How a California storage barn became a lakeside vineyard retreat
On Split Rock Ranch—a 30-acre former cattle ranch turned vineyard along Lake Nacimiento in Paso Robles, California—architect Grant Kirkpatrick and his wife Shaya transformed this storage barn on their California ranch into a modern lakeside retreat, giving their children the splashy summers they remembered.
When Grant Kirkpatrick, founding partner of KAA Design Group, and winemaker wife Shaya sought a lake house, they found it on Split Rock Ranch. After converting the land into a vineyard, the couple felt the utility barn was ripe for reinvention—a natural extension of making the ranch a true family home.
Key Takeaways
- A Paso Robles storage barn on a working vineyard became a durable, design-forward lakeside retreat without losing its agricultural character.
- Metal cladding, aluminum louver screens, and sliding glass doors connect the home to Lake Nacimiento and wine-country weather.
- Found objects—from a 7,500-pound limestone boulder to fire-scarred manzanita—turn the interiors into a gallery of the land itself.
- The project shows how luxury ranch homes can prioritize low-maintenance materials and indoor-outdoor living over pristine perfection.
Why Did a Vineyard Storage Barn Become a Family Retreat?
Kirkpatrick told Robb Report the porch and garage were later additions, but the core structure offered an obvious next step. "Hey, let's take that structure and make it into a real home for the ranch," he said. On a remote working ranch, flawlessness matters less than durability—and the family wanted a place where kids could enjoy lake summers much like their parents had.
The result retains the straightforward spirit of the original barn while layering in details compatible with the landscape. For more transformations like this, see our Luxury Real Estate & Dream Homes coverage.
What Design Choices Make the Barn Feel at Home in Wine Country?
Exterior cues came from agricultural structures Kirkpatrick admired on his travels. Roof and walls share U.S. Aluminum metal panels in widths from six to 16 inches, arranged in an irregular A-B-B-C-A pattern that softens the facade and hides weather wear. Vertical aluminum louver screens—finished in wood grain by an Australian manufacturer—add privacy, shade, and what Kirkpatrick calls "lace and glow at night."
Inside, polished-concrete floors and board-formed-concrete walls handle Paso Robles' dramatic temperature swings. Engineered-wood flooring, repurposed as wall cladding at the contractor's suggestion, adds warmth without sacrificing dimensional stability.
How Does Split Rock Ranch Blend Indoors and Outdoors?
Roughly 85 feet of 10-foot-tall sliding-glass doors open the great room to a broad porch, with roll-down screens keeping bugs at bay. "We always intended to pull nature into the house and the house out into nature," Kirkpatrick said. Outside, a towering fireplace anchors a vineyard-facing "sports lounge" beside the lake, its vertical chimney punctuating the otherwise horizontal architecture.
A monumental Brightbound fixture—fabricated in Napa with blown glass, ironwork, and rope—scales the soaring great room to human proportions. Details like the fireplace notch double as functional flues, reflecting a house where beauty always has a job to do.
What Makes Jonas the Ranch's Most Photographed Feature?
The great room's centerpiece is not furniture but Jonas, a 7,500-pound limestone boulder unearthed while preparing vines. Limestone here retains water for grape roots during dry summers; most stones stayed outdoors, but Jonas became indoor sculpture—and "Instagram Rock," with more than 15 people climbing aboard at once.
After the 2016 Chimney Fire scorched over 46,000 acres in the Santa Lucia Range, a favorite manzanita tree burned black. The family brought its sculptural remains inside beside the fireplace; another branch accents a bedroom. Read the full project details in the original Robb Report feature.