garden

street." To that end, he planned an enclosed courtyard that extends nearly
to the street to give the client another private living space. "The milky
Plexiglas used for the fence gave us that retro look. But what I really like
about the material is that when the light is changing and the interesting
leaf patterns are cast against it, it acts like a scrim."
Dalbok and his client greet their guests from the front courtyard,
where a ceramic mural-top table by Edith Heath — the midcentury
ceramics maven whose Sausalito studio posthumously produces her
legacy of tableware and tiles — takes center stage. The homeowner
bought this, and one other mural that hangs on a fence in the rear
garden, before she'd even found her Eichler house. "I knew they were
key elements," she says. "Plus, my mother is an avid gardener and a
ceramicist, and she encouraged me to come out here." Dalbok's exquisite
tabletop decor of Chinese bonsai planters from his San Francisco
showroom Living Green with succulents mixed in with brightly colored
minerals and glass are arranged in containers chosen to reflect the
colors in the mural, as are the table bases he selected: Chinese-made
chocolate-gold colored terra-cotta glazed pots.
With drinks in hand, the party moves to the side garden at the rear
of the house — an L-shaped terrace in black-gray slate imported from
Africa that wraps around Eichler's glass walls. "The first thing 1 said to
my client was, 'Let's create a really big terrace that feels like an extended
room off" the house,'" Dalbok explains as the waiter approaches with
the first of three rounds of small plates. "I didn't want the patio to be
too multicolored. This slate comes with some variation, but ultimately
it provides a really nice background to set off the furniture, the plants
and whoever is on the patio."
Opposite: The modular sectional
from Henry Hall Designs
matches the lines of the house.
Pictured at far right is Dat
Pham of Living Green, who also
worked on this project. Left:
This grouping of containers anchors
the L-shaped patio that
wraps around the glass walls of
the living spaces. Above: This
chilled lobster salad was one
of three courses, including a
scallop carpaccio topped with
Osetra caviar, created by Taste
executive chef Chris Borges.
Dalbok's relationship with Taste
goes back 30 years.