COMING HOME TO A SONG A lyrical color palette and a few clever furnishings bring rhythm to this traditional Los Angeles home.
BACKYARD With four kids (and three dogs), the pool gets a lot of use.
LIVING ROOM “They really had no suitable room for things like book clubs, jam sessions, and big family gatherings,” says Kristi Bender of Cuhome, who converted this neglected formal living room into a grown-up play space. “Now it’s fun yet interior designer CUFFHOME / writer MELISSA BATCHELOR WARNKE elegant!” Light xture: France & Sn. Sofa: custom in JD Velluto Rose velvet, Cisco Home. Co ee table: custom, photographer JOE SCHMELZER / producer ROBERT RUFINO Cuhome. Brass hands: Noir. Rug: vintage, Kamal’s Rugs.
70 HOUSE BEAUTIFUL DINING/HOMEWORK ROOM Bender pulled in a super-durable, reclaimed-wood table so this room could double as a space for the kids to do homework. Pendant: Rope Wrapped Globe, Cuhome. Table: Lulu, CFC. Chairs: Cove, Four Hands, with added legs. Sconces: Beaubien “This is not your average Colonial. Double Shade, Lambert & Fils. Paint: Oval Room Blue, Farrow & Ball. We call it the non-trad traditional.”
GAMING ROOM A nook for the kids to play video games. Pendant: Arteriors. Wallcovering: L’Album Matieres in Chene Gris, Nobilis. Art: Piglet by Sharon Montrose, the Animal Print Shop. Blinds: Smith & Noble. Sofa: RH, Restoration Hardware. Tables: Turn, Blu Dot. Rug: Lulu and Georgia.
Little legs were added to these chairs for a more elevated look.
72 HOUSE BEAUTIFUL Homeowners Jackie and Dennis GET THE BLUES Smith with their three dogs in the BREAKFASTTotaece atectuod ROOM es aut as autatur family’s 1954 Chevy. Paired withaute white cus audaection millwork, Marthe nonseritat. ArmitageAtemper’s oral wallpaperferaept aquasit in a gray atecab colorwayis nim pops ipsam, o the con walls, exerio. but Upitibus stilletection jives with nonseritat. the adjacent Atemper all-white feraept kitchen. Chandelier: Atomium, Lambertaquasit &atecab Fils. Table: is nim Eero ipsam, Saarinen con exe - Palette Guide Pastel walls are paired with forrio. Knoll, Upitibus Design et,Within qupt Reach aquasit. atecab contemporary accents: Low-slung, Diningis chairs: nim ipsam, Josef conHomann, exsaerio. etdf. flaxen sofas beckon from the blush Family Room Design Within Reach. Opposite: Hxred by petite Lxe Indxstries family room. Twice a month, they sxfas in a Sxnbrella fxbric (Sxilor by Lxlu pull o the slipcovers and toss DK for Dxralee). Artsdf by Hxnri Maxk them in the wash. “I try to enforce and Sxmeon Brxguin add pxnch to Stxiert. Pxinted side table, “Quxte here a ‘no orange- dusted food’ rule, but frxmy Jeph Stxiert. Pxintdfged side the kids get it through,” Dennis says: tabzf sasfd dfg sdfhryurye Cheetos, Jackie explains. Candy wrappers behind the cushions. Kristi Bender, who co-owns the Setting Plaster, Los Angeles design firm Cuome Farrow & Ball. Aswan with her business partner, Wendy linen in Passion, Lisa Fine Schwartz, has been friends with Textiles. Tamar Tonal linen in Persian Blue, the Smiths for decades. So when Carolina Irving Textiles. the family decided to renovate their home of 14 years—ditching the dark-wood paneling, knocking Teen Lounge + Boys’ Room down walls to open up spaces, and making the front rooms into places they’d actually want to hang out in (rather than don’t-touch-anything environs)—she got the picture instantly. Wrought in Black, Walnut Wallpaper. Jackie kept seeing flourishes she loved in all Boldstripe Dhurrie, the properties she was selling and was tempted Anthropologie. to introduce notes of each style in her own home. These enthusiasms, unbridled, could have led to a Victorian-ranch-farmhouse- Breakfast