It's Spanish, reinterpreted

"The foyer leads directly to French doors framing voluptuous gardens that extend as far as the eye can see, and then some: out to the interior courtyard, down to the pool, off to the tennis courts of the two-acre property. The house gradually begins to reveal itself room by room, 9,000 square feet of intimate spaces that add up to a cozy grandeur."

"Like Day's work, it is a collage of textures and colors -- burnished woods, pale-peach stucco walls, red clay Saltillo tiles -- and of elegance and simplicity, of modern and ancient."

"In the early '70s, they bought the 1923 Brentwood stucco because, she says, 'coming from Connecticut, I was so attracted to the age of the house. I didn't know at the time that it was a John Byers.'"

A Spanish-style stucco home in Brentwood, designed by architect John Byers in 1923, presents a modest exterior concealed by dense landscaping. Owner Marina Forstmann Day, a collage artist and granddaughter of a textile company founder, discovered the property's true character upon entering. The nine-thousand-square-foot residence unfolds through intimate rooms featuring burnished woods, pale-peach walls, and red clay tiles. The home incorporates distinctive elements including a massive wrought-iron crystal chandelier, a medieval baptismal font with orchids and ivy, and a fountain with a nymph statue reportedly related to one in Rome's Borghese Gardens. The two-acre property includes an interior courtyard, pool, and tennis courts. Byers, a self-trained architect and contractor, constructed approximately thirty homes in the Brentwood, Santa Monica, and Pacific Palisades areas during the 1920s and 1930s.

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