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interior designer CUFFHOME / writer MELISSA BATCHELOR WARNKE photographer JOE SCHMELZER / producer ROBERT RUFINO

A lyrical color palette and a few clever furnishings bring rhythm to this traditional Los Angeles home.

BACK YA RDWith four kids (and three dogs), the pool gets a lot of use.

LI V ING ROOM“They really had no suitable room for things like book clubs, jam sessions, and big family gatherings,” says Kristi Bender

of Cu�home, who converted this neglected formal living room into a grown-up play space. “Now it’s fun yet

elegant!” Light �xture: France & S0n. Sofa: custom in JD Velluto Rose velvet, Cisco Home. Co�ee table: custom,

Cu�home. Brass hands: Noir. Rug: vintage, Kamal’s Rugs.

C O M I N G

H O M E T O A S O N G

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Little legs were added to these

chairs for a more elevated look.

DINING/HOMEWORK ROOM Bender pulled in a super-durable, reclaimed-wood table so this room could double as a space for the kids to do homework. Pendant: Rope Wrapped Globe, Cu�home. Table: Lulu, CFC. Chairs: Cove, Four Hands, with added legs. Sconces: Beaubien Double Shade, Lambert & Fils. Paint: Oval Room Blue, Farrow & Ball.

GAMING ROOM A nook for the kids to play video games. Pendant: Arteriors. Wallcovering: L’Album Matieres in Chene Gris, Nobilis. Art: Piglet by Sharon Montrose, the Animal Print Shop. Blinds: Smith & Noble. Sofa: RH, Restoration Hardware. Tables: Turn, Blu Dot. Rug: Lulu and Georgia.

“This is not your average Colonial. We call it the non-trad traditional.”

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Breakfast Room + Kitchen

Floral wallpaper, Marthe Armitage, Hamil-ton Weston. Cornforth White, Farrow & Ball.

Teen Lounge + Boys’ Room

Wrought in Black, Walnut Wallpaper.

Boldstripe Dhurrie, Anthropologie.

Family Room

Setting Plaster, Farrow & Ball. Aswan linen in Passion, Lisa Fine Textiles. Tamar Tonal linen in Persian Blue, Carolina Irving Textiles.

Palette Guide

BREAKFAST ROOM Paired with white millwork, Marthe Armitage’s �oral wallpaper in a gray colorway pops o� the walls, but still jives with the adjacent all-white kitchen. Chandelier: Atomium, Lambert & Fils. Table: Eero Saarinen for Knoll, Design Within Reach. Dining chairs: Josef Ho�mann, Design Within Reach.

Pastel walls are paired with contemporary accents: Low-slung, flaxen sofas beckon from the blush family room. Twice a month, they pull o� the slipcovers and toss them in the wash. “I try to enforce a ‘no orange- dusted food’ rule, but the kids get it through,” Dennis says: Cheetos, Jackie explains. Candy wrappers behind the cushions.

Kristi Bender, who co-owns the Los Angeles design firm Cu�ome with her business partner, Wendy Schwartz, has been friends with the Smiths for decades. So when the family decided to renovate their home of 14 years—ditching the dark-wood paneling, knocking down walls to open up spaces, and making the front rooms into places they’d actually want to hang out in (rather than don’t-touch-anything

environs)—she got the picture instantly. Jackie kept seeing flourishes she loved in all

the properties she was selling and was tempted to introduce notes of each style in her own home. These enthusiasms, unbridled, could have led to a Victorian-ranch-farmhouse- glass-cube grab bag. But Bender intervened.

She introduced unexpected shapes and bold colors throughout, from Cu�ome’s unique rope-wrapped globe lamp in the dining room to the striking centerpiece of the home, an all-pink family room. At �rst, Dennis “absolutely hated it—until the painters put it up.” Cast in Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster, the walls change with the light, pearly in some places, warm salmon in others, and light brown in the shadows. “I was so gunning for this,” Jackie says, grinning.

Some rooms found a new purpose. “When we first designed the home, we thought the living room was supposed to be very formal, very East Coast,” Jackie says. “But none of us ever went into it. We started to think, If we don’t live like this, what’s the point?”

Bender reimagined the space as a music room, highlighting the family’s many instru-ments and mounting a few beloved vinyl record covers. “I can’t get enough of this room,” Jackie says. “If the doors are closed for some reason, like the kids are doing their guitar lessons in there, I’m super-bummed when I walk in the door and I can’t see it all.”

ON THE DAY OF THIS PHOTO SHOOT, T H E R E were a pair of pants at the bottom of the pool. No one knew who the pants belonged to, but Jackie Smith, a real estate mega-agent and the matriarch of the house, has a lead on which kid launched them there. “This is truly the house where everybody comes,” says her husband, Dennis, a designer and builder. “On a Friday night, there will be about 13 kids of all di�er-ent ages over here.” Plus three dogs, two cats, and a male hamster named Susan.

Driving up to the home—a stately 1940 Monterey Colonial with hedges, fountains, columns, white paint, and black shutters—you might get a di�erent impression. But the inside is warm and whimsical, the kind of place you don’t want to leave.

Gaming + Homework Rooms

L’Album Matieres in Chene Gris, Nobilis.

Oval Room Blue, Farrow & Ball.

Homeowners Jackie and Dennis Smith with their three dogs in the family’s 1954 Chevy.

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FAMILY ROOM For the room that connects to the eat-in kitchen, Bender selected Farrow & Ball’s pale-pink Setting Plaster. Dennis wasn’t into the idea at �rst, but the �nished product, warm and gorgeous, made him a believer. Light �xture: custom collaboration between Robert Lewis and Cu�home. Oak co�ee table: custom. Ottomans: V Rugs & Home. Rug: vintage. Art: Frick Byers. Pillow fabrics: Lisa Fine Textiles, Peter Dunham Textiles, TylerGraphic, and Carolina Irving Textiles.

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KITCHENSince it had been renovated by previous owners, Cu�home just gave this room a refresh: O� came some of the cabinet doors (instant open shelving), and can lights were swapped out for �ush-mount �xtures from Allied Maker. Large pendant: custom, Ames Ingham Lighting. Bar stools: Wyndham Swivel, Arteriors. Stove: Wolf. Rug: vintage. For more details, see Resources.

BOYS’ ROOMOriginally a master bedroom, it’s the biggest room in the house. Bed: Parsons in Navy, Room & Board. Bedding: Schoolhouse Electric. Nightstands: Noir (discontinued). Lamps: Topanga, Lawson- Fenning. Sconces: Pottery Barn (discontin-ued). Art: Blue Shadow by Bradley Duncan. Rug: Boldstripe Dhurrie, Anthropologie.

TEEN LOUNGE“A place that can hold up to pillow �ghts, pizza deliveries, and lots of big, active kids,” says Bender. Wallpaper: Wrought in Black, Walnut Wallpaper. Hanging chair: Etsy. Side tables: Tinder Blocks, WAAM Industries.

MASTER BATH Wallpaper by Nicky Rising elevates a white bathroom.

Towels: West Elm. Sink and mirrors: Waterworks.