How Ashley Redmond makes her tiny Marin house work for her

Smart, stylish storage: To keep the petite dwelling clutter free, Redmond incorporated select case goods: The midcentury credenza in the living room serves as an entertainment center, hiding behind its doors all of the necessary provisions for television and Internet; a mirrored chest in the bedroom stores a lot of denim jeans; and a custom bookcase in the office, a sliver of a space at the rear of the house, doesn’t just stow design reference books, fashion tomes and travel guides. It’s also a bar — Derreumaux, who works at a wine-industry startup called Wine Grenade, keeps the top shelf stocked with bottles he brings home from work — and a display case where the prized Guinness Book of World Records trophy resides. Make like Switzerland: To make the 500 square feet feel as large as possible, Redmond painted the walls white for a brightening, expansive effect. “Starting with a neutral base will also give you the most decor options,” she says. In the living room, she layered onto the blank slate her sofa of 15 years, a low-profile, off-white piece with a nubby texture, and a white 1970s shag rug that she inherited from her grandparents. From there, Redmond brought the design beyond the pale, so to speak, with colorful Turkish and Moroccan pillows, an African mud cloth blanket and leafy potted plants, including a robust fiddlehead fern. Use surfaces wisely: Despite voices of dissent from her friends, Redmond successfully squeezed a queen-size bed into the tiny master bedroom, which meant she had little space for side tables, much less reading lamps. Instead, she went vertical, mounting plug-in brass sconces to the wall. In the living room, the television is also attached to the wall, angled in such a way that Redmond and Derreumaux can binge on “House of Cards” from the bedroom. In the kitchen, a stainless-steel dining table from Ikea (a holdover from Redmond’s Eichler days) also serves as countertop extension for the preparation of the couple’s vegan meals, including soba bowls, cashew-cream “cheesecakes” and daily green smoothies that require lots of chopping. Define spaces: Even though the home’s large openings and door frames mark the passage from one room into another, Redmond sought to characterize the spaces more distinctly using rugs. The wispy shag in the living room simultaneously adds softness and texture to the Scandinavian tableau; the pink vintage kilim in the kitchen is a feminine counterpoint to the shiny, utilitarian table and the rich, charcoal-hued cabinets; and a geometric flatweave rug makes the office feel less like an outlier and more like an integral part of the home. Emphasize nature: Since the home is quite literally in a canopy of trees, Redmond and Derreumaux keep most of the windows bare. As a result, they act as frames for large “pictures” of the natural surroundings, which at any given time can include passing deer and squirrels running along the tree branches. Inside, there are light, reedy furnishings — a wicker peacock settee in the living room, a basket pendant lamp over the dining table, a whitewashed rattan bed frame from CB2 — and more substantial solid-wood pieces such as her desk, whose heft had the potential to overwhelm the space were it not for its thin, hairpin legs. “It almost seems like it’s floating,” Redmond says.