My Houzz: A Travel-Inspired Tropical Oasis in California
Explore this landscape designer’s lush green garden and charming updated 1947 cottage
Derviss is seated with her 6-year-old rescue dog, Clifford, on a sofa she brought back from Bali. “Clifford is a very dedicated little dog and sticks by me as much as he possibly can,” she says. “He’s also my hillbilly doorbell. When someone comes to the front door, he barks and lets me know someone is at the front gate.”
Derviss initially rented her home for a few years before buying it. “I moved away for a little bit to Sonoma and the Mendocino coast but kept in touch with the landlady. So when I found it was for sale, I bought it in 1999,” she says.
Since then she’s been adding her own designer touch to the garden and interior. “I started with the outside of the house first by developing the garden. The first thing I did was put paths in and then start planting,” Derviss says.
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Derviss initially rented her home for a few years before buying it. “I moved away for a little bit to Sonoma and the Mendocino coast but kept in touch with the landlady. So when I found it was for sale, I bought it in 1999,” she says.
Since then she’s been adding her own designer touch to the garden and interior. “I started with the outside of the house first by developing the garden. The first thing I did was put paths in and then start planting,” Derviss says.
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This outdoor living room is a place to entertain or relax with a book. The wooden screen behind the sofa was salvaged from a project she worked on in nearby Tiburon.
Displayed on top of the coffee table is an arrangement of begonias in a terra-cotta pot from Greece.
10 Ways to Turn Your Backyard Into a Resort-Inspired Retreat
Displayed on top of the coffee table is an arrangement of begonias in a terra-cotta pot from Greece.
10 Ways to Turn Your Backyard Into a Resort-Inspired Retreat
This used to be a working water fountain that Derviss made for a garden show, but now it’s a decorative feature.
“I made it out of Hardie board and put the Buddha sculpture on top of it and the driftwood arrangement,” she says.
“I made it out of Hardie board and put the Buddha sculpture on top of it and the driftwood arrangement,” she says.
The backyard includes a greenhouse that Derviss uses to propagate seeds in the late winter and early spring for various vegetables and herbs she plants in the summer. “In the wintertime, I move my tender bromeliads in there since we get three to five days of frost — some years are worse than others,” she says. Derviss is a member of the Bromeliad Society of San Francisco. Outside the greenhouse is a collection of terra-cotta pots.
Lay of the Landscape: Tropical Garden Style
Lay of the Landscape: Tropical Garden Style
A winding path made of crushed decomposed granite is framed with a variety of plantings, including succulents, bromeliads, bird of paradise and bamboo.
Find a local landscape designer on Houzz
Find a local landscape designer on Houzz
During the past couple of years, Derviss has been studying in Kyoto, Japan, with the Research Center for Japanese Garden Art and Historic Heritage. “From this experience, I have come to appreciate how the attention to small details can create a distinctive design outcome and have tried to adopt this philosophy in my California home,” she says. As part of her studies, she learns from temple gardeners about pruning techniques, stone setting and working with bamboo.
Pictured clockwise from the top left is Doryanthes, whose leaves, Derviss says, are 6 to 7 feet long; a kokedama (Japanese for “moss ball”) that she made and attached to a tree trunk; a tree fern with bromeliads and handmade ceramic trumpet flowers wired to the trunk; and a traditional Balinese pagoda light that she brought back from Indonesia.
Pictured clockwise from the top left is Doryanthes, whose leaves, Derviss says, are 6 to 7 feet long; a kokedama (Japanese for “moss ball”) that she made and attached to a tree trunk; a tree fern with bromeliads and handmade ceramic trumpet flowers wired to the trunk; and a traditional Balinese pagoda light that she brought back from Indonesia.
The Festive Front Garden
Derviss’ front yard, including the driveway, looks especially colorful during the spring and summer. Succulents in colorful pots are clustered along a boxwood hedge and close to her garage door.
The vivid planter colors echo the homeowner’s collection of Fiestaware in her kitchen.
Derviss’ front yard, including the driveway, looks especially colorful during the spring and summer. Succulents in colorful pots are clustered along a boxwood hedge and close to her garage door.
The vivid planter colors echo the homeowner’s collection of Fiestaware in her kitchen.
“I’m part of a number of garden clubs, and we all trade plants back and forth with each other when we meet,” Derviss says. “My core group of friends are other sculptors, gardeners. When we meet together for cocktail parties or dinner, we’ll swap plants with each other.” Many of these potted succulents are from these monthly plant swaps.
