ARHITECTRAL DIGEST - This Stylish LA Home With Elevated Decor Spotlights the Importance of Fine Details

From jewellery-style lighting to vintage pottery and dark, moody colours, it’s the small things that make all the difference at this revamped 1946 Spanish colonial-style villa

A villa in Hollywood Hills can be a thing of beauty, and status signalling. And as this quietly luxurious LA Home is proof, combining old with new is a Hollywood interiors mantra that does both, effectively and elegantly.

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Led by design duo Amanda Leigh and Taylor Hahn, LA developer House of Rolison breathes new life into neglected properties, reinventing them as inviting, modern living spaces. Its latest project is this 1946 Spanish colonial-style villa in The Bird Streets, a quiet enclave in the hills above Hollywood’s Sunset Strip known for its architecturally significant homes. While this property has yet to find its new owner, it’s already brimming with character, thanks to Leigh and Hahn’s flair for rich textural layers and unique decorative touches.

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The duo’s aim was to honour the house’s Spanish-inspired heritage, while modernizing its confused, dated layout to create a LA home fit for today's lifestyle. “We wanted to transport the new owners to the European countryside,” says Leigh. “On the outside, we achieved this by adding olive trees, an emerald-green zellige-tiled dipping pool, a stone fountain, and terraced outdoor spaces wrapping the entire home. The interior layout wasn’t conducive to modern living, so we moved around some bedrooms, the dining room, and the living spaces. Before, you would have to walk through bedrooms to get to other bedrooms, and not all of them were en suite.”

With the original spirit of the LA home in mind, Leigh and Hahn resisted the urge to go overboard with their renovation. “When trying to maximise space, people’s instinct is often to remove all the walls and create one open area,” says Hahn. “However, that’s not always the best move. By strategically adding walls, extending them, or installing an archway from one room to another – we did all three of these things here – a space will not only feel more expansive, with more dedicated rooms, but it will be cosier and more functional as well.”

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With a new, more logical layout in place, they could focus on rich layers of decoration to give the house a homely feel. This approach begins in the entrance hall, which features warm stained white oak panelling and a custom-made wrought-iron banister. “Together, these create a ‘wow’ moment as soon as you step inside the front door,” says Leigh. “In the rest of the house, we embraced bold, deep colours that evoke an old-world sensibility, as well as incorporating rich stones and dark woods to ground the home and introduce calming tonal layers.” Each room has been given its own theme – the moody chocolate-and-cream dining room, earthy red bedroom and opulent blue-tiled bathroom are three prime examples. “They’re all colours you’d find in a natural landscape, for that grounded feel,” says Leigh.

It’s the intricate layers of decorative detail, though, that truly elevate this home above the ordinary. Note the Calacatta Viola marble details in the kitchen and bathrooms – one of House of Rolison’s favourite materials for its bold patterning. “We love to embellish it with distinctive bullnose edges and fluted faces - they lend a sense of craftsmanship and personality,” says Hahn. In the kitchen, gobstopper-style marble cabinet knobs from Emtek and wavy metal Capri door handles from Lo & Co add a playful touch thanks to their exaggerated proportions, along with a zellige-tiled extractor hood in rich chocolate brown and a custom-made pendant light that resembles a piece of jewellery.

Leigh and Hahn also worked closely with Olive Ateliers, an LA retailer specialising in soulful vintage and one-of-a-kind objects from around the world, to add individual touches to each room. “You’ll notice its stunning ceramic pots, mirrors and old wooden benches and cutting boards throughout many of our designs,” says Leigh. “We love to sprinkle in vintage pieces that we’ve sourced over time.” Even the furniture has a unique flavour: a small sitting room features a sofa and chairs in warm, textured browns by Jake Arnold, founder of LA interior design consultancy The Expert, while one of the five bathrooms boasts an unusual brown resin bathtub by California supplier Medunjess. “The finished home is a lovely melding of all things important to House of Rolison – it’s contemporary yet grounded, thoughtful and highly curated in every corner,” Hahn concludes. houseofrolison.com

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