March 29, 2024

A Creative Power Couple’s Spanish-Colonial Retreat in L. A.

As arbiters of style, Katherine Power and Justin Coit spend their days curating images of beauty, she as the CEO and cofounder of Clique Media – a portfolio of digital brands that includes the celebrity fashion website Who What Wear and the home and lifestyle site My Domaine

and he as an editorial and commercial photographer who has shot everyone from Jennifer Lawrence to Cindy Crawford. Naturally, that good taste spills into their home life, not least in the house they share with son Sebastian in Los Angeles’s coveted Little Holmby neighborhood.

But it wasn’t always so. Though the bones of the 1928 Spanish-Colonial manse were in good shape, a series of ‘90s additions and remodels obscured them with visual clutter and aesthetic confusion. So the couple set out to restore the structure to its former glory while taking a looser approach to the style’s more flamboyant hallmarks, opting to “give the house more of a European feel,” says Power. “Our overall goal was to take this home from the typical L. A. -Spanish feel to something along the lines of a sophisticated home in Montecito,” says Coit. “We wanted the home to feel airy and connect more with the front and backyard. ”

Enter Jake Arnold of 4C Design Group, whom Coit had met on set while photographing the actress Julianne Hough’s home, and who proved to be Power’s proverbial spirit animal in the decor department. “I’d go into a store and find she put some of the same items on hold, which showed how consistent we were when it came to working together,” says Arnold. “Justin used to have to tell Katherine to get off the phone with me multiple times because we would speak literally every day and text morning to night. ”

Designer Jake Arnold reduced the pool’s footprint and craned in four 16-foot-tall olive trees to soften the natural sunlight around the new seating area and fire pit.

It turns out they had plenty to discuss. What began as an exterior rehabilitation quickly expanded into a full-blown interior renovation thanks to the couple’s shared vision, Arnold’s unique eye, and the architectural stylings of Steve Wunderlich, also of 4C Design Group. Outside, the L-shaped pool was reduced to make way for four 16-foot olive trees, as well as a dining area and fire pit where friends now gather for weekend barbecues.

Inside, the team deployed an aesthetic inspired by the warm yet minimalist interiors of Belgian designers such as Axel Vervoordt, replacing terra-cotta tiles with wide-plank French oak flooring, refinishing walls and ceiling beams to reflect a more neutral palette, and adding windows to take advantage of the house’s gorgeous southern exposures. Arnold also incorporated French doors to create a visual link between the master bedroom and an adjacent patio, modernized the kitchen and opened it up to a den rather than the formal dining room – to allow Power to look on as Coit prepares family meals – and added custom ebonized bookcases in the living room.

Furnishings received a similar overhaul, as Power and Arnold chose an assortment of European antiques sourced from L. A. ’s most fashionable galleries, among them JF Chen, Galerie Half, and Lief. “When we first moved in we thought we’d be able to reuse everything,” says Power, “but once we started shopping, we were quickly inspired to start fresh. Our garage is now full of furniture that is going unused, but I can’t bear to part with it. ” In the living room, a custom Rewire light illuminates a pair of Palais Stoclet chairs by Josef Hoffmann. In the master bedroom, a bed with a custom slipcover is flanked by Gustavian end tables sourced from 1st Dibs. One item Power and Coit refused to part with: her collection of antique rugs from Lawrence of La Brea. After all, if their jobs have taught them anything, it’s that they know a good thing when they see it.

A Creative Power Couple’s Spanish-Colonial Retreat in L. A. View Slideshow

To accommodate the scale of the dining room, Arnold commissioned a custom table made from reclaimed white oak by designer Cooper Reynolds. An industrial lighting fixture from Urban Electric mimics its linear footprint; the midcentury chairs were sourced from Lief.

To accommodate the scale of the dining room, Arnold commissioned a custom table made from reclaimed white oak by designer Cooper Reynolds. An industrial lighting fixture from Urban Electric mimics its linear footprint; the midcentury chairs were sourced from Lief.

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