Hollywood Interiors: Style and Design in Los Angeles

Hollywood individualism pervades every aspect of life in Los Angeles including interior design, where it manifests as highly original spaces from Malibu to Silver Lake in a dizzying assortment of styles—from 1920s and 1930s Spanish Revival houses in the Hollywood hills, to highly adorned Storybook houses, and airy and transparent midcentury modern forms.

Status in Los Angeles, like success in the ever-fascinating movie industry that sets it apart, is based on the creation of truly unique moments. A relentless celebration of personality fuels the city, creating a cult of the individual and driving the city’s collective exaltation of talents and quirks. This collection of nineteen homes designed by Los Angeles-based architects and designers illustrates this exuberance and diversity. The homes showcased here in over 200 full-color images are in the hills and on the flats—they evoke Old Europe with antique or hand-crafted finishes, keep guests riveted to the moment with intensely rich details, or defer, with restrained palettes, to stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. They are of new construction by iconic figures such as Richard Meier & Partners, as well as classic homes such as a Spanish Revival by George H. Freuhling, a fanciful Storybook streamlined for contemporary life, and immaculately restored midcentury homes by Harwell Hamilton Harris and John Lautner.

Work by individuals who are relatively new to the design world and who are quickly making names for themselves—Courtney Applebaum, Andrew Benson, Chu Gooding, Trip Haenisch, Nickey Kehoe, and Olivia Williams—is featured alongside the city’s established, award-winning designers including Commune, Paul Fortune, Melinda Ritz, Rose Tarlow, and Kelly Wearstler. The California Dream relies first and foremost on a willingness to be seduced by the place itself, and these architects and designers actively participate in a love affair with the place that makes their work possible, and which is tangible in this stunning presentation of residential spaces.