Patina Living
By Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti
3.5/5
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About this ebook
The husband and wife design team takes readers on a guided tour of their elegant farm residence in Ojai, CA—a home full of Patina Style inspiration.
Brooke and Steve Gianetti offer an intimate look at their life on Patina Farm, the home they designed with an interplay of rustic and modern European charm. Beyond the gorgeously appointed farmhouse, the Giannettis readers through the sheds, outbuildings and gardens where they entertain and enjoy their miniature goats, sheep and donkeys, the chickens and ducks, and dogs. The entire residence is brimming with inspiration for a beautiful life in the popular Patina Style.
“We decided to write this book to share why we decided to create this life and what we have learned along the way. We share how we decided where to live, how to design and lay out our property and how to think about the individual spaces. One of the main nuggets of wisdom that we have learned is that there is not only one way to live this life. The idea of this book is to give you some options.”
Brooke Giannetti
Brooke Giannetti and Steve Giannetti are the owners of Giannetti Home, a full-service architecture, interior, and landscape design firm as well as a home furnishings store. Their work has been featured in numerous national magazines, newspapers and books, including Veranda, Coastal Living and the New York Times
Read more from Brooke Giannetti
Patina Farm Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patina Homes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patina Style Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Book preview
Patina Living - Brooke Giannetti
The Fire
It was ten in the morning on December 5, 2017. Steve and I were doing our last-minute check around Patina Farm, the family home we designed in Ojai, California. On this morning, Patina Farm was a smoky ghost town surrounded by deep orange flames. A vicious California wildfire was forcing us to evacuate. As we watched the towering flames engulf the mountains around our home, Steve, our daughter, Leila, and I packed up our cars with our dogs, rabbit, sheep and goats and all of their necessities. Our gardener, Ricardo, and his team somehow convinced our four miniature donkeys to get into our neighbor’s trailer to be driven to a safe location. We set our chickens free, leaving food and water and praying for their safety until we could return.
Photo of the farm with an orange smoke-hazed sky.Photograph © 2019 Steve Giannetti
After walking through each room of the house, attempting to take a mental inventory of cherished, memory-filled possessions, we headed out to the gardens. As we hurried through the now-mature grounds of Patina Farm, we were reminded of the time we had installed the new plantings that would become our outdoor rooms. Now, five years later, the gardens looked lush and lovely, softened by the pale pink haze of the fire; but they were also quiet and lifeless. Our donkeys, Buttercup, Daisy, Blossom and Huckleberry, were not grazing the lower fields or sleeping under the pepper trees as they normally did. The protected garden and animal barn next to my office—where our miniature pygmy goats, sisters Thelma and Louise and their best friend, Dot, and our sheep, Linen, Paisley and Cashmere, normally lounged and played—were silent and deserted.
As we headed out to our packed cars, Steve asked me if there was anything else that I wanted to take with us. I looked around at the house—a house we had spent years thoughtfully designing—and realized that all I really needed to take, the soul of our house, was already securely resting in our cars.
While driving away, we talked about our first dreams of Patina Farm. Steve recalled his ideas of an Italian garden complete with a terraced fruit orchard, a formal rose garden, and outdoor rooms surrounded by boxwood. I remembered imagining myself standing at our future kitchen sink as I watched donkeys chasing each other across the field. I clearly envisioned farm animals visiting me in the garden next to my office. I saw myself gathering fresh eggs from our coop, giving mealworms to the chickens as a thank-you for our breakfast. At the time, Steve had looked at me like he thought I had gone mad. What are we going to do with all of those animals?
he asked.
Five years later, on this terrible morning during the fires, we both understood the answer to that question in a deeper way than we could ever have imagined before, and the answer had more to do with what the animals were doing for us and the meaning they had brought to our lives.
As we’ve shared our journey to Patina Farm—on my blog, Velvet and Linen, in our book Patina Farm and on Instagram—many of our readers have shared their desire to move toward an organic, nature-centered life. Some of you just want to add more gardens to your property or figure out how to have a few chickens in your side yard, while others dream of creating your version of Patina Farm, with farm animals and a potager to grow your own food.
We are writing this book for all of you, to share why we decided to embrace this lifestyle and what we have learned along the way. We will also introduce you to some of the wonderful people in our life who have helped us navigate the winding road of farm life. One of the important nuggets of wisdom we have learned is that there is not just one way to live. The idea of this book is to explain what works (and hasn’t worked) for us and why. By sharing our journey, we hope to demystify the homestead farm lifestyle. If we city folk can do it, so can you!
Photo of the garden with clouds of smoke glowing orange coming in from over the hills.Photograph © 2019 Steve Giannetti