Photo by Michelle Derviss
This is how the front garden looks in the spring in front of her white picket fence along the sidewalk. Here we see silvergrass, blooming Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria), roses and Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha).
This is how the front garden looks in the spring in front of her white picket fence along the sidewalk. Here we see silvergrass, blooming Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria), roses and Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha).
Derviss painted her exterior white to keep things looking clean and simple. “The white exterior also helps show off the color of the plants well,” she says.
Planted in front of her house are violet churur (Lochroma cyanea), canna lilies (Canna pretoria), Peruvian lilies, coral aloes (Aloe striata), aeoniums and foxtail agaves (Agave attenuata).
Planted in front of her house are violet churur (Lochroma cyanea), canna lilies (Canna pretoria), Peruvian lilies, coral aloes (Aloe striata), aeoniums and foxtail agaves (Agave attenuata).
Derviss acknowledges both the pros and cons of living downtown. “On the positive side, one can walk to the next-door bakeries, cafes, hair salons and other shops of convenience,” she says. “On the negative side, it means that you are impacted by commercial noise and garbage.”
This little potager garden is enclosed with a pruned boxwood hedge, and it features a vegetable patch that Derviss changes out about twice a year. “Right now, I have tomatoes, basil, zucchini. In the winter, I plant lettuce, arugula and other various types of vegetables, and it’s constantly changing,” she says.
Derviss also has a background in sculpture and uses a studio at the College of Marin to make her original pieces. The two ceramic hands on top of the boxwood add a touch of whimsy to her front yard. “I placed the two ceramic hands opposing each other and will stage different things in them,” she says. “Sometimes I put a golf ball, pruning shears or I’ve even put a little kumquat so that it looks like they’re passing things back to each other.”
Derviss also has a background in sculpture and uses a studio at the College of Marin to make her original pieces. The two ceramic hands on top of the boxwood add a touch of whimsy to her front yard. “I placed the two ceramic hands opposing each other and will stage different things in them,” she says. “Sometimes I put a golf ball, pruning shears or I’ve even put a little kumquat so that it looks like they’re passing things back to each other.”
“I spend most of my time in the front yard now, and I have such great neighbors — everyone stops by to say hello,” Derviss says. “As neighbors, we trade plants and vegetables, and kids and pets come by to stop and chat.”
Browse Adirondack chairs
Browse Adirondack chairs
This mosaic path is one of the first outdoor projects Derviss completed when she bought the house.
The leaf pattern is made with leftover slate tile from a project for a client, and the blue tile is from Daltile.
The leaf pattern is made with leftover slate tile from a project for a client, and the blue tile is from Daltile.
Inside the 950-Square-Foot House
The interior of the house includes a collection of original pieces and furniture found on overseas trips, including a wooden side table from Morocco.
Derviss made the red stone Buddha piece that’s now displayed above her living room sofa for the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show in 2008. She designed and built a Bali-inspired garden for the show, and it won first place. The Buddha piece is made with paint, paper and tempered-glass mosaics.
The tea set on top of the vintage glass coffee table includes pieces bought in Kyoto and San Francisco’s Japantown.
Sofa: Scandinavian Designs
The interior of the house includes a collection of original pieces and furniture found on overseas trips, including a wooden side table from Morocco.
Derviss made the red stone Buddha piece that’s now displayed above her living room sofa for the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show in 2008. She designed and built a Bali-inspired garden for the show, and it won first place. The Buddha piece is made with paint, paper and tempered-glass mosaics.
The tea set on top of the vintage glass coffee table includes pieces bought in Kyoto and San Francisco’s Japantown.
Sofa: Scandinavian Designs
Derviss bought the LC4 chaise lounge right after graduating from college and has cherished the Le Corbusier-designed piece ever since.
The wooden console is from a furniture shop in Berkeley, California, called The Wooden Duck, which is now closed.
The wooden console is from a furniture shop in Berkeley, California, called The Wooden Duck, which is now closed.
The homeowner regularly moves her floral arrangements around the house. “I constantly change these out,” she says. “If I use an orchid, I can get four months out of an arrangement, but typically I’ll change things out every one to two weeks.”
Displayed on top of a table from Morocco is an ikebana arrangement made with orchids and mosses.
Displayed on top of a table from Morocco is an ikebana arrangement made with orchids and mosses.
The homeowner remodeled her kitchen in 2016 after discovering that rats had eaten through the electrical wiring. “The vinyl floor and molding that was eaten away like a piece of cheesecake were replaced with metal flashing, concrete board and high-fired porcelain tile,” Derviss says. “Some of the existing oak cabinets were salvaged, scraped down, mended and repainted with white enamel.”
