The Midcentury Petal House: Remodelista Co-Founder Janet Hall at Home in Napa

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A couple of years ago I got a call from Janet Hall, one of our Remodelista cofounders, to say she and her husband, Mark, had just bought a house in Napa.

“Janet, buying a house in the span of a week?” I thought. As Janet herself says, “I’m not impulsive, I’m the opposite, so this was not a characteristic move for me. It wasn’t in our life plan, we never intended to move to Napa.” So when I heard the news, I knew the house had to be spectacular.

A bit of backstory from Janet: “We had been living in SF for more than a decade, but with both of our children (read: young adults) in college and grad school, we were looking to downsize. We were in the beginning stages of exploring Berkeley, but one day Mark found an intriguing midcentury house in Napa on a real estate website. He convinced me to have a look, just as a lark—we’d go wine tasting afterward! The minute we walked in the door, it was love at first sight. We saw it on a Sunday, went back for a revisit on Wednesday, and put in an offer on Thursday.”

Join us for a tour:

Photography by Daniel Bernauer.

janet hall remodelista petal house 19 — Above: Designed in 1962 by California architect Walter Thomas Brooks, an under-the-radar Bay Area modernist who worked with William Wurster, the midcentury Petal House, as it’s known, has a flat roof and overhangs that are shaped like petals (hence the name). The property is surrounded by majestic blue oak trees and low-maintenance landscaping.

janet hall petal house napa hearth — Above: The small landscape photograph of an oak tree is by Lee Friedlander (“We gravitate toward obscure works by well-known photographers that don’t necessarily fit into their ‘genre’; for instance, a factory interior by Ansel Adams,” Janet says.) The wool Jaipur Scandinavia Dula Rug is from Burke Decor.

janet hall petal house henrybuilt kitchen 12 — Above: A view of the open-plan living space toward the new kitchen.

janet hall petal house napa henrybuilt kitchen 10 — Above: The house is constructed of old growth redwood. Janet and Mark preserved the original polished concrete floors, which have radiant heating.

janet hall petal house kitchen olive — Above: When Janet and Mark moved in, the existing culinary space was a glossy European black lacquer kitchen system from the 1990s. The new Henrybuilt kitchen is made of stained walnut with a matte black finish. “Our goal was to have the kitchen ‘slide in’ and feel quiet, but to still have the material heft the space requires,” Janet says.

“We wanted to bring the kitchen back to a language that matched that of the architecture,” Janet says, “while at the same time maximizing our limited work space (before the remodel, there was one tiny undercounter fridge!). Of course it was going to be Henrybuilt. As a longtime evangelizer for the company, first with my ‘Remodelista hat’ on, and now as the company’s director of business development, I was confident in the superior performance aspect. But it was Henrybuilt’s craft quality I was most excited about. I wanted to raise the kitchen to the level of the interior of the house.”