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"View Slideshow\n\nFrom Cinderella to Extreme Make-over, the notion of instant transformation holds a steady grip on the public imagination. Of course, the very idea's a fantasy: The appeal of every Before and After story lies in its disavowal of During.\n\nTake the case of Ed and Ruth Morrow. He's a former engineer; she's a psychologist turned artist. When they retired several years ago, they went on a quest for the potentially perfect property, eventually settling on a house in California's Carmel Valley. It had lovely views and even met some of their more unique requirements\u2014a library for him, a studio for her, an art gallery for both of them. A diamond in the rough? Better make that two diamonds. Half of the house, built in the late 1980s, was a kind of rustic if misguided homage to Frank Lloyd Wright; the other half, a recent addition, was uncompromisingly contemporary. \"What you had was a house with two personalities,\" says Ed Morrow. \"One had quarter-sawn redwood paneling with a fieldstone fireplace that went on forever. The other had white-plaster walls with black-and-white checkerboard tiling. A kind word would be disjointed.\"\n\n Even so, the couple had few doubts about who might pull the place together. \"I had been following Sally Sirkin Lewis's work for 25 years,\" says Ruth Morrow. \"It had always been my dream for her to do a house for us, and this seemed to be the time.\" Who better to wave her wand than Lewis, wizard of the top-to-bottom metamorphosis?\n\nLewis and her associate Kenn Shlaes developed a plan. Architectural changes were confined to a few significant moves to improve circulation, streamline interior lines and unify surface materials. The fieldstone fireplace was relocated (and re-faced) to center on the living room's bay window. Access to the master bedroom was changed from a corridor behind the fireplace to a door off the living room. Walls were straightened in the kitchen, and the entire space was updated. French doors were installed in the living room, bedroom and library to strengthen the house's connection to the stunning site.\n\nTo help unite the rooms, Lewis and Shlaes clad most of the walls in a taupe grass cloth. They applied drywall to the beam ceilings and painted them ivory and either bleached the oak floors or covered them with taupe carpeting. All the doors are now a glossy black. \"The detail in the floors and walls lets you appreciate the existing architecture,\" explains Shlaes.\n\nFurnishings reiterate the simple but bold scheme: Lewis's own designs\u2014low tables made of stainless-steel cylinders and black-granite tops, chairs in ebonized woods and ivory fabrics\u2014are mixed with modern chrome-and-black-leather classics by Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. Steel and bronze sculptures and graphic contemporary art keep the eye busy. \"They don't have to worry about setting a drink down,\" notes Lewis. \"I wanted it to be maintenance-free, because the Morrows travel a lot and don't have live-in help.\"\n\nThe rooms have a protean quality that suits a couple who live by themselves but also enjoy entertaining. The long entrance hall serves at once as a lofty invitation into the house, an art gallery and a venue for large gatherings. The sleek new kitchen is small enough for the two of them and generous enough for a catering crew. Unfold a sofa, and a bedroom accommodates overnight guests.\n\nAs with most of Lewis's projects, the overall effect is both dramatic and serene. \"When people come into this house,\" Ed Morrow says, \"one of the first things they say is, It's so calming.'\u00A0\"\n\nBe that as it may, the Morrows have barely had a chance to unwind here. Several weeks after moving in, they left for a trip to Europe from which they only recently returned. Which is not to say that this Before and After tale lacks a happy ending. As Ed Morrow puts it, \"When we walked through the door after our long trip, my first thought was: nice house.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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