A midcentury icon gets a cozy 21st-century look Every week, our House Calls feature takes you into homes with great style, big personality, and ineffable soul. Today, we look at LeeAnn Manon?s house in San Rafael, California. The technology executive went looking for a traditional bungalow, but she ended up with an Eichler. With the help of designers at Laura Martin Bovard Interiors, she made a modern home that?s both sleek and inviting.
Let?s be clear: Manon never considered herself a modernist, let alone an Eichler fan. ?I was looking for a cute little bungalow, but after a couple of false starts where I wrote offers that didn?t get accepted, my realtor suggested I look at this Eichler,? she says. ?I was like, ?Eh... that?s not really my style,? but I agreed to go see it. I walked in and I knew this was it.?
LeeAnn Manon envisioned buying a ?cozy bungalow.? But when she walked through the front door of this Northern California Eichler, she changed her thinking. The Dylan bench in the entry hall is from CB2.

There was nothing in Manon?s background that suggested she might be a closet midcentury modern enthusiast. ?I grew up in a traditional home in the Pacific Northwest, and I lived in an Edwardian flat in San Francisco for 12 years,? she says. ?I wanted something cozy, but with space and nature around me.?
When she first walked into the low-slung house, built by developer Joseph Eichler, the creator of thousands of iconic modern homes in Califo...