Visionary Spaces
West Side Wonder: Eye for Pretty’s Home on Harper Lane
How creative director, owner Nicole Salceda brought the studio’s signature style to their first spec home
“From an early age, I’d always been told that I had an eye for design,” says Nicole Salceda. “I remember being a kid and decorating my bedroom.”
As owner and creative director for Eye For Pretty, a full-service interior design studio based in Danville, California, Salceda has come a long way since bedroom decor. But even during her years as an elementary school teacher, design played a major role in her life—until 2016, when she made the leap to design full-time.
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Danville, CA, 2023
Now, Salceda keeps a commitment to making the studio’s projects feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside. “That’s always been my driving force,” she says. “When our clients get home at the end of the day, it’s really just a sanctuary and a feeling of belonging to them.”
“When our clients get home at the end of the day, it’s really just a sanctuary and a feeling of belonging to them.”
Her approach to design blends elements of warmth and minimalism into a style she calls “California casual,” a sense of home and comfort that complements the bright, airy weather with layers of texture and light—all while maintaining an elevated aura.
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Litze® Kitchen Collection in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
Salceda showcased that signature style throughout Eye for Pretty’s 2023 Harper Lane installation, the studio’s first spec home venture. They worked alongside Joe Barale of Barale Builders to make the West Side property into a masterpiece.
The setting lent an iconic backdrop, with hills, trees, and walking paths setting a scene of serenity. The team leaned into the neighborhood’s aesthetic, blending stone and darker wood with the surrounding greenery.
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson
That natural beauty seeps into the home’s design—big windows, lots of curves and arches, and natural Casa Blanca stone from ElDorado Stone. The stone, Salceda says, was particularly tricky to work with: “It’s like a puzzle,” she says. With so many individual pieces, the masons took great care to place and set it. But the results were well worth the effort: throughout the interior and exterior, there’s an element of grace only found in the organic.
For the interior, Salceda leaned into her own tastes: “I designed it basically as my dream home. I picked my favorite vendors, materials, colors, and then we designed the house around those things.”
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Odin® Two-Handle Wall Mount Lavatory Faucet with Lever Handles in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
One of her own dream requests was to have two laundry rooms, both with limestone floors from Zia Tile. She styled the downstairs laundry with custom cabinets with brass inlay mesh and pieces from the Jason Wu for Brizo™ Kitchen Collection.
Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Jason Wu for Brizo™ Kitchen Pull-Down Faucet with Arc Spout in Matte White
Interior Designer: Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / featuring The Litze® Kitchen Articulating Faucet with Knurled Handle in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
For the other laundry room, Salceda chose the Litze® Kitchen Collection in Brilliance® Luxe Gold. Likewise, she used the Litze® Bath Collection for the home’s primary bath. She says the collection is an enduring favorite: “It’s such a transitional, beautiful design. I feel like it works in every space.”
Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Litze® Bath Widespread Lavatory Faucet with High Spout and Lever Handles in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Litze® Bath collection in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
Nicole Salceda / Stylist: Eye for Pretty At Home / Photographer: Jessica Brydson / Featuring the Litze® Two-Handle Wall mount Tub Filler with T-Lever Handles in Brilliance® Luxe Gold®
In that space, she says the collection harmonizes with the Zellige shower tile and marble vanity to create one of her favorite rooms in the house. “Take a look at that gorgeous shower with the rain head, the shower arm, the wall faucet with the beautiful Native Trails tub, and you’ll see that it all just came together perfectly,” she says.
“It all just came together perfectly.”
Salceda says that despite its being a new build, she takes pride in the fact that the house on Harper Lane doesn’t feel new. She saw that people were blown away by the luxurious, yet atypical atmosphere.
That air comes through the home’s architecture, but also through its furnishings—hand-selected by Salceda and her team. Every detail leaned into Eye for Pretty’s signature style. “When we think of minimalism, sometimes we think it could be cold because there’s not much to it,” she says. “But when we bring warmth to that style, it evokes the opposite: a sense of home and comfort.”
