Vintage Ducati is focal point of sleek Granite Bay home. Tour it with the designer
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Estate 4,000 sq ft in Granite Bay listed at $4.2M; modern remodel completed 2023.
- Design by Pete Lugo features floating glass stairs, broody bar and Ducati art.
- Layout emphasizes public entry, open great room and private primary suite.
A 4,000-square-foot Granite Bay estate on the market for $4.2 million is as sleek and cool as a Ducati motorcycle and unfolds as warm and welcoming as a hug.
Indeed, a real black-and-gold Ducati is artfully stationed in the entryway. The vintage motorcycle is both a statement piece and a metaphor for the house itself.
Two other focal points are striking right away: A modern formal office adjacent to a truly Chicago-style lounge and bar with a fireplace and speakeasy vibes.
Designer Pete Lugo of Lugo Design refers to the entry sequence just inside the nine-foot, revolving-glass front door as “public space.” The chic entrance evokes some of the world’s finest boutique hotel lobbies and acts as “a little compression when you walk in the door with a slightly shorter ceiling, and that opens up and expands,” he said.
“It breathes a certain way, feels public, it feels hotel, it feels luxury,” the Loomis-based designer added. “Those are … the architectural bits that we try to bring into our projects.
Step farther inside and the house opens up to a comfortable, inviting and stylish interior of dramatic lines, warm natural textures, high-end designer finishes and panoramic views of the immaculate grounds.
The floating glass-rail staircase draws the eyes upward and custom Dan Holmes cabinetry throughout the home provides a sophisticated harmony.
Welcome to 5020 Manchester Court
“We are in the heart of Granite Bay, and behind the beautiful gates of Wexford,” listing agent Kim Priley of the Bishop Real Estate Group said about 5020 Manchester Court. “We have a one-of-a-kind piece of art on the market here.”
Priley lists the numbers — “four bedrooms, three-and-a-half baths, with a private primary suite on the main floor on a half-acre lot with a beautifully landscaped backyard” — but it’s the essence of the house that sticks with visitors.
“The feedback that we’re getting on this home is that it is so modern and so beautiful, but yet so warm and so homey and that they can feel the quality,” Priley said.
Lugo was the inspiration and driving force behind the home and builder Daniel Cardenas executed the details. The original house on the property was taken down to the studs and reimagined over a two-year span. The project was completed in 2023.
Lugo remembers the beginning.
“The homeowner reached out to us, asking for us to come visit his home because he wanted to remodel,” he said. “We replied with, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’ It was basically a 24-hour turnaround time, and that was the beginning of a very good relationship with the homeowners.”
When Lugo first set foot in the former dwelling, he found “a house that was extremely dated… that definitely needed love inside and out.”
He described the aesthetics of the new house as timeless and modern.
“That’s what we strive to do in our firm, something that is timeless, that will live 20, 30 years without needing to remodel or change,” he said. “And obviously with modern touches.”
The ‘broody bar’ and lounge
A key design move was the dramatic bar, or what Lugo calls “a broody bar” in the best sense of the word.
“The house is very light wood. We wanted the office and the bar to have that broodiness,” he said. “And it does make you feel like you are in an actual bar. It lives off of the public space, which is the lobby. So the coloration and the moodiness of it is tangent with what’s happening at the entry.”
Of course, the vintage Ducati motorcycle can’t be ignored.
“We’re very open to our design directions and ideas and concepts,” Lugo said. “And I remember standing in the entryway with the homeowner and said, ‘what we really need is a motorcycle.’ And he looked at me kind of strangely, and I said, ‘No, we really need a motorcycle.’ And so we went on the hunt, and he found this Ducati, this vintage Ducati, which is really perfect as a piece of art. He’s an avid art collector. You look through the house, he has a lot of good pieces. This is just like a little chair, nice little entry piece.”
Does the motorcycle come with the house?
“Depends on the offer,” Priley said. “It was meant for that spot.”
The floating staircase across from the office and bar is a point of transparency and light.
“The floating staircase… gives you some transparency into the main part of the house without giving too much away,” Lugo said. “The clear railings also give you that transparency, which we want. We want a light feel.”
Backyard resort living
The staircase ascends to a living area with two bedrooms and a “lobby in the sky.” One upstairs room opens onto a supersized patio deck overlooking the pool and entire multi-level backyard “which is very sexy,” Lugo said.
The great room and kitchen downstairs speak to both style and substance.
“It’s just a modern concept of living. We have the dining, the kitchen and the living room space kind of embracing one area of the house,” Lugo said. “It lives well for entertainment, but it also feels intimate and private because it’s not visible from the street, opens all up to the backyard, into the big patio doors. It also has a dirty kitchen behind that gives you space for all of your things… the kitchen stays very clean and polished.”
Step outside and the resort vibe blooms. The eye is drawn to an expansive wall on the backside of the pool with a roaring waterfall feature.
“The idea was that you feel like you’re in a hotel,” Lugo said. “You’re in a resort, and it does draw you out into that space. And every terrace that you hit is another place to sit and rest and entertain. There’s fire pits, there’s pool level. Then you get up to the front covered patio, where you have dining area and lounge area that kind of extends the living room out. So it all flows inside-outside very well and seamless.”
The primary suite continues the private-resort theme. Outside the bedroom’s glass doors is a sitting area with a fire pit.
“It was the desire to have that luxury hotel feel, but it also is very private,” Lugo said. “You can be in that master suite, and people can be in the kitchen, the living room, and you’re a world away in your own private resort suite. That’s kind of what we try to create there.”
Not to be lost in all of it is a 150-year-old olive tree strategically placed in front of and framed by a window next to the dining room table.
Working relationships made the project shine, Lugo said.
“We gained trust early. We build our business on communication, and communication creates relationship, and a relationship creates opportunity. There was really no hesitation,” Lugo said. “ I don’t think we ever hit any brakes. They just said, ‘go.’ ”
