Sunset Magazine: This Ranch House Strikes the Perfect Balance Between Mid-century Design and Groovy ’70s Nostalgia
Amir and Treci Smith combined their similar vintage aesthetics in their Southern California home built as much for comfort as style. Read their story in an excerpt from the new design and history book, Aphrochic: Celebrating the Legacy of the Black Family.
Treci Smith and her husband, Amir, live in a Southern California home that was never intended to be owned by Black people. When it was first built, the original deed to the land was written with a racial covenant: a then–legally binding addendum stipulating that the home and the land it’s situated on could only be bought or sold by someone white. That they’ve spent the last 13 years frustrating the racist intent of the original landowner is only one of the many things that they enjoy about their home. Another is imagining that person’s face if they could see what they’ve done with it.
The Smith estate is vast, with area enough to encompass a 2,300-square-foot main house, a 1,100-square-foot guesthouse, and an 800-square-foot studio office—with plenty of room to spare. Adding atmosphere to the home’s several structures is an expansive outdoor area, including a full lounge space, a garden (complete with chicken coop), and a pool. “And there’s still part of the yard that we haven’t even done anything with,” Amir says with a laugh.
Though they grew up in Southern California, both Treci and Amir originally hail from the Midwest. Their families arrived in the region in the 1920s and 1930s, having left the South during the early days of the Great Migration.