Midcentury Home in Santa Rosa Boasts Vintage-Meets-Modern Design

Nestled in Santa Rosa’s Alta Vista hills, the renovated home offers design time travel to the 1970s and ’80s, blended with modern comforts.


A renovated midcentury home in the hills of Santa Rosa’s Alta Vista neighborhood is currently listed for sale. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom dwelling, sitting on 1.64 wooded acres, is priced at $2,500,000.

The 2,941-square-foot home offers design time travel to the 1970s and ’80s while managing to stay rooted in this century. Built by Gary Tobey in 1986, the interior has the era’s signature elements: a sunken living room, open-concept layout, and stained-wood and stone-clad surfaces inside and out. But it has a brand-new feel thanks to a period-sensitive renovation by Markey Interiors

Well-preserved vintage elements are enhanced with details that evoke midcentury design. Contemporary subway tiles complement the scheme via a decidedly ’70s palette: avocado green on the kitchen backsplash and a happy “Brady Bunch” orange in the shower. New wallpaper with optical art-style designs in the bar, and new mosaic tile in a tranquil beige in the bathroom, also blend seamlessly into the aesthetic.

Kitchen area of great room of Santa Rosa home
Kitchen area of great room. (Peter Lyons Photography)
Living room area in home
Living room area. (Peter Lyons Photography)

Vintage style is solidified with details like ceramic lamps with long cylindrical shades, an avocado-colored couch and an orange ribbon chair in the bedroom. 

The views of dense trees and rock outcroppings remain front and center through the generous walls of windows. A large deck that runs the length of the home offers further immersion into the setting. 

Outdoor patio. (Peter Lyons Photography)
Outdoor patio. (Peter Lyons Photography)
Exterior. (Peter Lyons Photography)
Exterior. (Peter Lyons Photography)

The property received an enthusiastic nod from Bay Area-based real-estate agent Eric Kang. “Everything about this house makes my heart drip…with desire and jealousy that this isn’t my house,” he said.

For more information on this home at 4185 Chaparral Court in Santa Rosa, contact listing agents Tesa Walters, 707-477-4218, or Peter Colbert, 415-798-0203; Compass Real Estate, Wine Country Colbert Group, 1702 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, compass.com/homedetails/4185-Chaparral-Ct-Santa-Rosa-CA-95404/2111060754602250233_lid