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There's the bar and
then we're going

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to go out and sit by the fire.

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We're going to
play some cornhole.

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We're going to sit
around the hot tub.

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I see people's eyes
when they come in here

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and they're looking
around like, OK, OK,

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what should we do first?

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These little details
start bringing

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in stories and old thoughts.

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And I've never been
in a house where

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I haven't been looking
at the real estate

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section for the next move.

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And this one I can't imagine
wanting to be anywhere else.

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[music playing]