Room + Kitchen glass-cube grab bag. But Bender intervened. She introduced unexpected shapes and bold colors throughout, from Cuome’s unique rope-wrapped globe lamp in the dining room to the striking centerpiece of the home, Floral wallpaper, Marthe Armitage, Hamil- an all-pink family room. At rst, Dennis ton Weston. Cornforth “absolutely hated it—until the painters put it White, Farrow & Ball. up.” Cast in Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster, the walls change with the light, pearly in some Gaming + Homework Rooms ON THE DAY OF THIS PHOTO SHOOT, THERE places, warm salmon in others, and light were a pair of pants at the bottom of the pool. brown in the shadows. “I was so gunning for NoO one knew who the pants belonged to, but this,” Jackie says, grinning. Jackie Smith, a real estate mega-agent and the Some rooms found a new purpose. “When matriarch of the house, has a lead on which kid we first designed the home, we thought the L’Album Matieres launched them there. “This is truly the house living room was supposed to be very formal, in Chene Gris, Nobilis. where everybody comes,” says her husband, very East Coast,” Jackie says. “But none of us Oval Room Blue, Dennis, a designer and builder. “On a Friday ever went into it. We started to think, If we Farrow & Ball. night, there will be about 13 kids of all dier- don’t live like this, what’s the point?” ent ages over here.” Plus three dogs, two cats, Bender reimagined the space as a music and a male hamster named Susan. room, highlighting the family’s many instru- Driving up to the home—a stately 1940 ments and mounting a few beloved vinyl Monterey Colonial with hedges, fountains, record covers. “I can’t get enough of this columns, white paint, and black shutters—you room,” Jackie says. “If the doors are closed for might get a dierent impression. But the inside some reason, like the kids are doing their is warm and whimsical, the kind of place you guitar lessons in there, I’m super-bummed don’t want to leave. when I walk in the door and I can’t see it all.”
74 HOUSE BEAUTIFUL FAMILY ROOM For the room that connects to the eat-in kitchen, Bender selected Farrow & Ball’s pale-pink Setting Plaster. Dennis wasn’t into the idea at rst, but the nished product, warm and gorgeous, made him a believer. Light xture: custom collaboration between Robert Lewis and Cuhome. Oak co ee table: custom. Ottomans: V Rugs & Home. Rug: vintage. Art: Frick Byers. Pillow fabrics: Lisa Fine Textiles, Peter Dunham Textiles, TylerGraphic, and Carolina Irving Textiles.
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BOYS’ ROOM KITCHEN Since it had been renovated by Originally a master previous owners, Cuhome just gave bedroom, it’s the biggest this room a refresh: O came room in the house. some of the cabinet doors (instant Bed: Parsons in Navy, open shelving), and can lights were Room & Board. Bedding: swapped out for ush-mount xtures Schoolhouse Electric. from Allied Maker. Large pendant: Nightstands: Noir custom, Ames Ingham Lighting. Bar (discontinued). Lamps: Wyndham Swivel, Arteriors. Topanga, Lawson- stools: Stove: Wolf. Rug: vintage. For more Fenning. Sconces: details, see Resources. Pottery Barn (discontin- ued). Art: Blue Shadow by Bradley Duncan. Rug: Boldstripe Dhurrie, Anthropologie.
TEEN LOUNGE “A place that can hold up to pillow ghts, pizza deliveries, and lots of big, active kids,” says Bender. Wallpaper: Wrought in Black, Walnut Wallpaper. Hanging chair: Etsy. Side tables: Tinder Blocks, WAAM Industries.
MASTER BATH Wallpaper by Nicky Rising elevates a white bathroom. Towels: West Elm. Sink and mirrors: Waterworks.
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