Interior designer Amber Lewis and her husband, Mike, bought this 1,500-square-foot, 1950s property in 2016, after falling in love with the abundance of mature oak and orange trees in the front yard. The pair then lived in the house for two years with their daughter, Gwyneth, before starting a massive gut renovation in 2018 that ultimately resulted in a 4,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath final product. “We finished in March,” says Lewis, “right in time for my life to blow up.” She’s referring, of course, to the global pandemic and the resulting lockdown and attendant economic crisis, but also to a devastating and unexpected diagnosis of multiple sclerosis Lewis received this spring, which she shared with her one million+ followers on Instagram.
But despite the ongoing challenges of 2020, Lewis has somehow managed to have a prolific year: She revealed a home collection with Anthropologie this fall; opened a new brick-and-mortar outpost of her Shoppe Amber Interiors retail store in Newport Beach this summer to complement locations in the Pacific Palisades and Calabasas; and will release her first-ever design book Made for Living on October 27.
Amber Lewis, pictured here, mirrored the home’s entrance on the backyard patio with the same stone siding, light fixtures, and Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black paint color. Off the kitchen and living room, the vintage table and Shoppe Amber Interiors dining chairs call for a sun-kissed morning coffee.
While Lewis is grateful to have completed the remodel just in time to shelter in place with the rest of the country, she says it should have been finished sooner. “My dad is a contractor and builder, and he built the house for us,” explains Lewis, who grew up in Malibu. “When the destructive Woolsey wildfire hit in November 2018, he had to stay up in his canyon for two months. It derailed everything. The hardest part was renting for two years. For me, my environment is everything, and it was a bummer not to be home.”
The environments Lewis typically designs—for both her clients and herself—reflect a signature West Coast aesthetic she describes as “laid back” and “understated cool.” That often translates to vintage elements, layered textiles, and nature-inspired hues, all of which age well and are, as her forthcoming tome suggests, made for everyday living.
Here, hindered by a budget less than that of her usual clients—but buoyed by a lack of hourly billing constraints—Lewis cut corners by eliminating trim around the interior doors and windows, which also kept the look clean, and by using the same materials throughout.
The main bathroom is the sole spot in the home where Lewis switched up the wall paint color, opting for Portola Paints’ Table Linen to eliminate any green undertones that could “look funky” on the skin. A Pinterest photo inspired the vanities with an apron front and Calacatta Super Oro Gold Vein marble on the countertops. Gold Waterworks fixtures, Lee Valley brass hardware, and custom oak cabinetry make the freestanding Waterworks Empire bathtub look especially inviting.
Think European oak flooring by Duchateau in various plank widths, WindsorONE tongue-and-groove on the ceilings and baseboards, and Portola Paints’ Table Linen on the ceilings in an eggshell finish, Figueroa in eggshell on the trim and in roman clay on the walls, and Piano Room in eggshell on the Marvin windows and doors—to reflect and filter an abundance of natural light.
“I have a skewed version of what I like versus what I can afford,” says Lewis. “My taste is expensive, but I had to be on a realistic budget and knew I could do a lot with less if I honed in on materials selection, textures, and colors. I showed off the best I could given the dollars I have.”
She splurged on Waterworks plumbing fixtures, a U.K.-imported custom living island by Matthew Cox, a Lacanche range (“I didn’t worry so much about other appliances, like the dishwasher, because it’d be paneled”), Ross Alan reclaimed white oak lumber beams, and also designed made-to-order Shoppe Amber Interiors furniture pieces that are now available for purchase.
“I never like spaces for more than five minutes and get sick of seeing my own work,” says Lewis. “I haven’t felt that way in my own house yet, although I don’t think it’s our forever home. My husband wants to be buried in the backyard, but I get the itch. Luckily, we just bought a 1930s cottage in Lake Arrowhead that’ll satisfy the urge for a bit.”
Inspired by a “funky barn in Sonoma,” designer Amber Lewis installed “old world meets modern” elements, like a corrugated metal roof in dark bronze paired with a Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black front door, Shoppe Amber Interiors Darya Swan Neck wall lights in antique brass, stone siding, and a custom reclaimed wood garage door to welcome the vintage MG MKII car, a gift from Lewis’s late grandfather.
