Sonoma Hilltop Home Office

The project began during the early months of COVID, when working from home stopped being an occasional exception and became a permanent condition. The site was extraordinary: a 100-acre property in Sonoma County set high above the surrounding valley, with sweeping views across the vineyards below and the hills beyond. The brief was simple. A dedicated home office that would function as a genuine work retreat, calibrated for long hours in front of a view of that scale.

Studio Graf led the project end-to-end as a design and build, controlling every stage from concept through material sourcing to on-site construction. The building is compact and sited on a natural hilltop where the trees frame the outlook without blocking it. The space is designed for focused work and for the quiet decompression that a setting like this makes possible.

Material decisions were shaped by the constraints of the moment. The project was built while lumber prices were at historic highs, and on a project of this scale, every material selection had a real impact on the budget. Interior walls and ceilings were clad in birch plywood, which is affordable, durable, and offers the practical advantage of easy in-wall maintenance access.

The exterior uses T1-11 siding, an inexpensive board material typically associated with utility structures, transformed here by a deep dark stain that reads as intentional rather than economical. The red painted deck trim and roof edge nod to the existing barn on the property, tying the modern volume to its rural context without imitating it.