The Home Splurge Mindy Kaling Doesn’t Feel Bad About
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Mindy Kaling’s creativity has fueled many iconic TV shows and performances over the years. With more exciting projects on the way—including a comedy series starring Kate Hudson and the highly anticipated movie Legally Blonde 3—the actor, writer, and producer is giving us an inside look at how she gets creative in her home. From the room she frequently works in (hint: it’s not her office!) to her clever solution for muffling the sound of loud kitchen appliances, the successful star continually finds inspiration and taps into her innovative skills at home.
Located in Los Angeles’s Hancock Park, Kaling’s home is full of bright, saturated colors. While it includes a vibrant office, she never uses it. “I write from bed, so my office that has a desk in it has now just become a playroom for my children because I don't use it,” Kaling tells House Beautiful. “But it's upsetting because I always pictured having my laptop in a beautiful, stately office, but I just work in bed like someone with consumption. I'm just laying in bed, in my nightcap, writing.”
Kaling says her bedroom “is purposefully very restrained” with “light blues and pastels, which feel very calming and perfect for a bedroom.” Better yet, her bed is outfitted with custom-made bedding by Leontine Linens for lasting comfort. “Katie Ridder, who designed my home, was the one who was like, ‘You're nobody until you have custom linens,’” Kaling recalls. “It was very, very expensive but definitely worth it.”
While the home’s open floor plan allows for an airy atmosphere, it presents a challenge that Kaling has tackled with an easy workaround. She explains: “My kitchen is right off of my TV room. My children watch their loud children's programming [in there] and I'll be in the kitchen or cooking, and they're like, ‘You're being too loud!’ So I don't know if I've met this challenge, but I've learned whether I'm making a smoothie or doing the air fryer, or any of these loud devices, I've had to move them into the pantry so that I don't get screamed at by my children.”
A marble countertop in her pantry’s entry is where she keeps the few noisy appliances she owns. The storage solution also helps avoid kitchen countertop clutter. “I have a thing where if I have any surface in my house, it becomes cluttered instantly… but I don't like the look of clutter,” Kaling says.
When outside her home, Kaling doesn’t have to go far to find inspiration for her inventive endeavors. “We have a little place in Malibu on the beach,” she says. “I find it incredibly creatively inspiring to go for a walk on the beach.”
If you think that’s cliché, Kaling once thought the same. “When I was growing up, I always had an eye roll energy about people who were like, ‘I love walks on the beach,’” she explains. “And then I actually started doing them and I was like, ‘Oh, I totally get this. I shouldn't be mocking this. This is real.’”
Kaling notes she’s not “highly attuned to the natural habitat,” adding that she doesn’t go on hikes in the southern California forests. “But to me, the beach and the ocean are so much more approachable,” she says. “There are no deadly snakes, and it doesn't feel quite as hot, even almost like a cool-off. So I really do prefer the beach to almost every other natural environment.”
To inspire creativity in others, Kaling recently teamed up with Sharpie and Paper Mate tied to the launch of their new colorful markers and gel pens. Like her L.A. home, the markers come in saturated colors while the gel pens are more in line with her Malibu home’s pastel color palette. Whether it's bright markers on index cards that visually help Kaling craft a story as a comedy writer or the lively interiors of her homes, one thing is certain: Kaling's life is full of color.
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