In Southern California, designers Neil Korpinen and Eric Erickson make a home whose style sweeps all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Halfway up a hill in Summerland, California, sits a three story house. With gray shingles wrapping the walls and white trim outlining the windows, this home-designed by architect Bob Easton-intimates the weathered exteriors for which coastal New England homes are known. But its independent spirit is nothing new to this neighborhood.

"This house looks more like Nantucket than California," says Neil, standing beneath the blue-and-white-striped awning that shades the large balcony. From the balcony-and every room of the house-the view extends from the Santa Barbara Channel past Carpinteria.
"In Summerland, homes aren't built in the Mediterranean styles so prevalent just a few miles up the coat in Santa Barbara, " says Neil. "Summerland homes have their won unique, non-conforming personalities."

Neil and Eric, whose design offices are less than a block away, had admired the homes exterior long before they ever set foot inside the three-bedroom house. When the former owner invited them for a visit, they jumped.

"We saw the great room and we didn't even need to see the rest of the house," Eric says, gesturing toward a sweep of windows looking out to sea. "Our minds were racing with thoughts of what we could do with the space."

Combining their collection of antique boats, early 18th-centruy antiques, Hawaiian quilts, vintage tropical prints, they transformed the great room into an upscale version of a grass shack-framed by a rough-sawn vaulted ceiling, a floor covered in herringbone sea grass, and raffia walls. The designers say the juxtaposition of East Coast and South Sea is artistically-and historically-sound.

Neil, who grew up in a family of Massachusetts cranberry farmers in a shingled house similar to this one, has long been interested in the influence of American missionaries on native islanders. "When East Coast missionaries arrived in the early 1800's, they brought with them more than the bible," he says. "They brought their art forms and their furniture. The Hawaiians, in typical aloha spirit, embraced many of the missionaries' crafts-only they used native Hawaiian materials."

The blending of those cultures inspires Neil and Eric, who travel to Hawaii at least once a year. On the islands, the designer noticed that Hawaiian churches reflect the architecture of sanctuaries on the Eastern Seaboard. Furniture designs in koa wood are throwbacks to early maple and mahogany case goods. Hawaiian quilts reveal the same stitching techniques used in the 18th-century American quilts.

"If you visit any of the historical museums in Hawaii, or the missionary houses there, you'll see pieces of the furniture the missionaries brought with them from New England alongside Hawaiian calabashes and grinding stones. They're all mixed together in this interesting way," Neil says. "I love the way the two cultures' art forms work together visually"