California cool meets Southern charm in a home designed with family in mind
Decades ago, it was a desk. A grandfather once scribbled notes and pored over documents upon the live-edge table carved from rich pecan wood.
Today, it’s a storied heirloom that’s the heart of his grandson’s home. In its new era, the desk has become a dining table with seating for eight. It’s the centerpiece of weeknight family dinners. And it’s a modern entertaining zone, a place to clink glasses and peel crawfish. It’s a table fit for a Thanksgiving spread or a kid’s birthday party.
When interior designer Kenneth Brown met with his clients to game plan for their six-bedroom house near Bluebonnet Boulevard, he immediately honed in on the desk. He knew it would become a most-used piece for the homeowners, a fun-loving couple who love to throw parties.
The desk’s original legs were swapped for a sculptural iron base, and Brown sourced woven leather chairs to match.
“The history of a grandfather, the personal touch of a vase—every room has to have to have something,” Brown says. “A house never feels like it has a soul unless it has something old or something from your family.”
The table adds a layer of history and patina to his clients’ Malibu-inspired residence, a modern domain with white concrete floors and glittering pool views.
Outside, the white-painted brick house is all Southern charm, perched on a corner lot surrounded by handsome oak trees.
Just past the front door, it is grand and glamorous. The foyer is drenched in moody, reddish black, with a crystal chandelier suspended from the 16-foot ceiling.
Ann Connelly Fine Art curated a collection of bold, large-scale artworks placed throughout the home, including this room’s Demond Matsuo mixed-media collage inspired by Japanese mythology.
“It’s a really grand entrance,” Brown says. “It’s meant to be the wow moment, to really put a punctuation mark on the idea that, ‘This is not the house you expect. Welcome to it.’”
The foyer spills into the airy, open-concept kitchen and living space overlooking the swimming pool and patio. Here, the couple sought to redefine what a family home could look like. On their wish list: a dwelling primed for parties, where guests at boils and barbecues could meander between the indoor and outdoor spaces.
In the kitchen, a gray-blue color palette and an almost iridescent zellige backsplash refract and reflect the light that streams in from outside. An expansive island with leather barstools offers extra real estate for mingling.
“The barstools bring a tactile experience,” Brown says. “The leather gives you the ability to let it age and patina, allowing it to just continuously get old and beat up.”
A scullery behind the kitchen is a hidden territory for serious cooking and cleaning, armed with sinks, a dishwasher and double ovens.
The primary bedroom sets a different tone, trading the concrete floors found throughout the rest of the home for warm oak flooring. A fireplace makes for cozy evenings, while sunny views from the pool pour in from the backyard during the day. A woven Phillip Jeffries wall covering frames the bed—and also mirrors a grasscloth Phillip Jeffries mural found in the living room.
“I created this tucked-in vibe,” Brown says. “There’s a sense of safety.”
Upstairs, the children’s bedrooms are connected by a common lounge, where the teens can finish homework or simply hang out.
In the living room, a 10-foot-long sofa is deep enough to curl up for movie-watching or to sink into for a nap. On a double chaise, the couple’s children like to kick back and read, catching glimpses of the swaying oaks outside. A 5-foot-long bluestone coffee table plays double duty, providing extra bench seating during crowded get-togethers.
Natural light is filtered by pinch-pleated sheers made by the client’s mother, a seamstress who hand-sewed the drapes throughout the home.
“It was important that her mother put something in the house that she made for her,” Brown says. “I thought that was a really sweet story.”
A burnt-orange armchair and a pair of throw pillows with an abstract tiger print nod subtly to the client’s LSU fandom. If design is like cooking, Brown likens these details to the seasoning.
“It’s that little bit of paprika,” he explains, “that brings a boring pasta to life.”
