wine country chromatics

photography: john merkl

sandra jordan is an international tastemaker and the creative force of her eponymously named, to-the-trade textiles company, sandra jordan prima alpaca™. she asked gary hutton to convert a barn on her stunning healdsburg, california property into a modern, cultured, signature project that gathered her passions in one great room.

the design brief

the brief was to make a deeply welcoming space for friends, family, california wine country living, peruvian culture, international design touchstones, hand craft and a creative business via fabulous latin colors and the artisan make of her prima alpaca™ textiles.

the project

the gary hutton design team looked at ways to unite this comprehensive design brief with imperatives for gracious living, important collections, family heirlooms, current obsessions and the client’s unique vision of luxury.

the client’s life story parallels that of an 18th century english gentleman: a great education, the grand tour, love of country life, political engagement, cultural participation, a notable family and a flourishing creative life. eccentricity welcome here. the hutton design team approached this guest house design as a modern, compressed version of that type of collected taste.

the challenge here was incorporating a spectrum of beautiful colors and the client’s existing furniture into a cohesive whole. hutton says, “making the background as neutral as possible was key to this approach. the concrete floors were stained slightly so that they linked visually to the grey stain on the wood walls”.

a neutral, textural carpet underpins three, distinct seating areas. the design team used the client’s incredible prima alpaca™ colors in a narrative that begins with cool, greyed-out shades in the north. these graduate into hot, saturated, full-on latin chromatics in the project’s western side.

the hutton design team combined modern things from france, south america and hutton’s to-the-trade furniture collection to the client’s existing antiques.

the location

set in the heart of the california wine country, healdsburg has gone from a sleepy farming town to a chic, wine country destination with 5-star accommodations and top restaurants. sandra jordan has made her home there for many years.

about the client

sandra jordan is a peruvian dynamo who married into the jordan clan, an august california winemaking family where she was creative director of the family’s label. a few years ago, she returned to her first loves: peru, alpaca and the creative potential of traditional craft products. she brings an elevated, knowing, playful, personal, global taste to her products, which are without parallel. from its initial offering, sandra jordan prima alpaca has grown to be represented in leading showrooms around the word in the us, canada, mexico, australia and europe. 

about sandra jordan’s prima alpaca

sandra jordan’s prima alpaca™ is a range of to-the-trade textiles prized for exquisite drape and supreme softness. the line is the world’s only extensive collection of luxury alpaca textiles for the home. these textiles are known for their spectacular palette, unparalleled sumptuous texture and vast variety of applications from upholstery and throws to curtains and wall coverings.

since its founding in 2006, sandra jordan prima alpaca™ has been devoted to the community of herdsmen and artisans who manufacture its textiles. the company sponsors living wages and continuing trade education. it also sponsors a variety of outreach ranging from working with local organizations such as vida (vidausa.org) to provide medical care and education to supporting scientific and genetic research on the fiber itself. sandra jordan prima alpaca™ has also pioneered a program, called la cabaña del pastor (the herdsman’s cottage) with local advocacy groups to build clean, sustainable and culturally appropriate housing for herding families. a percentage of every sale goes to support construction.