"We went for an old-fashioned Beverly Hills feeling," Peter Dunham says of the house he designed for Mark and Julie Rowen, “like the kind of house Jimmy Stewart might have lived in.” Although Dunham, who is adept at creating his own classic Los Angeles moments (as evidenced by his newly opened shop, Hollywood at Home), had a vision for what the house could be, the structure itself had a long way to go. When the Rowens purchased the 1950s ranch-style building, it was “one of the more distressed properties we’d taken on,” says architect and frequent Dunham collaborator Tim Barber. But the couple—who work together at Blue Collar Productions, a motion picture and video production company that Mark Rowen founded and runs—identified with the traditional architecture and saw its possibilities. “Peter and I have the same philosophy about ranch houses,” says Barber. “When they don’t have a strong midcentury aesthetic, we let them be all about beams and paneling and built-ins, and we try to keep the color palette fairly light.” However, a Dunham interior wouldn’t be complete without his signature layers of color and pattern. “You want things to pop once in a while,” he explains. “If it’s all the same note, you don’t really notice everything.”  Dunham and Barber clarified the architecture, starting with the entry. They created a gracious hexagon-shaped space that sets the stage for the living room, which needed adjustments as well. “It was a fairly big room, but it had a low, flat ceiling,” says Barber. “So we took the ceiling up as high as we could to add some volume.” The ceiling was accented with beams, and the old brick fireplace was refaced with limestone and flanked by two built-in cabinets. The pale walls and woodwork give the house “a creamy feel,” says the designer, who aimed to balance the crisp simplicity of the architecture with a build-up of color and texture on the furnishings.
 “We made a big statement on the floor,” he says of the Allegra Hicks rug that adds a shock of red and an unexpected modern element to the room. From there Dunham brought in two armchairs upholstered with an embroidered Michael S. Smith fabric and played them against a custom sofa covered with teal velvet and a square ottoman slipcovered with a large-scale paisley. Accessories such as an African shield, a Moroccan side table and pillows made from vintage suzanis “add a little poetry,” he says. “And in a house like this, they bring in a bit of patina and roughness.”
The living room flows into the family-dining room through an open doorway. “They didn’t want a formal dining room,” says Dunham, so the large family room was outfitted with a casual plank table and wicker-like chairs on one side, and a sitting area, complete with Dunham’s Austrian Bobbin chairs and a sofa, on the other. Another open doorway joins the dining area and the galley kitchen, which was extended to include a built-in breakfast nook. “Even if it’s a tiny space, I like to create an area where you can eat, because people spend so much time in their kitchens,” he says.  The master bedroom was relocated to face the rear terrace, inspiring the designer to choose a pink-and-green floral fabric from Raoul Textiles for the draperies. “It connects to the outdoors and feels very gardeny,” says Dunham, who designed a faux-bamboo four-poster to emphasize the height of the tray-vaulted ceiling. Although the house may be classic Beverly Hills, it’s also classic Dunham. From the rich palette of colors to the artful layering of fabrics, the result is a casual sophistication that reflects his unique sensibility. “We like a more traditional style,” says Julie Rowen. “And Peter definitely does that, but he’s broader than that. He pulled us in a more adventurous direction.” |
