Inside Oliver Furth's Redesign of a Historic Bel Air Home
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Overlooking Sunset Boulevard in Bel Air is an elegant house built by architect Paul R. Williams, in the 18th-century Régence style but with a decidedly 20th-century American flow. It was the 1930s, after all, and the Golden Age of Hollywood was taking off.
For many decades the house belonged to a family in the toy manufacturing business; then it was acquired by my clients, a couple in finance and philanthropy who are devoted art collectors well versed in decorative history. They saw themselves as stewards of the property, caretakers of a piece of the trailblazing legacy of Williams, who became the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects in 1923 and went on to work on the LAX Theme Building, the Tennis Club in Palm Springs, and numerous private residences, many of them today considered important architectural homes on the West Coast.
Williams was particularly sought after for a revival style with a modern sensibility, which gave the new owners license to infuse his formal architecture with their own contemporary flourishes. Strong jewel tones figured prominently in their mood board. It was clear they were keen to pump up the volume chromatically.
In developing the decor, we kept in mind the great Los Angeles houses from the first half of the last century, especially those by Billy Haines, the silent film actor who went on to design homes for some of the stars of the era, including Carole Lombard, Joan Crawford, and Gloria Swanson, whose 1950 comeback movie, Sunset Boulevard, almost featured the designer in a cameo role.
Haines excelled at glamorous rooms that put a premium on real comfort, an essential attribute for my clients, who entertain regularly and often with gusto: sit-down dinners for 12, preceded by aperitifs in the winter garden; cocktail parties in the living room; and luncheons on the expansive terrace with views of the skyline.
We began with a respectful and formal envelope, restoring miles of carved moldings and repainting them a crisp glossy white. Surfaces are finished in a variety of textures and colors: The living room is laid with a paper-baked Tahitian pearl silk; the dining room is upholstered in a rich, mossy green cashmere; and a mural depicting a verdant 19th-century paradise was hand-painted for the winter garden.
In the library, the original Régence-style walnut paneling was restored. Bedrooms upstairs were painted in a rainbow of strong but soothing colors: cerulean, citron, Eau de Nil.
Throughout the house bespoke floor-to-ceiling curtains in a high-wattage palette of Scottish wool sateen shimmer. Gleaming, polished wood floors covered with antique Persian rugs mingle with 18th-century French furnishings, terra-cotta figures from Tang Dynasty China, and works by blue chip modernists and Latin American artists that anchor the couple’s collection.
The mix, for us, was the sweet spot. We made sure that none of the rooms tilted too historic or too modern. It was all about the harmony. Art and design, old and new—they play well together in a bright and warm color story that tips the California Look into its next chapter, and this young family into its future.
Lead image: In the media room, a Roche Bobois sofa, Partrick Martinez diptych, and Holland & Sherry curtains.
Adapted from OP! Optimistic Interiors by Oliver Furth (Rizzoli, $55).
OP! Optimistic Interiors
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This story appears in the March 2024 issue of Town & Country, with the headline "As If We Never Said Goodbye." SUBSCRIBE NOW
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