With Dizzying Views and ‘Deco Modernist’ Styling, This Hollywood Hills House Is Ready for Its Close-Up

“More is more” is the simplest phrase that the Los Angeles– and New York–based interior designer and architect Luis Fernandez can come up with to describe one of his latest projects in the Hollywood Hills. That’s not to say he’s talking solely about the overall interior styling or his client’s aesthetic—it also speaks to the physical addition of a second level that helped make room for an opulently appointed entertaining space befitting one of Tinseltown’s Golden Age movie moguls like Louis B. Mayer or Jack Warner.

“As with all good projects, the initial scope was [one thing], and my involvement ended up being three times that,” explains the ELLE DECOR A-List talent, who served as the house’s designer and interior architect. “Spaces kept getting added and, because it included an addition and renovation, there were some parts that were demoed unintentionally during foundation work that we had to rebuild.”

And his client, a human rights lawyer, burgeoning screenwriter, and father to a 14-year-old son, embraced the emerging challenges like the leading man in one of his own scripts. At just over 3,000 square feet, the four-bedroom, four full- and two half-bathroom home—with its soaring views of the San Fernando Valley—is a mix of Art Deco and Italian Modernism, with all the grandeur of heavily veined marble, wood paneling, geometric custom brass stair railings, and vintage lighting indicative of the two-period mashup.

“I’m more of a minimalist, so it was really about reconciling all of those elements,” Fernandez says. “There was definitely a collaborative push and pull, so it was a large exercise in restraint and filtering to get the ‘more is more’ look in a way that feels elegant but not excessive.”

That restraint is evident in the interior styling and juxtaposition of materials and furnishings. The living room, for instance, is partially divided by a curvaceous fireplace clad in a custom-designed ribbed walnut surround and Azul Imperiale marble. A pair of petrol blue armchairs by Gerrit Rietveld and a contrasting vintage armchair by Nello Pini for Noverredo are placed around a teal lacquered cocktail table by Charlotte Perriand. Above is an aged brass pendant from Apparatus; a metal-and-walnut media unit on the back wall has been designed by Ornare as a tie-in to the fireplace. “We played a lot with forms and color in the furniture but kept them softer and less eccentric, because you do see the pool deck and valley views through the [retractable] window wall,” Fernandez explains.

What his client refers to as the “gem box” screening room, however, is an entirely different matter. “It’s a space that’s super dim and moody with more colorful furnishings to offset the very monochromatic blue-on-blue shell,” he says.

Wall and ceiling panel inserts surrounding the screening room are covered in Phillip Jeffries’s Savile Suiting Londons Navy wool wallpaper. The dim red sectional is custom, and the rust-colored channeled velvet swivel chairs are from CB2.

And the cinematic design couldn’t be more apropos given the room’s intended purpose: The “Deco-modernist” paneled room features a custom dim red sectional and a 1970s burlwood and smoked-mirror cocktail table by Pierre Cardin; it is doused floor to ceiling in a deep navy blue. “In a room so solemn, elements like the vintage coffee table and custom L’Atelier Paris bar add warmth and character,” Fernandez notes.

Taking its energetic, multilayered cues from two design movements that simultaneously embody prosperous materials and luxurious finishes, this hillside retreat straddles the line between silver screen siren and film noir femme fatale for a decidedly epic world premiere.

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