The remodel took three to four months. “Luckily I can walk downtown to eat out, and I set up my microwave in the living room,” she says. “There was maybe a week or so where I had to do dishes in the bathroom sink.”
How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel
The remodel took three to four months. “Luckily I can walk downtown to eat out, and I set up my microwave in the living room,” she says. “There was maybe a week or so where I had to do dishes in the bathroom sink.”
How to Survive a Kitchen Remodel
The homeowner replaced some of the appliances, including the stove, because the rat-chewed wiring was unsafe. “With the dishwasher, I had to replace the hoses and insulation,” She says. “Rats ate the insulation blanket and tried to make a nest in there.” The walls are now lined with welded wire, and the previous linoleum flooring was replaced with porcelain tile.
Her everyday dishes are Fiestaware.
Her everyday dishes are Fiestaware.
These two bowls were gifts from friends in Derviss’ gardening group called the Hortisexuals. “The brush is from the Toji Temple Flea Market in Kyoto,” she says. “It happens once a month, and I time my trips to be able to attend because it’s so much fun.”
Browse gray subway tile
Browse gray subway tile
Derviss uses this original shelving divider as a place to display her collection of bright Fiestaware pitchers.
“I’ve always been attracted to color, and these are finds from garage sales, antique stores or gifts that people have given to me,” she says.
She attached each pitcher to the shelf with removable museum putty, which helps keep them in place.
The chair is from Bali.
“I’ve always been attracted to color, and these are finds from garage sales, antique stores or gifts that people have given to me,” she says.
She attached each pitcher to the shelf with removable museum putty, which helps keep them in place.
The chair is from Bali.
This collection of Depression-era translucent green glassware was a gift from Derviss’ aunt.
Window shade: Moorish Door, Delia Shades
Window shade: Moorish Door, Delia Shades
Derviss had a new crystal chandelier found on Houzz installed during the kitchen renovation.
“Houzz was a wonderful resource, especially when having to redo the kitchen to buy and compare things, and in seeing how other people have been inspired,” she says. “It has made the difference in how I work, especially as a solitary designer.”
Linear crystal chandelier: Gallery Lighting
Browse modern crystal chandeliers
“Houzz was a wonderful resource, especially when having to redo the kitchen to buy and compare things, and in seeing how other people have been inspired,” she says. “It has made the difference in how I work, especially as a solitary designer.”
Linear crystal chandelier: Gallery Lighting
Browse modern crystal chandeliers
Derviss runs her landscape design business from home and turned her second bedroom into an office. “I do all my drafting for clients by hand and use my Mayline drawing table daily to design. The worktop is roughly 3 by 5 feet, and I bought it used from an engineer,” she says. The desk is nestled in the corner with a view of a flowering trumpet tree in her side yard.
The Japanese chest is from The Zentner Collection in Emeryville, California. Derviss uses it to store her pencils, photos, paints, books and other resource information.
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The Japanese chest is from The Zentner Collection in Emeryville, California. Derviss uses it to store her pencils, photos, paints, books and other resource information.
Find landscape designers in your area on Houzz
“My bedroom is my quiet space,” Derviss says. “I have a watercolor painting by Tim Sheets that I got when I lived in Mendocino of a cove in Point Arena above my bed. I try to keep the decor sparse and kind of quiet. It’s as simple as I can be.”
“It’s a hobby and a pleasure and a slight obsession to do floral arrangements inside the house with materials from the garden,” Derviss says. Pictured are two arrangements in her bedroom. The one on the left combines cuttings from bamboo, a palm and bird of paradise. On the right is an arrangement made of bamboo, Ligularia and foxtail fern.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
Who lives here: Michelle Derviss and her rescue dog, Clifford
Location: Novato, California
Size: 950 square feet (88 square meters); two bedrooms, one bathroom
Landscape designer Michelle Derviss describes her personal style as “travel-inspired eclectic.” “International travel and study has always pulled at my heartstrings. I love immersing myself into other cultures and exploring how other people live, design and experience life in their spaces,” she says. Her travels to Japan, Indonesia, Morocco, Borneo and Singapore have inspired her design for the yard and interior of her 950-square-foot 1947 cottage in Novato, California, about 30 miles north of San Francisco.
“When walking in and around my home, you can see how various cultures have made an impression upon me,” she says. “I’m a believer in making my house and garden feel like a year-round vacation spot.”