When students spend four years at UC Santa Barbara, they never forget the beautiful region of their college years and often yearn to return. That’s what the owners of this house were able to do this year. After successful careers in the Bay Area, they found a small house on a lot with a view of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara’s now-hip Mesa neighborhood.

Working with Dennis Thompson, FAIA, of Thompson Naylor Architects, they crafted a 2-story house on the sloping lot, with an accessory dwelling unit below. The upper level of the house, at street level, has three bedrooms, kitchen and living room. The “great room” opens onto an ocean-view deck through two large pocketing doors, and the master bedroom can look through the living room to the same view.

The owners, acting as their own interior designers, included different colored wallpaper accent walls in each bedroom and brilliant tiles in bathrooms, kitchen and at the fireplace. The large built-in dining table is part of the kitchen, which puts family and guests at the center of each meal