Inspired by a “funky barn in Sonoma,” designer Amber Lewis installed “old world meets modern” elements, like a corrugated metal roof in dark bronze paired with a Sherwin-Williams Tricorn Black front door, Shoppe Amber Interiors Darya Swan Neck wall lights in antique brass, stone siding, and a custom reclaimed wood garage door to welcome the vintage MG MKII car, a gift from Lewis’s late grandfather.
For her 14th wedding anniversary with husband Mike, Lewis commissioned contemporary artist Addie Chapin to create a painting inscribed with the couple’s wedding vows: “I Fear No Fate” from the E.E. Cummings poem “I Carry Your Heart.” Mike’s Xbox is hidden in the 13-foot vintage wood French baker’s table, which was retrofitted to house electronics inside its drawers. Velvet curtains by Mark Alexander and Portola Figueroa paint ground the nature-inspired color palette in the space.
Guests are welcomed by an assortment of comfortable seating in the living room. “I wanted it to feel conversational,” says Lewis. “There are only so many butts you can fit on a sofa comfortably, even if it’s 10 feet long.” Lewis sourced the tonal Carpenter slipcovered couch and fuzzy namesake Lewis armchairs from her Shoppe and added vintage leather Borge Mogensen Spanish hunting chairs too. Her rule of thumb for the ceilings? “If flat, it gets reclaimed wood,” explains Lewis. “If vaulted, it gets tongue-and-groove beams. They help draw the eye up and add another layer to make the house feel done.”
Even though the custom living island by Matthew Cox features cutouts for a dishwasher, garbage, and sink, the Cox team was still able to flat pack the finished product and ship it to L.A. from the U.K. “I first saw his work in a random country house in Britain and had been wanting to do something similar for years,” says Lewis. Mike, Lewis jokes, “had opinions about things that are so annoying,” like the Lacanche Sully range. “He was worried it wouldn’t be big enough to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving.” The other appliances—along with dishware and kitchen essentials—are strategically hidden behind cabinetry and grooved glass.
Designed to resemble a church pew—with solid sides and an open undercarriage—Lewis commissioned a custom 11-foot wicker banquette with a soft French tuft cushion to create a cozy dining nook. It surrounds vintage Charlotte Perriand dining chairs from Round Top, Texas, and a 10-foot X base dining table from the Shoppe. Note there are no hanging light fixtures in the home. Instead, Lewis here relied on Gallery L7 Beetle wall lights. “I didn’t want there to be dangling things everywhere,” says Lewis. “It ends up feeling like a gallery for chandeliers.”
Lewis stored the powder room’s vintage French mirror in her studio’s warehouse after finding the piece in Round Top, saving it for the right home. “The patina is by design,” says Lewis. “Everybody looks pretty in that mirror.” All of the curves in the room—like the vintage trough-like stone sink from Belgium and brass sconces—open up the narrow space.
Four East-facing, floor-to-ceiling Marvin casement windows allow “the most magical morning light” to spotlight three oversize Obsolete Inc. Holophane glass and brass gas light pendants that hang next to Ross Alan reclaimed white oak lumber beams and above a multicolor vintage runner from Shoppe Amber Interiors.
A Jeanette Farrier quilt—hand-stitched from vintage saris by women in Kolkata, India—inspired the shades of black, mustard, and rust used throughout the East-facing main bedroom. “They relate to each other without feeling too match-y,” says Lewis. She also juxtaposed textures with a natural oak and boucle bed from Shoppe Amber Interiors, a vintage leather pommel horse used as a bench, a U.K.-imported vintage wood armoire, and the Milo chaise from Shoppe Amber Interiors in Rogers & Goffigon Redwood velvet.
The main bathroom is the sole spot in the home where Lewis switched up the wall paint color, opting for Portola Paints’ Table Linen to eliminate any green undertones that could “look funky” on the skin. A Pinterest photo inspired the vanities with an apron front and Calacatta Super Oro Gold Vein marble on the countertops. Gold Waterworks fixtures, Lee Valley brass hardware, and custom oak cabinetry make the freestanding Waterworks Empire bathtub look especially inviting.
GSLA Studio designed the exterior landscaping to highlight the mature oak and olive trees on the property. During the remodel, Lewis added a pool with Fireclay Tile on the water line—with matching Oliver James floats—along with an outdoor fireplace coated in the same stone from the front of the home, seating area, and pergola built from vintage timber trucked to California from Ohio.
- 转载自：Architectural Digest
- 语言：English
- 阅读原文
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发表于 2020-10-27 01:24:43
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