Extraordinary Homes Deserve Xtrordinairy Fireplaces

from Spaces January 2019

WHEN LIGHT BULBS GO OFF

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55 together the money to send her, and it changed her life. “I learned everything about art, and I just became fascinated,” she says. “I had found my world.” londonfireplaceshoppe.com 415.380.0336 Mill Valley, CA

Tejada got her first job in Basque country, which was fraught with political turmoil at the time, then left for a position in Marbella, Spain, designing high-end kitchens for expensive mansions. She came to the U.S. in 1979 for personal reasons: she had fallen in love with an American. When she visited him they drove across the country, from Connecticut to San Francisco, and she fell in love all over again. “I felt like I had found my kingdom here,” she says. “I love the freedom, and the people from all over the world.” Even though she and her boyfriend broke up years later, Tejada remained in San Francisco. She married someone else, had two sons, and later divorced amicably.

But all the while she was defining the Celia Tejada style, first as an interior designer and then as a fashion designer creating clothes under her own name (with Diane Moore). Her design house sold items to the likes of Barneys New York and I. Magnin. When the stock market tanked in the mid-’90s, though, her business struggled too. That was when Gary Friedman, then the president of Williams Sonoma, approached her to start a design division for Pottery Barn.

At the time, Pottery Barn (owned by Williams Sonoma) mostly sold furniture from other manufacturers. As senior vice president of design and brand division, Tejada helped create the look for which Pottery Barn is known today: stylish casual living. She then helped do the same at Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen. In 2001, Friedman left for Corte Madera’s RH. Tejada joined him there in 2013.

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The more Tejada became an American tastemaker, however, the more she longed for home. In 1999, she and her brother had bought property in Lake County and created a Spanish-style ranch there, Rancho Tejada, growing tempranillo and grenache grapes and making their own wine (which they sold, briefly). She also grew increasingly concerned about the “beautiful, forgotten valley” in Spain where she’d grown up. It was dying, and young people were leaving. So in 2016, she bought a mill house, built in 1670, and converted it to Molino Tejada, a luxurious inn.

Tejada designed the interiors there, including the common notes that appear in all of her properties: a mixture of high- and low-end furniture, antiques, lots of daybeds, tons of pillows and fabulous kitchens. And, of course, she included dining room tables with benches — not chairs — because, she says, “I don’t want to limit the number of guests.” The table in the dining room in her childhood farmhouse, a room now located in the property’s former stables, seats 42.

Molino Tejada quickly drew the attention of publications such as Conde Nast Traveler, Vogue and Architectural Digest, and guests arrived from around the world. Tejada now envisions the inn as an arts and cultural center. Already, Spanish artists such as Adrian Ssegura and Okuda San Miguel have been in residence and created vivid outdoor murals.

It’s hard to imagine Tejada would have it otherwise. Her San Francisco home, its walls painted in gray, black or white, is an ode to art. One room brims with poetry books. Another with design and photography books. Another holds a home theater. “I love to be around writers, photographers, filmmakers and chefs,” she says.

That’s evident on Thursday nights. The eclectic, creative group she gathers is like family to her. She reads them Neruda, as they sit at the custom-made 15-foot table in her San Francisco dining room. The table is small by Tejada’s standards. It seats only 25. n di Rosa presents exhibitions by Bay Area artists and an array of educational programs for all ages, in addition to maintaining a collection of notable works by artists living or working in Northern California from the mid-twentieth century to the present day.

Offering visitors a singularly unique setting, the site features multiple galleries, a sculpture park, and a 35-acre lake, all located on 217 scenic acres in Napa’s famed Carneros region.