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It started, like many good things, with a tea party.
At the end of the 19th century, garden designer Gertrude Jekyll met Edwin Lutyens, a precocious architect of only 20 years old.
Their chance meeting at the party in the English Surrey Hills led to a creative partnership that would define the English Arts and Crafts movement. She painted with plants. He built with symmetry. Together they became one of England’s most prolific design duos.
Spread over a hundred acres, Seven Oaks lives many lives. Part wine country retreat, part equestrian complex, part California wellness hideaway.
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More than a century later – and half a world away – their legacy has taken root in the rolling hills of California’s Santa Ynez Valley.
Located on 103 hectares, Seven Oaks Ranch is both a tribute and a reinvention. On the one hand, it exudes the spirit of a true English estate: tiered gardens, half-timbered facades, stained glass and interiors full of antiques. On the other hand? It’s all easy, breezy California. Gym, swimming pool and sunlight that seizes every opportunity.
Yet this is not a replica from the period. It is a building that has been worked on for more than 20 years, supplemented with interiors AD100 designer Jane Hallworth.
Lutyens’ design conveys the characteristics of the English countryside, re-aligned with the Californian sun.
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A fun outing that has been in the making for 20 years
The ranch’s original owners were such fans of Jekyll and Lutyens that they flew to England to study their working landscapes and architecture firsthand. They then engaged a Dutch landscape architect who was fluent in the pair’s language about hedges and horticultural order. Thousands of trees and plants were planted in the early 2000s.
The house, however, proved more difficult. No local builder fully met the brief. That is why the owner, a real estate professional, trained two subcontractors himself. Brick by brick, beam by beam, the house came to life. Slowly.
In Santa Ynez, thick, hand-hewn beams are part of the local vernacular. Here they are spoken at full volume.
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Then came a change of heart. And a creative young couple stepped in with their own vision. They enlisted Hallworth, whose client list includes A-list actors Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, to help complete their “cozy retreat.”
The result? “Robert Plant met Edwin Lutyens”, like Hallworth writes on her social media.
Old-fashioned bones with a rebellious streak
Inside, scale and story compete for your attention. Imported European oak floors, some more than 100 years old, lie beneath hand-hewn beams. Five fireplaces suggest cozy winter evenings, even when the weather is different. A Hallworth-designed custom lighting fixture made from antique metal ribbon in the shape of a beehive shimmers above a low-slung sculptural bench. Tapestries by Aubusson from France depict scenes from ancient Rome, because… why not?
The inky black palette of the kitchen is a conscious draw inward. Unexpectedly intimate for a house that otherwise loves its scale.
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The kitchen embraces the English ‘unfitted’ look: free-standing cabinets and deliberate asymmetry. Elsewhere, six bedrooms and eight bathrooms follow: luxurious, tangible, layered.
Much of the furniture is available for purchase for the full turnkey experience. A shortcut to taste, if you need it.
Past the mansion
This being Santa Barbara, horses were a foregone conclusion. The custom-built four-stall stable features Dutch doors, pine interiors and hand-forged ironwork. An all-weather arena means riding all year round. A stone building with turrets houses, just like the house, the residence of the estate manager.
Hedges connect the grounds to form secret passageways that lead to a stone riding school. More Provence than Pacific.
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But it’s the gardens that really steal the show. Wrinkled rose hedges and three-metre-high hornbeam walls form secret garden rooms. A vine-covered pergola hosts al fresco dinner parties. Orchards produce apples, pears and stone fruit. There’s even a potting area in the pool house, which doubles as a fitness room. We are in Southern California after all.
At the edge of the property, a zero-edge pool clad in volcanic lava rock from Hawaii reflects the Santa Ynez Mountains. The cattle wander through the meadows beyond. You’re floating and probably forget what day it is.
The simplicity of the pool reflects a natural basin, a pleasure to look at and to slip into.
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The setting is equally considered. Happy Canyon is known for its Bordeaux varietals and magnesium-rich soil, and Seven Oaks is right there. The property is also subject to the Williamson Act, which translates to potential tax benefits for agricultural uses such as farming, livestock grazing and crop production.
Although the owners of Seven Oaks have not yet ventured into winemaking, the foundation is there for ambitious oenophiles. About 30 hectares are already used for the cultivation of fodder hay. You could go from zero to hobby vineyard with relative ease.
At $15.5 million, the estate is at the sharp end of Santa Ynez prices.
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Or maybe not? “There is beauty in simply keeping the land as it is,” says broker Carey Kendal by Village properties. For those who fancy a glass of Pinot, there are more than 200 vineyards within easy reach.
Despite its sense of seclusion, Seven Oaks is only 30 minutes from downtown Santa Barbara. Private air access is close by. And yet, once inside the second gate, everything feels far away.
As Kendall says, “It’s the kind of place where you ask yourself, ‘Where am I?'”
The entry for 5200 Armor Ranch Road is held by the Riskin Group And Carey Kendal by Village properties. Village properties is a member of Forbes Global Propertiesan invitation-only network of top real estate agents worldwide and the exclusive real estate partner of Forbes.
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